April Fools Day 2011 with Major Bummer by Arcudi and Mahnke

A good way to spend this April Fools Day is to revisit a 1997 DC Comics series called Major Bummer.  Written by John Arcudi and drawn by Doug Mahnke, it lasted 15 issues, but I’ve kept them in my collection and refused to let them go.  Major Bummer is probably the most realistic—and hysterical—take on superhero comics that I’ve ever read.



Major Bummer features Lou Martin as the titular star.  Lou is a skinny slacker-nerd to the max, devoted to gaming and all things geek.  His neighbor thinks Lou’s out of touch with reality, and she is correct.



He works in a VCR repair shop, lives in a crappy apartment and spends his nights console gaming and drinking beer.  I find this panel above a little too close to my own reality.  I did better than Lou in terms of my job and my life, but at the core essence, on certain nights, this is me.



Lou wakes up the next morning after a long gaming session to find his body transformed into 8 foot 500 pound juggernaut.  It takes him a while to realize he’s become a Hulk—Lou’s more worried about being late for his job at the VCR repair shop.  Even after he realizes what he’s become, becoming a superhero is the furthest thing from Lou’s mind.  He’s thinking about his next meal or repairing his beat up car. Lou's brain is also super-intelligent, but that can only be accessed by his sub-conscious.  Lou builds an EMP ray gun at the VCR shop while he's daydreaming while nursing a hangover.



There is a zany cast of characters that immediately swarms around Lou.  In addition to near invulnerability and super strength, Lou has become a magnet for other super-powered beings, including Fly Girl, the Gecko, Sonic, and a psychic who can see the future—but always seems to announce the events too late to be any help.  Their powers are a result of an experiment two alien youths are doing for a school project.  It turns out that Lou wasn’t even the intended target for the prime superhero powers.  A man named Martin Lewis was the original guy, but the aliens read the name backward.



I’ve re-read the first four issues of the series and I’m laughing like crazy.  One thing that really seems hilarious is just the basic design of Valerie Fly-Girl’s costume.  Most super-heroine outfits have a classic bustier that supports the cleavage and props it up.  Doug Mahnke inverted (or subverted?) this principle as you can see here.  Fly-Girl’s mid-section is exposed and there’s just no way in hell that her cleavage wouldn’t fall out of that as soon as she started flying in the air.  There’s also a Dumb and Dumber element to the story.  Valerie is obviously crushing on Lou—even gets him a job at her Dad’s Ice Cream parlor—but he’s too blind to see it.

Geek: Event Coverage - MTV Games

I just did a quick Google search to see if there was a Major Bummer collection.  I found this video interview with John Arcudi from the Emerald City Comicon last month.  Dark Horse is going to be collecting all 15 issues, which is fantastic news.  I highly recommend the whole series.  Nuff Said!

Jack Davis: Get Smart and My Mother the Car

Here are a couple of drawings from Mad Magazine artist Jack Davis.  I believe he did these for TV Guide magazine in the 1960s for 2 wacky out of this world sitcoms.

Get Smart: everyone has probably seen either the original (with Don Adams as Maxwell Smart) or the movie with the 40 Year Old Virgin dude.  Davis satirizes all the spy gear in this pinup, just like the TV show did.

My Mother the Car: this Jerry Van Dyke sitcom is classic and not in a good way!  It's pretty out there for a Christian America to follow that a woman's soul has been reincarnated in an automobile.  But hey, it happened to Jerry, at least for 30 episodes until it was cancelled.  Somehow I kept seeing it over and over in re-runs.  Davis captures Jerry Van Dyke perfectly in this image.

I have to hunt down more wacky Jack Davis drawings.  Nuff Said!

Can You Believe: Jerry Lewis And Wonder Woman, Together!

Can you believe, dear readers, that DC Comics published a Jerry Lewis series--and that it lasted 124 issues?  Yes, indeedy, it did! 

And in Jerry Lewis #117 (1970), the comedian had a team-up with Wonder Woman!  This was the all-new, all-now, mad-mod powerless Diana Prince teaming up with Jerry--which is why she wasn't wearing a star spangled bikini.  I doubt Jerry could have handled that anyway.

Hmm...now I am wondering if there was a French version of this comic...and was it popular at that time?  Nuff said.

Who is Lois Lane? She's a Super Freak!

Who is Lois Lane?  Another question posed by DC Comics' marketing department in 1969, the same vein as the Jimmy Olsen Giant.

She's a reporter!  She's Superman's girl friend!  But she's also a Slave Girl, Madame Jekyll, a Widow in Black and a SuperWoman.  Or if she gets too smart and her brain expands, Lois is a Super-Freak--a decade before Rick James!

My favorite one is Lois Lane...HAG!  The silver age Lois Lane dated Superman, kissed Superman, but it seemed like she would never reach her goal of marrying him.  Lois' greatest fear was to end up old and alone with her knitting needles.  Gloria Steinem would hate this cover.  Nuff said.

Who Are the Gorgeous Girls in the Life of Jimmy Olsen?

Who Are the Gorgeous Girls in the Life of Jimmy Olsen? That question was posed to readers in 1969 in this advertisement in DC Comics...

Lucy, Ilona, Holga, and Lucinda!  Plus plenty of other chicks...birds, femmes and dolls in Jimmy Olsen #122 on sale June 19th.

Sheesh, you would have thought Austin Powers wrote that copy!

Of course, with an promo like that, I had to buy this 80 page DC Giant.  The cover looks like it was drawn by Neal Adams--at least the figures of Superman and Jimmy Olsen on the left.

Jimmy didn't have much luck with girls, but he did have a black book.  My expectation upon reaching some form of manhood assumed that I would also have a black book full of chicks and birds!  Never happened.  Nuff said.