The Compleat Mars Attacks

In an email, reader Stevearino said, "Thanks for the links to those Flying Saucer Week postings from last year!!! You showed some of the MARS ATTACKS cards (and thanks for doing it!!), but do you have the rest of the cards you can post??"

Hi-ho, Stevearino, I do. Here's the set, including #55, the synopsis.

MARS ATTACKS Copyright © 1962 Topps

Tom and Jerry's Party

A trip to a local thrift store yesterday yielded this Little Golden Book, a small treasure amongst the dross of people's giveaways and leavings. Finds like this, which were once common, are now more rare thanks to eBay, and book dealers who go through the bookshelves of thrift stores with an eye to resale. Luckily the dealers in my area often overlook children's books, and especially the ubiquitous Little Golden Books. I flip through stacks of them, and every once in a while come away with something like this, a book lovingly kept over 50 years, then finally surrendered to a charity so I could buy it for 25¢, and bring it to you.

Pencil artwork is by the great Harvey Eisenberg, painted by Samuel Armstrong.

TOM AND JERRY'S PARTY, Copyright © 1955 Loew's Incorporated.

The Price is right

George Price was a superb line artist and gifted cartoonist who worked well into his eighties, providing cartoons for THE NEW YORKER magazine. This selection is from THE NEW YORKER ALBUM 1955-1965.

Price, who was born in 1901, died in 1995.

Copyright © 1965 THE NEW YORKER

Flying Saucers #1

June 24 is the anniversary of the day that pilot Kenneth Arnold reported seeing a fleet of crescent-shaped craft flying over the Cascade mountains of Washington State. Sixty-two years ago that incident started the flying saucer flap that consumed a nation's attention.

In 1967, amidst another UFO flap, Dell Comics began publication of their FLYING SAUCERS COMICS. This is #1, with art by Chic Stone, Sam Glanzman, Frank Springer, Sal Trapani. The stories contain some contactee stories, including the Glanzman-drawn story of an alien medical exam, then currently in the news with the controversial story of Betty and Barney Hill from the 1966 bestseller by John G. Fuller, THE INTERRUPTED JOURNEY.

For an interesting article by John (THE MOTHMAN PROPHECIES) Keel, with his take on the flying saucer mythos, read "The Man Who Invented Flying Saucers".

Also, check out the 2008 Hairy Green Eyeball FLYING SAUCER WEEK!

Day One

Day Two

Day Three

Day Four

Day Five

Day Six

Day Seven

Day Eight


FLYING SAUCERS #1, April 1967. Copyright © 1967 Dell Publishing Company, Inc.

Crime Illustrated

CRIME ILLUSTRATED was an attempt by EC Comics publisher Bill Gaines to get around the new Comics Code authority by publishing comic books that weren't really comic books, but a hybrid of pulp and comics. The public didn't accept it, sales were poor and the magazine only lasted two issues. It used the EC Comics artists and they pulled out the stops on illustration techniques. Reed Crandall was given full credit for "Fall Guy For Murder" and it looks like his inking in places, but it also looks like Bernard Krigstein shared duties on the pencil art.

Alfred E. Neuman, moonlighting from his job as mascot at Gaines' one magazine success, MAD, is given writer's credit for the grimmest story of the bunch, "Mother's Day."

Copyright © 1955 L. L. Publishing, Inc.

Magnum Opus

Mickey Schwaberow and Steve Kelez self published their amateur comic book, MAGNUM OPUS, in 1965. Despite some derivative artwork I looked forward to the next issue. I saw raw talent and energy in those pages. My thinking was, these guys can only get better. I never saw another issue, and if it was published I missed it. However, 12 years later I bought Mike Freidrich's "groundlevel" comic, STAR*REACH #9, and was happy to see a strip by Mickey Schwaberow. Apparently he had gotten a lot better in the time between my own artist spottings. The decorative pages of "Sariah and Damon" are done as stained glass windows. At the time Friedrich described Schwaberow as living on the Northern California coast, hand-making toys.

I never saw any more work by Mickey Schwaberow. I hope he found some means of creative expression.

MAGNUM OPUS Copyright © 1965 Mickey Schwaberow and Steven Kelez

"Sariah and Damon," from STAR*REACH #9, June 1977 Copyright © 1977 Mickey Schwaberow

More from Cartoon Humor

Some jokes are timeless, which includes these sexy gag cartoons from CARTOON HUMOR magazine, 1952.

