Vintage Science Fiction Comic Art

Here are a few old comic book scans from the Bob's Comics at the Crossroads Birth of the Silver Age Facebook group. Most of them are scans of vintage DC Comics' science fiction books like Mystery in Space and Strange Adventures. There's a cover scans and then a scan of the first page of each story in that book. Lots of fun, and due to big heat wave, "The Day the World Melted" has a certain relevance. And Bob has the credits down for you, which is great.

For instance, here's:

DC’s Mystery in Space 6 Feb-Mar 1952

Cover: Carmine Infantino / Joe Giella
Knights of the Galaxy: The Day the World Melted… Robert Kanigher / Carmine Infantino / Joe Giella
Story: The Boy Who Saved the Earth… John Broome / Bob Oksner / Bernard Sachs

Story: The Man Who Hated Science… Jack Miller / John Giunta / John Giunta
Story: Cowboy on Mars… Manny Ruben / Jim Mooney / Jim Mooney

DC’s Strange Adventures 157
Sept 1963

Cover: Murphy Anderson / Murphy Anderson
Story: Plight of the Human Cocoons… Gardner Fox / Gil Kane / Joe Giella Frank Giacoia
Story: The Immortality Seekers… Ed Herron / Sid Greene / Sid Greene
Space Museum: Rescue By Moonlight… Gardner Fox / Carmine Infantino / John Giunta

 

 

What If STAR WARS Was Made Out of Cardboard?

Wonder no more. The Secondhand Movie Co. has created some STAR WARS scenes out of cheap cardboard. Cheeky and fun. More about them here.

E. Simms Campbell: A Nightclub Map of Harlem (1932)

 
E. Simms Campbell (1906-1971), an African American cartoonist, drew the above map of the places to go in Harlem circa 1932. Mike Thibault originally posted this, after a great deal of searching

"I was at my friend Jojo’s house about a year and a half ago, watching some old VHS tapes of dance stuff she had. Among the home movies she had was a taped documentary featuring Cab Calloway. He was checking out this amazing cartoon map of Harlem from back in the 30’s and remembering all the places. Since then I’ve been trying to find a readable copy of it. A while ago I found that the title is “A Nightclub Map of Harlem” and it was drawn in 1932 by E. Simms Campbell, a cartoonist who went on to great success with his drawings in Ebony Magazine.

"... Cab Calloway made a joking comment about what a deal those marijuana cigarettes seemed at the time of filming, '2 for $.25.'"

Campbell had a long list of major league clients for his gag cartoons (Esquire, The New Yorker) and this is a major find by Mike. Click to supersize.

Hat tip to Frank Jacobs at Big Think, who provides more historical background, including the fact that A Nightclub Map of Harlem was used as endpapers for Cab Calloway's 1976 autobiography.

The Garden As of Mid-June

 

Here’s the garden as of mid-June. Everything is coming up fast: cucumbers, peppers, zucchini, tomatoes, runner beans. I’m mowing the lawn ever 5-7 days. The birds are eating a lot. 

Tank the cat "working."

 

All of the Cartoons From January 1963 McCALL'S

Above: my fellow Berndt Toast colleague David Gantz illustrates "Four Successful Methods of Getting Your Husband Up in the Morning."


It's been a good couple of weeks! We have seen a great selection of cartoons from some 50+ year old magazines that Tom Sager has been kind enough to scan in before tossing. Here's the latest: all of the cartoons from the January 1963 issue of McCALL'S Magazine.

Stan and Jan Berenstain:

Bo Brown:

Donald Reilly:

 Reamer Keller:

- Edited from a blog entry that originally ran on August 8, 2012.

HENNY by Henny Youngman and Art Cumings

There is nothing new, only the history you don't know. I have seen a lot of these strips pop up on Facebook this week. It'd otf interested to me since the artist was a friend and fellow Berndt Toast Gang member. So, here's an edited version of my blog about the Henny Youngman comic strip that I originally posted in July 16, 2013.

There have been a lot of showbiz related comics. I knew about the Woody Allen comic strip, but I had not heard of this "King of the One-Liners" one until chancing upon it in an old issue of Cartoonist PROfiles magazine (No. 32, December 1976).

The HENNY comic strip, from the trove of musty, misogynistic old jokes that Henny Youngman celebrated, and illustrated by my friend Art Cumings, ran for about a year. Art does his best with a strip that's appeal is verbal, not visual.  The format was always the two panels: the set up and the gag.

Syndicated by Field Enterprises (and copyright 1976 by same), here is a smattering of strips from 1976, its debut year. Same year as the Woody Allen comic strip, which would run until 1984.

Related: Stu Hample and Dick Cavett talk about DREAD AND SUPERFICIALITY: WOODY ALLEN AS COMIC STRIP at the Strand book store in NYC on November 23, 2009. Here is part one:

What Disaster Leaves Behind: Brian Fies on Memory, Loss, and Recovery

My friend and award-winning graphic novelist Brian Fies is interviewed about his book A Fire Story. Brian talks about his experience in the fire, which destroyed his California neighborhood and creating the book. 

Here's Brian:

"Here's a podcast I did with my friend Jennifer Gray Thompson about the firestorms of 2017, which destroyed my home among many others and which I wrote about in my graphic novel "A Fire Story." 

"Jennifer heads a great organization called After The Fire USA, which was formed as a direct result of our fires. The nonprofit goes to communities after they suffer large-scale disasters like ours to share what we did right, what we did wrong, and what we've learned in the meantime to help them toward recovery. It also lobbies for legislation to help disaster survivors, and is in general a good resource for anyone who's been through something like we experienced.

"Many thanks to Jennifer for having me on her podcast, and to her and After the Fire USA for the important work they continue to do!"