Adventures in Comic-Boxing: The Pink Panther Meets... Mighty Mouse?

I never cease to be amazed at how different comic books can be outside of the USA!  But this German edition of THE PINK PANTHER (Der Rosarote Panther #65), takes the Bavarian Chocolate Cake! 

Mighty Mouse AND The Pink Panther??!  ...And for 100 Seiten... er, pages?  

Golly, has The Commissioner ever looked so happy when in the presence of The Inspector?  

I guess he figures that, however badly The Inspector messes up, Mighty Mouse will be there to save the day!  

Either that or, after so many years of The Inspector's incompetence, The Commissioner has finally gone batty!  

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: And It Shall Come To Pass - Eventually through Corporate Mergers!

I can't help but wonder if the production person responsible for attributing MGM's Tom and Jerry to Warner Bros. (!!!) in TOM AND JERRY #162 (Dell Comics, Cover Date: January, 1958)...

...Simply goofed... or was a 1950s version of Nostradamus! 

Perhaps he or she foresaw MGM falling under the Turner Broadcasting umbrella... and Turner eventually being consumed by Warner Bros./Time Warner - making this logo CORRECT!  ...A bit ahead of its time, but correct nonetheless!  

Proving that, if you wait around long enough, corporate mergers can bring about ANYTHING! 

But, could even such a prodigious prognosticator foresee the the blunders and horrors of the great folly and disaster that would be the Warner Bros./Discovery merger?  A "disaster" that's NOT "waiting to happen"... because it's ALREADY HERE!

Nah! Not even "Old Nostie" could be THAT GOOD! 

But, this particular instance of erroneous branding must still go down as rather ironic, given what eventually came to pass... why, you could even call it a "Branding Irony"!

Of course, Warner Bros. HAS been known to infiltrate some of the darnedest places...

Yeah, I'm talkin' 'bout YOU, Bugs! 

Thankfully, this error-in-attribution was corrected for the story's reprint in TOM AND JERRY #317 (Gold Key Comics, Cover Date: April, 1979).  

See my notes for the GCD INDEX of the later issue HERE!

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: Nice, Doggie! ...B-B-BIG, Doggie!

I'm sure everyone would agree that LASSIE was a BIG canine star... But the cover of M.G.M.'s LASSIE #30 (Dell Comics, Cover Date: September-October, 1956) would seem to show just HOW BIG! 

Assuming those aren't DOLL HOUSES (...or DOLL HUTS?) at the lower right, that Lassie is about to crush with just one giant paw, everyone's favorite collie might as well be the faithful canine companion to KING KONG, rather than Timmy or Ranger Corey!  

A monstrous giant ape and his dog... There's a MOVIE in that, somewhere!  

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: Tom's Big Turn-Around!

As a follow-up to OUR LAST POST on those pesky (all together now) intrusive UPC Code boxes, we offer for your UPC amusement the cover of TOM AND JERRY #146 (Dell Comics, Cover Date: September, 1956)...

...The cover of TOM AND JERRY #236 (Gold Key Comics, Cover Date: June, 1967)...

...And finally the UPC-influenced cover of TOM AND JERRY #295 (Gold Key Comics, Cover Date: June, 1977) - ten years later, and into the intrusive UPC era!

It almost makes you want to play that old kids' game - "Which One of These Doesn't Belong?"... except that it's all too obvious which one doesn't!  

In the interest of efficiency (and laziness), I will reproduce the notes I prepared for my indexing of this cover at GCD:

"Image is flipped from its original printing in Tom and Jerry Comics (Dell, 1949 Series) #146 (September 1956) and its prior reprinting in Tom and Jerry (Western, 1962 Series) #236 (June 1967) which had Tom facing right, to Tom facing left - with all illustration elements flipped accordingly.

"This was most likely done to accommodate the UPC code box, which would have interfered with Jerry and Tuffy's fishing lines as previously rendered. Tom's fishing line is also shortened for the same reason resulting in a change in perspective.

"The separation of the water and sky (now more garishly colored) is delineated with a black inked line, where in the previous printings water and sky simply 'blended into one another'."

Here is the actual GCD link, for anyone that cares to see it! 

Of course, there have been many UPC-alterations performed over the years, but this, along with the two later variations of "Og's Iron Bed" are among the most extreme! 

But, at least everyone here is FACING THE SAME WAY as they were...

...And not looking into a garishly-reflective mirror!  

Separated at Mirth: Of Cats, Mice, and Brooms!

Today's "Mirth Separation" features FELIX THE CAT # 14 (Dell Comics, Cover Date: April-May, 1950)...

...And TOM AND JERRY # 220 (Gold Key Comics, Cover Date: August, 1964)

Both Felix and Tom are at the ready before a mousehole with a swatting broom, unaware that Skidoo the Mouse and Jerry and Tuffy (respectively) are hiding in the very instrument each cat wields as a weapon!  

Further, each cover has a red background...

...And, if you mash them together like this, they could be standing on both sides of the same wall (or, more likely, AROUND A CORNER from one another), covering an "entrance to" and an "exit from" the very same mousehole!   

If you'd care to delve deeper (...and WHO among you would NOT?), you could also note the different esthetics on display in service to the exact same gag!  

The well-worn broom wielded by Felix, and Skidoo's rough-hewn mousehole suggest the more hardscrabble times as the 1940s segued into the 1950s.

In contrast, Tom's "new broom" and Jerry and Tuffy's neat and esthetically-pleasing mousehole (...that is, if it's at all possible for a mousehole to be "esthetically-pleasing") - not to mention that the "Tom and Jerry wall and floor" look as if they've been FRESHLY PAINTED vs. Felix's shabbier background - suggest the softer and more prosperous 1960s!

