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Fox Comics Appreciation Thread!
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Started by Point Five,

7,175 posts in this topic

selegue

selegue

Posted
Posted
Stealing this cover from Collin in the "greedy SOB" thread:

This same Jack Farr drew a story in Fantastic Comics #2 (1/40), among others. I don't know anything about him... I would assume from his work for Fox that he was a member of the Eisner/Iger shop, before the war started?

 

Very distinctive art (and lettering), to say the least!

 

If you like Farr's work (I do too), look for DC's humor anthology titles. I have All Funny 15 (1947) with a great Super-Sleuth McFooey story. The distinctive art and lettering you mention really shines there -- I think that it's the best feature in the book.

He drew Slam Bradley for a while, lots of humor fillers and sometimes used the pen name O. Shux. Try searching him at the GCD.

 

Jack

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selegue

selegue

Posted
Posted
Summer 1941 - during this time, all the Fox titles were full of ads for a drink called Kooba Cola, which was apparently never made (a Victor Fox scheme to create a demand before the product even existed!).

 

Thank you!!! I've been wondering about Kooba Cola for YEARS, and couldn't understand why I'd never seen any other advertising memorabilia for it. I had no idea it was a marketing ploy. I'm so glad you solved that for me!

 

Does anyone know where this lie got started? Kooba Cola definitely existed and was at least sold locally in the NY area (well, its the only locale I've seen Kooba items show up). I suspect Fox tried to get national interest going by advertising it in his comics, but it looks like it failed to get national distribution.

 

KoobaCola.jpg

 

"Lie" is a strong accusation. What's wrong with "error"?

 

I know I've read that claim on more than one www site (yes, I know how unreliable that can be) and in at least one book. Maybe it was Gerard Jones' Men of Tomorrow, but most comic-book histories seem to recyle the same information.

 

This is the first time I've read that Kooba Cola was definitely distributed regionally. I was under the impression that the artifacts were all prototypes that weren't actually sold. How did you find out about the regional distribution? Very interesting!

 

Jack

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gifflefunk

gifflefunk

Posted
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"Lie" is a strong accusation. What's wrong with "error"?

 

The original statement is the lie. Recycling that lie is an error. Any time statements are presented as facts without research to back up the claim being made, I will call it a lie (i.e. people are just making shiat up).

 

This is the first time I've read that Kooba Cola was definitely distributed regionally. I was under the impression that the artifacts were all prototypes that weren't actually sold. How did you find out about the regional distribution? Very interesting!

 

Kooba signs turn up about once every two years on eBay and Kooba bottles turn up about once every five (based on my experience to date). I've seen three signs turn up so far and in contacting the sellers of the first two I was able to learn that they had been found in drug store storage. It is possible that Fox did have some markets outside of NY, but to date I have not found any evidence of such, so the likely scenario is that he had a small NY market and was hoping to gain national distribution.

 

Given that signage and bottles exist and that Fox advertised Kooba Cola for about a year, it is almost ludicrous to believe that the beverage itself was never manufactured. My theory is that Kooba's failure helped to drive Fox into bankruptcy. I think he tied up to much comic capital in starting Kooba Cola and he never got the expected return to make up that deficit, which then caused him to default against his printer/distributor debts for the comics line and his entire "empire" imploded.

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Point Five

Point Five

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Thanks for the info!...& sorry for the misinformation. If you can shed any light on other myths that have sprung up about Fox, please jump right in. Other than the few obvious sources it's pretty hard to find out anything at all about these guys.

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Point Five

Point Five

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Stealing this cover from Collin in the "greedy SOB" thread:

This same Jack Farr drew a story in Fantastic Comics #2 (1/40), among others. I don't know anything about him... I would assume from his work for Fox that he was a member of the Eisner/Iger shop, before the war started?

 

Very distinctive art (and lettering), to say the least!

 

If you like Farr's work (I do too), look for DC's humor anthology titles. I have All Funny 15 (1947) with a great Super-Sleuth McFooey story. The distinctive art and lettering you mention really shines there -- I think that it's the best feature in the book.

He drew Slam Bradley for a while, lots of humor fillers and sometimes used the pen name O. Shux. Try searching him at the GCD.

 

Jack

 

Cool! Thanks for the reply. thumbsup2.gif

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TheEyeSees

TheEyeSees

Posted
Posted
Not in the best condition, but here is Blue Beetle #37

 

I'm not quite sure what is being represented on that cover, but the Blue Beetle sure seems to be enjoying himself!

 

STEVE

 

Blue Beetle conga line, while swatting a dinosaur. A classic.

 

Good times laugh.gif

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Mad Dog

Mad Dog

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893applaud-thumb.gif 8.5 is pretty highgrade for any fox book thumbsup2.gif

 

btw who was writing those stories? cant find any credits on -script on netiher zago nor zegra, tegra, rulah, zoot etc. I must admit i have never read any, but i figure that the stories suck and the art (especially baker or Kamen cloud9.gif) is the real treat confused-smiley-013.gif

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Norrin_Radd

Norrin_Radd

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Posted
Hey Paul,

 

There are indeed two Jons, right here in this thread! If you see someone posting beautiful, eye-popping, gorgeous books...that's Jon Berk. If you see someone posting books that look like they're about to fall apart ...that's me, Jon Lyness. grin.gif

 

An index of stories Hanks worked on would indeed be a tough task. The only ones I know offhand are

 

-- Fantastic Comics #1-16 (of course!) -- Stardust, Space Smith

 

-- Jungle Comics #2-?? -- Fantomah (at some point someone else took over the feature, but Hanks worked on it until #17 at least, maybe longer)

 

-- at least one backup story in an early Timely -- I think it was Daring Mystery #4?, but that's from memory...could be wrong

 

Do you know of any others? Ryan?

 

 

 

Fantagraphics unleashes the first-ever Fletcher Hanks collection.

 

P14Panel1.gif

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sacentaur

sacentaur

Posted
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-- Jungle Comics #2-?? -- Fantomah (at some point someone else took over the feature, but Hanks worked on it until #17 at least, maybe longer)

 

I did check my copy of Jungle 19, and the Fantomah story is not by Fletcher Hanks.

 

Unfortunately, I don't have a Jungle 18.

 

STEVE

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