Bully Says: Comics Oughta Be Fun!

Showing posts with label Gang Busters. Show all posts

Thursday, September 15, 2022

Today in Comics History, September 15: I have not gained 12 pounds...oh, it says Billy, not Bully. Nevermind.

'PPS: I left some space for the artist to drawn my pen and hand.'

from "Lady Cop" in Gang Busters #9 (DC, April 1949), script by Phil Evans, pencils and inks by Dan Barry

Saturday, August 06, 2022

Today in Comics History, August 6: Second-person-voiced comic panel totally has my resumé all wrong

from "You — Detective" in Gang Busters #48 (DC, October 1955), pencils and inks by Bill Ely

Tuesday, June 14, 2022

Today in Comics History, June 14: Giant duck turns himself in to police

'This'll cost you!' 'Well, put it on my bill.'

from "The Sleuth in the Iron Mask!" in Gang Busters #62 (DC, February 1958), pencils and inks by Bob Brown, letters by Artie Simek

Sunday, May 29, 2022

Today in Comics History, May 29: Barry Delmar enters his blue period

If you've got too many crimes to fit on a top ten list, you just might be a crook.

from "The 12 Faces of Crime!" in Gang Busters #39 (DC, April 1954), pencils and inks by Leonard Starr

Thursday, May 19, 2022

Today in Comics History, May 19: At home with Bill Cullen

Yes, it's a 1960s TO TELL THE TRUTH riff. Who *says* I'm not up with the fads and fashions that today's kids love?

from "The 12 Faces of Crime!" in Gang Busters #39 (DC, April 1954), pencils and inks by Leonard Starr

Saturday, April 16, 2022

Today in Comics History, April 16: Kindly old couple mistakenly signs up for The Crime Boat

'We're takin' over this Pacific Pruncess, seeeeee? And no Super-Gopher's gonna stop us, seeeee?'

from "The Great Ocean-Liner Robbery!' in Gang Busters #39 (DC, April 1954), pencils by Curt Swan, inks by Ray Burnley (?)

Tuesday, March 29, 2022

Today in Comics History, Tuesday the 29th: So sad, he was only six years from retirement

Ugh, I hate those guys who have calculated down to the second what their badge number is.

from "Shield 326,462!" in Gang Busters #40 (DC, June 1954), pencils and inks by Bill Ely

Thursday, March 17, 2022

Today in Comics History, March 17: Wow, A. C. are B!

from "Lady Cop" in Gang Busters #9 (DC, April 1949), script by Phil Evans, pencils and inks by Dan Barry

Tuesday, March 01, 2022

The Gang Busters Crime Calendar for March 1935 2022: March comes in like gangsters and goes out like a firing squad

Greetings, Spring-lovers! It's time for the lion to come in and then a lamb goes out, and I guess they're using the same revolving door, because if they see each other's shadow...look, I don't know what animal is gonna come out. What I Do know is it's time for Calendars You Can Use Again in 2022! Beginning with this half-obscured month o' March from 1935...wow, it's really not that useful, is it? Well, if you only tend to use the second half of each week, this is the March calendar for you!

It's the Thug-a-Day Calendar!

from "The Big Heist" in Gang Busters #26 (DC, February 1952), pencils and inks by Jack Lehti, letters by Artie Simek (?),
as reprinted in Detective Comics #423 (DC, May 1972)
Oh well! If you're the kind of go-getter who actually does something on Sunday and Monday, this calendar might not be of use to you. (Works perfectly for me!) But never fear, there's more this year...um, of calendars for 2022...coming up later today! Make yourself some toast and hot chocolate with mini-marshmallows and stay tuned!

Friday, February 18, 2022

Today in Comics History, February 18: Ha ha ha ha capital punishment is funny

'And just for fun, we're gonna use a whoopee cushion on the electric chair!'

from "The Grapevine" in Gang Busters #48 (DC, October 1955), writer unknown

Monday, February 14, 2022

Today in Comics History, February 14: DON'T HITCHHIKE

from "Lady Cop" in Gang Busters #9 (DC, April 1949), script by Phil Evans, pencils and inks by Dan Barry

Wednesday, January 19, 2022

Today in Comics History, January 19: Happy birthday, Edgar Allan Poe!

'Bats outside again? i thought I had Alfred spray for those.'

Happy birthday today to the Master of Macabre (sit down, Stephen King): Edgar Allan Poe! (Always remember than his middle name has an "A" in it. Sometimes comics don't and I've corrected that error in the artwork!) Born on this day in the spooky, spooky year of 1809 (scary, huh, kids?), Poe's oeuvre includes moody works you have to read in high school like "The Black Cat," "The Cask of Amontillado," "The Purloined Letter, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" "The Masque of the Red Death,,""Annabel Lee," "The Bells,", and the novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, which to my vast disappointment, has nothing at all to do with shrinking down to the size of an ant.

Wikipedia (the encyclopedia where you can scribble on the pages!) tells us that Poe

is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States, and of American literature. Poe was one of the country's earliest practitioners of the short story, and considered to be the inventor of the detective fiction genre, as well as a significant contributor to the emerging genre of science fiction.

Well, all this and more, yes, Wikipedia, but citation needed, what you didn't mention is how much vast influence Poe has had on the everyday common-or-garden comic book! (A: A lot.) And since I can't cover every appearance of Poe or story he's had adapted into comic books, I figger I'm gonna just sit back, plop on my LP of The Alan Parsons Project's Tales of Mystery and Imagination (Amazon ad) and spread out a few of my favorite Poe-influenced comic books for you, if we can just get rid of that BLOODY RAVEN TAPPING ON MY CHAMBER DOOR!