Late Fine

Saturday Leftover Day.

I have shown so many of Lou Fine's Sam Spade advertising comics for Wildroot Hair Oil over the years, that I believed I had callected all of them. But here is one I didn not yet know, from a 1949 comic book. If you like this and have not seen the rest, please follow the tag for Sam Spade and it's successor Charlie Wild. And the whole story about why there should be a successor.

All Lights Are Green

Friday Comic Book Day.

Last week's Green Lantern stories by Alex Toth were a big succes. And rightly so. Toth's early work is not collected, because most of it was done for DC (whose policy it is to reprint only the adventures of their most 'successful' heroes after their earlier efforts of complete runs of certain titles failed - I am still waiting for the last few Plastic Man books). Artists like Toth, who jumped from one series to the next in the late forties, remain on the shelf. Here is another one of those unexoected jumps, when Toth drew Streajk, the wonder dog for Green Lantern #36. Later he would also do the first few issues of Streak's own title.

The Most Glamourous Car Of It's Period

Wednesday Advertising Day.

In the early forties illustrators started devolping a comic book style for their ads. I don't know who the artist for this ad is, but I don't think it was an actual comic book or newspaper strip man. He did however take a good look at the then current chiascuro style 'invented' by Milt Caniff and Noel Sickles on terry and the Pirates.

I Love You, Beetle

Tuesday Comic Strip Day.

Over the last couple of months I scanned and cleaned up a new set of Beetle Bailey Sunday pages from the fifties. The quality of this series never ceases to amaze me. I got a copy of the 1963/1964 edition of the Scandinavian complete collection (the whole series in thirty two year books) and apart from the fact that I can't read it, I was blown away all over again. The American company Checker did the first of the Scandinavin volumes in English (downsizing the format by 40%) covering 1950/52. That didn't sell enough, after which Titan did a couple of one year volumes covering 1964/66 (the years the strip really took off, skipping over the best years just before that) which didn't sell either. So now Beetle Bailey has a 30 volume reprint series in three Scandinavian countries and nothing in the US. I like people visiting here to see all the cool stuff, but couldn't you have bought just one of these? Ah, well. Don't alienate your audience, Ger. Enjoy these. As I said, the best years are 1958 to 1964 in my opinion. It isn't to late for a collection.

Ha Ha Quite Funny

Monday Cartoon Day.

Some of my favorite second tier cartoon artists from the forties: Garrett Price, Ned Hilton, Fitz Wilkinson, Roy Williams, Daniel Alain, even a single T. Hee cartoon.