Manic Monday--I'm Spartacus!

Because some mornings...

...you just need to see Kirk Douglas in a loin cloth.

I miss the good old days when Dell would do lots and lots of movie adaptations, especially of things you never thought you'd see in a comic book.

SUPERTECHNIRAMA!!!!

The bonus part of this adaptation?

John Buscema artwork!!

Gaylord Du Bois did the script, supposedly adapted from Dalton Trumbo's screenplay. But there are significant differences. Take, for example, the famous "I'm Spartacus" scene...

That's not quite how it went down in the movie...



Sorry, Dell. The movie is better.

From Four Color #1139 (1960)

The Fab 4, The Mod, And His Bird!

You all know how much I love faux rock bands in comic books. And I especially love them when the comic creators try oh so hard to get hip and cool.

It's 1967, and Dell is making their brief (and futile) attempt to capitalize on the super-hero market. Four teenage heroes, known as the Fab Four, are going to investigate some shenanigans at a rock concert:

Yes, it is Mr. Mod and his Bird!!

Well, that's an evil plan!

And so...

Yes, we all want Mod!!

Ginchy!

And lest you think that's not a real song...

It's by Bo Bylan, who no doubt is the voice of his generation.!

The song has the desired effect--even on our heroes:

And apparently, the "foreign ministers conference" is a conference of foreign ministers from 1893:

Indubitably!

SPOILER ALERT: The Fab Four break free of the spell and save the day. Mr. Mod and his Bird are captured. The conference of foreign ministers approved the Treaty Of The Durand Line. Their comic is promptly cancelled. Dell never tried the heady mix of trendy super-heroes and modern music again.

From Superheroes #4 (1967)

Manic Monday--For Kids Who Want To Grow Up Smacking Perps Around!!

Handy tip for assaulting a suspect:

Uh...what? Blow that up, Cambot!

Thanks for the handy police brutality tips, Dell Comics!!

No wonder they never signed on the Comics Code...

From Mike Shane, Private Eye #2 (1962)

The Most Frightening Covers You've Ever Seen--Rhubarb!!

I won't lie--I'm a dog person, not a cat person.

But I'm in a state of detente with felines. So please believe me that it's not ill-will that motivates this judgement.

In 1946 H. Allen Smith wrote the novel Rhubarb. He was a feisty stray cat who was adopted by an eccentric millionaire, and when the rich guy dies, he leaves everything to Rhubarb--including the Brooklyn baseball team!!

Silly, yes, but the book was popular enough to get two sequel books, and in 1951, a film adaptation:

Fun fact--a ridiculously young Leonard Nimoy has a teeny uncredited bit as one of the ballplayers. Other fun fact: 14 different cats portrayed Rhubarb in the film. Oh, the days before CGI...

Anyhoo, as happened with anything remotely popular during the era, Dell leapt in with an adaptation of their own in Four Color #423 (1952). But unlike the relatively benign drawing of Rhubarb on the movie poster, the anonymous artist on the comic cover chose to portray the wealthy kitty as a demon from hell:

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Like the novels, Dell dipped twice more into the Rhubarb oeuvre:

AHHHHH still hideous and evil!!!!!

In Four Color #466 (1953), Rhubarb was stepping out at night to hang with his old homey cats, when he is hit in the head and gets...cat amnesia!! An imposter cat takes his place as team owner, hijinks ensue.

And then in Four Color #563 (1954)...

STOP STOP STILL EVIL aahhhhh...

Ahem. Anyway, in this story Rhubarb is kidnapped by a circus and hypnotized to think that he's a dog.

Yes, that sentence is 100% true. Rhubarb is also hypnotized to think he's a seal.

I'm getting distracted here. My main point: unknown artist turns cut comedy cat into hellspawn on Dell covers!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I Shot The Sheriff...

...but I did not shoot:

See, if it weren't for comic books, I never would have known that Henry Fonda once had his own television show!! Thank you, Dell!!

Of course, it was a fairly easy paycheck for Fonda. Over the two seasons, his Marshall Simon Fry was really the lead in only 25% of the episodes. The rest of the time, he just narrated, and showed up briefly in the prologue and (sometimes) the epilogue. His deputy, Clay McCord, did the heavy lifting in most episodes...hence the name of the series!

