Redartz: Marvel and DC; the "Big Two". Known for such heavyweights as Spider-man, the X-Men, Avengers, Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. Both companies delved into the horror genre with titles such as "Tower of Shadows" and "House of Secrets". Both had entries in the war genre, especially DC. But what about 'funny books? Well, neither company exactly filled the spinner racks with them, generally leaving the field open for Archie, Harvey, and Gold Key (although DC did have more such books during the Silver Age). Nonetheless, Marvel and DC both dipped some ticklish toes into the humor field. Today we look at some of those...
Not Brand Echh: Yes, not technically Bronze age, but certainly deserving of mention. Probably the best of Marvel's 'attempts at humor'. When you have the likes of Kirby, Sutton, Severin, Heck, Colan, and more at the drawing table, you can anticipate some good visuals. Superhero parodies abound; but later issues had more features piercing tv, movies, music, etc.
Spoof: Debuting only a year or so after "Brechh" departed, "Spoof" kept Marie Severin busy (along with numerous others, including Archie Comic's Henry Scarpelli) doing more parodies of popular culture. Dark Shadows, All in the Family, The Partridge Family, and other 70's attractions all ended up under the Spoof scope...
Plop!: DC mined some twisted comic gold with "Plop!" Running from 1973 to 1976, it contained a wealth of humor blended with a bit of the macabre. One big attraction to this title was the covers, often showcasing the talents of comic greats Basil Wolverton and Sergio Aragones.
Arrgh!: Marvel followed DC's entry into horror humor with "Arrgh!". This rather short-lived book ran from 1974 to1975, and again gave Marie Severin some fine cover opportunites. This book had both new stories and reprints from 1950's vintage "Crazy" comics. Incidentally, those reprints had art by the likes of Bill Everett and Carl Burgos. New work was seen by Ross Andru, Jerry Grandenetti, Mike Sekowsky and others...
Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew: In the Exciting Eighties, DC tossed superheroes, satire and funny animals into a blender and came up with "Captain Carrot". Humor maven Scott Shaw! gives life to the Captain, Alley-Kat-Abra, Fastback, Yankee Poodle, Pig Iron and more. One of the best arcs was the Zoo Crew's meeting with the JLA (that is , the "Justa Lotta Animals")...
Ambush Bug: Not one single title, but several mini-series, and numerous guest appearances (usually at the expense of Superman). Kieth Giffen skewered many superhero tropes, played with DC icons, and twisted both story and art. All the while hosted, guested, or devastated by the irrepressible Ambush Bug. He even managed a team-up in DC Comics Presents. One of my favorite AB gags involved him meeting Wonder Woman disguised as Mrs. Sappho; first name Suffern. WW was not amused, but I was...
I'm personally grateful to all these titles for keeping me chuckling throughout the Bronze age. Any of these, or any other books, tickle your funny bone?
10 comments:
I actually have an original issue of Not Bran Eech! (#9) which is pretty good - and the art is really good. I have to say, though, that a lot of the specifically humor books I've seen by the big two are not as good as they should be. The humor often seems a bit forced. The exception to that would be the all-humor issue of What If? (#34), which has some really funny bits - the best one being "Spidey Intellectual Stories" (basically, Spidey stops the Mad Thinker from subjugating the world by winning a philosophical argument).
Otherwise, I tend to prefer it when there's more humorous stories in titles that are otherwise serious. For example, one of my favorite issues of DC Comics Presents was #59: the guests are the Legion of Substitute Heroes, with whom Superman left Ambush Bug after the latter hitched a ride on Supes' cape just as he did his fly-really-fast-into-the-future bit. The subs were supposed to keep him in confinement until Supes could return and take him back to his own time, and of course they fail at that and much hilarity ensues.
I also like issues in which the Impossible Man appears and wreaks havoc, like in Marvel 2-in-1 #60, or X-men Annual #7, or New Mutants Annual #3.
For a while Plop! was unusual in that it ran no ads whatsoever...an editorial edict, or did no-one want to advertise in it?
I think I had pretty low humorous expectations from my superhero comics as a kid, so any silly stuff usually delighted me.
Highlights include the aforementioned What If..? #34 as well as the Fantastic Four Roast #1. All very corny but a lot of fun. I also really liked when Marvel came out with the No-Prize Book.
At DC, I really got a kick out of the League of Substitute Heroes Special #1.
