Some Churchin' For You Urchins

Chick Tracts™, we've all seen 'em before right? Those little pamphlets that you find at the bus stop or on park benches? Ring a bell? If not, remember that Google is your friend.
Anyhoo, here's one I think you never saw before.......

from FLANDERS BOOK OF FAITH (ISBN: 978-0-06-133901-1) 2008








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More parodies HERE
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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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STAR WARZ

A typical movie parody from the long gone CRACKED Mazagine.
*sigh*
I still miss this comic. The only thing we have to remember it by is their website, which is not quite the same.

by John Severin
from CRACKED #146, November 1977








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WHAT IF...WEDNESDAY WITH JOHN SEVERIN

John Severin, legendary golden age comic artist, most well remembered for his long tenure with the now-defunct CRACKED mazagine, passed away on Sunday February 12th, 2012. He was ninety years old. During his career, he worked in almost every genre and style of comics, including his much-loved 'serious' artwork on the EC line, to his humorous 'caricature' style in the aforementioned CRACKED and other funny books.
Prior to his passing, he was amassing a whole new generation of fans for his work with the publisher DARK HORSE. He will be missed by all.
So....
No particular focus for this week's WHAT IF, just three alternate reality stories done by the legendary Mr. Severin.

What if comic heroes faced mandatory retirement?
What if the Silver Surfer weren't so serious?
What if Peter Porker was a journalist in Vietnam?

scans from:
WHAT THE--?! #2, September 1988
WHAT THE--?! #26, Fall 1993
ULTIMATE CIVIL WAR: SPIDER-HAM, March 2007










Next up is one of Severin's inking jobs. You'll notice that even when the pencils aren't his, he still makes the finished project one of his own. I'm not sure why that was, but I know that if you gave him nothing but sketchy stick figures, he'd still come back with some kind of awesome. Must've been nice for the pencillers, since they more often than not receive full credit for how the art looks once it's printed.
If you've ever seen Kevin Smith's film CHASING AMY, then you know that most people assume that inkers "just trace over other peoples drawing". Not true.









Finally, here's a weird alternate reality featuring (of all characters) Peter Porker aka SpiderHam. It's well known that Mr. Severin could draw anything and everything, but it's somewhat of a rarity to see him working in the funny animal genre. Which is one of the reasons I really like this sequence.
Also of note is that this is like a triple parody (it's a spoof of a movie and two different comics simultaneously).






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Pocket Sized Parody

In 1967, TOPPS released a set of sixteen little parody comics under the title KRAZY LITTLE COMICS. They are extremely rare due to the fact that they were printed in smaller quantities than Topps' baseball cards and they had only limited distribution. A complete set sold at an auction for over $1000 USD.
This is the Wonder Woman parody, "BLUNDER WOMAN", illustrated by none other than Wally Wood himself.
Most of the whole set can be viewed over at The Wonderful Wonderblog.








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Sunday Funnies: SALTY PEANUTS

I titled this post 'salty peanuts' because down here in the south "salty" is synonymous with 'angry or upset'; since 'angry' is synonymous with 'mad' I figured this was an appropriate title.

by THE USUAL GANG OF IDIOTS
from various issues of MAD MAGAZINE

From: "IF FAMOUS MOVIES WERE MADE INTO COMIC STRIPS":



From: "WHEN OTHER COMIC STRIPS START USING THE FAR SIDE FORMULA":



From: "IF 5 COMIC STRIP CARTOONISTS INTERPRETED THE AGE OLD RIDDLE, WHY DID THE CHICKEN CROSS THE ROAD":



From a back cover ad parody:



From: "COMIC STRIP CURSING SYMBOLS TO MATCH A GIVEN SITUATION":



From: "IF COMIC CHARACTERS WERE PSYCHOANALYZED":




From: "IF THE NUDITY TREND IN MOVIES EVER SPREAD TO THE COMICS":



From: "IF COMIC STRIP CHARACTERS BEHAVED LIKE ORDINARY PEOPLE":



From: "IF FAMOUS AUTHORS WROTE THE COMICS":



From: "COMIC STRIPS THEY'D REALLY LIKE TO DO":

by Charles Schulz himself:






★LINKS★

BRAD CAMPBELL'S PARODIES-at his blog
CHRIS GIARRUSSO'S SUPERHERO PEANUTS-not a lot of drawings, but the cute factor goes all the way up to 11 on these
IN DEFENSE OF PEANUTS by MIGHTYGODKING-just what you'd expect it to be: a rebuttal against detractors of the strip with scans
PAPERBACK CHARLIE BROWN-parodies of book covers
PEANUTS IN ADVERTISING-selected REAL advertisements
PEANUTZ-another MAD parody
SMASHING PEANUTS by WARD SUTTON-mashup of Peanuts vs Smashing Pumpkins
YOU'RE A BAD MAN, CHRIS BROWN-another MAD parody
YOU'RE ENTERING PUBERTY, CHARLIE BROWN-animated spoof on YouTube
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