Showing posts with label Internet Archive. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Internet Archive. Show all posts

Friday, May 30, 2025

Joe Sutliff's Dunderman comic strip



From back in the day... the 1980s that is. A superhero parody comic strip. 

Self-published, Joe gave me his last copy. I scanned it and will give the original to the Library of Congress.  But you can read it here at the Internet Archive.

Who is Dunderman?

Rocketed to earth as a baby when his planet explodes .. . no, that's not it. Deep in a cave beneath stately Wayne manor... nope, not that either. Bitten by a radioactive ...?

The truth is that Dunderman represents the classic everyman, frustrated with the injustices of life and feeling powerless to make a change. His excuse, he tells himself, is that he is no one special. When chance events give him tremendous power, however, it becomes clear that he is as ineffectual as ever. It is the desire and ability to do great things, coupled with total ignorance as to how to go about it, that is the basis for Dunderman.

6/25/25 update: Joe told me more about the background of the strip last month, and it turns out the booklet is one of ten that he created as a pitch for syndicating the strip. In his own words"

This strip, incidentally, holds the world record for fastest rejection.
After the sweat and labor of creating the strips, I made 10 copies in
booklet form (the standard in those days) and delivered one by hand to
Al Leeds at the Washington Post writers group (too poor to afford a
courier and didn't want to trust the Post Office.) So I went down to the
front desk of the old WP Building but they wouldn't let me go upstairs
to drop it off. The desk guy said I should take it to the delivery
entrance but that I should hurry, since they only made two distribution
rounds each day and the last one would be going any minute.

So I hustled out and around and up the back alley to deliveries, and got
it on the cart just as they were loading it up. This was around 2:30 -
then I got back on Metro and went home. The next morning, I checked the
mail (it came around 10 am) I had an envelope with the enclosed message,
which I have framed over my desk. I envision it thus: It comes to his
desk around 3. He opens it, looks through them, and stops everything,
writing the note, getting it in an envelope and then going down to the
mail desk and saying "I don't CARE if the afternoon mail has already
left - this must be delivered as soon as possible!"

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Heroes Con Feldstein (and Friends) panel recording online

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Al Feldstein and Ben Towle

I've uploaded Craig Fischer and Ben Towle's panel to the Internet Archive as an mp3. Click on the link to download it.

NOT THE USUAL GANG OF IDIOTS: EC COMICS PANEL
Part 2: A Chat With Al Feldstein (and Friends)

Ben Towle and Craig Fischer host an in-depth interview with Al Feldstein, EC artist and writer and MAD MAGAZINE editor extraordinaire! Along for the ride is a pair of celebrity funsters - FRED THE CLOWN and FIN FANG FOUR cartoonist Roger Langridge and CUL DE SAC comic stripper Richard Thompson - ready to roast and grill Feldstein about The Lighter Side of Editing America's #1 Humor Magazine!

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Craig Fischer, Richard Thompson, Roger Langridge, Al Feldstein.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Government Comics on Internet Archive

A search for 'comic book' at the Internet Archive produces pdfs of some US Government comic book giveaways including Mr. Civil Defense Tells About Natural Disasters which has a Li'l Abner cover and Smash-Up at Big Rock with art by Mark Trail's Ed Dodd. There's also a Jack Chick and a Klan comic. I guess there are still some government giveaway comics although the only one coming to mind at the moment is PS Magazine - now with Joe Kubert artwork.