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Some comics spell down successful past arsenic masterful examples of the trade and are beloved by aggregate generations. And others extremity up astatine the landfill. In this series, I’ll beryllium looking backmost connected immoderate forgotten bid to amended recognize what benignant of comics our ancestral nerds were speechmaking successful the days of rotary phones and grounds players.
Today’s subject: Adventures successful Wonderland!
Is determination specified a happening arsenic too whimsical?
The Context
As accustomed with ’50s comics, it each comes down to the Comics Code Authority. The publisher, Lev Gleason Publications, had made their sanction with convulsive superhero comics similar Daredevil (not that one) and transgression comics similar Crime Does Not Pay.
But by 1955, those types of titles were coming nether dense occurrence from spiritual leaders and the national government. The Senate convened peculiar hearings to find if comics needed to beryllium federally regulated. I presume Gleason started this astir guiltless of titles to get the motivation guardians and fear-mongers disconnected his back.
Adventures successful Wonderland lasted conscionable 5 issues, truthful you tin conjecture however good that went.
The Creators
I’ve already talked a spot astir the publisher, but who were the existent creators down this title?
As an anthology-style title, we get stories by tons of antithetic creators, astir of whom are genuinely talented. I was amazed by however bully the creation was, honestly. We get enactment from Bob Fujitani, whom we past met connected Hangman Comics. It besides features creation by Dick Rockwell (yes, they are related) and Myron Fass, who had his own, short-lived publishing institution successful the mid-’60s and tried to writer Marvel for stealing a quality sanction that they’d some stolen from Fawcett.
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The Comic
I picked this 1 assuming it had thing to bash with the Lewis Carroll book. It does not.
Most of the stories are fairy tales with talking animals, knights, and truthful on. Four retired of 5 issues diagnostic a communicative with a quality named Peter Pester, a young lad who serves arsenic the royal baker for the kingdom of Gladiola. He goes connected immoderate astonishing adventures for a baker, similar swapping places with a knight to spell combat pirates. He is joined by his incredibly annoying friends, who speech similar they’re the Super Dictionary.
“You’d person maine down connected my knees, present wouldn’t you, Barracuda?”
Again, I was amazed by however not atrocious these stories were. They’re hardly going to triumph awards, but it’s cute and fun.
The different stories tends to travel emblematic fairy communicative formulas: there’s a batch of foolish kings (who each look the same, somehow) learning invaluable lessons, and abused mediocre people who summation wealthiness and happiness by being bully (or bland). In 1 depressing communicative from Issue 2, “The Prince and Penelope,” Penelope falls successful love, is tricked into reasoning the prince doesn’t emotion her back, hallucinates the prince, falls into a river, is presumed dead, gets rescued, marries her rescuer, has a kid, and stays hidden for 10 years. The prince conveniently finds her again aft she is widowed, and they each (finally) unrecorded happily ever after!
The prime drops successful the past 2 issues, with the artwork and lettering getting noticeably worse. The stories rotation from the fairy communicative theme, too, taking spot successful what was past the modern day. Issue 5 is simply a Christmas peculiar with stories that I tin lone picture arsenic “A Christmas Carol but worse” and “Rip-Off Dumbo Learns About Christmas.”
Genuinely shocked nary racist caricature birds showed up to sing astir Santa Claus.
And yet, Lev Gleason Publications was sunk by the wide anti-comics backlash, not by Disney’s lawyers.
The Legacy
I mostly wanted to work Adventures successful Wonderland due to the fact that it seemed cheerful, and the past mates of titles I’ve covered person been…not.
I don’t person overmuch to accidental astir this one, to beryllium honest. The archetypal 3 issues are pleasant enough, if you’re into fairy tales. Like I said, the creation is precise nice. Except for immoderate of the Peter Pester stuff, it each feels generic, though, which is astir apt wherefore this rubric doesn’t look to person had immoderate benignant of interaction connected comic books. A UK publisher, L. Miller & Son (which aboriginal changed its sanction for, um, reasons) did reprint immoderate of the stories successful 1956, but that didn’t past long.
Even if this isn’t my benignant of comic, it’s inactive absorbing to spot conscionable however sanitized the mean became successful the mid-’50s. We went from dark, ultra-violent stories similar Hangman Comics to cute but trite tales similar these. There’s nary risk-taking, nary out-of-the-box thinking, but that’s what comics had to bash to past the decade.
Even then, it wasn’t capable for publishers similar Lev Gleason, who couldn’t enactment afloat selling the types of kiddie comics that puritanical adults wanted them to.
Want much vintage goodness? Check retired erstwhile editions of RCR: Race for the Moon, Stamps Comics, Tippy Teen, Winnie Winkle, Hangman Comics, and G.I. successful Battle!
English (US) ·