Hanna-Barbera Harlem Globetrotters (Whitman)
I'm not positive, but I think this was based on a Saturday morning cartoon. Have trouble imagining a cartoon based around the Harlem Globetrotters (there can only be so many ways to work a basketball game into a story), but then I can't believe the folks at Western Publishing managed to turn out at least three comics based on it.

Granny's Royal Ruckus Hanna-Barberra Harlem Globetrotters #3
The story starts with the Harlem Globetrotters bus driving on a road that crosses the Himalayas.
If there is a road through the Himalayas then why is such a big deal made about people trying to climb it?

Rocky & Bullwinkle (Whitman)
Based on the famous Jay Ward cartoons.

Noose For A Moose Bullwinkle #5
Page 5, Panel 3. Boris is flesh-colored instead of white. (Only in Rocky & Bullwinkle would that be a nit. ;-)

Hey, Rocky! Watch me pull a nit out of my hat!

Hanna-Barbera Abbott & Costello (Charlton)
Based on a cartoon which was based on the comedy team of Bud Abbott & Lou Costello.

Flying Dogs Abbott & Costello #13
Plot: Lou gets a job as a dog walker, but the dogs are too much for him.
Lou says, "Ask the dogs... They're bigger than me!"
Someone should have told the artist that. Small as Lou is drawn the dogs are drawn smaller.

Lou runs away from the dogs and the dogs follow, somehow wrapping the leashes around a man's legs. Not both legs at once, but each leg individually. Which leads to the next nit, as the dogs race on the man ends up spinning which you would expect only if the leashes had wrapped around both lags at once.

Page 3. Panel 1 Lou dives into a wire garbage basket. Panel 2 the basket is see-through. Panels 3-6 the part of Lou inside the basket cannot be seen.

Some Dough Abbott & Costello #13
Working at a bakery Abbott & Costello are told to just bake up the dough left in the bowl. However we later see both Bud & Lou kneading dough even though the bowl didn't seem large enough to hold the amount of dough both originally are seen to work.

I'm not positive, but I think this was based on a Saturday morning cartoon. Have trouble imagining a cartoon based around the Harlem Globetrotters (there can only be so many ways to work a basketball game into a story), but then I can't believe the folks at Western Publishing managed to turn out at least three comics based on it. - KAM

Oh hell, yeah, KAM. There was, indeed, a Globetrotters cartoon. Scatman Crothers provided one of the voices. It was a Hanna-Barbera production. I used to love it. The only possible example anyone could get of it today would be to catch the Scooby Doo New Movies eps where the Scooby Gang "teamed-up" with Meadowlark, Curly, Pab, Geese, Gip, Bobby Joe and the others. The show's theme, incidentally, was not "Sweet Georgia Brown", but an original composition.

"Me, too, Pab. Me, too."

The Sad Sack (Harvey) Comic book adventures of the classic army comic strip about a soldier's misadventures in the army.

Monster Man Sad Sack And The Sarge #102
Page 3. Sarge's brown uniform turns orange, but is back to brown for the rest of the story.

The Survivors Sad Sack And The Sarge #102
Page 1, Panel 3. Sad Sack & Sarge's brown uniforms turn orange.

Twice in this story Sarge speaks with his head underwater.

Page 5, Panel 2. Sarge's helmet is yellow.

Page 5, Panel 4. Sarge's helmet is orange.

Page 5, Panel 5. The General's hat is orange.

Little Sad Sack featured Sad Sack & his friends as children.
Away From What? Sad Sack And The Sarge #102
Apparently Sad is Sad Sack's first name.

Down Under Sad Sack And The Sarge #102
Little Sad, Little Slob & two crooks are in the sewer system and they can see fine without flashlights.
Didn't realize sewer's were so well lit up.

Real Gone Sad Sack And The Sarge #108
Sad Sack invents a disappearing paint. Amazingly he just has to paint it on one side of an object (jeep, building, soldiers) for the thing to become invisible. (Guess it's a good thing he didn't spill any on the ground.)

Starslayer was a reversal of the basic formula of Mike Grell's The Warlord, because instead of a modern day man in a primeval wilderness, it was about a Celtic barbarian and sent him to the far future.
Basically the sun had turned to a red giant and the colonists of the outer planets started warring to return to Earth which was still hospitable. Earth's defense forces were basically just a police force so a scientist, Tamara, was ordered to search through time to bring a warrior to help defend Earth. She brings Torin MacQuillon to the future and they embark on a quest to gather the symbols of power given to the original colonizers of the planets because when put together it will have a great power.
This storyline ran through 6 issues published by Pacific Comics. Issues 7-34 were published by First Comics, but Creator/Artist/Writer/Owner Mike Grell turned the writing & art over to others.
Acclaim, under Mike Grell's Windjammer imprint, reprinted the original storyline in 8 issues titled Starslayer: The Director's Cut.

Untitled Starslayer #2 (Pacific Comics)
Tamara tells Torin that it's the 22nd year of the new millennium.
That's helpful. Torin comes from the year 43 AD, or thereabouts, & IIRC it wasn't referred to that as such for another couple of centuries. She should have simply said it was several millennia after his time. (She does mention that millennia had passed since the end of the 20th century, but what would 20th century mean to Torin?)

Page 14. Tamara says, "You go to the moment took you".
There is a space between Moment & Took for an I.

Tamara explains that since the earth expanded to a red giant the other Earth colonies have become colder and war has broken out as the colonists are determined to come back to Earth.
1. Since the colonists were all genetically engineered to live on the various worlds & moons they'd be colonizing how comfortable would they find Earth?
2. The colonizing was done before they had warp drive hence the colonization of the solar system. Since they now have warp drive why not look for a suitable planet in another solar system?

Torin's sword hangs on his left hip & a blaster hangs on his right hip & he's shown holding the sword in his right hand & his blaster in his left.
Makes sense, except that the blaster holster is drawn so that it looks like it was meant to be drawn with the right hand (cowboy-style), not the left (for when he draws both sword & blaster).

Page 23, Panels 1 & 3. Torin is holding his sword in his right hand. Panel 4. He's suddenly holding his blaster in his right hand.

Untitled Starslayer #4 (Pacific Comics)
The moons of Mars, Phobos & Deimos, are drawn as being round, not potato-shaped.

Torin says, "I will find a way to undo thing she has done to me".

SAM (the monkeylike mobile computer linked to Torin to give him info about things) asks, "This is a heck of a time to ask, boss... but how do you feel about hitting a woman?"
Well, since Torin decked Tamara last issue he shouldn't have to ask this issue.

