DCRO 47- The Funnies (1936) #6 [AC Story]

Story title: "Big Doin's!!!"

Cover Date: March 1937

By: Sheldon Mayer

DCRO Entry

Last Scribbly story of the bunch! (There are two more entries but they're only strips) Let's go!

And there's another instance of the little baby piece of crap being unnecessarily mean!

So, the story begins right where we left off: The editor has read Scribbly's stuff and is raving to Ving about how good it all is. You know, I'm starting to think this guy's a fraud. Does he really have experience as an editor? Has he read a comic book at all?

Anyway, he has an idea. Since Scribbly is such a good artist, and also, a kid (something tells me the latter is way more important for him), he wants to turn him into the next Shirley Temple! So... He wants him to be an old lady? Oh right! This is old as fuck. Man, I tend to forget how old these things actually are until they throw a punch like referring to Shirley Temple (and a couple others, but she's the one I know) as "kid stars".

So, according to him, everything that can make you famous has its kid version: there are kid actors, kid musicians, etc. So he wants to make Scribbly the first kid cartoonist (because nothing screams fame and glamour like cartooning).

Take a look at this. Make sure your children are far away from this man. He may not be a proper editor, but he sure as hell is a proper businessman. This is the face of an expert in child exploitation. 

I'm kidding, of course. We've talked about this before, but this series is a lot less cynical than what this blog suggests. In real life, this whole situation would probably be pretty fucked up, but here, it's as good as it sounds at face value. 

The story nears its end and Scribbly has but one response to the whole situation.

Of course, he does! He is still 12 after all! Anyway, nice twist. 

Although Ving then proceeds to ruin the joke by explaining it

And that's the end for now!

Oh don't worry, I couldn't if I wanted to! (Seriously, it's pathological).

You can read this story here. Let's see the ratings:

Quality/Enjoyment: 3/5

A more than decent Scribbly story. Some more progression for his "career" and even a good punchline! Not quite good enough for a 4/5 but barely! I'm not even sure about what else I can ask from these!

Historical/Cultural/Narrative Significance: 1/5

And that's it! After we do the two Why Big Brothers Leave Home strips for this issue we'll move on to the CMRO for just a little while (I still wanna focus on the DCRO for now, since its Golden Age is so much larger). Oh! Also, I've been prowling in the forums a bit and a new series is being added! So we'll have to go back. Can't say I'm surprised tho. I absolutely saw this coming. Anyway, we'll talk more about this series when it actually gets added to the order. For now, thanks for reading and have a nice rest of your day!

DCRO 46- The Funnies (1936) #6 [AA Story]

Story title: "Scribbly Meets the Editor!!!"

Cover Date: March 1937

By: Sheldon Mayer

DCRO Entry

And this is finally the last issue of The Funnies of this Scribbly gauntlet. Of course, that still means we have four entries to go... Don't get me wrong, I still like Scribbly, I just want to get to something else... 

So, the editor, huh? That sure looks like your stereotypical editor alright. Or, businessman, at least, not that I've met that many editors: my books aren't exactly published, or good, or readable, even, or...

Ehem! So this story begins with Ving's editor paying him a visit. He goes around saying hi, and notices some drawings on the table. 

Two things here. First, his name is "Barlowe" which for some reason also sounds very stereotypically business-man-like. Second, Sammy also seems to be the creative type (tho not as talented as his brother). He did mention he planned to be famous a couple entries ago. This all seems to be building up to something.

Anyway, what he sees is a copy of a "Why Big Brothers Leave Home" strip. Which he confuses as a thing Ving's working on. Okay, I know since Scribbly is Ving's pupil, they might have similar styles, but it is a bit weird that his editor doesn't recognize the difference. He thinks it's a good idea (no) and doesn't believe a 12-year-old could do something like that. Well, he did, and it's as good as you'd expect...

