A LITTLE CHRISTMAS MUSIC - Jackson Five, Alvin & the Chipmunks, and more...

Wow! Christmas is less than two weeks away, and I haven't bought last year's gifts yet...I am a little bit behind schedule...can anyone else relate?

A few days ago I heard a song on the radio. It was The Jackson Five version of Santa Claus is Comin' To Town. Wow! It took me back in time a bit, and I realized that this is probaby my favorite Michael Jackson performance ever.  I knew I had to share some of this Christmas Joy with you all, so please take a few minutes to check out the videos (PS - more comics will be posted soon! I am busy planning my special gift to you all - you'll see!). I know everyone has their own favorite Christmas songs...here are a few of mine. I hope you enjoy them.

Listen to little Michael Jackson belt out this classic! Can you imagine how much he really felt this song? The eternal child - MJ must have loved Santa Claus and Christmas a whole bunch, and it shows!

Alvin and the Chipmunks!

The Little Drummer Boy! From the TV special...

Have a little BING with your holidays!

Lots of wonderful versions of this tune out there - I prefer a male lead vocal on this tune, so when I found this version I knew it was the one! From 1958...what a pair of voices!

I had to put in one more classic from Michael and the Jackson Five! Dig it!

Merry Christmas to all!

Drop by later for some fun comics!

Peace!

CLEAR THE STREETS! There's gonna be a SHOOT-OUT AT NOON!

Here's another Golden Age western from Atlas, FRONTIER WESTERN # 8, 1957. Western comics demi-god John Severin turns in another period-perfect cover, but the cover story art chores go to Gray Morrow, who delivers the goods with some unique cinematic characterizations. This is a fun little story that just looks good! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

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"MIX"-ING THINGS UP - Carl Pfeufer and John Jordan on TOM MIX

Tom Mix was the world's first cowboy star. He made over 300 movies, and out of those only 8 were 'talkies'.  In fact, by the time these excellent comics by Fawcett appeared, Mix had been dead for going on 8 years. The world's greatest cowboy, who left movies in 1935 due to injuries, had been contemplating a return to film. Unfortunately, this never happened. On October 12th, 1940, Mix was returning home from Tuscon on Arizona state route 79 when, upon suddenly finding the road blocked by construction barricades due to a flash flood, veered his 1937 Cord 812 Phaeton into a ditch. Upon impact,  the large aluminum suitcase filled with silver dollars that was on the seat behind him flew into the back of his head, crushing his skull and breaking his neck, killing Mix instantly.

You wouldn't know he was dead in these great comics published by Fawcett. I guess kids didn't care if he was dead, they bought the comics anyway.

When I first saw one of these comics I didn't know what to expect, but I found myself wanting more of them as soon as I had started reading. Most of these TOM MIX WESTERN comics had sweet painted covers, by Saunders and others. But I fell in love with the art and stories inside! Unfortunately, artists didn't get to sign their names and/or get credit very often for some of the fantastic work they did and it took a while to find out who the artist was. It was, in fact, two artists.

Let me make you aware of one of the greatest pencil/inking teams in the history of American comics, Carl Pfeufer and John Jordan. I know you probably never heard of them, not many people have. Like a Kirby/Sinnott, or Colan/Palmer, this combination worked wonders for Fawcett comics and more back in the 40's and 50's. The amazing thing was, the combination of their talents resulted in a much better product than any of their work seperate from each other, I believe. Pfeufer was a classically trained artist, and his quickly drawn figures flow and move with anatomically perfect precision, though his own finished style is a bit loose and 'hurried' looking. Jordan's style is very stiff, his figures look 2 dimensional and unreal, yet his art is finished very tight and neat. Put them together and you get some of the most beautiful western comics ever produced. I have a lot more to say about these two, and more scans to share, but here is the start. Enjoy.

These scans come from my own comic collection. This is actually one of the roughest copies of TOM MIX in my collection. Apparently, this particular comic used to belong to Wilson Marshall. If you are out there, Wilson,  --  it's mine now! But please feel free to enjoy the scans!

TOM MIX WESTERN # 15, 1949. Cover artist unknown.

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They sure did like to dress up and pretend to be other people alot back then. Don't believe me? Well, take a look at our next story!

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COMICS ARE EDUCATIONAL - The TRUE Story of The Wonderful BIG BILL

Don't let anyone tell you that comics are bad for you! Why, you can learn a lot of interesting true and historical facts from comic books! Take for example the story of Big, Bow-Legged Bill, the "rootin'est, rip-snortin'est man-critter that ever kicked up dust in the old west..."

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Yup. That's right. The Panama Canal. Lurned it frum a comic book, jest like everything else!

'THE WONDERFUL BIG BILL' was taken from DEAD-EYE WESTERN COMICS # 4, 1949, and was drawn by Ed Moore. Perhaps he wrote the story as well, that information wasn't able to be located.  I don't know much about Ed Moore, but I like his style. I know I have seen his signature on one or two other stories somewhere in my comic book igloo. Yeah, I built an igloo out of comics, you got a problem with that?!  It protects me from the polar bears. So, anyway, I will prob'ly post another Moore story one of these days...

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Cover to DEAD-EYE WESTERN COMICS # 4. Art by Dan Zolnerowich

CARL SAGAN ROCKS! ................................ featuring DJ 'Big Wheels' Hawking

More comics later today...had to take a break for a bit...

In the meantime check out my new favorite song, won't you?

I guarantee a smile will form on your face!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSgiXGELjbc

http://www.symphonyofscience.com/

Lyrics:

[Sagan]

If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch

You must first invent the universe

Space is filled with a network of wormholes

You might emerge somewhere else in space

Some when-else in time

The sky calls to us

If we do not destroy ourselves

We will one day

Venture to the stars

A still more glorious dawn awaits

Not a sunrise, but a galaxy rise

A morning filled with 400 billion suns

The rising of the milky way

The Cosmos is full beyond measure

Of elegant truths

Of exquisite interrelationships

Of the awesome machinery of nature

I believe our future depends powerfully

On how well we understand this cosmos

In which we float like a mote of dust

In the morning sky

But the brain does much more than just recollect

It inter-compares, it synthesizes, it analyzes

it generates abstractions

The simplest thought like the concept of the number one

Has an elaborate logical underpinning

The brain has its own language

For testing the structure and consistency of the world

A still more glorious dawn awaits

Not a sunrise, but a galaxy rise

A morning filled with 400 billion suns

The rising of the milky way

The sky calls to us

If we do not destroy ourselves

We will one day

Venture to the stars

[Hawking]

For thousands of years

People have wondered about the universe

Did it stretch out forever

Or was there a limit

From the big bang to black holes

From dark matter to a possible big crunch

Our image of the universe today

Is full of strange sounding ideas

[Sagan}

How lucky we are to live in this time

The first moment in human history

When we are in fact

Visiting other worlds

A still more glorious dawn awaits,

Not a sunrise, but a galaxy rise

A morning filled with a 400 billion suns

The rising of the milky way

A still more glorious dawn awaits,

Not a sunrise, but a galaxy rise

A morning filled with a 400 billion suns

The rising of the milky way

The surface of the earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean

Recently we've waded a little way out

And the water seems inviting ---