House of Mystery #188

House of Mystery #188 (On Sale: July 9, 1970) has a cover by Neal Adams.

This issue introduced American comic fans to the amazing pencil and ink artwork of Tony DeZuniga in its first story, "Dark City of Doom" written by Gerry Conway.

Next is a Cain's Gargoyles one-pager written and drawn by Sergio Aragones, a Page 13 one-pager by Joe Orlando and Sergio Aragones and a Cain's Game Room one-pager by John Albano. In a few years John Albano and Tony DeZuniga would team up to create western anti-hero Jonah Hex.

This issue ends with "House of Madness" drawn by Bernie Wrightson.

The entire issue was reprinted in Showcase Presents: The House of Mystery Vol. 1 TPB.

Edited by Joe Orlando.

Binky #73

Binky #73 (On Sale: April 7, 1970) has a cover by Henry Scarpelli.

We begin with "Lucky Binky" by John Albano, Winslow Mortimer and Henry Scarpelli and reprinted in Best of DC #39. Next is "The Great Bar-Bell Chase" and that is followed by "A Message to Peggy" by John Albano, Bob Oksner and Henry Scarpelli and also reprinted in Best of DC #39. We end with "Sherwood's Turn-On Gets Turned Off."

Edited by Joe Orlando.

Binky's Buddies #9

Binky's Buddies #9 (On Sale: March 5, 1970) has cover by Henry Scarpelli.

This issue begins with Binky's Buddies in "Binky Keeps His Cool." Next is Benny in "Monkey Business" by John Albano, Winslow Mortimer and Henry Scarpelli, which was reprinted in Binky #81 and Best of DC #45. We end with Binky's Buddies in "Run, Mudder, Run" by John Albano, Winslow Mortimer and Henry Scarpelli, which was reprinted in Best of DC #39.

Edited by Joe Orlando.

Binky's Buddies #8

Binky's Buddies #8 (On Sale: January 8, 1970) has a cover by Henry Scarpelli.

This issue begins with Binky in "The Good Skate." Next is Buzzy in "Mr. Muscles." We end with Binky again in "Slappy Birthday" by John Albano, Winslow Mortimer and Henry Scarpelli. This last story was reprinted in Best Of DC #45.

Edited by Joe Orlando.

Leave It To Binky #71

Leave It To Binky #71 (On Sale: December 9, 1969) has a cover by Henry Scarpelli.

We begin with Binky in "The T.V. Man" by John Albano, Winslow Mortimer and Bill Draut which was reprinted in Best of DC #29. Next is Binky in "Supporting Your Local Policeman." That is followed by Binky's Buddies in "Easy Bread" by Barbara Friedlander, Winslow Mortimer and Henry Scarpelli. This was reprinted in Best of DC #70. We end with Binky in "(Where are you going in such a temper, Binky?)."

Edited by Joe Orlando.

Binky's Buddies #7

Binky's Buddies #7 (On Sale: November 6, 1969) has a cover by Henry Scarpelli.

We begin with Binky's Buddies in "Genius for a Day" and "Ski Weekend." Next is Peggy in "Honk! Honk" and "New Boy in Town." Lastly we have Binky in "The Football Flop" by John Albano, Winslow Mortimer and Henry Scarpelli which was reprinted in Best of DC #45.

Edited by Joe Orlando.

Angel and the Ape #6

Angel and the Ape #6 (On Sale: July 15, 1969) has a cover by Bob Oksner on this their final issue, though there will be one more comic in this series, simply entitled Meet Angel.

We have three short Angel and the Ape stories this issue. We start with "The Robbing Robot" by John Albano, Bob Oksner and Wally Wood. Next is "The Liberator" also drawn by Bob Oksner and Wally Wood. We end with "The Ape of 1,000 Disguises" by John Albano, Bob Oksner and Wally Wood.

Edited by Joe Orlando.

Angel and the Ape #1

Angel and the Ape #1 (On Sale: September 12, 1968) has a nice cover by Bob Oksner.

"The Case of the Going, Going, Gone Go Go Girls" is by John Albano, Bob Oksner and Henry Scarpelli. It would be a year before another Albano story would be published by DC. When Albano returned he worked on the DC teen books for a while before hitting his stride with the creation of Jonah Hex in Weird Western Tales. In this issue, when Angel O'Day can't pay the rent at her detective agency she takes a job as a Go Go dancer. Several dancers have recently disappeared only to reappear later as hypnotized thralls who rob men. Professor Klutz is the man behind the kidnappings, and he sets Angel as his next target.

When Klutz and his assistant Feebles snatch Angel, Sam tries to stop them. He is knocked out and taken to the gorilla cage at the local zoo. Sam manages to escape and track down Angel before Klutz can finish making her a thrall. The detectives are then attacked by the hypnotized dancers. Sam forces Klutz to surrender his control over the girls, ending the threat.

Here is the title page from this issue courtesy of Robby Reed at Dial B for BLOG who recently did a very nice piece on Angel and the Ape. As Bob Oksner's forte was drawing beautiful, sexy women, he was the pefect choice to bring bubble-headed beauty Angel O'Day to life. For those who don't know and once again lifting from Robby Reed's excellent blog, Bob Oksner passed away February 18, 2007. He was 90 years old. Bob had been illustrating comics since 1943 when he redesigned Marvel Boy for Timely Comics. He drew many different character during the next 43 years as he shuffled from super heroes to humor and back to super heroes. Among his work were stories for The Adventures of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Adventures of Bob Hope; The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis; Sgt. Bilko; Pat Boone; Angel and the Ape; Welcome Back, Kotter; House of Mystery, Stanley and His Monster.

When the DC line of humor comics was axed in the 1970's he went back to heroes and drew Superman, Supergirl, Wonder Woman, Shazam (Captain Marvel), Black Orchid, Lois Lane and many others. He won the National Cartoonist Society award for comic books in 1960 and 1961, and in 1970 he won the Shazam Award for his work on DC titles. Bob Oksner retired from comics in 1986.

I met Oksner at the San Diego Comic-Con in 2006 (I think). He was a sweet, unassuming man with lots of stories and so much life in him; I had no idea he was almost 90 at the time.

Edited by Joe Orlando.

Showcase #77

Showcase #77 (On Sale: July 25, 1968) has a wonderful Angel and the Ape cover by Bob Oksner and Tex Blaisdell.

"Angel and the Ape" is by John Albano, Bob Oksner and Tex Blaisdell and this is John Albano's first writing for DC. Albano would go on to creat one of the biggest western hits DC ever had in Jonah Hex. Mr. Trumbell hires Angel O'Day, a private investigator, to protect him from men trying to kill him. Angel and her partner Sam Simeon, an intelligent gorilla help fight off several attackers, then Sam leaves to deliver a comic strip to Stan Bragg, editor of Brainpix Comics.

After dropping off the artwork, Sam returns home where he receives a call for help from Angel. She has been kidnapped along with Trumbell. Sam traces them to the local zoo and rescues Angel. Together they locate Trumbell and his captor, the zookeeper. Angel exposes the zookeeper as a spy who was trying to retrieve secret plans hidden inside a cast on Trumbell's foot. While the plans seems to be for a new rocket, they are actually plans for a new ride at Disneyland.

Edited by Joe Orlando.