And I get a little tickle from imagining Jerry and Tuffy and Skidoo as "mousehole neighbors"...

...Sharing a medicine cabinet, as Chuck McCann and Bill Fiore did in the unforgettable "Right Guard Deodorant" commercials!  

Finally, can't you just see Tom and Felix swatting each other, as the mice jump to safety?! 

TOM AND JERRY cover is by Harvey Eisenberg.  FELIX THE CAT cover is by Otto Messmer. 

There you have TOM AND JERRY # 220 and FELIX THE CAT # 14, brooms, mouseholes, and suckered cats... SEPARATED AT MIRTH!  

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: Just Another Reason Harvey Eisenberg was So Great!

As if we needed to find more examples of why former animator / layout man and Dell and Gold Key comic book artist HARVEY EISENBERG (...whose comics work on TOM AND JERRY was the stuff of legends) was so great, let's examine CHIP 'N' DALE # 19 (Dell Comics, Cover Date: September-November, 1959!  (Click to enlarge all images!) 

Pete is about to use his steam shovel to destroy Chip 'n' Dale's tree!  The shovel scoop has taken on the look of a hungry mouth! 

In desperation, Chip 'n' Dale hurriedly loosen-up everything they can!  Just look at Pete's steam shovel REAR-UP on its "hind wheels" before charging! 

Things literally "fall to pieces" for Pete!  His forward rush and screeching halt in the lower tier are priceless!

Confronted by a "Prototype for Ranger Smith" (a character Eisenberg would often draw over the next few years in Dell and Gold Key Comics), Pete gets his deserved comeuppance - and some wonderfully perplexed expressions courtesy of Harvey Eisenberg!   

As noted above, this story (which, if it wasn't a Chip 'n' Dale theatrical short, certainly SHOULD have been) was originally published in Dell's CHIP 'N' DALE # 19 (1959)...

...And was reprinted in CHIP 'N' DALE # 3 (1969)  from Gold Key, allowing me the opportunity to showcase - not one, but two - Harvey Eisenberg covers! 

...'Cause you can never have too much Harvey Eisenberg!  

Separated At Mirth: It REALLY IS "A Small World, After All!"

For today's "Mirth Separation" (...even if its not exactly all that "mirthful") we examine the cover of SHOWCASE #61 (DC Comics, Cover Date: March-April, 1966)...

...Which I've long regarded as one of the greatest DC covers of the Silver Age (TELL ME IT'S NOT!)...

...Along with this extraordinary moment from Tex Avery's immortal cartoon "King-Size Canary" (1947)!  

That little boat-ride at Disneyland had it right all along... "It's a Small World, Afff-terr Aaalll!" 

Happy Thanksgiving 2019!

For Thanksgiving 2019, here's a nice little DROOPY gag from TOM AND JERRY # 228 (Gold Key Comics, Cover Date: February, 1966)...

...Originally printed in TOM AND JERRY # 113 (Dell Comics, Cover Date: December, 1953).

In my personal indexing, and for the index I created at GRAND COMICS DATABASE, I called this gag "Chopping Blocked".  

Art is by the great Harvey Eisenberg!  ...Enjoy! 

Happy Labor Day, 2019!

Happy Labor Day, 2019!  May none of your labors be "Hard Labors"!

Get out in the sun, and go for a drive!

Go to the beach!

Or a walk! ...Prompting a possible "Separated At Mirth" post!  

Maybe combine them both into "a walk ON the beach"!

Go swimming!

Or boating!

Or just enjoy some ice cream!  

Whatever you do this Labor Day, just try not to "labor" too hard!  ...Avoid becoming yet another future "Separated At Mirth" post!  

 ...Ain't he a double-stinker! 

Finally, remember to save your strength because, if Labor Day comes, can THIS be far behind?!  

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: "Peeping TOM!"

Our last post on Dell Comics' TOM AND JERRY # 168 (1958), that uncharacteristically excluded TOM from its cover...

...got such a great reaction in our Comments Section that we've moved this post forward from its "lingering draft" state into a follow-up position, as it addresses a similar - but earlier - situation!  

The Dell Comics' TOM AND JERRY title evolved from the MGM anthology OUR GANG (a sort of "MGM's Comics and Stories", if you will) beginning with its 60th issue in 1949.  

The previous 59 issues went under the title of OUR GANG,which began by depicting Tom and Jerry in their earliest incarnation...

...leading to OUR GANG WITH TOM AND JERRY, with the Cat and Mouse in a more recognizable form!

A hallmark of these later issues of OUR GANG, as well as earlier issues of its successor TOM AND JERRY, was the "film-strip of characters included therein", down the left side of the cover!  

Tom eventually settled into the TOP SPOT of the "character stack up", seen above and below, while also appearing in the cover-gag!

For TWO SUCCESSIVE ISSUES (# 46-47), however, OUR GANG presented cover gags that, like Dell's TOM AND JERRY # 168, were centered on Jerry and Tuffy, excluding Tom!  

But, TOM had a way of GETTING AROUND THAT LITTLE PROBLEM... going from THIS...

...To THIS!  

Yeah, BIG, isn't he?  He looks ready to POUNCE from that strip of faux-film!  

A far cry from his usual modest station!

Say... Maybe if we reconfigured the cover image of TOM AND JERRY # 168 to look like THIS?  

Yeah!  Whadaya think?   In this aspect ratio, the GLASSES would even FIT Tom!  

Now, they can finally get back to business!