Meeting Missoula - The Ox part 467B - Larry

The more I experience Missoula, the more I find that what I suspected was true,  No one sits alone in this town.

I stepped down to my favorite low key hangout the other night, the legendary Oxford Saloon and Cafe, the joint was dang near empty.  Once the University gets on summer break, a good deal of the student body heads on out of town and the city gets a little more sparse.  

Since there was no one around and the place was so quiet I stepped over to the jukebox, dialed up $5 worth of John Prine, Jimmy Buffett, Hank Williams, Willie Nelson, Asleep at the Wheel and a bunch more and steped outside for a smoke.

As I said, the entire bar was empty when I went outside, but when I got back, Larry was perched on the stool next to my post.

We introduced each other and Larry said he liked my music picks.

I learned that Larry was retired and divorced, had sold his home down the Bitterroot and had a little place here in town.

Larry's main theme of conversation was, as a Viet Nam vet having been home for nearly 50 years from his tour, he was still stuck on "Why the hell were we there?".

He wasn't militant or political about it, he was just a kind old man that was still troubled...no, I'll say sad not troubled, about why our government sent a bunch of boys half way around the world to shoot and get shot at by a bunch of people that had nothing to do with us.

We talked about how the military industrial complex of our country depends on a steady stream of young people to keep getting shot just to fil the billionaires pockets,

Like I say, he wasn't worked up about it.  He was past being angry about it.  He was just sad.

And the music I picked on the jukebox made him not so sad, so he came over to say "hi".

He was separated from people he knew by a gun.

And he felt connected to people by the poetry and songs of Hank Williams and the rest.

Two sides of America's GNP.

Talk to you soon.

Golden Age DC Heroes NOT in the JSA or 7 Soldiers - 6-15-16 - Unofficial Original All Star Squadron?

So if there were only 3 super hero teams actually done in the golden age of comics (1938-1952 roughly), 2 from DC (The Justice Society of America, The 7 Soldiers of Victory) and one from Timely/Marvel (The All Winners Squad), then that must have SURELY included all of the golden age comic book super heroes there were, right?????

WRONG!

In the Golden Age of comics, there were well over half a dozen publishers of the=ose grand 4 coor heroes..it was a BOOM time. It's just that the super hero team was looked at solely as a way to promote their heroes with regular features to increase readership and wasn't seen as the awesome entity it is unto itself.

But what if there WERE more super hero teams of the 40's?  DC alone could have easily filled out there roster to a couple more teams.  Back in the 70's (80's?) Roy Thomas went to the powers that be at DC and wanted to do a book with ALL of his childhood heroes (under license by DC that is) and that included all of DC's roster as well as the recently acquired Quality Comics roster and a few Fawcett creations as well, and called the new team with adventures set back in the 1940's "The All Star Squadron".

I didn't draw the All Star Squadron here, but rather ONLY the DC heroes left over after the 2 actual teams that they actually did do in the 40's.  

The "original" All Star Squadron??

Left to right FRONT:  Johnny Quick, Zatarra, Manhunter, Aquaman, Air Wave, Robotman, The Black Knight.

CENTER:  Lando Man of Magic, Sargon the Sorceror, Gary Concorde the Ultra Man, Mr.America/The Americommando, The King, Tarantula, Liberty Belle.

REAR:  The Gay Ghost, Merry the Girl with 1000 Gimmicks, Little Boy Blue (sans the Blue Boys), Captain X of the RAF, TNT and Dan the dyna-Mite, The Guardian

Quite the roster.

Of course you know, this obliges me to draw more teams that never were from other publishers, right?

OK

Talk to you soon.

Timely's "All Winners Squad" - 6-13-16 - That's "The Invaders" to you!

So I've doodled the Justice Society of America and the 7 Soldiers of Victory, back in the 1940's the super hero "team" wasn't as prevalent a thing as it is now.  While nowadays there are the big 2 publishers (DC and Marvel) back in the 1940's there were more than a handful of prominent comic book publishers, yet it was only DC and Timely (Marvel's precursor) that dipped into this well.

And Timely only did it twice.  All Winners Comics #19 and #21.

Here they are, the All Winner Squad.

Left to right: Toro, The Whizzer, The Sub-Mariner, Captain America, Bucky, Miss America and The Human Torch.

