The GET SMART comic books!

 On September 18 in 1965, TV comedy GET SMART created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, and starring Don Adams as agent Maxwell Smart (Agent 86), Barbara Feldon as Agent 99, and Edward Platt as The Chief premiered.Get Smart immediately won over audiences with its witty satire of the secret agent genre. Starring Don Adams as bumbling spy Maxwell Smart, aka Agent 86, and Barbara Feldon as his brilliant partner Agent 99, Get Smart followed their laugh-out-loud misadventures as they battled the evil forces of KAOS. Created by comedy legends Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, Get Smart was an instant hit thanks to its slapstick humor, clever spy parodies, catchphrases like “Missed it by that much!”, and gadgets like the famous shoe phone. For 5 seasons, Get Smart kept viewers in hysterics every week with Agent 86’s hilarious attempts at espionage, close calls with danger, and comical interactions with The Chief (Edward Platt). Now over 50 years later, Get Smart remains one of the most beloved and iconic sitcoms of all time. Its legacy lives on through syndicated reruns and an enduring comedic influence still felt today. 

In 1966, GET SMART was published as a comic book by Dell Publishing Co. 

These are the covers plus an ad for Aurora Model Motoring cars 

which appeared on the back cover of several other issues as well.

Spanish comic strip artist Francisco Ibáñez, creator of "Mortadelo & Filemón", dies aged 87.

Al Jaffee, King of the Mad Magazine Fold-In, Dies at 102

 Al Jaffee, a cartoonist who folded in when the trend in magazine publishing was to fold out, thereby creating one of Mad magazine’s most recognizable and enduring features, died on Monday in Manhattan. He was 102.

The news comes from the Twitter feed of Tom Heintjes, dedicated to Eisner Award winner Hogan's Alley. "I'm very sad to report that the great Al Jaffee has died," the tweet reads. "He had celebrated his 102nd birthday just last month. An incredible legend. RIP to a giant of cartooning." Along with being known for Mad Magazine, Al Jaffee also contributed to Timely Comics and Atlas Comics, which would eventually become the publishing juggernaut Marvel Comics. His longest-running Mad Magazine feature was the Fold-In, which featured a piece of artwork that had to be folded vertically and inward to reveal a new image. 

The First Fold-In appeared in MAD # 86!

NOVARO: THE MEXICAN COLOSSUS (2017)

                                  Available for a limited time through Amazon's Prime Video:

"Novaro - The Mexican Colossus traces the unknown story behind one of the biggest comic companies in Latin America, Editorial Novaro, its place in the Mexican comic industry, its relation with its consumers and its role in shaping the Mexican middle class".

 I was one of several people interviewed in connection to the NOVARO Publishing Company, trying to explain the reasons behind its sudden bankruptcy and eventual disappearance.

I spent about 13 years of my adult life writing and drawing the PINK PANTHER & BEEP BEEP, THE ROAD RUNNER comics as well as a short lived comic of my own creation called EL MAFIOSO NICK.

The 2017 documentary, actually filmed in 2013, examines the influence NOVARO had on several generations of readers from Mexico down to Uruguay, Peru and the rest of  Latin America during the nearly four decades it dominated the comic book market, printing mostly material from the U.S. but also generating a few locally produced titles. The documentary offers some theories about NOVARO's sudden demise and explores the collectibles phenomenon it triggered during its peak years.

This is the link to PRIME VIDEO which will be active for a limited time:

https://www.primevideo.com/detail/0GUT26IG56MHV26JAE6UCWRSWM/ref=atv_wl_hom_c_unkc_1_1

It's Time To Go Out Trick-Or-Treating!

It's Halloween and trick-or-treaters may appear in some very unlikely places!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Here are a couple of my favorite Halloween-themed Pink Panther covers I did for Novaro/Western Publishing way back in the 1980s:

PINK PANTHER Olympic Trading Cards

            

Two cards published in 1990 by Editorial VID with an Olympic theme. These two were the ones I did. 

The rest of the collection featured all the other characters from Vid's comic book titles.

CUCURUCHO - The Llera Covers

Forty seven years ago, I was hired to do some comic stories for a kiddie magazine in Mexico. The magazine was titled CUCURUCHO and it ran for 20 issues. My job was to provide some comic pages between the fun activities like coloring, origami folding, puzzles, read aloud stories, word games, and other kiddie related material.

 

 

I came up with three different titles for the mag: "Cucurucho, The Magical",  about a boy who had magical powers and lived in a little box; "Gavin, The Cowboy Mouse", about four rodent rustlers in the Old West;  and "Hector and the Detective", about a gangster's ghost who lives in an old revolver owned by a private eye.  Pretty exciting stuff, eh? 

I managed to do the cover art on 14 of the 20 issues released. The rest were done by the editor of the magazine, Checo Valdez and the late Eduardo del Rio (RIUS), the celebrated Mexican political cartoonist.

By the end of 1975, after very faulty promotion and some bad economic choices by the

 publishing staff which resulted in rather poor sales, CUCURUCHO was finally discontinued.

Beginning 1976 after my 12 month hiatus, I was back at Editorial Novaro, doing

 THE PINK PANTHER and  BEEP BEEP THE ROAD RUNNER for the Hispanic markets.

However, even today, I still get comments from children who read the magazine back in 1975, and remember it fondly for its original content and who thought highly of the effort poured into the project by all the people who collaborated jointly in helping the magazine to flourish briefly during their childhood. 

I have revisited the pages of CUCURUCHO lately and, although it is obviously a product of its time, it still holds up well in terms of originality and humor. Kids nowadays would find it naive and out of step with the era of social media and internet gamers but on its day, it was a worthwhile and entertaining publication for children of the 70s.

These were the last two issues of CUCURUCHO.  I don't think my grandchildren would appreciate them as much as the kids from four decades ago so I guess I'll put them back into my personal archives and let the memories hover around for a little while before going on to something else.