Tuesday, April 5, 2016

STARDUST: The Superhero Donald Trump Would Be...If He Was a Superhero!

Did Donald Trump, born in 1946, read comics when he was a kid?
And, if so, which hero did he dream of being?
Superman?
No, despite being one of the single mightiest beings in the universe, Superman's stories required logical thinking to enjoy, and we've seen Donnie's not big on that, even now.
Captain America?
Certainly patriotic, but not powerful enough.
Donnie thinks BIG!
So there's only one character he might have read, and whose adventures are wish-fulfillment without having to think about how it works, much like Don the Con's pronoucements about how he'll run the country.
Read the following, and compare the story (and captions) to Trump's descriptions of himself and how he'd be as President...
Written and illustrated by Fletcher Hanks, this surreal intro from Fox's Fantastic Comics #1 (1939) has little logic or even sanity in it's tale of almost-magical justice, much like Don the Con's own explanations of how he would deal with real-world problems.

Friday, April 1, 2016

Charlton Fools Day: SINISTRO: BOY FIEND "Too Many Happy Endings"

He could've been the typical All-American boy hero...
...but a cruel fate intervened to make him just the opposite!
The Boy Fiend's battle against all that is good and decent will continue in the near future.
Easily one of the weirdest strips to come out of the Silver Age of Comics, this never-reprinted tale from Charlton Premiere #3 (1968) by Grass Green (writer/layouts) and Henry Scarpelli (pencils and inks) could've been the Ambush Bug or Forbush Man of Charlton.
The highly under-appreciated Richard "Grass" Green was one of the first wave of fanboys-turned-pros which included Roy Thomas, Bernie Wrightson, and Barry Smith, and the only Black member of that august group of pioneers.
Though he did a lot of work for various fanzines in the 60s and 70s, Grass' mainstream professional work was limited to Charlton's Go-Go humor title and two issues of Charlton Premiere.
Green found a niche in underground comics in the 70s and 80s, creating Super Soul Comix and WildMan & RubberRoy.
He passed away from cancer in 2002.
HERE'S an extensive profile about Grass Green on the CBDLF website.

This post is part of an informal blogathon entitled
Charlton Fools Day
conceived and organized by Kracalactaka to bring attention to Charlton Comics, often considered the "runt" of the Silver Age comics litter.
Visit his blog HERE and see a list of other participants as well as his own contributions