Oh yes, and one last shout-out to that issue of The New Defenders (back at Marvel) where they fought a goofy powerhouse named The Walrus, while the evil scientist directing that villain tried to rein him in. "Don't you "Goo-goo-ga-joob" me!!" is still a quote my friend and I like to toss into conversation once in a while.
-david p.
Why, we touched on this very subject not too long ago as a tangent to another thread, didn't we? Very cool--
Edo, "Spidey Intellectual Stories" was my favorite bit from that issue of WHAT IF? as well, ha! "Y-you are correct, Spider-Man! Your logic has defeated me!"
With Marvel-- I wonder if the reason they 86'd SPOOF is because they decided to channel that effort into CRAZY Magazine, which debuted just a very short time after? Which was probably a sound decision, as CRAZY hung in there for 10 years--- even though it was LITERALLY a third-rate satire/humor magazine, forever chasing behind MAD and CRACKED.
The forced-humor factor is probably the biggest downfall for books like this. This was the case at the end of BRECHH's run, and definitely the case by the 5th issue of AARGH. And honestly, the couple of issues of Ambush Bug that I have feel very much the same way. Tho I think A-Bug has a much more solid foundation 'cause he's a *character* that's funny (which can written to), as opposed to having a book whose mandate is just vaguely to "BE" funny, y'know?
Pre-Bronze funny-book that no one seems to mention or remember? DC's Jerry Lewis comic (with his creepy, thuggish nephew "Renfrew")-- that. . . was a darned funny book that ran for years- ! Hmm-- and again, 'cause it was written to a specific character-- and gave the writer(s) a lot of lee-way.
And. . . I've mentioned Dell's Monkees comic before, yeah?
HB
Edo, I loved Marvel Two in One #60! The Impossible Man is a favourite character of mine but I also enjoyed the creative team 'cameos' within the story.
I really enjoyed Captain Carrot as a kid. I was a sucker for the combination of anthropomorphic analogues and their pun-tastic codenames. What I really enjoyed, even then, was recognising familiar story tropes being put to comic use. I know the good Captain resurfaced recently in Multiversity. Time for Geoff Johns to launch the Carrot Rebirth?!
I did read a few Captain Carrot issues, but I never found them utterly hilarious, just kind of amusing ... mostly because of the punny names for characters. Same thing with Spider-Ham.
I liked Crazy, though it was never as funny as MAD; I liked that Crazy had Marvel references, like that issue with the superhero cut-outs with Aunt May in the iron lung.
If I wasn't obliged to confine my comments to the Bronze Age I would suggest the funniest comic, ever (!) was Plastic Man by Jack Cole. Issue after issue, for years, there was mirth to be found in his pages.
Edo- that issue of "What If" was tops. The two pages by Terry Austin of She-Hulk were hilarious...
david_p- somehow that Legion of Substitute Heroes escaped me. Thanks for the reminder; another book to hunt down.
HB- good comment about "Crazy" magazine. It did have a pretty lengthy run, all things considered. Of course, "Mad" always led the pack by several lengths. And yes, the Jerry Lewis comics were pretty fun. Bob Hope too...
Charlie- Plas definitely had a knack for laughs. Have you ever checked out his appearances in Adventure Comics by Martin Pasko and Joe Staton? Pretty good stuff too...
DC also tried a Plastic Man self-titled solo comic book in 1966-68 and again in 1975-77. Each series lasted ten issues. The 1970s run was, if anything, even campier than the 1960s version. Which seems odd, since 1966-67 would have been the peak of the camp comedy fad (Adam West as Batman, Dean Martin as Matt Helm, the Woody Allen/Peter Sellers/David Niven spoof Casino Royale).
DC's Shazam comic was tongue-in-cheek for most of its 1970s run.
IIUC, DC cancelled the Bob Hope and Jerry Lewis comics because the licensing fees were too expensive. Of course, it may have also been that declining sales made it harder to justify paying the fees. Reportedly, Arnold Drake suggested dropping the characters of Hope and Lewis, and continuing the comics with the other characters (Renfrew, Super Hip), but DC decided that the comics were not viable without the celebrities.
Don Rickles guest starred in Jimmy Olsen #139 and #141.
Have to second Red's recommendation for Pasko & Staton's brief run of Plastic Man stories in Aventure. I really liked those. And, of course, even more than that, I like Cuti & Staton's E-man stories, which were also modeled after Jack Cole's Plas.
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