THE THREE STOOGES MEET ROBIN HOOD #1 AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
In 1962, Dell Comics was still the final destination of thousands of media properties. One of these was the Three Stooges. At this point in time Curly and Shemp had passed away and Moe and Larry had recruited Joe DeRita as the third Stooge, Curly Joe. During this time, the Three Stooges were seeing a comeback and were staring in feature films while their reruns were being played all across the United States.
It was these three older, less traditional Stooges that Dell had the rights for and began publishing a comic series that would last for 55 issues. However, there is some fudging in that 55 issue count as certain issues were duplicated in the run. This reprint issue actually appeared twice as issues #10 & #47! Now Dell’s heir apparent, American Mythology picks up the mantle. The story here follows along many of the film plots with the Stooges interacting with famous historical figures as Robin Hood. Medieval hijinx ensue. With a few other Stooge shorts inside, this is a wonderful little reminder of how the Three Stooges impacted our lives. I give it a 8 out of 10 Grahams.
GODZILLA MONSTERS & PROTECTORS ALL HAIL THE KING #3 IDW COMICS
Still too kiddie for my tastes but getting better. The Xiliens are starting to get more serious but still have that slapstick nature to them which is annoying. The Godzilla/Ghidorah battle is short and rather un-actiony but its a start. And with hints that we may be looking at some Motha and King Ceasar cameos, so thats cool. But we are still bouncing back and forth with names, is it Ghidorah like at the beginning of the issue or King Ghidorah like at the end. The potential is there, it just keeps getting hung up. I give it a 6 out of 10 Grahams.
MOON GIRL AND DEVIL DINOSAUR #1 MARVEL COMICS
In 1978, Jack Kirby gave us yet another unique character in Devil Dinosaur #1. 37 years later, the big red dinosaur took on a new partner in Lunella LaFayette in the adorable and highly well received series Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur. Lunella is (in my opinion) becoming Marvel’s version of Donna Troy. A wonderfully offbeat character who keeps travelling from creative team to creative team who are evolving the character but are also diluting what made the character special in the first place. It is painfully apparent that writer Jordan Ifueko has been given the instructions to bring back the Inhumans into the Marvel Universe using Moon Girl. Alba Glez art style does work for these characters but does seem to lean a little bit to the cute side. Not a bad title just not one that seems to be doing justice to Lunella or her bid red dinosaur. I give a 6 out of 10 Grahams.
SPECIAL BONUS #1
MAKING COMIC ZINES #1 SILVER SPROCKET
The term zine is short for magazine or fanzine and refers to a small-circulation self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images, usually reproduced via a copy machine. Zines are the product of either a single person or of a very small group, and are popularly photocopied into physical prints for circulation. A fanzine (blend of fan and magazine) is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by enthusiasts of a particular cultural genre for the pleasure of others who share their interest. The term was coined in an October 1940 sf fanzine by Russ Chauvenet, entering the Oxford English Dictionary in 1949. Or so Wikipedia explains it.
So last week, one of the oddest bits of comic materials in recent history appeared on comic shelves. A zine telling readers how to create their own zines. Having grown up in a time when zines were a big deal and then years later getting to write for a few, these terrific little treasure hold a place in my heart. And to find someone not only making a zine of this nature in 2022 (when I’m sure most of today’s youth don’t have a clue) seems not only risky but some what depressing. Eddy Atoms deserves as much credit as I can gather for doing it. It certain brought waves of nostagia back into my life and I can only hope that this issue finds it’s way into the hands of some creatives youths that can put the information shown here to good use! 9 out of 10 Grahams for working outside the box, sir!
AS PROMISED ALL THE WAY BACK IN OUR NOVEMBER 9TH BLOG, A BACKROUND CHECK ON THE MISSING 13 PART 1
NEW GOLDEN AGE #1 DC COMICS
SO WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH BETSY ROSS & MOLLY PITCHER?
So, in the bonus Who’s Who page for Betsy Ross & Molly Pitcher, we were informed that these characters first appeared in the pages of Military Comics Issue #6&7 from 1941 & 1942. Military Comics at that time was being published by Quality Comics who DC would later absorb and create the Freedom Fighters from. Military Comics would later change titles and become Blackhawk Comics. So I hopped on to the security helicopter to go to Doc’s Corner’s special comic archive vault hidden deep in Mt Rushmore to verify these facts. The problem is that DC is know for having writers and artists would are deeply knowledgable in character lore. If I’m being told that Betsy & Molly were first to be found in real comic stories, I actually wanted to believe them. Miss America did indeed appear in 7 issues of Military Comics and writers in the 1940’s had a tendancy to throw in kid sidekicks to raise interest. Since Miss America only made it to issue 7, it was entirely possible that Betsy and Molly were added in a last ditch attempt to stop the series from being cancelled. We scoured the pages of each of her 7 appearences and found nothing. The best we could come up with was in issue #6 when Miss America battles Big Hank and the Anti-Crime Club who is teaching children how to commit crimes. While the issue features nothing but boys is it possible that Betsy and Molly were unseen members? Issue 7 features a villain called the Moth who sets fires. None of the 7 issues features a school saboteur. I was broken hearted to discover this. While I am all for retrofitting characters into DC history, this first one seemed to so believable. Damn!