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lecuongle on Chủ Nhật, 6 tháng 3, 2011
Flash Gordon D-2 Series Strip Art: Dan Barry Summary: Absorbing the news that an ally has broken a peace treaty with Arboria by attacking Flash, Dale and Dr Zarkov (see D2-131 Gorilla Men on Mongo), Prince Barin receives more news about ancient rivalries suddenly flaring up all over Mongo.
Initially suspecting Ming of fomenting unrest, Flash and Barin are forced to think again as even Ming’s forces come under attack from previous allies. Then, as he heads to the loyal Hawkmen for consultations, Flash suddenly discovers a vital clue to the mystery in the form of a speeding light... (Source of summary: www.ipcomics.net)
Summary: Enjoying some white water rafting in the kingdom of Arboria on Mongo, Flash, Dale and Zarkov are suddenly ambushed by unknown assailants, leading to their canoes capsizing and the trio splitting up.
As Flash warily retraces his steps to be reunited with his friends, he encounters more hostility and realises that the otherwise peaceful Gorillamen have taken up arms. Finally closing in one of the treetop colonies, Flash is in for more trouble...
Boltinoff's gag strips were a nearly ubiquitous feature of DC's magazines from the 1940s to the 1960s. I haven't taken too close a look at it yet, but from what I can see, they did not appear in only three sets of magazines: war titles, romance books (well, almost no romance books) and titles edited by Julius Schwartz.
A full listing of Boltinoff's features would probably fill a small phone book. Wikipedia lists the following:
Abdul the Fire Eater, Bebe, Billy, Buck Skinner, Cap's Hobby Center, Cap's Hobby Hints, Casey the Cop, Charlie Cannonball, Chief Hot Foot, Cora the Carhop, Dexter, Doctor Floogle, Doctor Rocket, Dover & Clover, Elvin, Freddie the Frogman, Hamid the Hypnotist, Homer, Honey in Hollywood, Hy the Spy, Hy Wire, Jail Jests, Jerry the Jitterbug, King Kale, Lefty Looie, Lem 'n' Lime, Lionel and His Lions, Little Pete, Little Pocahontas, Lucky, The Magic Genie, Moolah the Mystic, No-Chance Charley, Ollie, On the Set, Peter Puptent, Prehistoric Fun, Shorty, Stan, Super-Turtle, Warden Willis
Just at a glance I could add Peg and Varsity Vic to that list and I'm sure there are dozens of others. Some of the strips were already anachronisms by the 1960s; the jitterbug was a swing dance craze of the 1930s and 1940s, and carhops were waitresses employed by fast-food joints of the 1950s. They had mostly disappeared by the time I was a kid. A carhop was featured in the opening sequence to Happy Days, dumping a meal on a couple of cops (starts about 1:10):
Dover and Clover were significant in that they were probably Boltinoff's only work to appear on the cover of a DC title: Dover and Clover were twins and inept detectives. They appeared on the cover of about 10 issues of More Fun Comics in the 1940s.
There does not appear to be a strong correlation between the features Boltinoff drew and the comics in which they appeared. Don Markstein notes:
They were mixed randomly, with "On the Planet Og" sometimes turning up in Tomahawk and sometimes in Tales of the Unexpected and "Hy Wire" sometimes in Strange Adventures and sometimes in Superman. The only certainty was that practically every DC comic book would contain something by Henry Boltinoff.
On the other hand, there was some reasonable consistency; Batman usually had crime-oriented Boltinoff strips like Casey the Cop, Lefty Louie or Warden Willis, and Super-Turtle mostly popped up in the Superman family of magazines. Here's Homer doing some spelunking in one of the Cave Carson Showcase issues I mentioned a week or so ago:
The strips were generally 1/2 to a full page long, although in the 1950s and early 1960s there were a few two-pagers. Here's Varsity Vic from Adventure #300: Here's Peter Puptent from Doom Patrol #99: Around late 1965 to early 1966, most of the Boltinoff strips were discontinued. They were replaced with Cap's Hobby Center, shown here from Doom Patrol #100: The obvious intent of the Cap's strips was to cross-sell some of the DC advertisers; model-building kits were very commonly featured in the magazines. The products were even mentioned by brand in a few cases: This of course refers to the Revell Space Capsule giveaway covered by Mark Engblom a few years back.
Cap's Hobby Center gave way to Cap's Hobby Hints, where readers could send in their suggestions and win $5 and the original artwork from Boltinoff. These frequently had to do with model-building: Boltinoff went on to even greater fame and fortune when he created Hocus Focus, a two-panel cartoon strip that was syndicated in hundreds of newspapers. Readers looked at two very similar drawings and had to find the six tiny details which differed: In that one, you can see that the kid's baseball cap is reversed, the hole in the window is higher, the table has a drawer, the lamp is added, the ball is missing, and a piece of glass (by the man's right foot) is missing. Incidentally, the bar-top game machines in many establishments these days have a version of Hocus Focus, but with photographs instead of drawings.
