The Sandman was created in 1939 and was one of the first in the big glut riding the new "Superman Craze". He made his official debut in Adventure Comics #40, but just weeks before a Sandman adventure had appeared as part of the big "New York's World's Fair 1939" comic, which also featured Superman and a bunch of DC?Nationals features from "Action Comics".
Being this early on in the super hero output (even beating The Batman by a few months), originally The Sandman was strongly modeled after the pulp heroes of the '30's and even The Green Hornet of radio, more than the colorfully suited-tight wearing guys that would soon hog the scene.
The Sandman was Wesley Dodds, bored wealthy playboy, who was originally wrongfully accused of a crime and was "sought by both the police and the underworld" just like "The Green Hornet" but he slowly became a more straight-forward crime-stopper and was even a charter member of "The Justice Society of America". Only his girlfriend Dian Belmont knew hsi dual identity and shared in his adventures as he donned a green double-breasted suit, a subdued purple cape and a gas mask. Armed with his gas gun which fired a gas that both put criminals to sleep, or sedated them enough to open their minds and give up information, he was a dark figure of the night and skurge of bad guys everywhere.
Here's Adventure Comics #67 and a very typical Sandman story of that era...
By issue #69, the powers that be at DC/National decided the old suit and fedora look was too old-fashioned for the bustling days of colorfully garbed mystery men, and put forth a story in which Dian Belmont is killed (a horrible tradgedy for Dodds, to be sure) and the wealthy playby adopted as his ward, her nephew Sandy Hawkins.
Now following in the tradion begun by Batman's Robin, he gained a kid side-kick "Sandy, the Golden Boy" and squeezed himself and his ward into flashy purple & gold and red & gold suits! NOW they could flex their muscles!
That's right, just a couple issues later, the dynamic team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby came on board the National payroll, and they took on The Sandman & Sandy as their first assignment!
Here's a little dash of the dash of Simon/Kirby Sandman from Adventure Comics #91! That my friend is some swash-buckling derring do!
Zap! Bang! Kazowie!
I'll be back for more "A 'Slight' History of Golden Age Comics Book Super Heroes" and more of the heroes of Adveenture Comics next Tuesday. Until then, I hope you keep coming back to see what else is in my head for "OTR Friday with Vic & Sade", "Unca Jeffy's Toy Box Saturday", "Sunday Funnies" now in glorious full color! and "Mad COMIC BOOK Monday".
Talk to you soon.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
"Mike Sees the Light!"
Continued from here...
As Jeffy works on the logistics for his "A 'Slight' History of Golden Age Comic Book Super Heroes", he gets all kinds of "help" and support from Mike...
There you have it, my Benny Hill gag of ogling for the week. Man oh man, Mike's right though, them women knew how to show off what they got alright! I know what you're thinking, "Those guys look dumbfounded!", and that's JUST the way they fouund us, too!
To KW, I know I passed by on my 2 dimension concept here with the background heroes...just wanted to make sure you and I were right...we were.
Talk to you soon.
As Jeffy works on the logistics for his "A 'Slight' History of Golden Age Comic Book Super Heroes", he gets all kinds of "help" and support from Mike...
There you have it, my Benny Hill gag of ogling for the week. Man oh man, Mike's right though, them women knew how to show off what they got alright! I know what you're thinking, "Those guys look dumbfounded!", and that's JUST the way they fouund us, too!
To KW, I know I passed by on my 2 dimension concept here with the background heroes...just wanted to make sure you and I were right...we were.
Talk to you soon.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Mjolnir Hits Home!
Continued from here...
Thor tries to crash Jeffy's "A 'Slight' History of Golden-Age Comic Book Super Heroes" and infuriates Jeffy...NOT just because the lines betwixt Golden-Age and Silver-Age shouldn't be crossed, but mainly because Jeffy fears the "Thor" movie will cross the line that "Fantastic Four" crossed and be pure crap!
Whew...THAT was a bullet dodged. I want to thank all you blog readers for all the cards and letters, FAXes, Tellex's, CableGrams and International Trans-Oceanic Distpatches of concern that our Jeffy might be harmed taking on a Norse God and all...but you needn't have worried. You see, not only is Jeffy's head abnormally large for a biped, but see...that's solid BONE up there.
Jeffy was never in any danger of being harmed. Witness this "Jeffy's noggin to Mjolnir" experiment performed in our "Blogging Test Labs" just this week!
OK...back to our usual nonsense tomorrow.
Talk to you soon.
Thor tries to crash Jeffy's "A 'Slight' History of Golden-Age Comic Book Super Heroes" and infuriates Jeffy...NOT just because the lines betwixt Golden-Age and Silver-Age shouldn't be crossed, but mainly because Jeffy fears the "Thor" movie will cross the line that "Fantastic Four" crossed and be pure crap!