In the 1970's Marvel rebooted the team and ret-conned them as "The Invaders".  Roy Thomas (champion of all things golden age and leader in the comic book fandom movement in general) wrote that series and served them well.

But I'm a purist, and for me it was never The Invaders, it will always be The All Winners Squad and those 2 measly stories.

The rest of their history is a speculative mystery.

Talk to you soon.

Sketchbook Origins? - 6-10-16

Hi-De-Ho, Kiddoes!!  Unca Jeffy here again.

I really am giving a concerted effort to posting here more often, every weekday is my goal.  It's very important to my well being if not my drawing skills or anything else.

I've posted a few things about my music and open mics that I get to (the other half of my attempt to remedy my brains lack of serotonin production), and while I was sitting down to write a song last night and going through my song notebook, I came across this drawing I made back in November 2015.

I've actually never been much of a sketchbook person, but back in November I thought it might be a good therapeutic tool for me to use.  This must have been what came out.

Since I've been on a comic book super hero bent of late, I might as well call this one "The Origin of Unca Jeffy's Sketchbook" - the untold story.

See you Monday.

7 Soldiers (plus 1) of Victory - 06-08-16 - More comic book super hero teams

Last time I doodled my version of The Justice Society of America, the first ever comic book super hero team way back in 1940.  This comic was such a success, that DC even gave the super hero team a second shot, using some of it's lesser known characters and called them "The 7 Soldiers of Victory" or sometimes "The Law's Legionnaires".  

Left to right: Wing, The Crimson Avenger, Vigilante, The Star-Spangled Kid, Stripesy, The Shining Knight, Speedy and Green Arrow.

The team was pretty successful, they appeared in 14 issues of Leading Comics right up until it was decided that super heroes weren't a selling commodity anymore and Leading became a humor comic.

7 Soldiers was a standout in more ways, too.  Other than Sir Justin, The Shining Knight who was a transported to modern times from medieval times and rode a magic flying horse, there are no super powered members.  

It also prominently featured side-kicks as part of the team.  Green Arrow's little buddy Speedy, Age-reversal team of The Star-Spangled KID and his adult side-kick Stripesy and The Crimson Avengers wing-man Wing.

And before you start doubting your math skills, yes there are 8 members of the 7 Soldiers.  Sadly with the anti-Asian sentiment of WWII, Chinese sideman Wing was not counted as a full soldier.

Ouch,

Talk to you soon.

Justice SOCIETY of America - 5-30-16 - Since DC might...

While I may rail against DC's crappy movies...their TV shows are pretty fun.

It's been said the Justice Society of America will appear in next seasons Legends of Tomorrow and sure enough in the last scene in the season one finally we got a glimpse of Hourman.  AND with Jay Garrick's Flash being introduced in The Flash's season two finale...I'm pretty dang excited.

For those out there not steeped in comic book lore, The Justice Society of America was the precursor to the Justice LEAGUE that you're probably more familiar with.

In fact, they are the precursor to every dang super hero team and even super hero team up EVER!

They the shit!!

Here's a Jeffy take on them.

Round the table there are the charter members:  The Atom, The Sandman, The Spectre, The Flash, Hawkman, Doctor Fate, Green Lantern and Hourman.  Working clockwise in the rear:  Wonder Woman, The Red Tornado, Dr. Mid-Nite, Superman, Starman, Black Canary, Johnny Thunder's Thunderbolt, Wildcat, Mr. Terrific, Batman and Johnny Thunder.

I Love these guys (and girls).

Talk to you soon.

"I Ride an Old Paint..." - 5-27-16 - A Carousel for Missoula

Well school's about to let out for the season and that means that summer is truly upon us.  Which of course means "A Carousel for Missoula" will be expanding it's operating hours, opening it's concession stand (mmmmmmmmm shaved ices!) and kids will be letting out happy squeals of joy.

3rd in my irregular series of the horsies here at ACFM, here's almost every one's favorite.

"Paint"

"Paint" is the unique horse "adopted" by Irene and Larry Pirnie.  Larry Pirnie is a local western artist based here in Missoula.  In his paintings, he uses ever changing eclectic bright colors to show the energy of a running, wild horse and that's why Paint stands out so well.  Pink and blue and red and orange and green and lavender and yellow, you'll note that Paint also has no saddle.  Paint is a wild horse.  And kids and adults all love to ride free on her.

Talk to you soon.