I have shown more from this and an earlier issue, here, here, and here.

Published and copyright © 1952 Better Publications, Inc.

"Hey, Look!"

THE ART OF HARVEY KURTZMAN, THE MAD GENIUS OF COMICS by Denis Kitchen and Paul Buhle is finally out, and well worth the wait. I spent a pleasant afternoon and evening going through it. Every page held a surprise for me, and I've been a Kurtzman fan for five decades.

In 1966 comics historian John Benson published a small portfolio of ten Kurtzman Hey Look! pages. By today's standards it was very modest, but it was the first time many fans, including me, had seen them.

Introduction Copyright © 1966 John Benson

"Hey Look" pages Copyright © 1966 Harvey Kurtzman

Larry Todd's Paranoia

One of my favorite underground cartoonists, Larry Todd, did the bulk of the comic, PARANOIA #1, in 1972 for publisher Co. and Sons. Here are all of his pages and covers for that issue.

Artwork Copyright © 1972 Larry Todd

Story "Passengers" Copyright © 1968 Robert Silverberg

More from I Paint What I See

Here's another set of cartoons from the macabre and funny I PAINT WHAT I SEE by Gahan Wilson.

The first set of cartoons is here.

Copyright © 1971 Gahan Wilson

Vip's Here We Go Again

In 1950 the communist government of North Korea invaded South Korea in an attempt at reunification by force. The United States and several other nations joined forces against the invaders. At one point before cessation of hostilities in 1953 the U.S. had over 300,000 troops in Korea. For the second time in less than a decade men were under arms in a shooting war.

Virgil (Vip) Partch, who wrote and drew HERE WE GO AGAIN in 1951, was drafted into the Army in 1944. He had a wicked sense of humor when it came to officers and non-coms, and from the Hairy Green Eyeball's opinion after his own experiences in the U.S. Army, Vip's satire was right on. I don't what kind of marksman Vip was, but when it came to his cartoons he hit a bullseye every time.

Partch, who was born in 1916, died in a car wreck in 1984.

HERE WE GO AGAIN by Virgil Franklin Partch, published by Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1951.

Copyright © 1951 Virgil Franklin Partch II

Tragg and the Sky Gods

With his book CHARIOTS OF THE GODS (1968), Erich Von Däniken created a whole subgenre of Ufology. His claims that extraterrestrials had visited Earth thousands of years ago created controversy and skepticism, but man, did it sell books and movies. It was also the influence for several different comic book titles.

TRAGG AND THE SKY GODS was created in 1975 for Gold Key by writer/filmmaker Don Glut and artist Jesse Santos. The title went for 8 issues, ending in 1977. There was a #9 in 1982, a reprint of #1.

TRAGG AND THE SKY GODS #1, June 1975, Copyright © 1975 Western Publishing, Inc.

"So long, sucker!" More Talking Blob

Here's a second grouping of stories from CRACKED BLOCKBUSTER, Summer 1988, featuring the inspired lunacy of Joe Catalano, writer, and John Severin, artist.

The first part of the Talking Blob series is here.

As a bonus, after the Talking Blob we have the Talking Wife! An obscure Severin and Elder collaboration from YOUNG LOVE #8, 1950.

If you want to see more Severin just type in John Severin in the search box in the upper left corner, and you'll get the listing of all the Severin Week postings I did in April. You'll also get Marie Severin, but that's pretty good, too.

CRACKED BLOCKBUSTER Copyright © 1988 Global Communications, Inc.

Yet more Cobean

More funny Sam Cobean cartoons, originally published in THE NEW YORKER. Scanned from the book THE NAKED EYE, first editon, 1950.

You can find more Cobean cartoons here and here.

Copyright © 1950 Sam Cobean

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Uncle Wiggily and the canoe

When his airship flies away, leaving Uncle Wiggily and his friends stranded, the Bushytail Bros. and Sammie Littletail use field expediency to help the old rabbit gentleman build a canoe.

You can read this rousing adventure in the woods in "Uncle Wiggily and the Canoe," by Howard R. Garis, and illustrated by George Carlson.

You can also read about Uncle Wiggily and the Snowplow and how Uncle Wiggily Learns to Dance.