COVER STORIES for 08/26/2006
COVER STORIES INSTALLMENT #68
OK, all you cats and kitties, it's time for another episode of that rockin' juke-joint, Cover Stories! This is number 68, all you cool chicks and dudes!
So why am I starting this column out this way? Because this week's theme is "Dance Crazes," which is a theme I know I covered some time ago, but there were some other cool dancing covers I didn't use the first time around, and so I'm revisiting it!
First up on this week's hit parade is Modeling with Millie 54, featuring the return of the Gears, Marvel's fictitious Liverpool band, "The Gears," obviously created to cash in on the Beatles craze! Heck, if you look closely at this number, there's even the phrase "And This Bird Can Sing," which is very similar to the Beatles song title, "And Your Bird Can Sing!" This issue came out in 1967, and unless I'm greatly mistaken, the cover was done by Jazzy Johnny Romita - heck, Mille in her mini-skirt and go-go boots certainly resembles a blonde Mary Jane Watson, doesn't she?
Unfortunately, the Grand Comics Database doesn't have any info on this issue.
Speaking of Marvel romance titles, here's a bizarre cover from Patsy Walker's title (in her pre-Hellcat days), #32!
Now is it just me, or does it look like the shorter pairing on this cover are midgets? I mean, they are freakishly short! Let's assume that Patsy is about 5' 6" tall at the most... her partner is at least a foot shorter, so he can't be taller than 4' 6", and probably even shorter! And the blonde girl can't be too much taller than 4' tall herself!
Hmmm... this will likely be a very short column, because the Grand Comics Database doesn't have any information on this book, either!
Might as well see if we can find a book that does have info on it... let's try this dance-themed one, Queen-Size Millie The Model #12!
Hmm... the Grand Comics Database doesn't even list this series, which continued from Millie the Model Annual! Naturally, the title is a play on the "Giant-Size" books Marvel was doing at that time, as well as the "King-Size Annuals" that Marvel and produced in the relative recent past.
Note that the artwork style has completely changed from the romance style in the first Millie cover I showed you... as with DC's teen books, such as "Swing With Scooter," it was apparently decided that the way to keep this title selling was to switch over to the Archie art style!
Bizarre, isn't it, to see a Marvel Comic with this kind of art on the cover!
Well, I'm sure the final Dance Craze cover will have more details available, given that it's Jimmy Olsen 88!
Yah! Yah! Yah! It's rockin' Jimmy Olsen and the Krypton Crawl! Even Perry White makes an appearance on this cover to tell Superman there's an emergency he should handle, but the Man of Steel can't help but continue dancing!
I suppose it would just be snarking if I said that this Curt Swan cover seems to show that the Krypton Crawl seems to just be a variation of the Twist, eh? And I wonder if Jimmy later gave his guitar to the aforementioned Scooter?
"The Swinging Superman" was written by Otto Binder with art by Swan. I seem to recall that in the story, Superman remembers a tune from Krypton that he transcribes for Jimmy to perform as a rock and roller... and then apparently can't stop from dancing to the music! Yeah, you guessed it, it's all part of an elaborate hoax... and one that will likely be reprinted a year or so from now in a Showcase Presents The Superman Family volume!
This story is followed by the PSA "Are You a Litter-Bug?" by Henry Boltinoff, and then Jimmy stars in "The Riddle of the Olsen Statue" by Jerry Siegel and George Papp, and again in "Jimmy Olsen, Heavyweight Champ!" by Binder and John Forte. The issue is rounded out with Cap's Hobby Center by Boltinoff!
Well, I hope you readers aren't too tired out from all this dancing (yeah, as if you were dancing along with the covers)! Join me next time for another installment of "Cover Stories," in which I'll present a new installment of "Comics They Never Made," and in the meantime, you can check out my blog at http://waffyjon.blogspot.com for other musings and ramblings by me, or email me with comments about this column at !
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