Remember Bingo? That Wilkin Boy? In spite being little more than a hipper Archie clone without the romantic triangle aspect, Bingo was successful enough to hold his own comic book--which began in 1969--throughout the 1970s. He's even been revived from time to time both in cameos and in reprints in the numerous Archie Digests. It's there where I spotted this story.

Take a quick look. Notice anything? Now remember that nearly ALL of Bingo's stories were made in and took place in the 1970s. This one is credited to Frank Doyle and Stan Goldberg. While Stan just left us recently, Doyle passed in 1996.

So...do you see it?

The telephones!

There are NO curly cords attached to the receivers and what appears to be a crudely added antenna can be seen instead! Also the dials have been fairly nicely replaced by pushbuttons! Rather than confuse today's young readers with something many of them may never have seen, today's Archie is retouching elements from past stories before reprinting them!

UPDATE: I found the original pages for comparison!

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We've mentioned this on the Wood blog before but I don't believe it's been mentioned here. The Wallace Wood Estate has taken Woody's oft-bootlegged "22 Panels That Always Work," originally assembled by former Wood Assistant Larry Hama, and turned it into a lovely, cleaned up, compact, slick paper poster print. If you work at all in doing comics, studying comics or just enjoying comics, this is something to consider for yourself for your workspace or even as a holiday gift this season.

Copies of the poster and (other Wood books and merchandise) can be ordered here:

http://www.vanguardproductions.net/Woodprint2/index

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On Facebook, time permitting, I often try to make little personalized birthday messages. Since Roy Thomas--one of my all-time favorite writers of comics, comics history or anything else, isn't on FB, I sent him this one today and he liked it. Now back to work. I'm actually spending the day transcribing and interview someone did for Roy's ALTER EGO!

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You can preview the first two pages of my article on DC's WEIRD MYSTERY TALES coming up in January's BACK ISSUE MAGAZINE here. You can also order it there. And while you're there, Twomorrows is having a 50% off sale on many of their great publications. Check 'em all out!

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I can't seem to find out much on SUPERIOR DUCK. It was produced by Chuck Jones. It was made in either 1991, 1992 or 1996 depending on the source. It was theatrically released with...?

While I have no personal memory of it at all, it's mildly amusing and features Frank Gorshin doing a fine job (contrary to what some YT users say) as both Daffy Duck and Foghorn Leghorn. Other Looney Tunes characters cameo including Road Runner and Coyote, Tweety, Taz, Marvin the Martian and Bob Bergen's Porky Pig. The real surprise though (Spoiler!) is the Superman cameo at the end (See above). Certainly looks NOHING like Jones' style but still...

Here's the whole thing. Watch out for a bootleg version where someone has had the temerity to redub Gorshin's lines!

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Internet issues are preventing me from being able to be online consistently. While we wait, here's a look at the unique Catwoman of the 1970s Filmation cartoons. Seen with her is Clayface who was in the animated opening credits to the '66 series but never mad the actual show because his powers proved too complicated to depict in real life.

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Let's start your week with a rarely seen unadulterated SUPERMAN portrait from Jack King Kirby, also featuring Jimmy Olsen and DNAlien Dubbilex.

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From 1973, here's a piece about how David Bowie was set to play Robert Heinlein's famous alien who comes to Earth in the film version of STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND.

Never happened.

Instead, three years later we get Bowie as an alien who...well...falls to Earth in THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH. A consolation prize, maybe?

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Here's another new, just out last week book that I worked on behind the scenes recently. Compiled and edited by Mike Howlett for Yoe Books' ongoing Chilling Archives of Horror Comics, this hardcover collects stories from those gory black and white magazine comics that used to litter the stands next to the classier CREEPY, NIGHTMARE, PSYCHO and VAMPIRELLA. Included is the one story that everyone seems to remember from their nightmares--a little acid-tinged hippie ditty from Archie artist and Kirby inker Chic Stone. This stuff took what Dr. Wertham warned America about and made it a reality...then cranked it up to 11. You can order a copy here: