photo cover of Goodbye, Mr. Chips one-shot (Gold Key/Western, June 1970)
Naturally, it's for his movie appearances that O'Toole pops up most frequently in our favorite four-color medium. Here's a comic book appearance of Peter in a text page about Lawrence of Arabia:
"Warrior!" from Four-Star Battle Tales #1 (DC/National, February 1973), text by Jeff Rovin
Dell published a biographical comic about Lawrence of Arabia around the time the movie came out, butr note that this is not an adaptation of the film! So they can get away with telling any story they want even though they had Lawrence drawn to look (vaguely) like Peter O'Toole. Pretty sneaky, Dell Publications!
from Lawrence #12-426-308 one-shot (Dell, August 1963), creators uncredited and unknown
And if'n you didn't see Lawrence of Olivier, well, you musta seen the MAD magazine spoof of it. I mean, that's how I first encountered it!
from "Flawrence of Arabia" in MAD #86 (April 1964), script by Larry Siegel, pencils and inks by Mort Drucker
Not to mention their take-off the following year on Lord Jim:
from "Lord Jump" in MAD #98 (October 1965), script by Larry Siegel, pencils and inks by Mort Drucker
P. O'T. even made a Marvel Comics appaearance...well, he's in the Mighty Marvel Feminine of the Species Version of the Bullpen Bulletins. I'm sure it's absolutely a coincidence that Patsy and Hedy was cancelled with that very issue.
from "Dreamdust" in Patsy and Hedy #110 (Marvel/Male Publishing Corp (really!), February 1967), actual creators uncredited and unknown
So, happy birthday, Peter O'Toole! We salute you and your broad acting range.
from MAD #98
So Pauline famously kvelled over The Stunt Man. Spoiler: it was that good and even holds up IMO.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite O'Toole story: So he goes out one Saturday night with the rest of his alcoholic buds. Alan Bates, Oliver Reed.
And they're drinking all night into Sunday morning at which point they decide to go see the Sunday matinee of some hot Shakespeare production. And they're sitting there and the show is not starting. And they're sitting there awhile. Someone comes out and says something about an actor missing. A little more time passes and O'Toole realizes that he's starring in it.
And don't forget O'Toole's one comics-adjacent role: Zaltar the Kryptonian scientist in 1984's Supergirl.
ReplyDeleteHe was also in the 2006 film Venus but it was nothing like the Marvel/Timely/Atlas comics.
ReplyDelete