Why, in its day, I bet the cover of this 1962 Dell comic featuring Chuck Conners and Johnny Crawford - stars of The Rifleman - scarcely raised even a single eyebrow, let alone a snigger…
That said, however, there does seem to be some kind of private joke going on between those guys... Something about a chip off the old block, perhaps...
For more deliciously eccentric Oddball Comics (there are 1113 of them in the archive!), as selected and commented on by cartoonist and animator Scott Shaw, visit the diversely entertaining and informative ComicBookResources.com.
In keeping with the way-out-West-theme of this blog, here's another memorable cover and the perfect combo: cowboys, indians and green aliens from Saturn!
6 comments:
very good illustrations
Did you really mean THIS blog - or the one on Mervyn Peake??
Welcome back, Mr Scrooge!
Yes, I agree: when I was a yongster I LOVED the 'Golden Key' versions of the "classics" and it was in that form that I first 'read' all kinds of books from 'The Three Musketeers' and 'Moby Dick' to comic strip editions of several Dickens novels - including our mutually-loved 'A Christmas Carol'...
And the first book of mine to make it onto the bookshelves was a picture-strip version of The New Testament, published by Scripture Uion, with speech-bubbles written by me and terrific illustrations by the very talented John Pickering...
Well, it's been done several times since and more trendily than our version of 1970-something...
But, yes, I've always thought we tended to be too precious about comics - after all, they tell stories powerfully well and the Bible - not to mention the books of Dickens, Melville & Co - are chock FULL of powerful stories...
I loved the comic strip Old Testament I had as a child and the reprint bought for my son lost none of its charm.
And I remember those classic Dickens books in comic form - they were my introduction and the start of my squeamishness with horror or violence. The one about Oliver Twist with Nancy's body oozing blood from under her cloak had to be placed at the bottom of the large pile and then anchored down with heavy volumes to stop the fear. It was accompanied by the issue with Rip Van Winkle, not for that story but for the second feature - The Legend of Sleepy Hollow with that scary Headless Horseman. Oh the nightmares.... now I can only watch Disney or early Touchstone movies.
Then you'd probably enjoy Disney's animated film, 'The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr Toad' - scary and funny! Tim Burton (excuse name-dropping) told me that it was a major source of inspiration for HIS version of 'Sleepy Hollow'...
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