Torin is prisoner, about to get a red hot poker to his eye when the Martians cut a hole in the ceiling and crush the torturer.
Problem is the poker is seen flying out about 90 degrees from where it was last. (If Torin is 12:00 the poker is now at 3:00.)

Untitled Starslayer #5 (Pacific Comics)
Torin is taken prisoner by the Callistans and forced to work freeing a block of stone.
In the first issue Torin hated the idea of being slaves to the Romans and fought with a group of them almost to the death (and he was about to die when Tamara pulled him forward in time). So the idea that Torin would so meekly accept working as a slave seems to be quite the change in character.

The block is the last block needed to complete the pyramid the Callistans were building on Jupiter.
... yeahhhhhhhhhhh... Are we supposed to believe that the pyramid is based on the ground and extends up past the clouds on Jupiter or is there somekinda anti-grav device at the bottom and it's hovering? It seems hard to believe that there would be enough rock on Callisto to build a pyramid from Jupiter's surface to above the clouds.
Also as we learn in issue 6 every colony was assigned to build a pyramid so somewhere in the Jovian pyramid must be the technological machinery which allows events in issue 6 to happen. Given that the Callistans have been building this pyramid for centuries I wonder what the winds of Jupiter did to all that presumably delicate machinery.

To both provide a distraction for SAM to free Torin & to get the amulet from the Callistan leader Tamara disguises herself as a Valkerie (the Callistans have a big Viking complex). Most of Tamara's body is exposed to the cold Callisto air and yet she doesn't seem to be freezing.

Kraxor of Titan, who has already conquered the outer planets and taken their symbols of power arrives just as Tamara & Torin are escaping, captures them, and when told she has the Callisto amulet discovers that she is also carrying the Venus & Mars amulets as well.
Why on Earth would Tamara have brought them with her? Why not leave them in a safe on the Jolly Roger?

Untitled Starslayer #6 (Pacific Comics)
There is over 12 hours until the planets come into syzygy & they have to get back to Earth before that happens. Tamara decides to warp & SAM says that you can't warp through a star & Tamara points out they won't get that far because the asteroid belt is coming into syzygy as well.
1. Why warp in a straight line to Earth (which is on the other side of the sun from the rest of the planets)? Why not warp at an angle away from the line-up and warp back to Earth at another angle?
2. Can a spread-out belt of asteroids & meteoroids really come into syzygy? Wouldn't most of it still be spread out along it's orbit?

To the Directorate Tamara says, "As for being a traitor -- have been true to my cause from the start!"
Seems to be a missing I there (and I'm not talking about Torin*. )
* Torin lost an eye in issue 1.
Also while scanning the past looking for a warrior Tamara discovered a secret that had been lost. Since she had to have been assigned to this mission before discovering that then her cause would have been different at the start.

The secret that had been lost was that the pyramids & the amulets were a device designed to help re-energize the sun. Since the Earth was so contaminated with nuclear waste it would be pulled into the sun by the other planets when they came into syzygy on the other side of the sun. This would restock the sun with some nuclear fuel and allow the other colonists time to move to another solar system.
Uh, yeah, sure... it's an inventive plot twist, but is Earth really big enough for this?

Donner Beck's Machine Reprinted in Starslayer #6 (Pacific Comics)
The indicia calls this "Donner Beck's Machine", but the actual story has "Donner Beck A Cautionary Tale".

Apparently this was originally published back in 1970 under the title Johnny Verbeck but the original publication was not listed. (The Grand Comic Book Database didn't even know. Apparently the archiver didn't check the indicia & realize it was a reprint.)

Being translated from another language probably explains a number of the nits in the narrative poem.

Donner Beck was the best sausage maker until he built his sausage making machine.
NNAN, but unless he was the only sausage maker in town you'd think it would hurt business if the quality of his sausages went down.

Also since making the machine the neighborhood dogs & cats started disappearing.
I guess business went up if he had to supplement his regular meat supply with "alley rabbit".

At one point a boy comes in, buys some sausage, puts them on the ground and whistles and the sausages start dancing.
While this magical moment seems to be related to the dogs in the sausages it is otherwise out of place as nothing follows it up. A narrative blind alley that should have been cut.

It's mentioned that so many sausages are being made that they're running out of room & they're eating them all the time.
If you don't want to so many sausages don't make so many.

The finale of the poem tries to rhyme sleep & meat.
Bad rhyme.

The Avengers based on the British TV series (Gold Key Comics)
The cover features John Steed Emma Peel in large letters & this logo also appears at the beginning of each story, but the indicia (the legal mumbo jumbo at the bottom of the first page) says the book's title is The Avengers. So even though various reference books call this comic John Steed - Emma Peel, I'm going with the legal name.

Cover - A black & white still from A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Station.

The art is... odd. Some face shots look like the artist was drawing from a picture, but most of the people look very skinny & tall.

The Roman Invasion
Plot - Steed & Mrs. Peel are having a picnic when two Roman gladiators fighting to the death interrupt. One of them, Karl, escapes and the other turns out to be British agent #77. Foreign spies have been sneaking into the country disguised as actors. Steed investigates the film set, is mistaken for an actor and forced into a gladiator match while the cameras roll. Fortunately, Mrs. Peel arrives in time to save Steed. The Avengers return to their picnic by chariot.

When Karl attacks Steed at the picnic, Steed says, "Help! He's after me now!" Seems very out of character for Steed.

During the gladiatorial fight Steed is shown with a net in one panel, then he's later shown wrapped up in his own net. Steed must be having a very bad day.

There are several spies in the film company, but they only show Karl being captured.

The Mirage Maker
Plot - Professor Johnson has invented a device that can pick up TV signals and project them where he wants. The Avengers are assigned to protect the professor and they get to his house just in time as two foreign spies, Hans & Franz, have come to steal the device. Driving away The Avengers get trapped in a military firing range. The Professor stops the firing by projecting the image of dancers from Bali, and Mrs. Peel singlehandedly stops Hans & Franz.

Mrs. Peel asks, "What exactly, is a mirage, Steed?" I would have expected Mrs. Peel to already know what a mirage is.

Fortunately the Professor's assistant is dimwitted enough that the Professor has to explain how the device works to him. Good cabbagehead.

The Professor explains that his device "collects electrons from the secret British satellite which is fitted with a TV camera".
Aren't TV signals sent as electrical signals, not as electrons?
Do the British only have one secret satellite? The images he projects come from all over the world. (Polar bear, elephant, dancers from Bali, etc.)
Only one of the images actually looks like it could have been taken from orbit (the top of a military hovercraft).