Summary: Setting course for Mongo on the unlikeliest of missions (see D2-143 The High Ground), Flash has to absorb some friendly fire and hairy moments in his Skorpi ship before he can bring his vessel down. Trying to get his bearings before he can start his journey towards Ming’s palace, a disorientated Flash is about to reminded about the fact that an unannounced visitor on Mongo is never safe...
Much of what seems bizarre to modern (i.e., younger) comics fans is actually quite explicable to those who understand the kid culture of the 1960s.
The lovable but scary monster is a classic example. What were Casper, the Friendly Ghost, or the Addams Family, or the Munsters? Kids sympathized with Frankenstein as the villagers torched him alive in that old windmill. There was also the Beany and Cecil cartoon series about a boy and his friend the giant sea serpent, or Bizarro, the Superman supporting character I blogged about recently. Of course, it is not entirely as if this archetype has disappeared; the Iron Giant is a more recent example of the phenomenon.
There are good reasons why such characters are popular with youngsters. First, because kids are often the only ones who see the monsters the way they really are. The Casper theme song makes this explicit:
"Though grown-ups might look at him with fright, the children all love him so..."
And indeed, Millie is pretty much played the same way: In addition, a well-intentioned but misunderstood character probably fits the way a lot of kids feel about themselves. They want desperately to be helpful but adults reject their assistance. (Often for good reason, as a kid's idea of help can turn out to be far more trouble than it's worth.)
Most of the adults quickly realize, however, that Millie really is a friendly monster. When the cops go to arrest her, they find her escorting an old lady across the street. But there must be a villain in the piece, and it turns out to be Mr Gotrocks, the town banker: But when Millie pokes her head in the window, even Mr Gotrocks is won over. BTW, I am not sure where the name Gotrocks (usually spelled Gottrox) became a synonym for "very rich", but it's been around for quite a while. Here's a 1915 movie that features a character named "Patrick Gottrox - the Pickle King," which fits:
Gottrox decides to let Millie live in the old haunted house he owns, which nobody else will inhabit. Although he's wealthy, he's not anti-union: But the union men won't work on the house because they're afraid of the ghosts. So the banker decides to have Millie haunt the haunts. She quickly cleans out the nasty ghosts and makes friends with Goodie, the (tickled) pink ghost. Goodie promises the union members professional courtesy: The third segment is called "Millie Does the Twist." The Twist, of course, was a dance craze in the early 1960s:
That song is the only one to hit #1 twice; it reached the top in 1960 and in 1962. Chubby Checker later tried to get folks to do "The Fly", but they remained grounded:
At any rate, Millie's twisting causes havoc in the city: And the city responds by banning the dance.
Later still, Millie goes to Hollywood where she becomes a star. Jealous, other monsters invade Hollywood, but Millie shows that while remaining lovable, she can still pack a punch:
The producers are ecstatic and the writers are working overtime on scripts for Millie. But she develops a bit of an artistic temperament: So they rewrite the script to be Millie's life story as we've seen it in this comic, and Midway prospers. The End.
Comments: Obviously this is a very basic comic, intended for small readers. The art (by Bill Woggon) is appropriately cutesy. I did like some of the little touches, like the way he gave Millie a beret when she goes to Hollywood. There is a minimum of conflict in the story, which again may be appropriate for the age level this was aimed at.
Summary: Spending some rare quality time with Dale in a park on Earth after returning from his time travels (see D2-129 Return to Atlantis), Flash is visited by Egon, the chronic time traveller from the future (see for example D2-058 The Hapless Alien), who has an urgent hologram recording to deliver from Princess Thalia of the Mystic Isles of Mongo (see D2-111 Slaves).
Learning that Thalia’s people has become enslaved, Flash saves literally no time in reaching Mongo with Egon’s time-hopper, but ends up battling against impossible odds to reach the remote island in an adventure with a rich helping of duplicity and betrayal...
The Silver Age Sage reviews one of my favorite stories, the Night of the Reaper from Batman #237. I will never forget this sequence, the greatest page turn ever. Robin is investigating the murder of a man dressed up as Batman when something startles him: And when we turn to the next page: Now that, my friends, is why Neal Adams is a legend.
I've read almost all the monthly Silver Age Marvel comics, but for some reason I haven't read a lot of the annuals that Marvel produced during that era. Steve Does Comics reviews FF Annual #5 (which I have not read), while Commander Benson tackles Avengers Annual #2 (ditto). From their reviews, I'd guess that I should read the latter first.
