Krazy Komics
Krazy Komics # 1, July 1942. Timely. Stan Lee, Editor. Timely became Marvel. Some of the artist's in this I recognize, Chad Grothkopf. Al Jaffee (b. 1928, still with us), and Dave Berg. Chad drew Hoppy the Marvel Bunny, and people of my generation will recognize Jaffee and Berg.
First story, first issue.
Hmmm...
Issue the second. I suspect this is Chad Grothkopf, the bunny looks like Hoppy.
The f***king nerve. If I got a box of matches I sure don't need ideas from Stan Lee on how to pass the time, I don't think anyone has been in that old barn for years!
Tommy Toughcat. He's from Brooklyn, note the derby. As exotic as this accent is to me and everyone else west of Joisey it probably was standard stuff for Timely and the boys. Bugs Bunny is from Brooklyn so dat's jake by me!
Anyone care to guess who these guys are talking about?
A sense of subtlety and understatement.
I really should be writing that book instead of reading comics designed for 10 year olds during WWII. My dad was 10 in '42 and he was a genius who built his own company and dined with royalty. I draw a strange-o orange rabbit who likes women's jewelry and copious bloodshed. Guess which one of us grew up smoking weed?
Sorry, Stan, wiener dogs just don't scare me.
It sure does. How's that love life working for you, Billy?
Aw...fer cryin' out loud! The very next story is this, about a grasshopper rabbit who is certainly going to get his comeuppance from the hard working ants around him.
Damn right I'm aggrieved.
Yep, Homer Rabbit sure got his. What a dope!
I'm about to put this comic in my back pocket and walk out into the Gulf of Mexico.
Here's one from the unremarkable issue 3. Why aren't these artists in the army?
This movie and film can be yours. Become an Ace Magician. The Spirit of St. Louis is apparently used in front line combat. So you bet-ter come across or else. You can start at once. Enjoy your dead rabbit.
I grow old ... I grow old ...
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.
Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
Clearly Captain A hits the sauce pretty hard and it is more than obvious in this picture that there is a reason men should wear their underwear beneath their skin tight leotards.
And what's with those boots?
As can be seen, Stan Lee is in the army, and Vince Fago is interim editor. He was blind in one eye from the age of 16. His brother was Al Fago, one of the greats as well. Issue 7, April 1943.
Hey! Kids! Look! One of these guys is named 'Whitewash'. Can you guess which one he is?
Speaking of unrestrained racism...
For those of you who may not have grown up idolizing all the Heavyweight Champions, this is an unflattering picture of Max Schmeling, who won the title on a foul from Jack Sharkey and was Hitler's superman. That Schemling was a decent type, cultured and a habitue of the theater and arts scene didn't matter, he was the one celebrity in Nazi Germany forced to serve in the war, he was a paratrooper at Crete. After knocking out Joe Louis he should have been given the shot at Jim Braddock's title, but it was either him or Louis and nobody wanted the German to get the title again. It was a cheat but that is how the game is played. Late in his life it was revealed he had saved two Jewish kids from death. He lived to be 99, but was always dogged by the win on a foul. He tried to get the ref to overturn the decision and go on with the fight to no avail. Curious that both Hitler and Mussolini had a heavyweight champion of dubious provenance, Primo Carnera was a mob controlled stiff who was left with 50 dollars after he lost the title.
Max has finally been accorded the recognition he deserved, when I was boxing as a kid The Ring magazine openly mocked him as a phony. Schmeling was one of the hardest hitters ever and a really good guy. Now back to Timely-
The picture that sums up the dark side of Furry. Both the prey animals are in a fix here, and I got some bad news about how this turned out. It seems that the serial killer 'Toughy' Tomcat made quite a boodle supplying meat to couponless Brooklynites, and would have skated entirely except that albino seals are protected by federal law. Tommy was hit with a 25 dollar fine and died in the early nineties during a drunken bender in his palatial Westchester home.
The wheels of God grind slow but they grind exceedingly fine.
A relatively cute and well done anthro bear and his kid. You know, Walt Kelly was 4-F but they would have had to pay him real American money, so this is what the kids got instead.