Scribbly then brings a shit load of strips to the editor (oh dear god, I hope all of those exist only in-universe, and we don't actually have to sit through them...). Gracefully, Ving takes his student to another room to leave Barlowe alone to focus on the drawings, which he seems to enjoy immensely (weird taste, but ok), as Scribbly sees while "hiding" behind the door frame.

He seems as confused as I am about the man's enjoyment of his art...

I wonder why Ving hasn't shown the drawings to the editor yet tho... Were they not good enough, in his eye? Was he trying to enough of them to kick the kid out and steal the credit? Maybe he thought Scribbly wasn't ready for the fame? Is he actually trying to protect him? What if this was his master plan, and he wanted the editor to discover Scrib "by chance" since that way it was more likely that he wouldn't get rejected? Are these too many questions for a 90-year-old 1-page comic strip? Yes, definitely.

And that's it for today!

Next time, someone will do something big! Right now tho, we will see the ratings.

You can read this story here.

Quality/Enjoyment: 3/5

Not much this time in terms of humor, but it's a nice entry in the series. Truthfully, what I like to see in these is the progression of Scribbly's early-blooming career, and this is one of the best entries, in terms of that! Not much more to say tho.

Historical/Cultural/Narrative Significance: 1/5

And that's it for now! I'm guessing we'll see more progression next time, so good! For now, thanks for reading and have a nice rest of your day.

DCRO 45- The Funnies (1936) #5 [AD Story]

Story title: "Why Big Brothers Leave Home" (III)

Cover Date: February 1937

By: Sheldon Mayer

DCRO Entry

   

So, this is also a very short strip, so let's get it out of the way, alright?

Scribbly's goblin of a little brother is seen overestimating his brother's strength by pitying against the toughest dude in the block (you know, like the classic "my dad could beat up your dad", but more dangerous since it's all kids.

Since the "toughest guy in the block" is only slightly taller than a baby, I'm assuming he's just an older kid.

Scribbly, unaware of the danger that's waltzing his way, is enjoying his day when suddenly...

Next thing he knows, he's in the hospital, with way more wounds than this one panel suggests. Oh! And the antichrist is right next to him.

And that's it... Does that even count as a punchline? Man, I just feel bad for him, he got beat up for absolutely no reason whatsoever, and the tiniest asshole on the planet just laughs it off...

Jesus Billy, I hope that was just something you came up with and not a true story... Get well soon I guess.

Gee! One whole dollar! That's almost worth being beat up for! (Jokes aside, dollars are worth a lot where I live, so if someone wants to beat me up for a couple of them... I'm kidding, of course! Unless...)

You can read this story here. (Although you definitely shouldn't) So let's see the ratings.

Quality/Enjoyment: 1/5

That's right! Our first 1/5! As you can tell, I didn't like this one. The last one wasn't that good either, but this one falls into one of my least favorite "comedy" cliches: Meanness just for its own sake. Don't get me wrong, if you do it right, great comedy can come from one person being mean to another, but when the meanness itself is the whole point of the joke, it doesn't work for me.

Historical/Cultural/Narrative Significance: 1/5

And we're done with this issue! We still have one more number of "The (not so) Funnies" to go to finish this Scribly gauntlet (so, four entries) but at least next time we'll get one of the actual stories. So, thank you for reading, and have a nice rest of your day!

DCRO 44- The Funnies (1936) #5 [AB Story]

 Story title: "Why Big Brothers Leave Home" (II)

Cover Date: February 1937

By: Sheldon Mayer

DCRO Entry

Alright, so this is the actual of the semi-meta "Why big brothers leave home strip?" which to my understanding is kind of a tradition for Scribbly, so let's find out why brothers do leave home.

So, this one starts tellingly: Scribbly is doing his homework and his brother is listening to the radio slightly too loud, so he asks him (kind of) politely to turn it down. Now, what has Scribbly always complained about not being able to concentrate on...? His drawings! So it's pretty obvious that this is one of the stories sent in by the readers. Which is fine, actually, I mean, we were told that that's where the ideas would come from, but still, it's weird seeing this characters representing some random kid from back then.

