Sunday Fun Days are here again with a wild, satirical whack at horror comics from the 1950's, and it comes courtesy of a midcentury girlie magazine to boob-- errr, boot! Of course, this could also easily be whackin' it at sci-fi horror film classics like I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), The Fly (1958), and I Married a Monster from Outer Space (also 1958), but let's just stick with the blurb's intention from the back cover of the memorable, March 1959 issue of Fling #13. Some really nice, titillating artwork here by cartoonist, Don Magolis, and while the writing isn't quite up to a MAD or Cracked level of crazed, sight-gag filled hilarity, it's still worth the handful of chuckles and everyone's attention for the risque / mad monster mash-up freak factor alone!
11 comments:
There's only one boob around here, Grandpa Muttonhead!
Just when I think I’ve uncovered every corner of 1950s pop culture, you kick over another rock and reveal a whole new underbelly for me to enjoy 😂 What an amazing morsel of mid-century ephemera—funny, strange, and incredibly charming to this not-so-teen-age fan. Thanks for sharing, Karswell!
There's lots to love in this story, the sci fi elements, the good girl art, the images of the in-laws (possible relatives of the Van Desses from 'Skeleton in the Closet' April 22, 2022) its a great tale art wise.
Concerning Grandpa Muttonhead, would he be considered a were-sheep, or is he an escapee from the island of Dr. Moreau?
Humorous horror (or is it horrifying humor?) is a sub-genre that is a welcome addition in the catacombs of THOIA, thanks for the great post.
Fling was obviously imitating playboy hiring Elder and Kurtzman, but kind of aping an older style of MAD in places. It's surprising there wasn't a ton more of this around because there was certainly a large number of playboy imitators.
So I wouldn't mind seeing more if you can dig any up, though I suspect most of it is just pretty wide comedy bits but hey, you've got another blog for that!
The art would certain fit within cracked, but it looks like Magolis doesn't have any other credits I could find in GCD.
Couple gags I like: How the woman was first seen in a dress that is nearly a sack (with a belt at the knees???) which is why our teen-ager doesn't notice her. The roulette wheel and the old time-y spinning wheel in the lab, and yeah, I chuckled at "hit the ceiling."
It's also interesting that the art stuck to what is basically PG-13, in a magazine like Fling!
Oh man, this is a neat little gem you've unearthed here for sure. I frequently find most Mad apes to be too frenetic and much too larded with chicken fat, shooting holes in any ability to express even the outside edges of a plot. It's actually a breath of fresh air to find one of these telling a straight story, paced at one gag per panel. And I thought it was consistently funny throughout, almost at the National Lampoon level. I loved the bottom two panels of page two and audibly cracked up at "teenage laboratory."
The art is interesting. This guy totally nails it. I mean, there are a lot of really great artists who built their whole careers on looking like other, better artists. Some of those are a mix of so many instincts and sensibilities that it ends up being hard to tell which influence holds the most sway. This guy is drawing like Davis, kinda, but in panels straight out of the Wood textbook. But there's also plenty of Elder? And those guys all borrowed form one another, anyway. So this ends up like a perfect synthesis of a whole buncha Mad men, and that is so perfect for the spoof that I suspect the name Don Margolis is actually an alias.
I guess there's no reason to think a plucky newcomer like Fling would not pony up for the best possible art credits. The best thing about many Playboy apes--and arguably Playboy itself--were the cartoons. Cavalier, Swank, Cavalcade, etc., all had absolute greats working for them at one time or another.
He was a real guy: Don Margolis (1932 - 2021) Chicago comic artist who also illustrated for Family Weekly and Sling Magazine, and apparently did Snap Crackle Pop drawings, among other commercial work.
I resemble that remark!
Does this mean you’re going to try out that fashion in the opening splash panel someday soon?
I try to throw in some funny stuff here every once in a while for sure… I’ll see what else I can dig up.
The wedding gifts panel on the second page just looks like my office
Then he did this at twenty-five or -six years old. Zow. Heritage Auctions lists three past sales of gag cartoons from Fling, all of which are excellent (and, predictably, look nothing like Mad Magazine artists and a lot like Playboy gag cartoonists). The guy was surely nimble.
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