Is Professor Johnson's first name Luvvus? After explaining his machine to his assistant Sammy, Sammy says, "Luvvus, you are one, you are."

NANJAO: A confused policeman plays a role in this story. However, Brian Clemens didn't want policemen used on The Avengers during Mrs. Peel's run. (Of course, Policemen did show up in the occasional episode. ;-)

When driving everybody away from Hans & Franz, Steed is surprised to discover a military base. Steed the top professional secret agent, doesn't know there is a military base in the area???

Okay, this story was written 20 years before a certain Saturday Night Live sketch, but when reading this story this last time I couldn't help, but think these spies wanted to "pump you up".

The SnarfQuest Graphic Novel
So what happened to all these different races in the past that lived alongside humans? This series is set at some point in the distant past on Earth. Why don’t museums have bones, or records, of Zeetvahs?

Why does Snarf find human women attractive? He’s not human, & doesn’t look human, shouldn’t he be attracted to Zeetvah women?

Page 169 should have been page 165

Page 185. Aveeare: I might shoot the rope intoo!

Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! (Gold Key Comics)
Yep, the famous, or infamous, newspaper 'factoids' were fleshed out as comic book stories, believe it, or not!

The Shadow Men Ripley's Believe It Or Not! #10 Reprinted in Mystery Comics Digest #4
Three killers, believed to be Inzingogo, Shadow Men, who can turn into snakes, are captured & being taken back to civilization. Several days later the caravan comes under snake attacks, then later the 3 men vanish without a trace, having somehow escaped their chains & the cage they were in, something only a snake could have gotten out of.
Okayyyyyyyyyyyyy, if these guys could turn into snakes, why wait several days to do it? Maybe if there had been a reference to something like a full moon coming up or something it could have eliminated a plot hole.

Death Comes Knocking Ripley's Believe It Or Not! #8 Reprinted in Mystery Comics Digest #4
Most of the time the skin color of the Unholy Three is yellow, but on Page 3, Panel 2 they are mostly flesh-colored & completely flesh-colored on Page 4, Panel 2. Page 4, Panel 4 one is colored green.

The Red Knight Of Germany Ripley's Believe It Or Not! True War Stories #1 Reprinted in Mystery Comics Digest #4
Grungy nitpicking time here.
The story credits Sopwith pilot Roy Brown with killing the Red Baron, which is what was believed at the time, but recently investigators have determined that the killing shot may have come from an Australian infantryman (who’s name escapes me at the moment.)

The Phantom In White Ripley's Believe It Or Not! #8 Reprinted in Mystery Comics Digest #4
The colorist can’t seem to decide what the White Lady’s skin color should be.
Page 1, Panel 1 & Page 4, Panel 5 her exposed skin is flesh-colored & her hair yellow. Page 2, Panels 1 & 2 she’s all white. Page 2, Panel 5 she’s white except for her left hand which is flesh-colored.

Boris Karloff, Tales Of Mystery (Gold Key)
I’m guessing that the idea to use Boris Karloff as a horror host came from his TV show Thriller.

Miracle From The Deep Boris Karloff, Tales Of Mystery #16 Reprinted in Mystery Comics Digest #14
Previously Jack the porpoise had his underside white, but on Page 3, panel 5 his underside is colored the same as his top.
Interestingly enough, in the story Jack had been shot & this was his first reappearance since then, so the coloring error makes it look like another porpoise has taken Jack’s place.

Given the supposedly true nature of this story, I’m surprised they didn’t save it for the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! comic. Then again most, if not all, of Gold Key’s Boris Karloff, The Twilight Zone & Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! stories seem interchangeable.

Oh, You Beautiful Doll Boris Karloff, Tales Of Mystery #16 Reprinted in Mystery Comics Digest #14
A witch is selling voodoo dolls, but since they are very dangerous she makes everyone who buys one promise not to harm anyone with it.
Then why the heck is she selling them? A voodoo doll’s only purpose is to cause someone else harm. She should stop stocking them and sell Barbie instead.

>Boris Karloff, Tales Of Mystery (Gold Key)
>I’m guessing that the idea to use Boris Karloff >as a horror host came from his TV show Thriller.

You are correct in this assumption, in fact the first few issues of the Gold Key comic were called "Thriller" until the cancellation of the series prompted the mag to change its name.

Thanks.

Surprisingly I've seen a graphic novel of the old Boris Karloff comics in comic shops. Never figured anyone would want to do that, but I guess they figured there were enough fans out there.

KISS, the musical group, has partnered with Platinum Studios to create their own comic line.

Interesting that the Karloff comic book was retitled "Tales of Mystery". Karloff's TV show abrubtly switched formats midway through the first season from straightforward mystery-suspense dramas to pure supernatural gothic horror, the latter phase for which it is best-remembered. The switch in format was spurred by famous horror writer Robert Bloch's involvement with the series, and the show rarely did any mystery-themed epsiodes after. Bloch adapted many of his most famous short stories for "Thriller".

IINM mystery can refer to the supernatural as well as whodunnits, although the latter is more common.

I believe that Murder Ink: The Mystery Lover's Companion listed Dracula as a mystery under the original definition of the term.

Kolchak: The Night Stalker was Carl Kochak a reporter who encountered weird things & tried to get the stories about them printed.

Kolchak Tales: Frankenstein Agenda - Moonstone
In issue 2 they were called the Dogs of War & looked like mutated dogs, but in issue 3 they were said to be mutated orangutans.

Todd, did you hear about Moonstone putting out illustrated Lester Dent radio scripts about Doc Savage?

No, I didn't hear about this latest edition, but I know that these scripts have been published in book form before, by Will Murray. They also are (or were at one point) availible on the web somewhere. Currently, some of the old novels are being reprinted in a slim two-for-one format with original pulp illustrations. I've seen them on display at my local bookstore.

Alien vs Predator (Dark Horse)
Alien Vs. Predator: Sand Trap
NNAN, but at one point a character uses the phrase "Bohica". The only other time I've seen that phrase was in CrossGen Comics Negation series where I'd assumed it was a made-up phrase (short for Bend Over Here It Comes Again).
So is it a real phrase or should we just assume the soldier in this story was a Negation reader?

Well, I don't know if this helps, KAM, but the phrase does have its own entry in the Urban Dictionary here. They do say it's a military acronym.

Excelsior!

Thanks!

You're welcome.

Excelsior!

Dinosaurs Attack! (Eclipse)
Dinosaurs Attack! The Graphic Novel Book One
Based on the Topps card series.

Calling it a graphic novel when it's the same size as a regular comic seems to be a nit.

