tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post3499983599063306420..comments2024-03-27T05:54:38.797-07:00Comments on <i>bare</i>•bones e-zine: EC Comics! It's An Entertaining Comic! Issue 50John Scolerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14082147756474762000noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-81607208802894974692018-02-10T13:51:06.430-08:002018-02-10T13:51:06.430-08:00I can say with certainty that I have never read a ...I can say with certainty that I have never read a single thing by L. Ron Hubbard, so thanks for the tip. That's funny and fascinating about Gasoline Alley. I wonder what kind of readership it has now and if any real-life newspapers still run it or if it's just online at this point. We stopped getting a daily paper years ago, so the only cartoons I see on a regular basis anymore are the ones that run in The New Yorker. I used to enjoy reading the daily funnies.Jack Seabrookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02216640325305820140noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-21026104952029348512018-02-10T07:25:22.616-08:002018-02-10T07:25:22.616-08:00I suspect the surprise in "Bellyful" may...I suspect the surprise in "Bellyful" may have been "borrowed" from "Beyond the Black Nebula," a 1949 story by L. Ron Hubbard, in which a space warp leads into a strange cavern filled with strange monsters -- which turns out to be the guts of a worm. (I don't recall if it was a Giant Space Worm from Out There, or if the warp shrunk the ship and its crew to teensy size and they ended up in a Normal Space Worm from In Somewhere, though.<br /><br />Not only is the comic strip GASOLINE ALLEY still going, lead character Walt Wallet (a WWI veteran) is still alive and mobile, though he looks pretty terrible. His wife and various younger characters have been killed off by the writers over the years, but apparently they can't bring themselves to pull the trigger (literally or otherwise) on their original protagonist. There was even a storyline a couple of years ago where his extreme age caused townsfolk to decide he had found the Fountai of Youth, and riots ensued. As if the 130-ish lead character isn't fantasy element enough, these days a number of stories revolve around a spooky kid who can talk to animals, including a bear who protects the kid's precious scrapbook during a forest fire, almost at the cost of his own life. You can't make this stuff up. . . <br /><br />Denny Liennoreply@blogger.com