More Pig Tales by Kurtzman

Here is another Pig Tales story by Harvey Kurtzman. This one isn't quite as visually inventive as the other story I posted, but there is still a lot of fun stuff going on in the poses. And I really like the series of round panels on page four, where the scientists try more and more extreme methods to crack Homer's skull.

From All Surprise Comics #11 (Fall 1946):

The Great Mince Pie Mystery

Here is another great Bob Bolling Little Archie story that features poor picked-on Little Ambrose rather prominently. The odd little boy with the conductor's wand (and who looks a bit like TV's Monk) is Ludwig la Stanza, the musical moppet. He always kind of struck me as being a bit too similar in concept to Schroeder from Peanuts, but he's such a goofy looking little kid that he adds a lot visually to the Good Ol' Gang.

If you've been having a sense of deja vu in reading the Little Archie stories I've been posting, it's probably because I have been favoring the stories I enjoyed reading from the Archie reprint digests in the mid-1970s. So if you had some of those digests yourself, chances are you have read these stories before.

Here is a story from Little Archie #11 (Summer 1959):

 

 

More Little Ambrose

I prefer these "Good Ol' Gang" stories to the more "realistic" adventure stories that Bob Bolling is noted for later in the series. They have a great timeless kid comedy feel. I'll probably post some more of Bolling's work (and some of Samm Schwartz's Little Archies) before I move on to something else.

Here is "A Fishy Marriage" from Little Archie #12 (Fall 1959):