When talking about Dr. Elias Thorne's past accomplishments they mention "Sonic windshield wipers".
Yes, nothing like shattered glass to provide a clear view of the road.

Unbelievably only one person seems to be interested in stopping Thorne's Timescan ray. Where are all the nutcase environmentalist organizations?

All types of dinosaurs, including herbivores, are eating people.

There's been a press release to the effect that Dynamite Comics is going to be doing a Buck Rogers comic book. Boy, do I hope they don't screw this up!

Tom Mix was a movie cowboy.

Tom Mix And The Canyon Of Lost Trails Crackajack Funnies #5

NANJAO. Apparently this story & maybe some art was originally in a Big Little Book & then it was converted to a comic book story.

Page 1, Panel 6. Tom Mix's blue shirt turns green in this panel.

Page 2. Bob's shirt & vest change color from the previous page.

Page 3. Bob's shirt & vest change color from the previous page.

Page 4. Tom's shirt & bandana changes color twice on this page.

Tom Mix

Tom Mix And The Kidnappers Of Cholla Wash Crackajack Comics #9

Page 2. Tom's yellow shirt is orange on this page.

Clyde Beatty Daredevil Lion And Tiger Trainer was based on real life lion & tiger trainer Clyde Beatty.

Untitled Crackajack Funnies #17

Page 2, Panel 8. Caption reads "Just outside the camp cirle"
I think that should read Circle.

The Adventures of Ellery Queen was a comic book version of the famous detective.

Untitled Crackajack Funnies #31

Page 6, Panel 2. The face of the killer is suddenly yellow rather than flesh-colored.

Clyde Beatty

Untitled Crackajack Funnies #43

Last issue ended with Beatty saying they were going to hunt for a pair of howling monkeys & that his guide knows of a large breed never seen by white man, which certainly sounds like a promo for the next issue, right?
No. This issue starts with them going off to hunt for boa constrictors. Huh? (A pair of howling monkeys does appear, but Beatty wasn't hunting them & their size wasn't commented on as being unusual.)

Ellery Queen

Untitled Crackajack Funnies #25 (Whitman)

Page 1, Panel 2. Sven says, "Ay tell you she's disappeared.... My wife! Ay leave her at the Morebilt Theatre.... We rehearse after the last show and ay leave while she dress when I get home an hour later she not there!"
Oddly enough the nit is the presence of that "I" instead of the ever-so-annoying "Ay". (There's a good reason why dialect writing is dead... most writers who engage in it are hacks.) The nit also shows up in Panel 3 where he uses "I'm" instead of "ay'm".

Page 2, Panels 3 & 4. Ellery's dialogue is spread over two panels, "A loaded revolver, a sharp letter opener a hammer and.........." ".... and a gas burner."
There's no good reason to have two "and"s in a row.

Page 7, Panel 2. Doc Prouty's word balloon is pointing to Ellery.

"Lightning" Jim Whipple was an old west marshal, the comic adventures were based on the radio series.

Untitled The Funnies #35

Page 2, Panel 3. The caption misspells headquarters as "headquaters".

Mr. District Attorney was based on the radio show of a crime fighting DA.

Untitled The Funnies #53

Okay, a crook named English Eddie is trying to extort money out of a shop owner, Tony Galdoni. After cutting Tony's face to make a point, Tony's daughter takes money to Eddie for him to leave them alone. Eddie kills her with a blow dart.
Uuuuuuummmm... wouldn't you want to keep paying pigeons alive so they can keep paying you?

After the District Attorney & Harrington shoot Eddie dead, Harrington picks up the box that Eddie kept money in and a black mamba comes out (the DA shoots it dead).
Two problems with this.
First the artist must have thought black mambas were cobras since he drew it with a hood. IIRC black mambas have normal necks, not hooded like cobras.
Secondly, how did Eddie keep the snake from attacking him?

Captain Midnight was the leader of the Secret Squadron which was a aviation group fighting sabotage and espionage. Based on the radio program.

Untitled The Funnies #61

Page 7, Panel 4. On the previous page Captain Midnight said they would securely tie the unconscious girl to lower her down the cliff & Chuck adds that one of them will go down with her to make sure nothing happens. However the picture shows Chuck sitting in a loop in the rope & holding her, but no sign of the rope wrapped around her can be seen.

Page 8, Panel 3. Monk's hair is white here, black in the following panels.

Page 10, The colorist seems to have forgotten what colors people's hair is everyone sort of has pinkish-grey hair here.

Philo Vance was an amateur detective who solved crimes.

Philo Vance And The Crossword Puzzle Mystery The Funnies #61

Page 2, Panel 8. Philo's skin is colored a very faint yellow.

Captain Midnight

Untitled The Funnies #63

Page 10, Panel 4. Joyce says, "Hy, Chuck"
Should be Hi, not Hy.

NANJAO. An article at Bleeding Cool mentions that IDW's My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic #1 has had more advance orders than the X-Men.

So how will Marvel retaliate? Retitling their mutant comic as My Little X-Men: Mutation Is Magic? ;-)

Hmmmm... Xavier as Princess Celestia, Magneto as Princess Luna, Cyclops as Twilight Sparkle, Cannonball as Rainbow Dash... ;-)

And who would play Derpy Hooves? Whichever mutant has misshapen facial features, perhaps? *grins*

Dennis The Menace was a mischevious kid. Based on the American newspaper comic panel.

All stories reprinted in Dennis The Menace Christmas Double-Feature Pocket Full Of Fun #2 (Hallden/Fawcett)

Dennis Goes Christmas Shopping Dennis the Menace Christmas Issue

Pages 13 & 14 (of the book total) reproduce a double-page spread.
Unfortunately Page 14 is on the back of Page 13 which messes up the reading order.


U.p S.et Mail Dennis the Menace Christmas Issue

The Table of Contents lists the title as U.P. S. ET MAIL, but there is no period after the P on the actual title.


A Ruff Christmas Dennis the Menace Giant #3

Page 38 (4 in story) has five panels showing Ruff in different outfits. The first two panels are missing the descriptions of what Ruff is wearing.


Santa's Helper Dennis the Menace Christmas Issue

Dennis, wanting to clean out the chimney for Santa, is taking a hose into the house. A policeman asks him what he doing up so early and Dennis says, "I gotta squirt water up the chimney!" at which the policeman assumes the Mitchell's have a chimney fire and runs off to call the fire department.
Okaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy... I suppose if the policeman is new and had never experienced or seen a real chimney fire it's possible he might just run off & call the fire department without bothering to actually look up at the chimney to see if flames, or at least, smoke is actually coming out of the darn chimney. I've experienced several chimney fires, all of them have involved fire shooting up and out of the chimney.

