In Which Adam Learns Something About Comic Strips of Yore

From Action Comics #113, we have a rather surreal moment where the reader is discouraged from reading Superman stories in the future in this.... Superman story:

See??  It isn't just me!  Superham is boring.

My brother, if you think being Superham is boring, try reading Superham.

Anyway, that's the kind of story where I'm surprised no one stopped to say, "You know, we're basically calling our golden goose boring."  I mean, in this story Superham hypnotizes himself to be without powers for 24 hours, which is fine, but what about next issue when he back to his typical overpowered self?  Hmmmm?  Hmmmmmm?

Hey!  It's time for some Fun with Out of Context Dialogue! (tm!):

Oswald's standards changed with the times, recognizing the quality of employee churned out by the modern public educational system.

Speaking of whippersnappers, I gave myself a little come-uppance.  Check this out:

Okay, fine.  It's an ad.  I can work with an ad.

Famous comic strip people, you say?  I readied my poison pen, as I had never heard of these folks:

So, before I embarrassed myself (or rather, waited for one of you to call me out for being an idiot), I did a little research.

Harold Teen was a comic strip that ran for 40 FREAKIN' YEARS!

Yes.  40.  4-oh.

It had the usual merchandising stuff... toys and pins.

Oh, and not one, but two film adaptations, not to mention a radio show.

I am an idiot.

I cringed as I did a little further research on some other characters from the ad:

Yup.  I'm an even bigger idiot here.  The Gumps ran for 42 years.  It was also the first comic strip to kill off a major character.  Sadly, the creator of the series died on the way home from signing a contract that made him very wealthy about halfway through the strip's run.  Films, radio... there's a statute in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin of Andy Gump, for crying out loud!

I kind of gave up on the comic strip page many years ago.  I thought that I had seen the golden age of comic strips, having spent my formative years with Bloom County, FoxTrot and Calvin and Hobbes.  And those were amazing strips.  But 40-plus years?  Folks, I am humbled.

Real funnypaper folks, indeed!

See you tomorrow!

A Pleasure, M'sieu Fancypants!

I'm thumbing through a copy of Action Comics #106.  It's interesting that after so many years of publication, Superman still only got one story in the magazine that introduced him to the world.  Congo Bill, now known to comic readers as the guy whose brain is trapped in the body of a giant golden gorilla and simply goes by "Bill," took up just as much real estate in Action Comics for quite some time:

It was worth reading this story for no other reason than the line, "A pleasure, M'sieu Fancy Pants!"

Here's something that I think qualifies as a trope, but I hardly ever actually see it in comics:

It's 1646, you say?  But that was 200 hundred years ago!

What's that?  I was sleeping?

It was only a dream!  Or WAS it?

I just don't see that nearly as often as you might think.

Hey it's time for a CMNS Moment of Comic Book Greatness! (tm!)

This has been a CMNS Moment of Comic Book Greatness! (tm!)

And finally....

It was upon hearing the child's insipid comment that Captain Tootsie began to wonder if he should associate more with people his own age.

See you tomorrow!

...And Once They Started Talking, They Never Shut Up Friday!

Pop quiz time!

What is historical about this cover?

It's easier than you think.

Give up?

It's the first Superman comic with dialog on the cover.

Yep, this seems to be one of the earlier examples of comic covers getting all chatty.  Some folks like to have words on there, some (like me) don't.  But regardless, it was four years in publication before Action comics started speaking up.

Let's flash back one issue earlier to the Zatarra the Magician story:

I've mentioned before that I have mixed feelings when the real world comes into comics.  You are either stuck doing an illustrated documentary of the subject matter, or you end up looking delusional.  This story was published around three years before Germany would surrender, but if you got your news from comics (as small children are want to do), the war was over in 1942.  Yes, I realize it isn't journalism and I'm sure it was meant to be a morale-booster, but there's something about saying a problem is solved when it really isn't that (IMHO) does a disservice.

I'm probably over-thinking it, aren't I?

I can fix that.

You know what Superman doesn't have time for?

Jitter-bugging with large snakes.:

See?  What did I just say?

I'll see you Monday!