Whew...THAT was a bullet dodged. I want to thank all you blog readers for all the cards and letters, FAXes, Tellex's, CableGrams and International Trans-Oceanic Distpatches of concern that our Jeffy might be harmed taking on a Norse God and all...but you needn't have worried. You see, not only is Jeffy's head abnormally large for a biped, but see...that's solid BONE up there.
Jeffy was never in any danger of being harmed. Witness this "Jeffy's noggin to Mjolnir" experiment performed in our "Blogging Test Labs" just this week!
OK...back to our usual nonsense tomorrow.
Talk to you soon.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
"When Silver Taints the Gold"
Continued from here...
Scotty heads back to L.A. while Jeffy and Mike head down to "Ye Olde Drink Hole" to see about the gathering of Golden Age Super Heroes that Jeffy instigated...then forgot about...
More nonsense next week.
Talk to you soon.
Scotty heads back to L.A. while Jeffy and Mike head down to "Ye Olde Drink Hole" to see about the gathering of Golden Age Super Heroes that Jeffy instigated...then forgot about...
More nonsense next week.
Talk to you soon.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
"I Keep Tripping Over Loose Ends"!
Continued from here!
All seems well at "The Steamy Grotto"...
Sigh...I got more to clean up...
Talk to you soon.
All seems well at "The Steamy Grotto"...
Sigh...I got more to clean up...Talk to you soon.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Cartoon Momentum and Explanation?
Here's a blog post about blogging! Exciting isn't it?
I am truly working on building momentum in my cartoon posts here. The boring part for you is, I'm looking to fine-tune my story telling and layout skills. The fun part for you "dear-gentle reader" is, I'm looking to fine-tune my story telling and layout skills.
My goal is to be entertaining.
With my sporadic posting in the past though, as well as (happy to say it) new readers, I know that some of my running gags are lost on some folks. This is kind of an age old issue with sequential and periodical features that I'm also trying to explore. I mean at some point, the audience just knew that Superman didn't like Kryptonite. At some point, people stopped wondering "why" Snoopy was sleeping on top of his doghouse and just accepted it.
One advantages that this new medium has, is extemporaeneous information can easily be linked. Space is not an issue. For people wanting to explore they need only click the mouse, for those looking for a quick chuckle, they can buzz right by.
I will soon be posting "stand-alone" pages to the right, of some of the tenants of Jeffy's little world. The characters, the settings and who-knows-what-all.
Until I get that worked out though, for those that didn't understand yesterday, why Jeffy and Mike have "bunk couches", here's a blast from the past.
Enjoy!
********************************************************
My ex-roommate moves back home. As always, click on the thumbnails to enlarge.
The prodigal roommate. It's all there but the fatted calf.
I am truly working on building momentum in my cartoon posts here. The boring part for you is, I'm looking to fine-tune my story telling and layout skills. The fun part for you "dear-gentle reader" is, I'm looking to fine-tune my story telling and layout skills.
My goal is to be entertaining.
With my sporadic posting in the past though, as well as (happy to say it) new readers, I know that some of my running gags are lost on some folks. This is kind of an age old issue with sequential and periodical features that I'm also trying to explore. I mean at some point, the audience just knew that Superman didn't like Kryptonite. At some point, people stopped wondering "why" Snoopy was sleeping on top of his doghouse and just accepted it.
One advantages that this new medium has, is extemporaeneous information can easily be linked. Space is not an issue. For people wanting to explore they need only click the mouse, for those looking for a quick chuckle, they can buzz right by.
I will soon be posting "stand-alone" pages to the right, of some of the tenants of Jeffy's little world. The characters, the settings and who-knows-what-all.
Until I get that worked out though, for those that didn't understand yesterday, why Jeffy and Mike have "bunk couches", here's a blast from the past.
Enjoy!
********************************************************
My ex-roommate moves back home. As always, click on the thumbnails to enlarge.
The prodigal roommate. It's all there but the fatted calf.
*************************************************************
...and for those wondering why Jeffy and Mike's swingin' bachelor pad is called "The Steamy Grotto"? Because "The House of Whacks" was too spot on.
Talk to you soon.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Kinection to Austin!
Continued from here...
Jeffy and Scotty return to "The Steamy Grotto" to find Mike waiting...
...and so it goes with ALL leaps forward in technology, it all leads to porn.
Jeffy and Scotty return to "The Steamy Grotto" to find Mike waiting...
...and so it goes with ALL leaps forward in technology, it all leads to porn.
Talk to you soon.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Meanwhile, Back at The Drink Hole...
Nephew Scottie drops by the Drink Hole for a visit with his Ol' Unca Jeffy...
"Well...." said Jeffy, "I tell ya Scottie...it ain't been an easy road!"
"Lay it on me, my brotha! Rest your worries on MY shoulders for a while!" replied the sympathetc and empathetic nephew.
And so Jeffy explained.
