| Author |
|
Rebecca Jansen
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 12 February 2018
Location: Canada
Posts: 4635
|
| Posted: 05 November 2023 at 1:00am | IP Logged | 1
|
post reply
|
|
What are some of your simpler pleasures?
I just got into collecting some of the '90s Harvey Felix The Cat comics. They are mostly '50s reprints by Otto Mesmer and Joe Oriola. I'd say these would be suitable for ages five or so, very visual, and not a lot of dialog. I just like looking at them. I was wondering what else has there been along these lines from any era?
In more modern times I think Owly, Kitz n' Katz, and a one-off Yam comic by Corey Barba hit a similar all-ages note. Beanworld might require older reading skills or I'd include that; it looks simple but the concepts aren't really.
I had a Wheelie & The Chopper Bunch comic way back and I know I liked it, the characters were all very round, and of course the star had the extra visual of words on his windscreen for communication. I can't say if it was a Byrne issue or not, but it could've been; there was that roundedness feel after all which I also saw in Rog and Doomsday + 1 etc.
I had various Little Archie comics way back too, some reprints of '50s Bob Bolling... wouldn't know where to start on collecting those now however!
I'm thinking there must be some Popeye comics (not the classic old Segar strips) by Bud Sagendorf I should give a try next as I see Harvey put some of them out again around the same time as they were doing the Felix comics!
I really enjoyed the Gladstone Floyd Gottfredson Mickey Mouse adventure story comics from when they started putting those out, highly recommended stuff in any format! This is where 'the mouse' overtook Felix as most popular cartoon critter I'm sure. Felix had the great wall clock but Mickey ruled the wristwatches!
In some '80s San Diego con books I would see some Alex Toth cartoon creations that looked amazing... simple but very unique... I wonder if he ever produced a lot of stuff like that which saw publication anywhere? I have a lot of Bravo For Adventure, but this was stuff was more in the bigfoot humor strip style.
Do you think there is still a place for really basic comic books that might appeal to little kids and sometimes also adults? I thought Dexter's Lab and Powerpuff Girls comics would've done well if that were true, but maybe it's just too hard to get comics back out of the specialist shop ghetto for actual kids to ever encounter them in an affordable format? Comics used to be part of a ladder in creating future readers. We had many different comic strips repackaged in paperback when I started reading; peanuts was at the top, later Garfield in those wider format paperbacks... and there were Kliban cat and Don Martin collections just in with all the other kinds of paperbacks most everywhere.
Kids do respond to simple characters like Hello Kitty, Minions, Mario and Miffy the bunny... but I haven't seen comics of those... they seem like that would be a natural fit however.
Edited by Rebecca Jansen on 05 November 2023 at 1:02am
|
| Back to Top |
profile
| search
| www
|
| |
Doug Centers
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 February 2014
Location: United States
Posts: 5535
|
| Posted: 05 November 2023 at 2:36pm | IP Logged | 2
|
post reply
|
|
I remember getting my kids some Simpson's comics when they around 8-10. I read a couple of them and they were entertaining.
Of the cartoons they watched, yes Dexter's Lab and Powerpuff Girls would be good one's, along with Invader Zim, Rocko's Modern Life and Fairly Oddparent's.
|
| Back to Top |
profile
| search
|
| |
John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132835
|
| Posted: 05 November 2023 at 2:51pm | IP Logged | 3
|
post reply
|
|
Approaching my teens, and soon to be guided into more “serious” comic fare by the arrival of Marvel (new to me, anyway!) I nevertheless still enjoyed an occasional LI’L ARCHIE.* Before that I had been entertained by some of the Harvey publications. CASPAR, HOT STUF and the like. ——- * I’ll admit to having been somewhat confused by Archie being dubbed “Li’l” when, in context, he had not yet been “big”. (I was similarly puzzled by Superboy. It made sense, for the adult Clark Kent to adopt the name Superman, since that was a pre-existing word. But it required some retro-thinking to come up with Superboy.)
|
| Back to Top |
profile
| search
|
| |
Rebecca Jansen
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 12 February 2018
Location: Canada
Posts: 4635
|
| Posted: 05 November 2023 at 6:09pm | IP Logged | 4
|
post reply
|
|
The Harvey comic I liked best was kind of an oddball in their stable: Sad Sack. There was something about most of the others that stylistically didn't appeal to me... maybe those upturned noses or the large heads... but I did wonder a bit as a kid about the iconography of a lot of scary stuff made cute: devils, witches and ghosts. Actually that part of it seemed pretty cool and I had at least one Wendy the Witch and a Hot Stuff and of course watched loads of Casper on tv.
