Number 96

Sparky Watts and The Father Of His Country!


I've been waiting for President's Day to show you this story from Sparky Watts #5, 1947. It's by the great Gordon "Boody" Rogers, in my opinion one of the top cartoonists of the Golden Age.

I last showed you a story by Boody in Pappy's #32, where I posted a story from his regular monthly appearance in Big Shot Comics #86. Boody had a unique and clear cartooning style, which he developed as Zack Mosley's assistant on that cartoonist's Smilin' Jack comic strip.

I also showed you a favorite science fiction theme of mine, time travel, in Pappy's #89, when I told you about what I liked about the Alley Oop comic strip. This Sparky Watts story has a form of time travel. Instead of them going into the past, they bring George Washington into the future. Actually they resurrect him, using a special "life restorer lite" that Doc Static has invented. Considering its shortness, three chapters adding up to 20 pages, Rogers manages to make some pretty good gags. The man-out-of-his-own-time possibilities are well exploited by Boody.

Learn what really happened when Washington cut down the cherry tree, or why he stood up in the boat crossing the Potomac. See George Washington in a zoot suit! Learn how many stars Slap Happy thinks are on the 1947 American flag!
 
Enjoy the laughs, and Happy President's Day!

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Number 95


The Original Ghost Rider


The movie, Ghost Rider, was released yesterday. In it Nicolas Cage plays the Marvel Comics character, a supernatural being with flames shooting out of his head. We Golden Age comics fans know that's not the true Ghost Rider, but some usurper who is using his name.

Ghost Rider #1 came out in 1950 from Magazine Enterprises (ME), a comic book company founded by one of DC Comics' original editors, Vincent Sullivan. It wasn't a big company, but they used some of the best artists: Bob Powell, Frank Frazetta, and the Ghost Rider artist, Dick Ayers.

The original Ghost Rider appeared in his own title for 14 issues between 1950 and 1954. He also made appearances in several other ME Western comics. Ghost Rider was canceled because it wouldn't survive the new Comics Code. In 1967 Marvel Comics published seven issues of a new series, also drawn by Ayers. AC Comics re-named the character Haunted Horseman when they began republishing the original ME stories.

The 1950's Ghost Rider stories were fast paced and entertaining. They had elements of horror, but as in the story posted for Frankenstein Friday in Pappy's #50 sometimes the supernatural turned out to be a trick, like the Ghost Rider himself.

In the origin story the supernatural appears to be real. The "Calico Kid," Rex Fury, hovers between life and death, he is trained by famous dead Westerners. It packs a lot into six pages, and as always, the art is superb.

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Number 94


Frankenstein Friday: Death O'Clock!


This is the second-to-last story from the Monster Of Frankenstein series, written and drawn by Dick Briefer. It was published in Frankenstein #33, October-November 1954. That was the last issue, probably because the Comics Code was about to be instituted. Frankenstein likely wouldn't have passed the rigid censorship in the earliest days of the Code.

So far as storytelling goes, it relies too heavily on captions, some of which tell us what we're already seeing (a common error with captioning in comic books), but the plot is good, the characters are interesting and the art is well done, especially for this series.

While competently drawn, I wonder if Briefer's heart was into this more serious cartooning style after the years he spent with his funny Frankenstein character.

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Number 93


Airboy Dazzled and Duped By A Dame!


I've been wracking my brain trying to figure out what I could do to commemorate Valentine's Day for you. I never got around to collecting love comics, so I dug around and found this story of how Airboy found--and lost--love.

When Airboy was created by Charles Biro and premiered in Air Fighters Comics #2, he was a boy. By the time this unnamed story was published, in Airboy Comics Volume 5 Number 4, May 1948, Airboy had grown into a young man, maybe 20-years-old or so. When he was younger his special plane, Birdie, was his first love. But by this story Airboy shows he could be dazzled by the opposite sex, just like all of you horny jokers out there reading this.

Fred Kida was the artist. In the late 1940s the art of Milton Caniff on Terry And The Pirates and then Steve Canyon was very influential with other artists. Some artists pulled off the Caniff look better than others. Kida was one of the best. Every page here is a primer in how to draw in that style: naturalistic figure drawing, bold inking, great camera angles and composition, not to mention the use of interesting and exotic backgrounds.

Kida also drew a very nice looking babe in Laura. We can see why Airboy was so taken by her.

Oh, did I mention? The story is interesting, too.

The cover is drawn by Dan Zolnerowich.

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