Has it really been over 6 years?

After years of neglecting this ‘blog, we are finally returning for more reporting on quirky historical anecdotes and world of pop culture, particularly cartoonist and record collector geek stuff. As you can see, we’ve returned to our old, much cooler mast head with the dinosaurs and Tastee Freeze lettering.  

Well, everything old is new again. Hopefully I will have some news for you soon about the return of an old internet favorite. I say 'hopefully' because we hear the people involved are  currently attempting to work out some technical crap. Hopefully I'll let you know about what the heck I'm even talking about soon. 

         Book 1 page 18 untitled intro to Lotta Kreviss.

         Comment alludes to the fact that the woman in the prior story is depicted identically in every panel of the story – a parody of the practice of tracing drawings in comics.

         A call – back to the worthless bachelor degrees on page 2. 

         In 1941 DC comics hired psychiatrist William Moulton Marston to create a character who could be a positive role model for girls. The resultant creation was Wonder Woman.

         Curiously, these stories regularly contained barely concealed kinky subtexts; catfighting, WW bound in various positions, WW spanked by domineering female Nazis, WW’s alter-ego, Nurse Diana Prince, assigned to perform full physicals on the Women’s Army Corp. etc. To some extent, Lotta Kreviss parodies these wrong – headed, sexist aspects of Wonder Woman.

               

Book 1 page 16 “Cpt. Marvin vs. The Rodent”

         ASPCA = American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

         Book 1 page 13 “Chucky Chicken’s Cheer Brigade”

         Virtually all old comic books contain a two page prose story, for the actual reason explained in this story. 

         Book 1 page 14

         “Wiggy sides” is hipster slang for “wild records”.

         Book 1 page 10 “The Fun Side of Hippies”

         This is a pastiche of Dave Berg’s long – running feature “The Lighter Side of …” in MAD Magazine. It is not drawn in Berg’s relatively realistic style, but the jokes are similar to Berg’s and the mechanical grays and mechanical font are reminiscent of MAD in general.

        Book 1 page 11

        Refers to Chairman Mao, Communist leader of China from 06/19/1945 to 09/09/1978.

        The elaborate psychedelic band name refers to legendary 1920’s bluesman Blind Lemon Jefferson (namesake of The Jefferson Airplane), The Vanilla Fudge, and presumably The Electric Prunes.

         Book 1 page 12

         The Beatles with their guru, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. They studied Transcendental Meditation under his tutelage starting in late August 1967. MAD Magazine parodied their (at the time) on-going relationship on the cover of their September 1968 issue. 

          Book 1 page 6 “Blozmatov Bearkovski and Igor Beaver.”

          This story parodies a historic event. On November 4^th, 1957, Russia launched a dog named Laika into orbit around the earth. The event was considered a major accomplishment for Russia in their space race against the United States.

          The backward Rs, vertical lines through Os, squared off As etc. parody Russia’s Cyrillic alphabet.

          Book 1 page 7

          Later in this issue’s “Lotta Kreviss” installment we learn that Bob Kronlage is a bluegrass fan. In the next issue’s installment we learn he is an obsessive fan of western swing music too. It’s quite likely he’s familiar with Sputniks and Mutniks, a topical hillbilly song by Ray Anderson & the Homefolks, released as a single in 1958 on the Starday label. 

         Book 1 page 9

         Elvis Presley first entered the public conscious with his debut single on Sun Records in 1954. He quickly became the most popular singer of all time. His huge popularity and his frenetic performing style made him a popular target for parody. His rendition of “Hound Dog”, (in many ways his signature tune) became a number one hit in August of 1956.

          Book 1 page 5 (patriotic items ad)

          First appearance of the running gag that most items for sale from FFAB are sold from the same PO BOX in China, indicating that FFAB, hypocritically, is not supporting U.S. manufacturing.