Jeffy continued, "You know I have quite the wide spectrum of friends that I hang out with."
"And how!" answered the enthusiastic and caring younger family member. "You said a mouthful there!", he added.
A somber-toned, grim-visaged Jeffy began his tale of woe, "It all started back in October of last year, when my old buddy Mark…
“…announced out of nowhere that he was leaving Southern California for the wilds of Austin, Texas."
"Well...." said Jeffy, "I tell ya Scottie...it ain't been an easy road!"
"Lay it on me, my brotha! Rest your worries on MY shoulders for a while!" replied the sympathetc and empathetic nephew.
And so Jeffy explained.
Jeffy continued, "You know I have quite the wide spectrum of friends that I hang out with."
"And how!" answered the enthusiastic and caring younger family member. "You said a mouthful there!", he added.
A somber-toned, grim-visaged Jeffy began his tale of woe, "It all started back in October of last year, when my old buddy Mark…
“…announced out of nowhere that he was leaving Southern California for the wilds of Austin, Texas."
*here for his goodbye*
“Wait a minute, Jeffy!” interrupted the listening Scottie, “Isn’t this a strange new narrative style you’re using?”
“Shut up and listen!” said the perturbed and forlorn Uncle with impatience, “I’ll do the story telling around here!”
Scottie sat back, took a sip of his beer and let the story wash over him in the manner it was meant to be.
“This”, Jeffy continued, “Was just before a rogue Superman who had been exposed to red kryptonite from Rusty’s fillings, dressed up like Herbie and tried to kill me!”
“…but that’s another story for another day.”
They both took long pulls off of their beers, wetting their pallets AND their minds for the fascinating story to continue to unfold.
“I took it kind of hard,” resumed Jeffy after taking a deep whistly breath through his nose, “and I decided to do some reorganization in the blog. Maybe it was just too much heartbreak to have friends….maybe I just wasn’t cut out for it.”
*see here for the full post*
“Where I made my big mistake . I was singing the praises of only having imaginary friends, rather than real ones…
*see full post here*
“…and when Bigfoot overheard me…” Jeffy stopped his flow for another question from the confused listener.
“Bigfoot?” queried the young buck, his shock of dirty blonde hair striking a quizzical poise atop his head.
“Yeah, Bigfoot.”, retorted Jeffy, somewhat nonplused. “Back when The Mysterious Shadowy Figure wanted to abduct me on behalf of The Illuminati, he brought Bob the Alien and Bigfoot with him as hired muscle. Luckily Willie Nelson intervened, and afterwards, Bigfoot stayed on as a bouncer here at ‘Ye Olde Drink Hole’ and Bob stayed on as a bar-fly”
*See here for…ah nevermind, just hit the “Illuminati” label to the left, you can read it all*
“Anyway”, the by-now weary story-teller finished, “long story short is, I made Bigfoot cry and now Jesus and Superman are all mad at me.”
*See full post here*
More tomorrow.
Talk to you soon.
“Wait a minute, Jeffy!” interrupted the listening Scottie, “Isn’t this a strange new narrative style you’re using?”
“Shut up and listen!” said the perturbed and forlorn Uncle with impatience, “I’ll do the story telling around here!”
Scottie sat back, took a sip of his beer and let the story wash over him in the manner it was meant to be.
“This”, Jeffy continued, “Was just before a rogue Superman who had been exposed to red kryptonite from Rusty’s fillings, dressed up like Herbie and tried to kill me!”
“…but that’s another story for another day.”
They both took long pulls off of their beers, wetting their pallets AND their minds for the fascinating story to continue to unfold.
“I took it kind of hard,” resumed Jeffy after taking a deep whistly breath through his nose, “and I decided to do some reorganization in the blog. Maybe it was just too much heartbreak to have friends….maybe I just wasn’t cut out for it.”
*see here for the full post*
“Where I made my big mistake . I was singing the praises of only having imaginary friends, rather than real ones…
*see full post here*
“…and when Bigfoot overheard me…” Jeffy stopped his flow for another question from the confused listener.
“Bigfoot?” queried the young buck, his shock of dirty blonde hair striking a quizzical poise atop his head.
“Yeah, Bigfoot.”, retorted Jeffy, somewhat nonplused. “Back when The Mysterious Shadowy Figure wanted to abduct me on behalf of The Illuminati, he brought Bob the Alien and Bigfoot with him as hired muscle. Luckily Willie Nelson intervened, and afterwards, Bigfoot stayed on as a bouncer here at ‘Ye Olde Drink Hole’ and Bob stayed on as a bar-fly”
*See here for…ah nevermind, just hit the “Illuminati” label to the left, you can read it all*
“Anyway”, the by-now weary story-teller finished, “long story short is, I made Bigfoot cry and now Jesus and Superman are all mad at me.”
*See full post here*
More tomorrow.
Talk to you soon.
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