Anyway, the little asshole feels like being annoying, so Scribbly gets up and turns down the radio himself. 

So, the little devil starts crying, the mom comes in, scolds Scribbly and the radio ends up louder than before... 

Which I guess is a relatable situation? I don't know, I don't have any siblings, but I have heard some stories with this kind of structure (as in, parents siding with the smallest even when the eldest is right) from my friends, soooo... Maybe?

Anyway, that's it: 

Way to rat out baby Gaines, Bill from Sklyn (not Brooklyn)!

 

Hey, at least this time the direction is included in the actual story, so it'd be easier to send one out.

But no thanks, I don't think I will.

You can read this here (tho maybe you shouldn't). Let's see the ratings.

Quality/Enjoyment: 2/5

Yeah, this is pretty awful. The only reason I don't give it one star is because of the theoretical reliability (which I guess it's a quality that all of these will more or less share), but I got a gut feeling that this strip will be more of the get-it-out-of-the-way-quickly variety. Thankfully, it's short enough to work within that "genre".

Historical/Cultural/Narrative Significance: 1/5

And that's it! Next one is another one of these, and after that, more Scribbly! (The somewhat decent one, thankfully) So thanks for reading and have a nice rest of your day!

DCRO 43- The Funnies (1936) #5 [AC Story]

Story title: "Scribbly Takes a Test!"

Cover Date: February 1937

By: Sheldon Mayer

DCRO Entry

One more Scribbly page, let's go!

Are his skills as a cartoonist good enough to be the full-time apprentice of the great (although, we haven't seen any of his strips) Ving Parker? Let's find out.

So, on what I'm assuming is the morning after the previous night's incident. Scribbly and Sammy are getting acquainted over breakfast.

 After all that, apparently, Ving was gracious enough to not kick him out. He seems a bit too eager to let people into his house... I mean, he does live alone with his butler in a huge mansion and must get kind of lonely sometimes.

Scrib and Sammy get to talking, and they go straight to the subject of Scribbly's artistic aspirations. Now, Ving has warned Scribbly about Sammy being a bit of a jokester, but I guess he's more worried about his career, because when Sammy mentions a "Cartoonist license", he fully believes it!

This reminds me of something! Back when I started high school, my grandpa warned me about older kids asking me if I had already submitted my "death certificate" so I would go to try and submit it and make a fool out of myself (please, do understand, in this fake scenario the victim is eleven a what a "death certificate" is is a lot less obvious in Spanish). Of course, I never actually got pranked like that, but he likely was, so I wonder if "nonexistent license" was a common prank genre a few decades ago... Tangent over.

So, to get this cartoonist license, you need to prove that you're crazy enough to be one. See! This is totally pushing the idea of artists being crazy! Kind of weird to me. it's definitely an existing stereotype, but more so for museum painting artists, or even writers or film directors, but not for cartoonists!

Anyway, Ving happens to look out the window, and what he sees prompts him to run outside. 

And what he finds there is... Well, definitely crazy enough for a cartoonist, whatever that entails.

And with this image of Scribbly showing the statue a less than flattering view (while holding an umbrella, of course, because you wouldn't wanna get wet!) we conclude.

No "read next" this time, but have some publicity.

And now, let's get to the ratings.

Quality/Enjoyment: 2/5

You know, I was gonna give this a 3, but then I realized it's not really that good. The joke is alright, but definitely not on par with some of the more decent ones we've seen so far. And there's no plot progression,k really, besides I guess a bit more characterization for Sammy, but nothing too new, given what we already saw last time.

Historical/Cultural/Narrative Significance: 1/5

And that's it for now! Next time is only the "why big brothers leave home strip from the other page, so it shouldn't take long. Until then, thanks for reading, and have a nice rest of your day!

DCRO 42- The Funnies (1936) #5 [AA Story]

Story title: "Meet Sammy-!!!"

