After the mention of "comedy gold" in our previous post comments, I thought that it was finally time to maybe put together a "Funny Friday Frolic of Frights" here at THOIA. But then I ran out of time yesterday, and decided that "Spoofy Slapstick Silly Saturdays" had a better ring to it (but does it?) So here we go with 3 highly hysterical Hemlock Shomes and Dr. Potsum Golden Age filler stories from Fox Publications-- because who of course is better to spoof and slap silly than everyone's favorite detective duo-- Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson! The stories (in scrollin' order below) originate from: The Green Mask #2, Mystery Men Comics #1 and #2, and are all funtastically written and illustrated by Fred Schwab.
3 comments:
The covers of the 3 issues these stories come from are awesome, well worth visiting GCD.
I like these, they are breezy and fun and there's never a real solution just wild nonsense that perfectly fits the tone of the stories. The bat story is a good example of this; they don't even get to the castle until the back half, already mistakingly running into an insane asylum and a on the lam bad guy! Then when they get there the case pretty much solves itself and they are off to Mexico!
Great art, really good facial expressions, and a real eye for the goofy. Very nice stuff, fun reads! Best laugh, I don't know why, but the "I wouldn't do it for a million bucks -- ten bucks, that's different, let's go!"
So apparently the one in the Sherlock deerstalker is actually Dr. Potsum. That's like some sorta prank.
I thought the art got a lot better between the first as second stories. Initially it had a Herriman-esque chewiness that maybe cramped things up a little too much for an eight-panel layout. I think the cleaner look of the second and third stories works better. Though I did love the spider.
And that crazy gargoyly bat in the last story.
But the second title was by far my fave story-wise--for whatever the concept of "story" can really signify in these things, which are really only strings of gag sets-ups. I thought the dialog on page two was particularly lively. I also love that first story panel on page one. The fact that Tintype's Castle is on a hill named Skull Valley is a pretty sly sight gag.
>that crazy gargoyly bat
When Phantom Blot cosplays go wrong...
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