Hepcat

Now I've had this Bozo gumball machine for nearly twenty years:

But when I saw this unused O-Pee-Chee warehouse stock one on Etsy a few months ago I couldn't resist snapping it up as well:





There was one very much like it on the counter of Ken's Variety on Wharncliffe Road which was one of my go-to places for comics.

Now I've had this Bozo gumball machine for nearly twenty years:

But when I saw this unused O-Pee-Chee warehouse stock one on Etsy a few months ago I couldn't resist snapping it up as well:





There was one very much like it on the counter of Ken's Variety on Wharncliffe Road which was one of my go-to places for comics.

Oh yeah! Four Color Goofy comics are nice indeed! I have nearly half of the fourteen Goofy issues. Here they are:


File copy


File copy



 

Here are a couple more devoted to my very favourite Walt Disney characters:

I've got a whole bunch of nice Four Color Comics I don't think I've posted in this thread. Here's one of my oldest:

Well here's one anyway from my collection featuring a fellow in tights:

Well here's one anyway from my collection featuring a fellow in tights:

I've got a whole bunch of nice Four Color Comics I don't think I've posted in this thread. Here's one of my oldest:

Here are a couple more devoted to my very favourite Walt Disney characters:

Is this one acceptable here or is this thread limited strictly to the pajama brigade?

Here's a link to the thread with my tribute to Ramona:
 
 

Is this one acceptable here or is this thread limited strictly to the pajama brigade?

That's like me. I collect comics of certain characters in the Four Color run because I like those characters specifically. I then file those comics chronologically under that character's title as opposed to under Four Color Comics.

I really have to hand it to anyone trying to put together a complete collection of Four Color comics. There are just so many of them and so many really obscure and scarce.
I have a lot of them in my collection. Bought because I like specific characters and issues. I have no interest in a lot of the Four Colors though. And I certainly don’t have the dedication to search them all out.
So, hats off to those who do!

Here's a link to the thread with my tribute to Ramona:
 
 

Here's a link to the thread with my tribute to Ramona:
 
 

Here are a couple more devoted to my very favourite Walt Disney characters:

I've got a whole bunch of nice Four Color Comics I don't think I've posted in this thread. Here's one of my oldest:

Here's a tribute I've posted on a couple of non-comic forums:
 
Ramona Fradon passed away a couple of days ago only weeks after announcing her retirement on 5 January 2024 from a long career illustrating comic magazines and comic strips.
She got her start in comics shortly after graduating from the Parsons School of Design in Greenwich Village, New York when she started landing assignments at DC Comics in 1949 illustrating the occasional backup story in Gangbusters and Mr. District Attorney plus a couple of "Shining Knight" stories in Adventure Comics. It wasn't until 1951 though when she got the regular assignment of illustrating "Aquaman" stories in Adventure Comics for which she's probably still best known. Her run on these "Aquaman" stories lasted from Adventure Comics 167 cover dated August 1951 to Adventure Comics 282 cover dated March 1961. Along the way she illustrated the story in Adventure Comics 260 which came to serve as Aquaman's Silver Age origin:

She was also the co-creator of Aqualad in Adventure Comics 269:

Aqualad of course immediately became Aquaman's regular sidekick. Here's a great splash page from Adventure Comics 270:

She also did the interior artwork for Showcase 30 cover dated February 1961 which was the first comic with Aquaman as the title character:

She then took a few months of maternity leave for the birth of her daughter before returning to illustrate another run of "Aquaman" stories in World's Finest Comics from issue #127 cover dated August 1962 to issue #139 cover dated February 1964 when the "Aquaman" series ended.
In 1965 she finally got to do her first cover for Brave and the Bold 55:

Shortly thereafter she and writer Bob Haney fleshed out editor George Kashdan's idea for a new superhero, Metamorpho, in Brave and the Bold 57 cover dated January 1965. Here's her cover:

She illustrated one more Metamorpho feature appearance in Brave and the Bold and then the first four issues of Metamorpho's own title covers and all: 

Evidently Ramona Fradon really enjoyed illustrating "Metamorpho" stories because Haney's scripts were in her own words "goofy" which allowed her to use her imagination and give full flower to her exaggerated style. But I personally had very mixed feelings about Metamorpho at the time since I was serious about my superheroes and didn't like the campy way in which Metamorpho was portrayed. That actually proved to be the beginning of the end of my two and a half year fascination with DC superhero comics. I migrated to Mad, Drag Cartoons, Creepy and Eerie magazines shortly thereafter.
After taking seven years off to look after her daughter, she returned to comics by illustrating Fantastic Four 133 for Marvel in 1973:

