Showing posts with label 1953. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1953. Show all posts

17 September 2020

Again, The Bear Begins...

As we saw yesterday, The Bear's star began its ascent in the text pages of Treasure Chest Of Fun & Fact. We noted how very rare it was to see a "filler" text feature take the cover of the book.

Perhaps i should have mentioned that he did it more than once...?


That was the cover for The Honest Bear (header shown yesterday).
Four issues later, the Bear was on the cover again...
 

...but this time it was to mark his start in comic formatted tales -
 



Viewed through a modern lens, Wong Fu can be viewed as a racist stereotype. But that's obviously not the intent. Instead of mocking as an outsider, the strip seeks to normalize the differences of a culture existing within a larger foreign society. After all - have you ever seen anyone pointing out that Pidgin was a Chinese word for Business to explain the term? Or did they leave you thinking it had to do with birds that many view as winged rats?
It's much more inclusive representation than one might typically find in 1953.

And now i'm feeling guilty for not having provided Chinese Translation panels for Mad Science with Dr. Nick! as they did here.

On a side note - the Bear's language abilities here compared to elsewhere is a good example of why i was so coy originally about whether or not the Bear was an ongoing character. He's really more like a regular actor appearing in multiple stories.

And another odd little note - I believe this was the only story in which the creator goes uncredited. Previous tales were from Ray St. Clair, and subsequent stories came from Eric St. Clair. I guess he was still making up his mind on the change at this point? (Probably not the actual reason why we see no credits here) The art appears to be from Paul Eismann, but there's no confirmation of that.


page art by Paul Eismann (?) from Treasure Chest Of Fun & Fact v8 #s 18-20 (1953)

04 March 2020

The Lasting Power Of Stupidity

So...  
Last week i stumbled across Moronica, Miss Nit-Wit Of 1948 (& 1949). I thought she was just an odd little blip on the cultural radar - a flash and gone.

Nope.

As noted, she debuted in 1948


...not to be confused with the other Moronica who first appeared in 1948 in Meet Corliss Archer...


Our Miss Nit-Wit lasted into 1949, as we knew...


...but she continued on into 1950...
 

...1951...
 

...1952...
 

...1953...
 

...1954...
 

I was so wrong about that "little blip". In fact, she even got together with her friends to form their own book -







Maybe this is what the evil clown sees when it looks back and spews make things Great again? (It was spawned right around this time)

page art mostly by Owen Fitzgerald from Starlet O'Hara In Hollywood #s 1, 3, & 4, The Kilroys #s 23-28, 30-32, & 37, Cookie #s 45 & 48, Dizzy Dames #s 1-6 and Al Feldstein for Meet Corliss Archer #1 (1948-1954)

15 February 2020

Show Me, Joe!

Earlier this week we took a gander at Judo Joe, and i said we'd get back to see his 'gimmick' - well, here we are. Joe's gimmick was proclaimed on every cover (all 3 of 'em): A Complete Judo Lesson In Each Issue! -




Inside each issue we got a two-page lesson in self-defense (Only Self-Defense!) -




Of course, while Joe made it a prominent feature, he wasn't the only Judo instructor in the comics...
 

But, really - the Black Hood preferred to teach Karate...
 





I'm pretty sure this all eventually led to How To Defend Yourself The Marvel Way. But i couldn't swear to it...

page art by Paul W. Stoddard, John Rosenberger, and John Giunta for Judo Joe #s 1-3, Adventures Of The Fly #s 25, 27, & 29, and Adventures Of The Jaguar #s 12-14 (1953, 1959, 1963)