STANLEY STORIES: Chew, Chew, Charlie...

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Chew, Chew, Charlie...

http://greatestape.blogspot.com/2009/04/choo-choo-charlie-by-john-stanley.html

This link will take you to the latest installment at Doug Gray's always-fun blog, The Greatest Ape. Its title reminds me of my own childhood misunderstandings of movie and TV show titles. This often led to impossible and unfulfillable expectations... discovering that the movie is not about a gigantic simian, but just a Steve McQueen prison-break movie...

Herein, Doug has kindly scanned and provided the entirety of a curious 1969 Gold Key one-shot funnybook written and laid out by our man John...

I have never seen nor read this particular funnybook. It's been at the top of my Stanley wish-list for awhile. It's a happy coincidence that Doug so kindly chose to post this comic.

As he mentions in his post, it's become annoyingly expensive on the ever-accursed "collector's market." To be fair, it is probably pretty rare.

Doug also provides info on the character's shameless public identity--as a hawker of candy-coated pseudo-licorice snack-treat Good 'n' Plenty. To my knowledge, this is John Stanley's only comic book based on a corporate shill.

Come to think of it, Little Lulu's long association with Kleenex tissue might also count; she was peddling these ersatz snotrags at the time her Dell title first appeared.

While you're at The Greatest Ape, check out the other cool posts, including a plethora of Dick Briefer Frankenstein stories from the mid-1940s.

Thanks, Doug... and double thanks for kindly allowing me to hitch a ride on your wagon this week. I'd begun to feel guilty about my poor showing on this blog. This is, at least, a point to something of interest.

I look forward to reading these seldom-seen Stanley stories myself!

1 comment:

Doug Gray said...: The oddest thing about the fact that this is a comic about a candy mascot is the fact that there is zero product placement. No mention of Good & Plenty anywhere in the stories, and no ads for it either. There is an ad for Tootsie Rolls on the back cover, but that was a competitor's product.

Except for the origin of the character not having faded completely from memory, this would just seem like a whimsical kids' comic about a boy with his own train.; April 19, 2009 at 5:45 PM

THE JOHN STANLEY COMICS BIBLIOGRAPHY SERIES

I have compiled a detailed, fully illustrated (in color) story-by-story career bibliography of the comic book and magazine cartoon work of John Stanley, in three decade-specific oversized paperback editions. They're available in book form at Amazon.com.

You can read more about the 1940s volume HERE.

Check out the 1950s edition (the longest of the three books) HERE.

The 1960s volume can be previewed HERE.

Covers of the three books are seen below--and that of THE TAO OF YOW, a lavishly illustrated book of essays on John Stanley's world and his work, including expanded versions of essays first seen on this blog. TAO OF YOW may be perused HERE.

A FERVENT PLEA TO FELLOW BLOGGERS

I would like to suggest that the following grammatical and punctuation errors be avoided by one and all;

1) misuse of the possessive apostrophe-s. It's means "it is," not "its." Appropriate use, e.g.: "It's hot outside today." Wrong usage: "I looked at it's cover."

I see this horrid mistake committed hundreds of times daily on the Internet and elsewhere. If a word ends in an s, chances are someone will ram that apostrophe in there. (e.g., "Today's Special's").

Please, please, PLEASE--unless you intend to convey that a person, place or thing is being discussed, in the present tense, or is in use as a contraction of two words (i.e., "it is, let us, what is"), DO NOT USE THE APOSTROPHE!

2) misuse of the apostrophe in dates. Again: unless it is intended to convey the location or possession of a certain quality, such as "1867's drinking water supplies" or "1978's energy crisis," DO NOT USE THE APOSTROPHE! The same applies to the use of decade-connoting dates. It is the 1950s, or the '50s--NOT the 1950's or the 50's!

3) the two most abused words in the English language are "amazing" and "hilarious." It pains me to see these words used thousands of times a day in print and in conversation.

If everything is amazing and/or hilarious, then NOTHING is amazing and/or hilarious.

There exists a wealth of synonyms--delightful words that convey these two properties. Please, please, please use them in the place of these two horribly over-worked adjectives.

Visit synonym.com for easy access to other words that will help you communicate better and smarter.

4) When in doubt, use Spell Check.

Computer users have a luxury--we can instantly determine if a word we've typed is properly spelled. Any computer's spell checking program will inevitably have bugs, but most of the time it's quite helpful.

There is no good reason (aside from un-caught typos) that Internet writing should have spelling errors. We no longer have to interrupt our work, walk over to the bookshelf, pull out the dictionary, find the word, and return to our task. Right-click on a highlighted word and you'll know if it's correct or not.

The speed of the Internet sometimes inspires sloppiness--in myself and in others. In our excitement to get our writing on-line, it's easy to forget that finely-tuned prose may require a little more time.

It is worth the effort--and it takes little effort anymore--to double-check spelling before you make a post live. I often go over old posts and correct typos or poor writing. I feel it makes a difference, and that it supports my worth as a scholar and critic.

If this plea can prevent the egregious misuse of proper English in the blogosphere, my life will not have been in vain.