The Sunday Funnies - Alley Oop The First Time Travel Adventures!

Alley Oop's adventures in Moo had proven quite a success. It turns out a good-size portion of the population wanted to followed the misadventures of a brave and bold caveman as he comically battled for safety and resepct from dinosaurs, his fellow man and his fellow women. Ooola in particular was the cave doll he doted on and one day he and she were popped through time into the 20th Century by way of a time machine built by Professor Wonmug. When that happened Alley Oop the comic strip became even more popular, because now the whole of history both factual and fanciful was open territory for the creator V.T. Hamlin. 

The Library of American Comics Essentials - Alley Oop The First Time Travel Adventures volume published by IDW chose the dailies when Alley Oop became a modern cave man began waltzing through time and space as just that, essential.We have nearly three hundred and fifty pages of daily strips here begining in the mythical prehistoric land of Moo and quickly rushing into the modern world, and then back into time once again as Alley Oop, Oola and Dr. Bronson (a historian with a yearn to see it for himself) jump into the sack of Troy and later into the pages of Homer's The Odyssey. 

In these quickly-paced black and white pages we see Alley Oop outwit modern men, battle a locomotive, take a plane ride, and then in the shadow of the city of Troy battle Ajax and woo Helen. Oola arrives and the Greeks think her the goddess Minerva and she doesn't disavow that instead using to help her find a lost Bonson and Alley Oop. 

As much fun as Alley Oop is in these strips, it's Ooola who is the revelation. Alley Oop is somewhat bewildered by the modern world, but Ooola groks it immediately and in fact cottons to it wearing modern clothes and packing a pistol to boot. She's a no-nonsense woman who demands as much as she allows and in a comic strip from 1939 that's a bit of a revelation. 

The story concludes just as Alley Oop, Ooola, and Dr. Bronson have finally left Ullysses having confronted the Cyclops, Scylla and Charybis, Circe and the Sirens too (who are hilarious by the way) and we see a new character named Dr. Oscar Boom join them as they look to confront the Amazons with Hercules tagging along. It's great great stuff from a bygone era. 

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The Sunday Funnies - Alley Oop 1937-39!

The Alley Oop Sunday pages really seemed to gel nicely in these years with continuities running several weeks and not missing a beat. Unlike some funnies which are understandably rich with reminders about the story to date, these are not and that makes reading in in a collection like this. Alley and his friend Foozy spend much of this tome on the outs, first feuding over their business interests and later over recognition for their gifts. Alley Oop is notably for his forthrightness and his strength while Foozy is more a man of the mind which is revealed by his incessant talking in rhymes. Much like Alley and Dinny, Foozy is able to tame Terry, a Petordactyl for his his use as flying steed. 

There's quite a bit of soft commentary on modern daily life in the strip with the seeking of wealth a common theme and I'm sure one which resonated in these later years of the Great Depression. Fun and entertainment are on tap as well when a projected zoo is transformed into a traveling circus complete with prehistoric wagons pulled by Wooly Mammoths. The circus story is followed by one in which the crown jewels of Moo are stolen and Alley and Foozy are both instrumental bringing them back, though by different means. Alley does a stint as the local law officer, but it's fundamentally against his nature and he soon enough relinquishes the post. 

In fact it's a newly freed Alley Oop who bids farewell to Foozy in a later Sunday as the latter flies away and then with more time to focus his attentions. Alley begins to spend some time with Ooola. They are together when suddenly the strip changes its entire focus as a Professor Wonmug's time machine snatches the couple and whips them into the 20th Century. We get a few pages with Alley trying to figure out this strange new world, but there's no doubt with all of time now available, V.T. Hamlin will not waste time using the opportunity. 

That's the focus of the next Sunday Funnies. 

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The Sunday Funnies - Alley Oop 1934-36!

It's a general notion that not much captures a young kid's imagination like dinosaurs. It was certainly the case with me. The idea that once upon a time immense beasts roamed the landscape, long before man was a figment of nature's imagination is thrilling in a way. Even more thrilling is the bizarred but compelling notion that maybe despite all the geological evidence to the contrary that dinosaurs and mankind might have coexisted. Maybe these beasts (all called "dinosaurs" despite their actual classifications) are still lurking up some forgotten river or inside some lost valley and maybe people might stumble across them sometime. 

