Number 1338: Claire and her scandalous marijuana scare affair

“I was furious,” said Claire, ”I know now I could have killed my stepfather. Reefers make a thing like that easy. But he took no chances...”

From the days of reefer madness, when a toke of the Devil's herb could turn a teen into a slobbering, giggling murderer, comes this romance tale of drugs, wild nights and redemption, “My Scandalous Affair.” Not only have we a cannabis-cautionary tale, but it is very well illustrated by Everett Raymond Kinstler, who went on to fine art fame after his comic book career. Mr. Kinstler has forever earned my respect by not only reaching the top of his profession as a painter, but by not denying, indeed, by praising, his time in the comic book biz.

Personally, I have nothing to say about marijuana except I’m a sixties survivor, and besides, the statute of limitations on any illicit behavior has expired by now.

From Avon’s Realistic Romances #16 (1954):

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Bury Us Not!

You are now cordially invited to check out the remaining tale from the May 1952 issue of Strange Mysteries #5 (see the previous two posts as well as Blood of the Zombie buried deep in the 2009 THOIA Archive.) Yes, another full issue put to rest! We can keep this Iger Shop Fest going all month if you want, I've got a million of 'em...

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Number 1337: Prince Valiant and the Island of Thunder!

As a Sunday comics Prince Valiant fan, even as a youngster in the '50s, I mostly scorned the Dell Comics version of Hal Foster’s weekly masterpiece. They were not reprints of Foster’s pages, but original stories. Looking at them now I shouldn’t have been so quick to judge. I think artist Bob Fujitani captured Foster’s distinctive style.

This issue, the Prince Valiant one-shot, Four Color #900 (1958), was the last of the original adventures of Prince Valiant from Dell. They had begun in ’54 with an adaptation of the Robert Wagner/Janet Leigh movie version. Overstreet credits Fujitani with all of the artwork on the one-shots, but the Grand Comics Database has no information on a writer or cover artist for this issue.

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