These were my official gateway comics when I was a kid, before my young eyes were opened to the adventure-filled worlds of Batman and Spider-Man, I was eyeballs deep into the worlds of classic after-school cartoon characters up to their usual silly shenanigans within the pages of Gold Key's cheap-o comic books.
These were the types of books that you could find in 3-packs, and for some reason, I always managed to end up with a few every time my family took a road trip, where I would ball up in the back seat with a small stack of these books and while away the passing miles by delving deep into the worlds of the animated goofballs that I knew from my home TV screen.
Later, I would graduate from "silly animal" cartoon characters to more adventurous fare from these publishers (Gold Key, along with Dell, Whitman and Charlton) like Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers and The Phantom, along with a slew of horror titles.
But yesterday's score was all about well-known, and much beloved cartoon classics...
First up is a healthy serving of Looney Tunes characters with Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Proky Pig and Yosemite Sam. I always loved these comics because I would hear their voices in my head when reading the word ballons. I would sometimes get annoyed, however, whenever they would make odd graphic choices like coloring Bugs' gloves yellow or making Daffy's neck-stripe blue.
Here we have an issue of Dennis the Menace. I never had any of these as a kid, but I swear to god that I used to hang out with a kid named Dennis Mitchell (same as Dennis from the comic strip) and he would always walk around with a slingshot in his back pocket (same as Dennis from the comic strip). I'm not kidding. Totally true.
Also, I just noticed that this is not from Gold Key, but from Fawcett Publishing.
Ahhhhh yes... The Little Monsters! These were downright hard to find when I was a kid and I only ever had a couple of issues, but I loved them. They always reminded me of a mix between the Addams Family (I used to watch the classic cartoon) and that creepy family that moved in next door to the Flintstones.
(I'm glad I didn't have the above issue as a kid, because that mechanical shark is the thing nightmares are made of.)
Next up is Tom & Jerry. Now, I adored the old MGM Tom & Jerry cartoons (written and directed by Hanna-Barbera, as a matter of fact), but the comics always left me cold. They always made them talk in the comics. Tom & Jerry don't talk. Spike the bulldog talks. Jerry's little French nephew talks. But Tom & Jerry were mutes, and that's how I like them.
And no stack of old, musty Gold Key comics would be complete without at least a couple of Walt Disney books. Now I loved these and was turned on to many of the old Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge books (by the incredible Carl Barks) from Gladstone comics by my very own mom, who read them when she was a lass, and these old Gold Key issues (although not as great in quality as the Barks stuff) were still a treat.
So, that's it for my latest haul from the 25¢ bin. I'm sure I'll be back again soon, to dive head first into the old dusty bins of newsprint in search of even more gems that can be yours, or rather mine, at the measly price of 4 for a dollar.