The fire department arrives and despite a complete lack of smoke, flames, or the roaring that accompanies a chimney fire, proceed to act as if there is one.
Now I can barely accept that the policeman might be young and dumb enough not to know the signs of a chimney fire, but the fire department has no excuse for being complete idiots in this case. They are supposed to be trained professionals when it comes to fire.


Too Many Santas Dennis the Menace Giant #3

Page 2, Panel 6. Mr. Mitchell finds a santa suit in the attic and says, "I haven't used this for a couple of years!", but on Page 3, Panel 2, Mrs. Mitchell says, "Last year you had to use two pillows to fill it out!"

Dennis has been put to bed before the story started. Later in the story the police department is preparing for a Christmas party for the neighborhood kids.
Sooooooo... how early was Dennis put to bed or how late do the other neighborhood kids stay up?

Page 5, Panel 6. Officer Zimurski's santa hat is all-white in this panel.


He's Been Here! Dennis the Menace Giant #3

According to the table of contents this story was one page longer, but what should be pages 97 - 128 is a reprint of pages 65 - 96. Oddly enough this story gets reprinted, but the reprint is also missing the final page.


Santa vs The Sandman Dennis the Menace Giant #5

NANJAO. That title makes me think of an epic battle between Santa & Morpheus. ;-)

Not a problem in the story itself, but a problem caused by all these stories put into one collection.
In this story Mrs. Wilson orders a Santa suit for Mr. Wilson so he can pretend to be Santa for Dennis, but the story printed before this story showed Mr. Wilson already had a Santa suit.
Had they just changed the order in which these stories ran it wouldn't have been a problem.

Page 6, Panel 5. Mr. Mitchell's Santa hat is white in this panel.

SnarfQuest

The SnarfQuest Graphic Novel (Dynasty Presentations}

A Word from Larry Elmore about SnarfQuest

"Make life a great adventure, win and loose your fortunes along the way"
I think he meant 'lose'.

"I feel that if you are going to get ripped off a little, might as well get ripped of by the best."
I think the second F got ripped off of that "of". ;-)

Page 111, Panel 1. Aveeare, a robot, says, "How does a human do such miricales?"
Miracles. Guess his spell checker got damaged. ;-)

Page 166, Panel 3. Geezel "I don't trust this contrartion."
I think he meant contraption.

Page 169 should be page 165.

There seems to be a page missing between 171 & 172. On 171 Slim & Bubba snuck into the back of the gang's truck and have knocked out Geezel & grabbed Telerie and then Bubba & Snarf are about to fight when the truck takes off. On 172 there is no sign of Bubba or Slim and everyone else seems okay. (This would be SnarfQuest #51 if someone has a copy of whichever issue of Dragon Magazine that it appeared in could you tell me if that installment had a third page?)

Page 186. Previously the mountains there were headed for was the Yuktooth Mountains, but from this page on they become the Yuketooth Mountains.

In this reprint, at least, the sequences aren't numbered until #43 then after #62, on page 205, there is a one-page filler listed as #60 and that's followed by another #62, #63 then corrects itself with #66.

On page 205 Telerie is given freckles. Something she never had before or since.

Page 221, Panel 9. Aveeare says, "How could that stupid leech have any kind of knowledge? He did fall asleep on my head once and he did act very different after that."
The only thing the leech did after "falling asleep" on Aveeare's head was not wake up. They tied the leech to a lizard which ran off later that day when Fred's spaceship landed. Snarf & the gang never saw the leech again so they never knew that it woke up three days later with all of Aveeare's knowledge.

Maybe a nit, maybe not. The story on pages 135-144 is said to take place five years ahead in Snarf's future. On page 221, after the space storyline where they returned from the year 2197, they discovered that they returned, not two weeks later, but five years later and the story was setting up a storyline where they fight Suthaze who has conquered the land.
I suppose one could argue that the original five years later storyline was later in the year after they had defeated Suthaze, or somehow Snarf & company went back in time, but still it seems like a slip-up.

NAN. Has anyone read the SnarfQuest strips that ran in Games Unplugged? Did Elmore continue from where he left off in Dragon Magazine?

Clyde Beatty

Untitled Crackajack Funnies #13

Page 1, Panel 3. Caption reads, "Bagh, the black tiger"
Looks orange to me.

Little Lulu

Stories from Marge's Little Lulu #165 Reprinted in Golden Comics Digest #43

Bon Voyage

The Moppet's are traveling to Paris, but for some reason they are taking Alvin with them.
Couldn't Alvin's parents find someone else to babysit their kid while Little Lulu was away?
Was it really so easy to take someone else's child out of the US & into France back then?


Dear Diary

This text story is placed during a multi-part comic story where Little Lulu and her friends are going to Paris on a ship, so the text story seems like it might be part of the same story. However...
1. Lulu writes how she spent time with Wilbur. Except that in the comic story, Wilbur said he didn't want to see Lulu because she didn't show proper respect for her betters.
2. Gloria is seasick. Something we saw no sign of in the comic story.
3. Lulu's mother said she promised all the children's mothers that she would give them a dose of Tiny Tots Tonic everyday. Except that Alvin is the only one whose parents are home and traveling with Little Lulu's family. Everyone else is traveling with their parents to Paris.
I suppose the anti-nit is that Little Lulu is making stuff up to put in her diary. ;-)


Train Of Events

Okayyyyy... The Moppets, Alvin, Tubby, Iggy and Annie are all in one train car.
Where are Tubby, Iggy and Annie's parents? It was a big plot point that each of their mothers wanted to go to France and "dragged" their children along.


Good Man To Know

Did Tubby, Iggy and Annie's parent fall overboard? The kids are all waiting with the Moppets as Mr. Moppet tries to hail a taxi.


The Hunch Girl Of Notre Dame

This takes place right after the previous part, but Mrs. Moppet and Annie have disappeared.
Guess the artist didn't feel like drawing them.

Little Lulu tells the story of the little hunch girl of Notre Dame. On page 7, panel 1, she says the ugly baby's auntie was a witch, but on page 9, panel 6, she refers to the baby as "the wicked witch's baby."
Of course the anti-nit is simply that Lulu goofed up and/or forgot she had identified the witch as the baby's aunt.


The Modest Model

NANJAO. In this part it's explicitly mentioned that Little Lulu and Mrs. Moppet had returned to the hotel room, and Wilbur & Gloria went to watch a Punch an' Judy show, thereby giving the artist a reason not to draw them.


The Bad Sport

The artist draws the girders of the Eiffel Tower as lines, no matter how close the characters are... even in the elevator going up the girders are drawn as thin lines.

