Number 396


Two x 3 Rocketeers


The last two Jack Kirby 3 Rocketeers stories were scheduled for the canceled Race For The Moon #4. The first in the series was published in Race's third and final issue and it was shown in Pappy's #315. These two stories appeared about seven years after being drawn by Jack Kirby and Al Williamson, published in Blast-Off #1, a Harvey one-shot from 1965.

I love the energy in these stories. I love the artwork, full of Kirby's inventiveness, but complemented by Williamson's elegant and sometimes delicate inking. Check out page 4 of "The Great Moon Mystery," classic Kirby, drawn just prior to his stint on Stan Lee's monster books.

Trivia Quiz #13 Answers

1. What was the name of Richie Rich's butler?

Cadbury, or to be more specific, Herbert Arthur Runcible Cadbury. IIRC the butler in Richie Rich #1 had a different name; Cadbury became more prominent in the mid-1960s as Richie started branching out into spy stories.

2. Fatso, Fusso and Lazo were better known by what collective nickname?

The Ghostly Trio; they were like the Three Stooges of the ethereal set.

3. In the early 1960s, DC had some success with the Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, based on the popular TV series of the time. Near the end of the Silver Age, DC reused the stories and much of the art (simply erasing the heads) to create what "new" comic?

The Way Out World of Windy and Willie.

4. What long-running DC comic featured the adventures of two toddlers?

Sugar and Spike, created by longtime DC editor Sheldon Mayer, ran for 98 issues.

5. The longest-running comic title today is Detective Comics, but until 1962 that record was held by what comic featuring Woodie Woodpecker, Oswald the Rabbit, and Andy Panda?

New Funnies (originally just The Funnies) was the longest running comic book in history when it published its final issue (#288) in April 1962. After it passed, the title of longest-running comic moved to Adventure Comics (which had undergone name changes from New Comics to New Adventure Comics). When that title folded in 1983, Detective Comics (from which DC gets its name) inherited the mantle.

Joe Bloke kicked major butt on this quiz, correctly getting all five answers. Great job, Joe! Lito S came up with the correct answers for #1, #4 and #5 and also earns our applause.

#069.Indrajal Comics 25

379-1981-Lt.Drake-The Sting of Venom

26N07-1989-Dara-The Savage Mercenary

These are anonymous contributions.

Number 395


The Time Trolls


I'm sure I've pissed off the Time Trolls. They're the little demons who set my alarm clock so it goes off an hour early. Or not at all. They're the creeps who cause me to be 10 minutes late for work, a job interview, miss a flight.

Considering how we live and die by the clock, the Time Trolls are guys you definitely don't want to mess with. From Beyond #11, 1952.

Number 394


Ray Willner's Gunga


This is another story from Buster Brown Comic Book #33, illustrated by Ray Willner. I showed you Reed Crandall and Ray Willner's "Zakka's Debt" just a couple of weeks ago. What prompted showing this Gunga story so soon after was an e-mail I got from artist Willner's son, Dave, asking for information on finding a bibliography of his father's work. Here's a note from Dave Willner in response to my request to give his e-mail address to Pappy readers:

Absolutely, please do....After comic books he spent almost 20 years doing fantastic text book illustrations for history, science and math books, he also did some great greeting cards for awhile as well...All the kids in town used to pose for him for in the basement studio, where my mother, Dorothy, would teach art classes after school for the kids in town.

Animals were his passion, yet we never had any pets, nor did he as a child? His jungle animals and especially horses in motion were truly amazing. Gunga was the guy who lived near by who ran the Chevron station.....and BTW, you had a note in one of your blurbs about the editor not ensuring the "likeness" of the large guy on the cover hoisting a mast on his shoulders and the face on page one, forget his name....but we still have a ton of old B&W 5"x7"s of him posing for just about all his characters, I do seem to remember that one with a broom stick on his shoulders. My mother would photograph him in costume in the basement with an old 4x5 Graflex, I can remember seeing him with towels wrapped around his head...my crib was in his studio. I'm going to try and get a handle on all the photographs and see if we can match them up to the inkings in the comics.

After he retired he spent a good deal of time doing pencil drawings of historic barns and old Pennsylvania stone homes in and around Bucks County, PA, near where my mother still lives. He had won many awards for these, his technique and style were second to none, he used to say he could draw easier than he could write.

What makes this all even more facinating to me is that when he was a boy, born in 1911 growing up just outside of NYC in Union City, NJ, he was stricken with Scarlett fever which in his later years caused his hands to shake to the point he couldn't drink a cup of coffee, although he never missed a beat with his pencil work.One other fact, he won a scholarship to The Art Students League in NYC when he was 14 and later attended the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Arts. Prior to Buster Brown he also served in the Secret Service in WWII and spent a good deal of time doing cartography in the air on his stomach, something he refused to discuss with us kids ever.

He passed away in Feb of 2002 at 94. Appreciate your help, hope this helps a bit, be glad to provide any additional info I can. Thanks

Dave Willner

If you can help Mr. Willner please do. I gave him the Grand Comics Database page which lists 57 stories by his dad. If you know of any other work Ray Willner did please contact Dave Willner at:

dwillner@ptd.net

Friday Trivia Quiz #13: Kids

As a break from the superhero routine, here are some questions about Silver Age comics featuring youngsters:

1. What was the name of Richie Rich's butler?

2. Fatso, Fusso and Lazo were better known by what collective nickname?

3. In the early 1960s, DC had some success with the Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, based on the popular TV series of the time. Near the end of the Silver Age, DC reused the stories and much of the art (simply erasing the heads) to create what "new" comic?

4. What long-running DC comic featured the adventures of two toddlers?

5. The longest-running comic title today is Detective Comics, but until 1962 that record was held by what comic featuring Woodie Woodpecker, Oswald the Rabbit, and Andy Panda?

#068.Indrajal Comics 24

This comics is already available online without cover, here is missing front page.

289-1977-Phantom-The Monster from Mars

It was reprinted as V24N38-1987-The Hostile Giant.

Friends, we have new "Anonymous" contributor who send the missing cover of 398 & Indrajal comics 289. Some more are coming in English with interval of 3-4 days.