Extensive gunfire, multiple dead tough guys -- now that's Spillane

Another Mickey Spillane text story from Target Comics (vol. 3, num. 4)

Little LuLu meets Frankenstein

John Stanley should be on any list of the best comic book writers, particularly when discussing the often (and often justly) maligned area of dialogue. Stanley was, along with Walt Kelly and Carl Barks, one of the Dell triumvirate, three legendary talents who managed to turn the sugary dreck of kids' comics into sharp, smart, funny, medium-pushing stories.

So it's with no disrespect that I point out that Dick Briefer came up with this story idea more than a decade before Stanley. I don't know if this is a case of great minds thinking alike or another example of the old but still useful rule: immature writers borrow; mature writers steal.

Either way, both stories stand up wonderfully one their own. Check them out for yourself and make sure to leave yourself some time leaf through some other delights at Stanley Stories.

Life's too short not to.

Too dirty for Mippyvile...

But too good to miss. McEldowney originally conceived Pibgorn as newspaper strip to follow his successful 9 Chickweed Lane. One can only assume this particular gag would not have been included in this version.

Brooke's pushing the boundries again

And in a family newspaper, too.

"Good ol' President Brown"

Over at the Boston Globe, cartoonist Ward Sutton has reimagined the classic comics page from a tea party viewpoint. The joke wears a bit thin after a while, but Sutton does an amazing job capturing the styles and imagery of the originals.

(click for the punchline)

For Harry Harrison fans

To science fiction fans, Harry Harrison will always be the creator of the Stainless Steel Rat and Bill the Galactic Hero.

To fans of bad movies he will always be the man indirectly responsible for perhaps the greatest of all bad movie closing lines.



But on top of that, Harrison was a successful comics artist in the Fifties. Here's a suitably weird sample (including the cover) from... BEWARE!

Conchy -- worth remembering

One of my great indulgences growing up was the Scholastic book form. I've long since forgotten most of those book, but one of them has managed to keep up with me from city to city and state to state. It was called Conchy on Half Shell.

Conchy was a funny, introspective strip from the early Seventies. Don Markstein has speculated that, if not for its creator's suicide, it might "be remembered as another in a league with King Aroo or even Krazy Kat, strips that never achieved high circulation but were loved by the critics."

As is, Conchy is remembered by very few, but it is fondly remembered.