In fact, Fonda apparently recorded most of his work for each season in a few lengthy filming sessions, freeing himself for more lucrative and more artistically respectable movie work during the traditional television filming period. Nice work if you can get it.

And really, that's all I have to say about The Deputy...Except that I have Henry Fonda preserved in comic book form. Which is why I love comic books...

The Comic Book Way To Beat The Heat--Super-Science Submarines!!

Enough about global warming! Let's talk about:

Voyage To The Deep was a comic published by Dell in the early 60s. And although it was an "original" series, it was very, very clearly cribbed from the 1961 movie Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea: Maverick admiral commands experimental super-science submarine, combating natural disasters and mysterious enemies that threaten the whole Earth.

In the 4 issues of this comic, an unnamed, never seen "enemy" was manipulating Earth's environment for unknown reasons (except to kill everyone, I guess). They found ways to cause massive flooding, to spark a massive increase in undersea volcanoes, to generate massive waves of anti-matter...and in this issue, to cause a new ice age:

That's a lot of snow...

100 feet per hour?!?

And every issue, no matter the mission, the crew of the Proteus managed to waste time fighting some giant sea creature:

Oh, don't fret---they got away. But meanwhile: SNOW!!

So how did "the enemy" cause this?

SCIENCE!!

Our heroes managed to defeat the enemy's machinations--without ever encountering them--by using their sub to create rubble that blocked "the rift"--and by gum, it immediately worked!!

So, that's my idea to combat global warming--destroy the "natural barrier" under the "Norwegian Ocean" and baby, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!

From Voyage To The Deep #2 (1963)

Bold Fashion Choices--The Non-Naked Warlord Of Mars!!

You know, our imaginations can be pretty broad and vast.

So, really, there's no reason that Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter Of Mars has to always be seen as half-naked leftovers from Frazetta covers wandering around the Red Planet, despite what a generation of cheap paperback covers have taught us.

No, there is another way. For example...

In 1952 & 1953, Dell's Four Color did three issues of John Carter stories, all art (including covers) by Jesse March.

See, John can dress more like a Flash Gordon type...no loincloth or "battle harness" necessary (OK, that Thark is wearing a loincloth...but he has a cape!!)

Another huge surprise:

Deja Thoris can actually wear real clothing!! She doesn't have to parade around as transparent wank fodder by imagination-less illustrators who can't think of any other way to make her attractive than by having her parade around in a way that would make a porn star blush.

I'm not sure about that hair, though...

Hey, I'm not saying that this interpretation is necessarily the best one, the preferred one, the most correct one, the only acceptable one.

But good gosh, we (and by we, I mean you, Dynamite Comics) sure seem to have settled into a rut, a group-think that suggests that the only possible interpretation of John Carter is to get Dejah Thoris as naked as possible as often as possible and to make John himself straight barbarian, rather than interplanetary swashbuckler. 

But they can wear clothes, guys, even if only once in awhile...

From Dell Four Color #375, #437 & #488 (1952-53)

Manic Monday--This Guy Just Can't Stay Out Of Trouble!!

Hey, did you ever what happened to that one guy from the cover of Action Comics #1?

Yeah, this guy!

Whatever happened to this guy?

Well, it looks like he moved to New York and got caught up in some shenanigans around a Broadway play!

I can't say for sure that cover artist Robert Williams Meyers was referencing that iconic Superman cover, but for purposes of this cow-town puppet-show blog, I will confidently assert that this guy was, indeed, the exact same character. Poor guy just can't stay out of trouble...

From Dell Four Color #1336 (1962). On Stage was a contemporary newspaper comic strip by Leonard Starr.

I'm Certain This Is What The Netflix Defenders Series Will Be Like!

I think I'm going to read me some Defenders comic books today!! Yup, Doc Strange, the Sub-Mariner, Hulk, Valkyrie...

No, no, not those Defenders!!

I've got nothing against Robert Reed and E.G. Marshall and what the Museum of Broadcasting called "perhaps the most socially-conscious series the medium has ever seen."

But I wants me some Nighthawk! Some Hellcat!! Some Gargoyle!! Here we go!!
 

Nooo......

I've really got to work on a better filing system for my comics.

Man, those Dell adaptation covers really knew how to draw a reader in with action and drama, didn't they?

The Defenders #1 is from 1962, and #2 is from 1963