Today in Comics History: Muggsy and pal finally have their romantic dinner date

"Casey the Cop" from Detective Comics #265 (March 1959); script, pencils, inks, and letters by Henry Boltinoff

Henry Boltinoff Does Not Want You to Die This Christmas, Day Five

"Have a Durable Christmas" PSA from Justice League of America (1960 series) #51 (February 1967); written, pencilled, inked, and lettered by Henry Boltinoff

Henry Boltinoff Does Not Want You to Die This Christmas, Day Four

"Have a Durable Christmas" PSA from The Brave and the Bold #70 (February-March 1967); written, pencilled, inked, and lettered by Henry Boltinoff

Henry Boltinoff Does Not Want You to Die This Christmas, Day Three

"Have a Durable Christmas" PSA from Action Comics #346 (February 1967); written, pencilled, inked, and lettered by Henry Boltinoff

Henry Boltinoff Does Not Want You to Die This Christmas, Day Two

"Have a Durable Christmas" PSA from Batman #189 (February 1967); written, pencilled, inked, and lettered by Henry Boltinoff

Henry Boltinoff Does Not Want You to Die This Christmas, Day One

"Have a Durable Christmas" PSA from The Atom #29 (February-March 1967); written, pencilled, inked, and lettered by Henry Boltinoff

365 Days of DC House Ads, Day 339: The He-Man Woman-Hater's Club comes runnin' for the great adventures of Superboy

"Dig What's Coming" house ad for Superboy (1949 series) #149 (July 1968); printed in Adventures of Jerry Lewis #107 (July 1968)
"Dig What's Coming" pencilled, inked, and lettered by Henry Boltinoff
I can never resist showing a beautiful Neal Adams cover:


Cover of Superboy #149, pencils and inks by Neal Adams, letters by Gaspar Saladino

365 Days of DC House Ads, Day 179: Bob Hope explains global expansion

House ad for the final issue of The Adventures of Bob Hope (#108, December 1967-January 1968); printed in Green Lantern #57 (December 1967)

Comic cover art: pencils and inks by Neal Adams (!!!), letters by Ira Schnapp
"Dig What's Coming" pencilled, inked, and lettered by Henry Boltinoff

Transogram: Where the Fun Comes From!

Here's a Henry Boltinoff "Billy" half-page gag strip from DC:


"Billy" strip from Batman #203 (August 1968), script, pencils, inks, and letters by Henry Boltinoff
Say, that's a pretty cool pseudo-Ouija game Billy's got there. Mighty clever for a fictional game created for a comic strip. Or...is it?!?

No, it's not. Ka-Bala is real...


...not only real, but it's the subject of its own comic book ad!


"Ka-Bala" ad from Mighty Samson #13 (Dell, February 1968), scripter and artist unknown
I like to think that Transogram Toys, the company that made Ka-Bala, compensated Henry Boltinoff with large amounts of cash (which he then stored in a safe he made using a tip from one of his "Cap's Hobby Hints." But probably he got paid $10 under work-for-hire. DARN YOU, WORK FOR HIRE!

Ka-Bala was not Transogram's only board game with a connection to comic books. Here's the "Silly Sidney" game:




...based on the Gene Deitch animated cartoons for Terrytoons (this Sidney cartoons was nominated for an Academy Award):


Sidney's Family Tree (Terrytoons, 1958), directed by Art Bartsch, produced by Gene Deitch and Bill Weiss
Sidney also starred in New Terrytoons and Tom Terrific comic books.


Cover of New Terrytoons #2 (January 1963), pencils and inks by Fred Fredericks

Page from Silly Sidney story in New Terrytoons #1 (June-August 1960), scripter and artist unknown
Here's more about Sidney on the always-incredible Don Markstein's Toonopedia. There's another Transogram game I have great fondness for, as I played it when I was just a tiny stuffed bull: Green Ghost!!


Green Ghost was a three-dimensional, glow-in-the-dark boardgame (we'd sit in the closet and play it!) You'd spin the glowing ghost (which would make a terrible and spooky racket as it twirled), then move around the glowing board to collect keys. The keys would unlock the three crypts on the board: reach in and collect a little ghost from among spooky-feeling objects like feathers and rubberbands. Ah-wooooooo! Best game ever! Here's an informative Web 1.0 page on the Green Ghost game, plus a video showing the set-up:


Is that all Transogram put out that was utterly awesome? Guess again, ghastly ghouls! There was the fabulous Swing Wing...


...the melodious manic mayhem of Monkey's Uncle...


Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads...not with the Trik-Trak Road-Rally!


Too tedious for you, cool fats? Then let's crank it up a notch with the Dare-Devil Trik-Trak! (Matt Murdock, Blind Driver, not included.)


Still, there's one toy that wasn't from Transogram that I still want, but I'm not allowed to have toy guns. But, a bull can dream, can't he?


So, speaking of toy guns, play us off, honeyhoney, directed by and guest-starring Keifer Sutherland!