Unlike with even Archie comics I've never seen past the style/formula on the Harvey characters... they look the same from the '50s onward regardless of artist... was there a Dan DeCarlo or Carl Barks there who was noticeably the best? I learned Ernie Colon worked there so possibly some of his stood out.
The Simpsons seems as good as it got for the '90s and '00s for an all ages hit and the Bongo comics seem well made (I keep meaning to try to get the Radioactive Man through the eras set at least). Again though, the style a bit like Harvey; seems cast in stone (post-Tracey Ullman Show at least)... would there be room for a unique artist to bring something to it? Still, Disney was capable of allowing Gottfredson and Barks to shine (and Walt Kelly a little too) even if uncredited originally.
Edited by Rebecca Jansen on 05 November 2023 at 6:12pm
|
| Back to Top |
profile
| search
| www
|
| |
ron bailey
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 October 2016
Location: United States
Posts: 1001
|
| Posted: 05 November 2023 at 6:39pm | IP Logged | 5
|
post reply
|
|
Calvin and Hobbes, hands down.
|
| Back to Top |
profile
| search
|
| |
Darren Ashmore
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 30 April 2004
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 956
|
| Posted: 06 November 2023 at 9:50am | IP Logged | 6
|
post reply
|
|
Peanuts, Schultz was a genius.
|
| Back to Top |
profile
| search
|
| |
Joe Hollon
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 08 May 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 13684
|
| Posted: 06 November 2023 at 10:54am | IP Logged | 7
|
post reply
|
|
I've been a big fan of most everything Art Baltazar and
Franco have put put over the years.
|
| Back to Top |
profile
| search
| www
e-mail
|
| |
Vinny Valenti
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 8086
|
| Posted: 06 November 2023 at 1:47pm | IP Logged | 8
|
post reply
|
|
"Peanuts, Schultz was a genius."
--
Before I started reading Superhero comics, Peanuts was definitely my thing. I remember taking a large Peanuts collection with me to summer camp and devouring it.
|
| Back to Top |
profile
| search
|
| |
Robbie Moubert
Byrne Robotics Member
Evertonian
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 1487
|
| Posted: 06 November 2023 at 1:48pm | IP Logged | 9
|
post reply
|
|
Archie comics from the 60s, 70s and 80s. I particularly enjoy the work of Dan DeCarlo, Samm Schwartz and Harry Lucey.
60s Beano comics.
|
| Back to Top |
profile
| search
| www
|
| |
Brian Floyd
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 07 July 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 8490
|
| Posted: 06 November 2023 at 6:17pm | IP Logged | 10
|
post reply
|
|
Peanuts, Hot Stuff, Calvin & Hobbes.
Used to read some of the overtly religious Archie comics when I was younger, before I knew any better. (The grocery store we shopped at when I was kid didn't care a lot of comics.)
|
| Back to Top |
profile
| search
e-mail
|
| |
William Costello
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 30 August 2012
Location: United States
Posts: 748
|
| Posted: 06 November 2023 at 6:58pm | IP Logged | 11
|
post reply
|
|
Sugar and Spike (DC Comics), especially the full length stories in the mid to late 1960s.
|
| Back to Top |
profile
| search
|
| |
James Woodcock
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 21 September 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 7731
|
| Posted: 06 November 2023 at 9:55pm | IP Logged | 12
|
post reply
|
|
Early Garfield, but Calvin & Hobbes won my heart from the get go.
There were loads of non super hero comics around such as Buster, Chips &
the usual Beano, although I never bought that one for some reason.
& then we had other comics like Warrior, Look & Learn (if that could be
classed as a comic), Look In (TV kids comic), Battle & Action (the most
violent comic around @ the time - made national TV for things like Hook
Jaw)
|
| Back to Top |
profile
| search
e-mail
|
| |