Page 6, Panel 3. Alvin bought 47 balloons which he planned to sell at the top of the Eiffel Tower, and yet despite walking around with them for several minutes with no problem, in this panel the balloons lift him into the air.

Tubby

The Sun Bath Marge's Tubby #27 Reprinted in Golden Comics Digest #43

Gloria doesn't want to be seen with anyone as pale as Tubby, and comments on how brown Wilbur is from tanning down in Florida.
Which is interesting since the colorist used the same pink for all three kids skin.

Tubby's friend from Mars takes Tubby up in his space ship and comments that Tubby looks, "Sort of green!"
Again the colorist made him the same pink he had been.

Tubby had tried to get a tan, but since it was winter he was cold. His friend from Mars arrives and takes Tubby up closer to the sun where it's warmer and Tubby can get a tan on the outside of the space ship.
1. How far up they go is not stated, but if the curvature of the Earth is to be believed, I'd guess they were in space.
2. Tubby and his Martian friends don't suffer the bends or suffocate from the lack of oxygen on the outside of the space ship. Possible anti-nit. Invisible shields.
3. However high up they are the sun is very warm. Usually things get colder the higher up in the atmosphere you go.

Tubby had fallen asleep and his friend had covered him with a lace doily (Tubby had been miniaturized) and now he has tan spots all over his body.
Or rather he should. Once again the lazy colorist used pink to color Tubby's body and didn't bother to darken the interior of the inked circles.

Yosemite Sam

The Phantom Buccaneer Original publication unknown Reprinted in Golden Comics Digest #30 (Gold Key)

Two pirates try to make Sam think he's a ghost by spray painting Sam and his ship luminous white while he's unconscious.
1. They must have had a tremendous amount of paint to get the whole ship.
2. Despite, apparently not moving Sam they got his backside & the part of the deck he was laying on.

Bugs Bunny

Unbearable Bears Bugs Bunny's Vacation Funnies #7 Reprinted in Golden Comics Digest #30 (Gold Key)

Elmer says, "What a sweat spot for our picnic lunch!"
I think he meant 'sweet spot', although if it's hot enough... ;-)

Porky Pig

The Free Tree Spree Original source unknown Reprinted in Golden Comics Digest #34

Porky & Cicero go up to the mountains to cut down a Christmas tree. The first tree he tries to cut down gets him attacked by a bird because there is a nest with baby birds in it.
Baby birds in December?

At the end Porky decides to cut down his apple tree & trim it like a Christmas tree so he has a tree with edible ornaments.
An apple tree with apples in December?

Beep Beep The Roadrunner

Gee Whizz-z-z Four Color #918 Reprinted in Golden Comics Digest #34

The roadrunner says, "The name is Beep Beep".
Why on earth did they decide that was his name instead of just a sound he makes?
Then again why did they have him speak (in rhyme even), give him a wife (Matilda) and three sons (were they ever named?)?

Henery Hawk

The Double Bet Original publication unknown Reprinted in Golden Comics Digest #39

Henery claims to have reformed & Ollie Owl (& later Ozzie Ostrich) bets Henery that he can't keep from chasing chickens for 8 hours.
Of course, as Henery looks like he'll win the bet Ollie & Ozzie try to throw temptation Henery's way, which since some other stories have Ollie trying to get Henery to stop chasing chickens makes Ollie a hypocrite.

Petunia Pig

Miss Fire Chief Original publication unknown Reprinted in Golden Comics Digest #39

Because it's Boys' Day Cicero is made mayor of the city for the day and he appoints Petunia to be fire chief.
Now I'm not an expert on these things, but aren't these appointments usually just honorary with the real person holding the job sticking around to let the new person know how things are done? We see no sign of the real fire chief in this story.

Mary Jane & Sniffles

Birds Of A Feather Original publication unknown Reprinted in Golden Comics Digest #39

Sniffles wants to free the cuckoo bird from the cuckoo clock. Mary Jane makes herself as small as Sniffles & they find a way to get up onto the clock just in time for him to appear.
Problem is Sniffles had just tried to talk to the cuckoo bird because it was just 2:00 and the ensuing conversation and way to get up could not have taken more than a few minutes, so they should be waiting for around 45-55 minutes for the next time for the cuckoo bird to appear.

Daffy Duck

The Bottled Blabber Original publication unknown Reprinted in Golden Comics Digest #39

Page 5, Panel 5. Despite a speech defect that makes him pronounce most Rs as a W, Elmer says "Roman Empire" instead of Woman Empire.
Then again, maybe the author worried that kids might misread that as an empire ruled by females? ;-)

Elmer and Daffy go back in time to Hadrian's wall during the Roman Empire. Surprisingly Elmer and Daffy can understand Roman and Daffy listens to whatever language the barbaric Scots & Northern Britons were speaking without any language difficulties, almost as if they were speaking modern English.

On Page 6, Panel 2, Daffy refers to the year they came from as 1968, but on Page 12, Panel 4, Elmer says they should get back to 1974 & the next page has three references to 1974.
Clearly when they re-lettered this story for Digest republication they missed the earliest date reference.

A Hidden Message Tom & Jerry's Summer Fun #3 Reprinted in Golden Comics Digest #18

Skrewy Squirrel's name is misspelled as Screwy Squirrel.

Mouse Musketeers were two mice Musketeers who conflicted with M'sieur Poosycat while all worked for the King of France (or a France-like country).

Miniature Men Of Armor Original publication unknown Reprinted in Golden Comics Digest #18

This story has the two mousketeers get a present from their friend Jerry and Tuffy.
Wait, what??? I just assumed they were Jerry & Tuffy in Musketeer outfits in the past.

Tom and Jerry

The Rocking Rocket March of Comics #305 Reprinted in Golden Comics Digest #18

Tom has made a "rocket ship" and he is going to "take" Tuffy into space and show him what it's really like (cardboard cut-out stars, milk bottles forming the Milky Way) instead of what Jerry has been teaching him. Jerry secretly sets up a projection screen and shows a movie of what space is really like.
This story was written before men landed on the moon, but the space film shows two ringed planets on screen at the same time, which at the time would have been a nit since we didn't know there were planets beside Saturn with visible rings until the 1970s.

The New Kids On The Block were a popular music group.

New Kids On The Block, Magic Summer Tour (Harvey Comics)

*twitch twitch* Owwwwwww...

Remember when Harvey was capable of writing humor books that were funny? I guess those writers either died or were snatched up by Archie.