It's the basis for many a yarn including those spun by the likes of Verne (Journey to the Center of the Earth) and Doyle (The Lost World). Movies made of these stories and originals have spread the vicarious gospel that man and prehistoric beast are good together. The thrill of dinosaurs hit a peak when The Lost World made it to the silent picture screen and later still in 1933 a little movie called King Kong transformed the movies and the way we think about dinosaurs. But in 1932 in the comics pages V.T. Hamlin was scratching about trying to find a formula for a hit strip to make a living with. He fashioned one which showcased some rather sophisticated cavemen and lo and behold they shared their four-color universe with a wide assortment of dinosaurs. The strip was named Alley Oop and it made Hamlin's career and he worked on it the rest of his life. 

According to my exhaustive research (Wikipedia) the Alley Oop stories take place in the "Bone Age" and the names of "Alley Oop" and "Oooola" his girlfriend are derived from the French phrases "allez hop" and "oo-la-lah" respectively. Alley and his ever-rhyming colleague Foozy live in "Moo" (Mu) and contend from time to time with folks from "Lem" (Lemuria). Hamlin was having lots of fun with language as he fabricated light-hearted misadventures for his prehistoric gang. In 1934 a Sunday page began and that's what I just finished reading the first volume of from Dark Horse. The strips are from the years 1934 through 1936, and we meet our cast and learn quite a lot. 

Alley and his buddy Foozy as the pair try to make a go of their mercantile storefront (a cave opening) which specializes most often in clubs and stone axes. In fact they even scheme to trigger a small war between Moo and Lem to driving up sales at one point. At another the two fall out and begin a heady competition. At other times they must placate King Guzzle and Queen Umpateedle who rule over Moo. In these early tales Alley Oop is not seemingly all that interested in romance, but does have a hankering for fisticuffs. I was reminded of Popeye's pugilistic ways, though Oop doesn't seem to be all that much tougher than his mates. All of them though are plenty tough though because they commonly hunt down giant dinosaurs for a host of resources such as meat for food and bones for equipment. 

The strip also supplies real actual information in the form of images and data on actual real dinosaurs and other assorted prehistoric creatures in a feature dubbed "Dinny's Family Album". Later this will give way to other kinds of premium activities, but for the first few years of the Sunday page it could be relied upon to display some very bizarre ancient critters indeed. 

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To Monster Land And Back Again!

With an epic monster movie release scheduled for the end of this very month, it's time for  some monsters to stomp and romp through my imagination and when I get in that kind of mood no monster does the job better than the "King of Monsters" himself -- GODZILLA! 

Since the last time I took a close gander at the delightful minions and monsters of Toho and beyond, I have come into possession of David Kalat's A Critical History and Filmography of Toho's Godzilla Series. I've been holding back on reading it because when I got it I'd just seen the movies thanks to the Criterion Showa collection which was released a few summers back. I'd also just reviewed many of those wonderful Toho films here at the Dojo relatively recently and didn't think I'd had any particularly new perspective for another go at these classic flicks. 

Well frankly I'm in the mood again for a careful reflective advance through these mighty Toho classics. During the course of that I will be creating fresh reviews (more or less) for each of the fifteen films in the series. In truth monsters of the screen seem so tame when compared to the monsters of this world such as hatred and ignorance. It will be interesting to watch these representations of society face up the threats of their time, or in some cases not so much. 

Looking back into the Dojo archives expect to see vintage posts about the only ongoing comic book featuring Godzilla approximate to the Showa era in 1977. Marvel acquired the license to Toho's greatest star and produced some curiously interesting comics written by Doug Moench and drawn by Herb Trimpe and Tom Sutton. These were reprinted one time only in an Essential volume in 2006. 

And speaking of radioactive monstrosities, this month will also feature my reflections on one of Gold Key's most fondly remembered series -- Mighty Samson. This comic book series conceived by Otto Binder and drawn by the likes of Frank Thorne, Jack Sparling, Joe Delbo and others was one of Gold Key's most long lasting, though there were significant breaks in the publishing over the years. It's the picture of a world and more specifically an America in ruins after atomic warfare. It posits new and peculiar human societies as well as some of the most freakish creatures in the whole history of comics. 

The "Classic Crisis" series presenting a backward look at DC's vintage crossovers between Earth-1 and Earth-2 and many Earths besides will take a hiatus this month. "The Sunday Funnies" will continue, but will shift its focus to dinosaurs and especially V.T. Hamlin's Alley Oop for the month. All in all, a month of behemoths and beasts of many kinds looms. 

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