A Rich New Year's Eve

Is it really such a big deal if you miss watching the second hand on a clock strike midnight? Apparently it is to Richie Rich and his friend Jackie Jokers, as you'll see in this story.

from RICHIE RICH & JACKIE JOKERS #25, February 1978







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HOT STUFF: BABYSITTER EXTRAORDINAIRE

In what was a constantly recurring theme in the Hot Stuff stories, he's stuck babysitting someone; usually against his will. More often than not, he was stuck watching one of his weird little devil cousins, but in this particular instance he gets stuck with a little fairy girl that apparently is a total stranger(?!?). Parents, don't try this at home.

from DEVIL KIDS #1, July 1962






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Hedy Wolfe Is Not So Bad....

Here's one of those rare instances when we get a chance to see how Hedy is when she's not busy trying to argue with Patsy over Buzz Baxter. And this is one of the reasons why these Patsy and Hedy comics were so popular; despite the tendency of the various writers to lean towards slapstick, these actually were more realistic in terms of how people are in terms of relationships with family and friends. This is one of the top ten of solo Hedy stories.

by Morris Weiss
from MISS AMERICA #69, April 1955







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HEMBECK DOES HAWKMAN

by Fred Hembeck
from HEMBECK 1980, February 1980

As promised in the title of this post, here's Hembeck's take on Hawkman:




Even Mr. Hembeck himself freely admits that he is not afraid of running a gag into the ground (how many Brother Voodoo spoofs did he do at Marvel?). He takes a second shot at Hawkman & Hawkgirl in this same issue, throwing in a few Marvel characters as well:






There were a lot of good parodies in this book, but I'm going to finish off with this crazy look at the many different Spidermans, and what would happen if they all had to catch the same bus:



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Also check out this link:

Neil Polowin's collection of Hembeck comic strips
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SUPERMAN AND MUTANT BOY

Here's a type of story that ya just don't see too much of anymore (if truth be told, ya didn't see too much of it back then either). Here's our pal Kal running into a Twilight Zone refugee with a very strange mutant power.
And if nobody else is gonna say it, let me be the first: this is Cary Bates channeling his inner Otto Binder on this story.
And y'all should know by now how much I ♥ Otto Binder's writing.

by Cary Bates, Curt Swan, and Murphy Anderson
from ACTION COMICS #422, March 1973















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DREAD!

I haven't read the original story or seen the film, so I can't say with any certainty if this version of the story is the creepiest of the three. But I can say that this comic is pretty damn disturbing in it's own right. Of course that's partly because of Fred Burke's writing, but I think mostly because of Dan Brereton's decision to do this as fully painted art. Much better than his comic art. In fact, I don't think it would've worked at all in Brereton's regular style, but I guess y'all can be the judge of that.
And no, this isn't the whole story, just a vignette from the 58 page graphic novel. Perhaps if it isn't reprinted anytime soon, I'll post more; but I'm hoping that somebody (Fantagraphics? Dark Horse?) will pick up the reprint rights. This definitely is something that should stay in print.

by Fred Burke and Dan Brereton
from CLIVE BARKER'S DREAD (ISBN: 1-56060-142-6) 1992









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Sunday Funnies: DENNIS THE MENACE

They did quite a few of the giant sized Dennis comics over the years, but I find that the earliest ones are the funniest. I'm not sure if this was the first Christmas themed story, but it's done well. Also of note is how good Al Wiseman was at ghosting Hank Ketcham.

by Fred Toole and Al Wiseman
from DENNIS THE MENACE GIANT CHRISTMAS #3, 1956










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