The really funny thing is there was a special Limited Edition Magic Summer Tour book that was sold at New Kids concerts for $10. I assume there were more stories, but if the quality was comparable to this...

Course the fact that most of the New Kids look similar doesn't help the artists and the writers can't seem to write any of the five as distinct individuals, so they all blur together as one stupid personality with five bodies.
I wonder if the real people considered suing for defamation?


She's Really Fly

The interior of the helicopter seems much bigger than it should.

The pilot, Fanny Tweetersweet, plans to keep the boys up with her for 2, or 3, hours.
I think that's called kidnapping.

Fanny passes out being so close to her idols, so the boys take turns trying to fly the copter. Donnie Wahlberg is upset that the others didn't like his flying so he storms out a door and almost falls out of the copter.
Darn, so close! ;-)
The door seems odd too. It's too far from the cockpit to be the pilot's door (also lacks the big window those have), but it's also not one of the doors in back that the boys used to enter the copter.


Malled

The story starts with the boys exiting a mall and seeing their tour bus surrounded by fans, and then they have to brave going through the mall to... get to their tour bus...
Wait a minute!
1. How will leaving the mall through a, presumably, closer door eliminate the problem of getting through the fans surrounding the bus?
2. What happened to their security? Was Biscuit killed in the first story?
3. They've already been in the mall with, apparently, no problem, so why should going back through it be a problem? Heck, at one point they even buy disguises so no one will recognize them.
Aaaaaaa! Sense this story makes none!


A Haunting We Will Go!

Page 4, Panel 2. Julie is called Tillie.

Tom Corbett, Space Cadet

Untitled Tom Corbett, Space Cadet #4

Space Arabs!
Yeahhhhh...
Okay, while I can see some past fashions cycling around and people living in the Great Mars Desert wearing outfits similar to those worn by past desert dwellers the artist just didn't stop there, he gave them Arab looking outfits, weapons, features and the cities on Mars look straight out of some movie set in the Middle East. *sigh*

Page 17, Panel 4. Astro & Captain Strong have been jumped by the bandits of Bor Borito. While the attack is going on Captain Strong is still talking to Tom and he says, "I'll keep my communicator open! Use it as a direction beam!"
You'd think these people living on Mars might hear and understand it and even if they don't speak the language*, you might think they just might be familiar with the idea of a communicator.

* At least one of the bandits does speak English in the next panel, although for the next few panels Strong keeps talking about Tom & Roger and the possibility of tracing him & Astro as if he doesn't think he can be understood. *rolls eyes*

Page 26, Panel 1. Tom says, "Captain Strong was telling you the truth, Bor Borito! You and your people are not guilty of any crimes!"
Well, technically they are. They kidnapped Professor Thornton before the story began, they killed Alo Komir* for trying to pass on a message to Tom, they assaulted & restrained Captain Strong and Astro and were about to murder Strong, Astro & Thornton when Tom showed up and stopped them. Admittedly these actions were caused because Borito was the son of two escaped convicts and feared he'd be arrested and sent to prison for that. Still, while there might be mitigating circumstances, it's a stretch to say "not guilty".

* Admittedly, this does come up as a plot point afterwards.

Harry Blackstone was a famous stage magician

Blackstone Master Magician Comics #1 (Vital Publications)

Cover reads "Featuring Blackstone the only living comic book character".
Really? Was 1946 suffering a drought of books featuring real life people? I know there were books featuring real people in the '30s and the '50s had a slew of books based on entertainers, but I find it hard to believe that Blackstone would be the only one at this point in time.

From Film To Life

The center piece of the story is "a special type of electronic screen composed of light waves therefore living beings can walk right in among the objects already registered there."
uhhhhhh... riiiiiight... although it does sorta sound like a bad description of a hologram soooo...

You know, the fact that Blackstone was a real stage magician & the cover claim of being living tricked me into believing that the writers would restrain themselves with how they were presenting magic when actually they treated Blackstone as if he could do magic like Dr. Strange, or Zatara, which resulted in giving me a headache as I tried to figure how some of the tricks were done. Ouch!

Page 5, Panel 5. Rhoda's green costume is almost yellow here.
Guess the blue wasn't as thick on that part of the printing plate.

Okayyyyyy... Spike & Snook who robbed the bank last week, see Blackstone & Rhoda in front of the boarded up bank. They recognize Blackstone (despite being three stories up and behind him) and when they find Rhoda's slipper in the junk yard (she lost it there in the magic film) where they buried the loot they assume it must have come from one of Blackstone's show girls snooping (of course, because who would expect to find a shoe in a junk yard?)
Aaaaaaaaaaaanyway... Snoop & Spike go to the theatre and spot the matching shoe in an open window next to the stage door and place the other shoe next to it because they plan to watch the show and see which dame is wearing those shoes.

Page 10. The position of the shoe changes from panel 1 to panel 2.
Why would anyone put their shoes on a high shelf?

Page 11. Despite panel 1 showing all the girls wearing what looks like identical shoes, Snoop & Spike recognize Rhoda's shoes.

Rhoda is supposed to switch to the woodland costume she wore earlier, but instead of being a green two-piece outfit she's now wearing an orangish one piece which occasionally has brown parts.

The crooks shoot at Blackstone & Rhoda but the bullets don't hurt them because "we're in a movie."
So people can interact with the magic film, but bullets can't?

I'd nitpick Blackstone trapping the crooks in the movie but... magic film... *rolls eyes*

Blackstone And His Super Magic

Page 1, Column 2, Paragraph 6, Sentence 2. "Instead of currents, the box encountered quicksand, and remained there, but Blackstone emerged, both through the mud and the sea-water to reach surface."
Reach THE surface.

G.I. Joe was a military series based on a line of toys.

Untitled Devil's Due Free Comic Book Day 2005/Darkstalkers #00

Page 2, Panel 4. Lady Jaye says, "all of it centered around a specific mountai region".
Mountain, not "mountai". ;-)

All stories reprinted in Golden Comics Digest #45 (Gold Key)

The Pink Panther started off as a title sequence for the movie The Pink Panther, then graduated into a cartoon series of his own.

General Nit. Unlike the cartoons where he was a silent character the comic book version of the Pink Panther was quite the wordy fellow.


Pink Blue-Print The Pink Panther #5

The Pink Panther has built a house, but failed to put any windows & doors in so he grabs a hand saw and starts cutting them out.
Okay, this is a common shtick in cartoons, but without space to put the hand saw in you are NOT going to get the cut started.


Pink Shoelacer Original publication unknown, (but probably issue 6 or 7)

The Pink Panther rushes into the circus tent saying, "One general admission on credit, please! This is a matter of Daring McDoogle's life or death!" and the ticket seller let's him, which amazing given that tickets were $17.50.

