Bill Everett's Big Boy Puzzle page

I stopped in a Big Boy restaurant with a friend last week and even at my age found myself lamenting the fact that they no longer have THE ADVENTURES OF BIG BOY comic books! They were silly little things really and featured the type of puzzles one now finds on the kids' menus instead. The problem is that the menus don't have adventure comics, too!

The Big Boy restaurant comics were usually packaged by different comics at different times including, in the beginning, Timely comics and later on Craig Yoe's design studio. Stan the Man reportedly wrote the earliest issues and Sub-Mariner creator Bill Everett (subject of a soon to be released book by Blake Bell) signed the first issue art including the puzzle page seen above. Over the years, many other well-known creators worked on the series including, in the 1990's, Steve Ditko!

Here's a link to the rest of that first mid-fifties issue online.

http://www.animationarchive.org/2008/01/comics-big-boy-and-power-of-licensing.html

Pvt. Doberman Ads-1958

In the late 1950's there were few characters on TV bigger than SGT BILKO as played by the inimitable--or should that be VERY imitable--Phil Silvers! Even I imitated Phil Silvers once in an Old Time Radio commercial re-creation! Anyway, in an early instance of the type of situation which found a show's popular star often overshadowed by a secondary player (Fonzie, Urkel, Dr. Smith, etc.) Pvt. Duane Doberman became something of a TV sensation. It also is said to have vastly inflated the ego of actor Maurice Gosfield who played the role. Anyway, National comics put out a BILKO comic during the peak of the series' popularity so it was only natural that they might put out a companion comic featuring the hapless but lovable Doberman. Here are a couple of house ads for one of the eleven issues that the series ran.

Roddy McDowall Reads H P Lovecraft

The stories of HP Lovecraft are looked on today as classics and progenitors of the modern genre of horror but for many years after the author's death, his works remained relatively obscure. Slowly they developed a cult following that eventually led to the elevation of their worth in the minds of whomsoever it is that determines what is literature and what is trash. Here we have an early sixties record album featuring one of my personal all-time favorite actors, former child star Roddy McDowall, fresh off his theatrical comeback in CAMELOT, reading a couple of Lovecraft's lesser-know tales--THE OUTSIDER and THE HOUND.

Just so happens if you're curious, you can find this hard to find item available for listening here.

RIP-Al Williamson

Yesterday I was at the Public Library and I noted the bizarre irony that the once considered reprehensible, ban-worthy EC Comics stories were now available quite literally next to Shakespeare in the teen section in their recent archived editions. They had SHOCK SUSPENSTORIES and WEIRD SCIENCE. I picked up the latter and became immediately captivated--as always happens--by the work of Al Williamson.

I first became aware of Williamson during a period when he wasn't doing comic books anymore. It was through the fanzine RBCC whose issues featured a regular page/column entitled THE WILLIAMSON COLLECTOR. I may not have known his work but I knew he must be something special to be singled out thusly. Then, as I got more and more into fandom, I grew to discover his work on the King FLASH GORDON comics, the SECRET AGENT CORRIGAN newspaper strip and eventually his glorious 1950's work for EC's sci-fi comics.

In recent years, I taught son bookdave what to look for in certain artists' work; with Williamson one of the main things was the spots. Willie always had something with spots--alien mushrooms, a dinosaur, the gown of a princess. Williamson also liked to have heroes that quite frankly looked like Al Williamson...and that was not a bad thing. They often wore what I called the Williamson jacket--a light, solid-colored windbreaker, usually unzipped and looking so cool...even if worn in inappropriate climates. The other thing to watch for with Al was lovely, fragile looking ornate cityscapes in splash panels, often added by friend and fellow artist Roy Krenkel back in the old days. My son has become a big fan of Al Williamson through our home library of the Russ Cochran box sets.

In later years, as the newspaper strip market dried up, Williamson returned to comics but, with rare exception, usually as an inker. At Marvel he did a long

run on DAREDEVIL, lending an air of solid authority to the work of various pencillers. More recently he worked on a lovely SUB-MARINER piece in last year's 75th Anniversary special from Marvel.

His work has been celebrated in books beginning with THE ART OF AL WILLIAMSON back in the late seventies and going through more recent collections by Greg Theakston and others as well as AL WILLIAMSON'S FLASH GORDON, gathering together all of Al's various portrayals of what, to him, was the quintessential adven

ture character. Still to come is the soon to be released first volume of THE COMPLETE SECRET AGENT CORRIGAN by Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson, who teamed up again years later on the STAR WARS comic strip. It should come as no surprise to hear that George Lucas admitted to having been himself inspired by Al Williamson. Whether we knew it or not, I think we all were.

Al Williamson died on Saturday evening. Thanks for everything, Mr. Williamson. Rest well. Say "hi" to Fritz!

UPDATE: A message from

Mrs. Al (Cori) Williamson: The family requests that, in lieu of flowers, a donation in Al's memory be made to either:
The Joe Kubert School
37 Myrtle Avenue Dover, NJ 07801 Attn: Al Williamson Scholarship Fund
or
Yesteryears Day Program 2801 Wayne Street Endwell, NY 13760

Me. Now.

Sorry I haven't written much substantial here lately. I've been desperately but still unsuccessfully looking for work as my unemployment checks appear to be about to run out. Add to that my wife's uncertainty as to whether she will have a job either this next school year, some health issues I really need to see the doctor about, insurance or no insurance, dwindling finances...and I've been a little down to put it mildly.

I managed to get in some more photoshoots recently with Brittany Rose and that always cheers me up and I've enjoyed doing some work on various projects for others recently. I started my own new blog, FOUR-COLOR SHADOWS and I'm keeping that one up pretty well. I've got plenty of great stuff for the Wood and Morrow blogs but haven't felt like writing much so it's been mostly pictures or links there. I'm way behind (again) on YOU'RE ONLY AS GOOD AS YOUR LAST PICTURE but I have TROG, SEXTETTE and DR. COOK'S GARDEN so hopefully soon. I even have some news I've neglected to post on my Christa Helm blog. Add to this my daily (more or less) MAKIN' LINKS column at I.T.C.H. and it's not like I've abandoned you guys out there in blogland. Still, I feel guilty. I need to do more. Donations in the old PayPal box on the upper right of this page would help. A paying job would help even more. I am, in all modesty, a good writer, editor, researcher, transcriptionist, ghostwriter, photographer and voiceover announcer/actor. Not much call for any of that around here, though. Last week I was turned down for the closest thing to a real job I've had in more than a year--working for Dollar General. After a three hour online assessment, I received an email saying I didn't meet their minimum requirements...after 25 years in retail management! That didn't help my funk any, y'know?

Okay, just whining now, I guess...and this was never meant to be that type of blog. Since the beginning of 2009, I've lost my job, my health, my closest friend, my confidence, my self-esteem and much of my savings...but I've also met many new online friends and enjoyed my family very much. I think I've built something here and I promise I'm not going to abandon it. I just wish there was some way to make money on it.

Again, if you like this blog, consider a PayPal donation to keep it going. Thank you. More good stuff soon!

Captain 3-D Ads

Here are a couple of house ads for Harvey's early 1950's 3-D comics, both featuring Jack Kirby's CAPTAIN 3-D. The one ad is, itself, in 3-D but the other seems just oddly colored to give that appearance. Either way, the real question is who the artist on these might be. Could be Kirby on the top one with the other titles but definitely not on the other. Looks so familiar, though. Bob Powell? Anybody?

Random Panels of Comic Book Weirdness # 72

I seem to remember the Universal version of the Mummy shambling. This guy is rage walking!