But she'd gotten used to working from a detailed script at DC and found it difficult to work from the brief one paragraph story outline Marvel had given her. She was back at DC in short order where she worked on titles such as House of Secrets, House of Mystery and even Star Spangled War Stories! She then illustrated these runs:
Plastic Man from #11(March 1976) to #20(November 1977)
Freedom Fighters from #3(August 1976) to #6(February 1977)
Super Friends almost all from #3(February 1977) to #41(February 1981)
Though I wasn't buying those comics then, her style was actually very well suited to the Plastic Man and Super Friends titles. Here are a couple of the covers (not mine):


n 1980 she moved over to drawing the Brenda Starr, Reporter newspaper strip when Dale Messick retired and continued with the strip until 1995. More money for less work may have been her motivation. Once again, Ramona Fradon's style is fully reflected in Brenda Starr's appearance:

Here's a book on her artwork:

Plus she was also the cover story feature of AlterEgo 69:

I met Ramona Fradon at a Toronto comic con in 2007 or so. She was a pioneer in her field and she'll be missed by her many fans.

The problem with the health care business is that there are very few barriers to entry which means there's going to be unlimited competition.
I'd suggest a railroad stock or two instead. The need to move bulk and other goods cheaply overland is not going to disappear this or even next century. Moreover the barriers to entry in this business are insurmountable. The cost of building new competing rail lines these days is way beyond reason. Therefore the very few existing players have a really cozy oligopoly indeed. My two favourites right now are CP ($86.06) and CNI ($131.34) because I really like their coast-to-coast and down to the Gulf of Mexico rail networks..

Yes, and with helicopter parents who drove them everywhere so that they never needed to walk. Including of course to schools where they were always just passed through to avoid damaging their fragile egos so they never had to learn anything like the multiplication table or the capital of France. I mean why bother? Everything's there on your cell phone anyway, right?
And buy stuff? Hey, the current generation thinks that society/the government should just give them more and more free stuff - including a college education. But then perhaps a college education should be free these days since that's what the "learning" most students acquire these days is worth.
Forgive me I'm a curmudgeon and I'm rambling again.... 

Here's a tribute I've posted on a couple of non-comic forums:
 
Ramona Fradon passed away a couple of days ago only weeks after announcing her retirement on 5 January 2024 from a long career illustrating comic magazines and comic strips.
She got her start in comics shortly after graduating from the Parsons School of Design in Greenwich Village, New York when she started landing assignments at DC Comics in 1949 illustrating the occasional backup story in Gangbusters and Mr. District Attorney plus a couple of "Shining Knight" stories in Adventure Comics. It wasn't until 1951 though when she got the regular assignment of illustrating "Aquaman" stories in Adventure Comics for which she's probably still best known. Her run on these "Aquaman" stories lasted from Adventure Comics 167 cover dated August 1951 to Adventure Comics 282 cover dated March 1961. Along the way she illustrated the story in Adventure Comics 260 which came to serve as Aquaman's Silver Age origin:

She was also the co-creator of Aqualad in Adventure Comics 269:

Aqualad of course immediately became Aquaman's regular sidekick. Here's a great splash page from Adventure Comics 270:

She also did the interior artwork for Showcase 30 cover dated February 1961 which was the first comic with Aquaman as the title character:

She then took a few months of maternity leave for the birth of her daughter before returning to illustrate another run of "Aquaman" stories in World's Finest Comics from issue #127 cover dated August 1962 to issue #139 cover dated February 1964 when the "Aquaman" series ended.
In 1965 she finally got to do her first cover for Brave and the Bold 55:

Shortly thereafter she and writer Bob Haney fleshed out editor George Kashdan's idea for a new superhero, Metamorpho, in Brave and the Bold 57 cover dated January 1965. Here's her cover:

She illustrated one more Metamorpho feature appearance in Brave and the Bold and then the first four issues of Metamorpho's own title covers and all: 

Evidently Ramona Fradon really enjoyed illustrating "Metamorpho" stories because Haney's scripts were in her own words "goofy" which allowed her to use her imagination and give full flower to her exaggerated style. But I personally had very mixed feelings about Metamorpho at the time since I was serious about my superheroes and didn't like the campy way in which Metamorpho was portrayed. That actually proved to be the beginning of the end of my two and a half year fascination with DC superhero comics. I migrated to Mad, Drag Cartoons, Creepy and Eerie magazines shortly thereafter.
After taking seven years off to look after her daughter, she returned to comics by illustrating Fantastic Four 133 for Marvel in 1973:

But she'd gotten used to working from a detailed script at DC and found it difficult to work from the brief one paragraph story outline Marvel had given her. She was back at DC in short order where she worked on titles such as House of Secrets, House of Mystery and even Star Spangled War Stories! She then illustrated these runs:
Plastic Man from #11(March 1976) to #20(November 1977)
Freedom Fighters from #3(August 1976) to #6(February 1977)
Super Friends almost all from #3(February 1977) to #41(February 1981)
Though I wasn't buying those comics then, her style was actually very well suited to the Plastic Man and Super Friends titles. Here are a couple of the covers (not mine):


n 1980 she moved over to drawing the Brenda Starr, Reporter newspaper strip when Dale Messick retired and continued with the strip until 1995. More money for less work may have been her motivation. Once again, Ramona Fradon's style is fully reflected in Brenda Starr's appearance:

Here's a book on her artwork:

Plus she was also the cover story feature of AlterEgo 69:

I met Ramona Fradon at a Toronto comic con in 2007 or so. She was a pioneer in her field and she'll be missed by her many fans.

I disagree!

RIP.
Thanks for sharing his story. I was unaware of him until now.

Here's a tribute I've posted on a couple of non-comic forums:
 
Ramona Fradon passed away a couple of days ago only weeks after announcing her retirement on 5 January 2024 from a long career illustrating comic magazines and comic strips.
She got her start in comics shortly after graduating from the Parsons School of Design in Greenwich Village, New York when she started landing assignments at DC Comics in 1949 illustrating the occasional backup story in Gangbusters and Mr. District Attorney plus a couple of "Shining Knight" stories in Adventure Comics. It wasn't until 1951 though when she got the regular assignment of illustrating "Aquaman" stories in Adventure Comics for which she's probably still best known. Her run on these "Aquaman" stories lasted from Adventure Comics 167 cover dated August 1951 to Adventure Comics 282 cover dated March 1961. Along the way she illustrated the story in Adventure Comics 260 which came to serve as Aquaman's Silver Age origin:

She was also the co-creator of Aqualad in Adventure Comics 269:

Aqualad of course immediately became Aquaman's regular sidekick. Here's a great splash page from Adventure Comics 270:

She also did the interior artwork for Showcase 30 cover dated February 1961 which was the first comic with Aquaman as the title character:

She then took a few months of maternity leave for the birth of her daughter before returning to illustrate another run of "Aquaman" stories in World's Finest Comics from issue #127 cover dated August 1962 to issue #139 cover dated February 1964 when the "Aquaman" series ended.
In 1965 she finally got to do her first cover for Brave and the Bold 55:

Shortly thereafter she and writer Bob Haney fleshed out editor George Kashdan's idea for a new superhero, Metamorpho, in Brave and the Bold 57 cover dated January 1965. Here's her cover:

She illustrated one more Metamorpho feature appearance in Brave and the Bold and then the first four issues of Metamorpho's own title covers and all: 

Evidently Ramona Fradon really enjoyed illustrating "Metamorpho" stories because Haney's scripts were in her own words "goofy" which allowed her to use her imagination and give full flower to her exaggerated style. But I personally had very mixed feelings about Metamorpho at the time since I was serious about my superheroes and didn't like the campy way in which Metamorpho was portrayed. That actually proved to be the beginning of the end of my two and a half year fascination with DC superhero comics. I migrated to Mad, Drag Cartoons, Creepy and Eerie magazines shortly thereafter.
After taking seven years off to look after her daughter, she returned to comics by illustrating Fantastic Four 133 for Marvel in 1973:

But she'd gotten used to working from a detailed script at DC and found it difficult to work from the brief one paragraph story outline Marvel had given her. She was back at DC in short order where she worked on titles such as House of Secrets, House of Mystery and even Star Spangled War Stories! She then illustrated these runs:
Plastic Man from #11(March 1976) to #20(November 1977)
Freedom Fighters from #3(August 1976) to #6(February 1977)
Super Friends almost all from #3(February 1977) to #41(February 1981)
Though I wasn't buying those comics then, her style was actually very well suited to the Plastic Man and Super Friends titles. Here are a couple of the covers (not mine):


n 1980 she moved over to drawing the Brenda Starr, Reporter newspaper strip when Dale Messick retired and continued with the strip until 1995. More money for less work may have been her motivation. Once again, Ramona Fradon's style is fully reflected in Brenda Starr's appearance:

Here's a book on her artwork:

Plus she was also the cover story feature of AlterEgo 69:

I met Ramona Fradon at a Toronto comic con in 2007 or so. She was a pioneer in her field and she'll be missed by her many fans.