Dog Days

I'm seriously looking into finding lots more of these Cuti/Staton stories from the Charlton era of comics. The other one I found and posted (here) was an instant favorite of mine. This one is another instant fave.
Both have anthropomorphic characters, and both lend a sense of irony to the otherwise tired genre of fantasy-horror.

Will the team of Cuti+Staton surpass my admiration of Binder+Beck?? Who knows? But I'd say all bets are off at this point. And, yeah, if you're not a fan of the Otto Binder and C.C. Beck collaborations, this probly ain't your cup o' tea; go read MAUS or WATCHMEN again.

As for me, I absolutely love comics that take things to an extreme level. Regardless of whether it's fantasy, horror, sci-fi, romance, humor, superheroes, or whatever. But y'all should know by now (I've only been blogging for, like, four freakin' years) that I love things that are fun and slightly insane.

by Nicola Cuti and Joe Staton
from MIDNIGHT TALES #9, October 1974






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The Noah's Ark From Space

What with the "new and improved" DC Comics line, almost everything that was fun and interesting from the Golden and Silver Age of comics no longer exists. There's quite a bit of sadness involved with that. By no stretch of the imagination were those stories the greatest or most thought-provoking tales ever printed, but they aren't without their own unique charms; totally denying that they ever existed seems wrong somehow. Have the head honchos at DC never heard of the concept of alternate realities?? Yeah, I'm sure they have, but they just don't know how to pull it off.

Anyhoo, enough ranting. Just sit back and enjoy this li'l bit o' fluff from the old, old days when comics used to be fun. Presented in wonderful black and white (because it's from a UK reprint, where comics were always black and white, had more pages, and were printed in a larger tabloid size, to boot. Those kids over there really got their money's worth).

One more thing, I'm not exactly positive, but I seem to remember the adult Superman encountering a similar situation as the one in this story. Perhaps a well-versed trivia buff could verify this??

by (uncredited, unsigned) Edmond Hamilton and John Sikela (credits from GCD)
from SUPERBOY #51 (UK edition) (reprinted from US version, SUPERBOY #22)











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Paranormal Stuff

Something timely, as it were (or as it is), since almost everybody is jumping in on the 2012 end-of-the-world bandwagon (even the usually skeptical mainstream media).
Will it be the end? Probly not. Will something happen? Maybe. but as you'll see in this comic, people have known about the date for years.


by Doug Moench and Rick Parker
from THE BIG BOOK OF THE UNEXPLAINED (ISBN: 1-563-89254-5), 1997



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Jay And Silent Bob Rewrite Spidey

Okay, nowhere in this story does it say that this is Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes as the narrators, but I'll be danged if the artist here didn't use them as figure models for this issue. And I swear the writer intentionally wrote their dialogue with the same two characters in mind.
So, WHAT IF JAY AND SILENT BOB WORKED OUT A NEW ORIGIN FOR THE SPIDER-MAN??? I think it would look sumthin' like this here:

by Ed Brubaker and Andrea DiVito
from WHAT IF? (oneshot), February 2005





unable to stop him, Ben follows Peter to the warehouse just in time to witness:












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GAME PRESERVE by CUTI and STATON

"Professor Coffin was one of the last titles to be printed by Charlton Comics. It was basically another horror anthology title, but with all-new stories. The book sported a framing device in the form of the title character's misadventures with his niece Arachne, specifically their encounters with the supernatural. Prof. Cyrus Coffin was a character who first appeared in Charlton's Midnight Tales title.
Prof. Coffin lasted only three issues; this was part of a 'last gasp' before the Charlton company went out of business completely. Consequently, this is one of the smaller-print-run titles that are difficult and expensive to locate now. (Not that you'd want to.)" --- POP-CULT dot COM

Thank you, Pop-Cult dot Com for that. I hate having to explain things that have already been explained. It is just so much easier to do the 'copy/paste' thingy.
With that in mind, here's one of those stories that the previously quoted website claimed that weren't worth tracking down. I disagree. This story here is one of the wackiest sci-fi-horror-romance genre-benders I've seen in my life.

by Nick Cuti and Joe Staton
from PROF. COFFIN #21, February 1986







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Sunday Funnies: BLONDIE

Chic Young's BLONDIE is, without a doubt, one of those comics that really doesn't need a whole lot of introduction. I'm not even going to bother. If you seriously have never heard of it before, check any one of the links after the comic, they'll tell you all you need to know (no sense in me re-typing the same info).

by (uncredited)
from BLONDIE #215, September 1975
Here's a typical strip, and tho' it's not an original, it's purty dang ol' close to an original:



Next is a short from the long-running comic, that has two things I wanted to point out; I'll explain as we go:





In case you didn't notice, it's the disappearing dog (Daisy). She's in one panel then mysteriously vanishes in the next. This is actually one of the first pieces of trivia that got me interested in the daily strip. Not sure how often they did it in the comics, but lots of people have noticed it happening in the dailies.





There at the end, Blondie apparently just whacked ol' Dagwood out of bed. That is totally out of character. Domestic violence never was a problem in the dailies.
Bad editing? Bad freelance writer? Don't know and can't say, but even I know that ain't right with a BLONDIE story.

That's it. The only two things I wanted to comment on. But it ain't over, have some delicious links:

★LINKS★

First Appearance courtesy of The Comics Journal
Other Early Strips courtesy of ASIFA & Joe Campana
OFFICIAL SITE
BLONDIE at The Library Of Congress
Old Radio Episodes
Dagwood to Dilbert, an essay that I don't quite agree with, but I'll admit it's a good short read
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