The Tingle Sisters give the Pink Panther a season pass to the Tingling Sisters circus.
So why not call them the Tingling Sisters instead of the Tingle Sisters? Tingling Sisters is a spoof on Ringling Brothers, but Ringling was their last name, not Ringle.

The Pink Panther is tied up to prevent him from interfering with anymore acts. He says it's a pink shoestring, but the colorist made it blue.


Pursuit Of The Pinkus Finkus Original publication unknown, (but probably issue 6 or 7)

The Pink Panther and the professor are sinking into quicksand, only the professor's hat is above the surface when the pinkus finkus moth lands on the hat and lifts off with it pulling the professor up as well.
How, for the rest of the lift up he has to hold onto the hat which he isn't doing at this point.

While being pulled out of the quicksand and into the air the Pink Panther remarks, "Butterflies have amazing strength for their size!"
Yes, but this story has already identified the pinkus finkus as a moth, not a butterfly! ;-)


The Missing Pink The Pink Panther #9

The Pink Panther is in a cage at the zoo.
Given how thin the Pink Panther is I'm surprised he can't just slip between the bars & has to convince someone to get the keys from the zoo-keeper's office.


Pink Lemon Aid The Pink Panther #10

Page 7, Panel 7. The Pink Panther says, "That's graditude for you!'
Shouldn't that be gratitude?


The Inspector

General Nit(?). Well, maybe it's a nit, maybe not. The Inspector started off as a caricature of Inspector Clouseau. He's a French policeman and his Commissioner looks like a caricature of Commissioner Dreyfus of the movies. However, as far as I can tell, neither the Inspector nor his Commissioner are ever named in the comic book stories.
Was this just a way to avoid paying royalties or something. It just seems odd that most people familiar with the Pink Panther movies would assume these to be comic versions of the movie characters, but apparently they're not.
(There is also no Cato, nor does there seem to be misunderstandings caused by Clouseau's pronunciations.)


The Smart Art Thief Original publication unknown, (but probably issue 6 or 7)

Okayyyyyy.... the thief steals Pierre L'flaire's Ghost Shoveling Whipped Cream At the South Pole (an all white painting). At the end of the story it's discovered that the thief has covered it in black paint and is displaying it as A Black Bear Digging Coal At Midnight.
So why steal the painting in the first place? The thief couldn't just paint a normal canvas all black?

The Dooby Ruby The Pink Panther #9

Ventro the Ventriloquist wants a police officer who looks and acts like a dummy to protect the Shah of Pshaw's ruby. We later find out the thief is Ventro's dummy who is a real person while Ventro is a remote controlled robot.
Okayyyyyyy... So why bring a policeman along to potentially screw up the planned robbery?

Canine Caper The Pink Panther #10

Page 4, Panel 5. The Inspector is swimming underwater after a submarine and orders it to pull over.
He is not wearing any breathing apparatus so he should get a mouthful of water.

So why did the Flat Man capture the Inspector if all he was going to do was throw him overboard?
They could have just left him swimming and accomplished the same thing.

Page 5, Panel 3. They fire the Inspector out of the torpedo tube and he yells for help... underwater.

The Inspector mails the Flat Man to the FBI.
Why? The Inspector works for the Surete in France, right? The Flat Man should stand trial in France. Then again... is this story set in France? I'm not sure if the writer knew that.

To catch the dog whose collar contains valuable micro-film, the Inspector disguises himself as a dog and gets caught by the dog catcher. He can't prove he's human because he can't get the costume off and when the Commissioner refuses to help him the Inspector says, "The A.S.P.C.A. shall hear of this, Commissioner!"
So why would the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals care what happens to a French policeman in France?

The Wheel of Time

New Spring: The Graphic Novel (Tor Books)

Chapter 4

Moiraine strips down to go through the ter'angreal for her test to earn the shawl of the Aes Sadai. On Page 6, Panel 2, she wonders, "Why am I unclothed?"
Dearie, you stripped down voluntarily remember?

(Of course the real reason is authorial fetish, but we don't deal in reality. ;-)

The Inspector

Le Bowser Bagger The Pink Panther #3 Reprinted in Golden Comic Digest #38

Me - The Inspector started off as a caricature of Inspector Clouseau. He's a French policeman and his Commissioner looks like a caricature of Commissioner Dreyfus of the movies. However, as far as I can tell, neither the Inspector nor his Commissioner are ever named in the comic book stories.

Well, he was named in this story, although the spelling is different from his movie counterpart. Here his name is spelled Clouzot.

Terminator

Terminator Salvation: The Final Battle (12-issue maxi-series) - Dark Horse Comics

Reading these issues I found myself in an odd state of amusement and annoyance. I think it was the guy who writes Gone and Forgotten who said he doesn't like reading stories where we're shown something else Jor-El did, or encountered, just before Krypton exploded because he tries to fit this new information in with all the rest and it becomes incredibly cumbersome. That's the elephant in the room with this maxi-series. The first movie had Skynet send back a terminator and the resistance sent back Kyle Reese. The second movie had Skynet send another terminator and the resistance sent back a good terminator. I haven't seen the other movies or TV show, but I assume that the writer also tried to shoehorn in whatever information they revealed, and that becomes unintentionally hilarious, while at the same time you realize that poor John Connor is trapped at this time travel facility tying in to all the different movie events that this story is trying to stay true to.

Conan

Xuthal Of The Dusk Part Three Conan The Avenger #15 (Dark Horse)

Page 21, Panel 3. Natala says, "From that alcove, where a yellow hussy is sleeping."
The hussy is shown to have black hair & brown skin.

Tomb Raider

The Medusa Mask Tomb Raider #1 (Image)

Okayyyy, Lara jumps out of a jeep over a cliff and I thought, "Unfortunately there's a helicopter below. Chop chop chop!" and then on the next page we see Lara hanging on a rope ladder attached to a helicopter.
What?!?
Helicopter blades cover a wide area. The only way I can figure it is if maybe the helicoptor was angled and moving away from the cliff so Lara could catch the rope ladder without getting chopped to pieces and that seems highly unlikely.

Come on, you know that she gracefully landed on a blade, flipped over under it and jumped down to the ladder, kid stuff.

And I did forget about her two "floatation" devices. ;-)

KAM from 19 years ago:

I'm not positive, but I think this was based on a Saturday morning cartoon. Have trouble imagining a cartoon based around the Harlem Globetrotters (there can only be so many ways to work a basketball game into a story)

I have vague memories of that cartoon. And the comic based on it.