ST. PATRICK'S DAY POST

Saint Patrick's Day is upon us once again. The annual day when we get drunk in honor and remembrance of the patron saint of alcohol, St. Patrick.

While you're getting wasted tonight on green colored beer, take a moment to remember our hero (St. Patrick), and how he single-handedly removed all of the snakes that used to live in the wooden beer barrels. Before he came around, people would get bitten by snakes every time they went to a pub.

God bless St. Patrick.

Only semi-related to the story of St. Patrick is this tale about Porky Pig:

by Don R. Christensen and Tony Strobl
from DELL FOUR COLOR #426, September 1952















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PREY OF THE BANSHEE

It's well known that a certain percentage of Ripley's "facts" were nothing but pure fiction. I'm gonna have to say that I'm pretty sure this is one of the fakes.

art by John Celardo
from RIPLEY'S BELIEVE IT OR NOT #29, October 1971






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KING OF THE SNAKE MEN

Honestly, I'm not sure if this was done by the same Bruce Timm that we all are familiar with from his work on various DC/WARNER cartoons, but if it is, this has to be one of his earliest professional art projects. I'm pretty sure it's the same awesome Stan Sakai who did the lettering.

Regardless, this is a worthwhile trip down memory lane (for me anyway).

© 1985 MATTEL INC.










This first panel reminds me of PEARLS BEFORE SWINE for some reason.







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CHIMERA by P. Craig Russell

Most definitely a man that shouldn't need an introduction to serious students (or even just fans) of really good comic art, P. Craig Russell has been churning out masterful work since 1972.

The intro to this wordless piece says that it was done all in pencil (which proves that when you're this good, you don't need an inker. TAKE THAT, all you guys working with Photoshop!).

from ECLIPSE, THE MAGAZINE #1, May 1981












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Hot Stuff vs The Tuff Egg

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: when those guys at Harvey took off with an idea, they took it pretty far. This Hot Stuff short is one of the weirdest I've seen in a while (and that's saying a lot considering that the Hot Stuff series always were much more fantastic and whimsical than any of the others in Harvey's line).

It's pretty common for Hot Stuff to run into the strangest assortment of characters (fruits, vegetables, animals, even rocks and trees are shown as sentient at various times), but this here takes 'bizarre' to whole new levels.

from DEVIL KIDS STARRING HOT STUFF #2, September 1962



The eggs are alive and talking, yet he's still going to eat them. Strange, yes, but it gets better.



An egg with a steel shell that smokes cigars and bites devils.... (just try pitching that character to today's publishers)..oh yeah, and he's willing to send his other eggs on a kamikaze mission.



Pretty danged violent for a "code approved" all-ages title, ain't it?



Nobody saw those plot twists coming.



Even after they're fried, the eggs still have faces on them??!! I don't think the eggs were the only ones who got fried.

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