Thursday, September 25, 2008

Mr. Muscles and the Carnies

Remember Mr. Muscles? I know, you tried to forget. I'm only bringing the bad feelings back. But you have yet to head the tale of Mr. Muscles in...

Page One // Two // Three // Four // Five (From Mr. Muscles #23)

Check the tags for More of this Grea-Okay Comic!

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Avon's The Unknown Man (1951)

Facing someone who says they can't stand golden age comics because of the writing? It is time to start pulling out the Avon one shots. Like this one...

The Unknown Man
(1951, art by Louis Ravielli) "The strange, bewildering tale of a man on trail for his life, and the man who hold it--and justice--in his hand!"

...An eye for eye, a tooth for tooth, and that killeth that man shall be put to death...

The link only has the main story in the book. The
second story is "The Nightclub Swindel" by Lesile Charteris and A. Chollingsworth.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

“Dixie Dugan”

"A man is never too young to become a cartoonist. John Striebel, who draws the widely popular “Dixie Dugan” cartoon strip, won national prominence at the age of fourteen when he was recognized as the youngest front-page cartoonist in the country." -- Modern Mechanix: Dixie Dugan’s Fathers

Much has been said about Dixie Dugan, so I will not rehash it here. For More information on this multi-media comic strip girls see the links at the bottom.

Image via The blog of Joakim Gunnarsson

I've collected several “Dixie Dugan” strips, including some pages from Big Shot Comics. Check out this post to read them.

Dixie Dugan Links...

Toonopedia

Lambiek: John Henry Striebel

Dixie Dugan

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Mr. Muscles!

Brett Carson suffered from polio, but through determination and hard work he was able to become the most prefect man on earth--Mr. Muscles!
Mr. Muscles came to be from the mind of Jerry Siegel in March 1956. Charlton threw in the towel on Blue Beetle (1955), and kept the numbering from his magazine as they replaced him with Mr. Muscles. Bill Fraccio was the artist for the first issue, #22. For the second and last issue, Charles Nicholas and John Forte were in charge of the art with Siegel still doing all the stories.
It is important to point out this is the ad in the front of the comic. Both issues are full of ads just like these, making it seems like a big advisement.
Not only did Mr. Muscles have a sidekick, but there was a Miss Muscles too! She only lasted two pages in issue #22.
You can read the origin story from #22 on scans_daily along with Miss Muscles' story (with a backup link here). You can read the story of Kid Muscle and Mr. Muscles vs. Jake Armbuster on dreamwith.

The final story in issue #23 is call "Steeple Jack," but more on him in another post.

In the way of more information...there isn't much....

International Catalog of Superheroes: Mr. Muscles
Oddball Comics - Mr. Muscles

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Johnny Doughboy

Staring in Military Comics #14 Bernard Dibble's" Johnny Doughboy", knocked "Inferior Man" out for the humor filler spot. Johnny Doughboy fit the military them more the the parody-superhero.

Johnny lasted as long as the title Military Comics did. His final appearance is #43.

From Military Comics #28...