Cover Date: February 1937

By: Sheldon Mayer

DCRO Entry

After three entries, we've finally gotten to the next issue of "The Funnies", which includes... Another four Scribbly entries. Also, before we can move on to something else, we have to read the Scribbly portion of the March issue too... Rejoice!

So, now that we're back to the actual story, let's see who this Sammy individual is.

The story starts with Scrib waking up in the middle of the night to hear those all-time classic "strange noises", but I guess he's not too used to them because he figures it might be a burglar. Fair enough tho, a mansion like that, with no security, who wouldn't want to loot it? (Not that I would, of course...)

Also, I am certainly relieved to confirm that Scribbly has his own room, and does not sleep with Ving.

So he goes down to investigate, golf club in hand. (As any 12-year-old would?)

Downstairs he finds this guy who's eating Ving's food and grabbing his cigars and stuff. It's funny that he takes the cigars from a big box that just says "cigars" no brand or anything.

Must be from the creators of those famous "generic" detergents.

Anyway, so this guy must be some kind of nutjob. He shows up in the middle of the night carrying several suitcases. Eats Ving's cigarettes, smokes his food (An entire roast chicken!!), and does all this without any pants on and while talking to himself like a maniac. He must've escaped from the nearest madhouse. Maybe he's not a burglar, but he's bad news alright. 

Scrib runs upstairs to rat the guy up to Ving, but then he wakes up and perfectly guesses everything the guy did (including the pants off-taking).

And then the twist, he happened to know the guy! He's Ving's little brother! Nice twist, but some of the stuff he did, combined with showing up in the middle of the night, are grounds for kicking him out anyway.

A test huh? I suppose that's not a school test, since it's summer vacation, and we all know summer vacation lasts a very long time in the cartoon world.

You can read this story here. Now, let's see the ratings. 

Quality/Enjoyment: 3/5

This one kind of got a laugh out of me too (more like nose-air, actually). I can picture Sammy being played by a histrionic actor, if this was a sitcom, or being animated funnily, if it was a TV cartoon. The twist was kind of predictable, but I think making the guy his little brother and not just a friend is particularly smart because it continues the theme of little brothers being annoying, even throughout adulthood. It's not a very deep theme, mind you, but it's something.

Historical/Cultural/Narrative Significance: 1/5

Alright! And that's it for now. Next, more Scribbly, of course. For now, thanks for reading and have a nice rest of your day!

DCRO 41- The Funnies (1936) #4 [T Story]

Story title: "Why Big Brothers Leave Home (I)"

Cover Date: January 1937

By: Sheldon Mayer

DCRO Entry

Let's get this one out of the way since it's almost non-existent.

As we already know, that's the title of Scribbly's in-universe strip, so let's see how good it is.

Aaaaaand that's it! That's the entire entry! Just an ad of Sheldon Mayer using Scribbly as a vehicle to tell kids to do his job for him. Apparently, "Why Big Brothers Leave Home" is not about coming of age, but about little brothers being so annoying that you just want to live somewhere else, we already knew that, tho. 

So, on one hand, this comes off as a bit lazy on Sheldon Mayer's part, but on the other hand, I'm sure kids would've been thrilled to see their anecdotes drawn to life in the magazine. But then again, on yet another hand (that's right, I have three hands), I feel a little bad for all the baby siblings whose infantile mischief was immortalized as a canonical part of the DC multiverse...

Anyway, that's it.

You can read this "story" here.

And now, the ratings:

Quality/Enjoyment: 2/5

Alright, alright, don't yell at me. I know this deserves a 1/5 and maybe even less. There is literally no story here, for crying out loud! Still, I think calling babies "pocket editions" deserves at least an extra point, even if it's definitely not the first use of the term.

Historical/Cultural/Narrative Significance: 1/5

And that's it for today, tune in next time for... An actual story! For now, thanks for reading and have a nice rest of your day!