Proof of LIVE!: Comic-Con Video

SLG Publishing put up a three-part video record of July's Comic-Con. Included in the third part are bits from my Comic Book Heaven:LIVE! presentation. I can't bear to watch myself on video so I've only checked to see where it begins (somewhere around 4:34 mark) and how much of the 40 minutes -- we got a late start -- show up on tape (about 1). But if you didn't get to Comic-Con and are a reader of this here blog you may enjoy it. Or not. All three parts can be found here.

Early Dennis

Seeing this collection of pre-Dennis the Menace Hank Ketcham cartoons reminded me that I stumbled upon this cartoon a while back:


I found it in Cartoon Laffs (Fawcett 1952), a paperback collection of cartoons from True, the Man's Magazine. The cartoon, part of the "It's Only Your Imagination" series, appears to feature a Dennis prototype. Detail:


I've seen other Ketcham panels that featured similarly drawn kids but this one looks the most "Dennis-y" to me (Experts on Ketcham what say you?). But even if my "find" is not the most developed proto-Dennis ever Hank Ketcham sure did some fine cartooning and it's always a pleasure to see.

For still more pre-Menace work there's Fantagraphics' handsome Where's Dennis.

The Road to Richies

Oh, if only real life worked this way. Harvey Comics house ad detail circa 1962.

From the Sketchbook

Hulk v Thing. A doodle from, oh, I guess about a year ago.

The Chicken-Hearted Killer!

REVIEW: "The Chicken-Hearted Killer" from Crime Does Not Pay #50 (Mar. 1947)

Howard “Sonny” Potts loves his chickens. So much so, that he thinks about his chickens at work (“Curse this job which keeps me away from them!”). He thinks about them on his way to the bus. He thinks about them while on the bus. He thinks about them so much that he starts to get real sweaty. At home, Howard treats his wife Muriel shabbily, smacking her with a broom and slapping her in the head. Muriel, for some crazy reason, doesn’t understand the whole chicken thing. She wants money to buy food and a new coat. Howard isn’t keen on either suggestion (“I’ll decide where the money goes in this house – and none of it goes to you!”). Even though Howard, the genius, doesn’t give his wife money to buy food he demands to be fed so Muriel cooks up Mr. Corn, a favored rooster. This outrage causes Howard to use the business end of an axe on Muriel and bury her body next to the chicken coup. Big mistake, as the chickens come home to roost and begin to dig Muriel’s body out of her (presumably) shallow grave in front of a wandering cop. Howard’s goose is cooked (so to speak) and he’s sent to the gas chamber where he utters his final words, “COUGH. I love chickens more than anything else! COUGH.”

Above: Howard's chickens make him sweat. Art by George Tuska.