The last issue, March 1946. This is Super Rabbit, after Hoppy the Marvel Bunny and before the Bugs Bunny short of the same name. As can be seen, there is a new cast of characters and the artwork is exponentially better.
Good riddance, Krazy Komics, we got bigger and better fish to fry.
Next post-
Bravestarr. Don't forget to check in for the Wrath of the Rabbit! Oh, a Cosmic cowboy hat's off to Andrew the Bee for bringing Bravestarr and it's iniquities to my all condemning derision, sneering, and hyper-trophied scorn.
Aw gee, Billy! Bravestarr is cool! Even if 30-30 spends way too much time teasin' his hair, er, mane...
ReplyDeleteSeriously, excellent post. I never knew those early "funny animal" comics had so much fascinating subtext in them. I'm going to have to get better acquainted with Krazy Comics and its ilk.
Er... Komics.
ReplyDeleteI started that thinking Krazy Komics was great, by issue two I smelled a rat. The war had pulled all the good artists away, and you saw what was left over. Stan Lee sure was durable, huh? I will modify the Bravestarr comment, even I thought it kinda harsh. That don't mean I approve!
ReplyDeleteAnd 30-30 is a very strange name for a horse, talking or no.
No, you're good -- I was just kidding. If Bravestarr can't take the heat, well, he should get out of New Texas!
DeleteI don't ever think anything bad about what you say, I was too harsh. But if I watch more of this it had best behave, or I'm going to hit them with a ton of snark!
DeleteThat "Meat Shortage" episode still reverberates in Beastars. I figure you haven't seen it yet but it has the same undertone -- those carnivores have to eat something, and Beyond Meat and Tofurky isn't doing it. Come to think of it, Kjartan 'Karno' Arnórsson touches on it in his Herman story
ReplyDeleteKarno is on FA? I haven't seen him in years. Beastars does not have any episodes up that I can find other than the intro on youtube, but it should be mentioned about the carnivore thing. That is a big part of Furry that needs addressing, I have seen a little but not much. That was One of the problems about Zootopia, a heavy handed Disney lecture on imaginary racism, that movie was the prelude for the worst cartoon famine ever. The idea of meat becoming obsolete is the imagination of snowflakes who want a kumbaya world, it ain't gonna happen. The Krazy Komics cover hints that all those animals condone meat eating, why is a seal and a pig in a kitchen anyway? Panda Paco shows his furries eating BBQ with gusto. Even C. S. Lewis has his Mr. and Mrs. Beaver eating ham, I guess from the non talking animals. In Animal Farm the creatures take hams from the kitchen and bury them. Eating anything sentient is an abomination, I have a big problem with people eating octopi, never mind whales and dolphins.
ReplyDeleteOh, well, I have to modify my comments about Bravestarr and then investigate 30-30, Andy has pointed out some things I needed to take into consideration.
Karno is on FA -- and on Patreon.
DeleteI haven't seen the Beastars anime. Netflix is too expensive. I've been following the manga online -- try Googling it -- and downloading the pages to collect as digital comic books.
Everything Disney does is heavy-handed lately. It's like they're doing penance for Song of the South and whatever else the SJWs deem jingoistic (if they even know that word) today.
O.K., found it. Time to see what the fuss is about!
DeleteDisney just made a big deal about labeling for racial stereotypes, now they are going to remove Splash Mountain. I think nothing of them as a company. Song of the South is a good movie and if that is how black people talked, and they did, too bad. The movie is after the war and James Baskin was the first black man to get an Academy Award for that. But Disney is more interested in promoting alternative life styles and kissing up to BLM criminals and Antifa scum, I hope very much they go out of business. Walt knew what he was doing, they don't.
ReplyDeleteAfter the civil war,that is, so many snowflakes think it is a slave movie. They should really label it 'look what happened to Bobby Driscoll, a white kid with every advantage who wound up as an unknown junkie corpse in NYC'.
DeleteI love all these retro comics! I didn't know Stan Lee started out as an editor to these "funny animal" comics.Love the one about the evil dacshund and his gang!
ReplyDeleteStan was in every genre, even love comics, I think. Living proof if you outlive everyone around you you'll get to the top!
ReplyDelete