Showing posts with label Ace McCoy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ace McCoy. Show all posts

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Coming Up Aces

Thursday Story Strip Day.



Some Time ago, I shared with you a couple of poor copies from Frank Frazetta's adventure strip from the early fifties, Johnny Comet. It ran for about a year and near the end it changed writers and seems to have been changed into a gag strip, or at least the Sundays were. After having shown a couple of samples I started collecting a couple more, but I stopped doing that when it was announced that vanguard Publishing would bring out a new 'complete' collection. The collection is due in stores any minute now, so I wrote them to ask if the new collection would include the second incarnation of the strip, which sometimes went under the name of Ace McCoy. They told me it did and added that this wil also be the first time that the whole of the strip is shot from the stats from Frazetta's own archives, promising a visual feast from the eye. I have not yet seen the actual bok, but what I have from Vanguard is always extremely well produced. So I am expecting good things from it (even though I don't always care for their choice of glossy paper - which doesn't mean they will do so again with this book). They also asked me not to show too much of the strip in an online showcas such as this, but frankly I believe that the poor quality of these scans from the micro-fiche files of NewspaperArchive will only make the fans want the book even more. Imagine you could be able to see every line in these strips...! To show what that would look like, I have added two of the many originals that can be found on the web as well. I am not the Frazetta idolate that some collectors seem to be, but I do recognize quality when I see it.

If you have a particulary well-stocked comic book store, you can try and order it there. Otherwise you can go to Amazon or the online store of your favor, or get it through the Vanguard website at: http://www.vanguardproductions.net/Comet/index


















Monday, May 10, 2010

Ace's Trump

Monday Extra.

Today, instead of the usual cartoon selection, I am offering a public service, some of Frank Frazetta's Johnny Comet and Ace McCoy strips from 1952. Frazetta died recently at the age of 82. Obituaries are found all ver the web. I had been collecting some of his newspaper strip work, wonderung if I shoudl share it with you. I belive all of Johnny Comet has been collected, maybe even twice. But when the autoracing strip wasn't succesful, the writer was ditched, the name was changed and an attempt was made to turn it into a funny soap opera of some sorts. These strips are from the period of the switch, although I am not wuite sure it the last tiers named Johnny Comit aren't already actually Ace McCoy strips. I quite like Frazetta's funny style, aming this a rare and quirky experiment. Fortunately, this too was not a succes, whoch led to EC and all other good things fro Mr. Frazetta. May he rest in peace.