MERCENARIO

The thing about any non-English comix that I find is simple; I can't actually read this stuff. English is the only language that I can comprehend.

With this one, I get the gist of the story (even with my pathetic Spanish comprehension). It's about a "mercenario" (mercenary).

Unless I've went full-on stupid, which is always a possibility, the 'contract hit' here in this story is based on political motivations. But, as I said, my Spanish ain't so good.

Regardless of what it's about, I absolutely love this art.

by Iva & Gimenez (??) (no editorial credits in this magazine)
from EL PAPUS #144, Febrero 1977



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Sunday Funnies: LIBERTY MEADOWS

Here's a strip that I've been wanting to post for quite some time. The problem was that there hasn't been any really good collections of it available for awhile.
Now there's this; a deluxe hardcover edition with a ton of Sunday comix.

For those of you unfamiliar with the strip, here's the cast:


I guess that was pointless, introducing you to the cast, that is, since this time around we're only going to look at the interesting crossovers that Mr. Cho did in the strip.
First up: Prince Valiant and Hagar The Horrible:


Cathy Guisewhite's Cathy:


Look close for this one, it's Dr. Sivana:


Family Circus and Cathy (again):


Golden Age Flash Gordon:


Mark Trail:


King Kong (with Godzilla/Gojira cameo):


And two Star Wars appearances (congrats to anybody who remember that Lucas's franchise did have a comic strip for awhile):



Finally, no crossover here, but this is one of the censored comix that didn't get printed in papers:


A cool book overall, and, in my opinion, worth adding to anybody's collection.
★★★★★
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FRANK CHO, LIBERTY MEADOWS, SUNDAYS VOL. 1
ISBN: 978-1-60706-564-7
List price: 24.99 USD
Published by Image Comics
First printing 2012
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Pureheart The Powerful

Archie Comics will probly never be labeled as 'innovative' or 'progressive', but I'll be danged if they ain't done every variation of the Archie gang that they could possibly ever think of in the hopes of 'keeping up with the competition'. Archie as cavemen, Archie in the future, Archie faces the supernatural, the Archies as rock stars, Archie as an older married man, Archie as a little kid, etc, etc, etc. If there was a trend in comics, they jumped on it.
As you'd imagine, this blatant genre-hopping meant that they cancelled more titles than most other publishers ever even tried to publish.

Regardless, I absolutely love this stuff. Maybe in the same way I love how THE SIMPSONS do random episodes where they're all out of character (usually at Halloween).

Keep pluggin', Archie Comics, keep pluggin'.

This story is from the early Marvel Age, when Lee, Kirby, and Ditko were the tops in comic sales. So, naturally, the Archie crowd got super powers for short time.

by (uncredited) Frank Doyle and Bill Vigoda (credits from the GCD database)
from ARCHIE AS PUREHEART THE POWERFUL #2, November 1966










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THIS THANKSGIVING

This Thanksgiving, I'm thankful that we have plenty of comics to read. I'm also thankful that we have brave men and women willing to stand up and fight for our country.

I guess I'm not so thankful that some of our family and friends might die today because of a stupid war. Hussein and Bin Laden are dead, why are we still there?

Political ranting aside, I hope all you internet people have a happy holiday, and if any of you are veterans or have family or friends in the services I love you, even if you're not a veteran or relative of one, may you all be safe and full of cranberry sauce and stuffing.

As you might have guessed, this is a holiday story that involves soldiers.

by Doug Murray and Wayne VanSant
from THE 'NAM #22, September, 1988






And on the other side of the war.....








.....and a happy Thanksgiving for all. Or so it would seem, since the war ain't nowhere near over at that point in 1967, it'd still go on for pointless years......sound familiar?

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Hot Stuff Original Art

From the Heritage Auctions website, I found this scan of original Warren Kremer art.
I'm not sure if it was ever actually printed in the comics, as I never remember seeing any strips without panel borders before and also, I wonder why the last panel is blank (??!?space for an ad of some kind??)
But anyhoo, enjoy:



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