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The Saturday Comics: Don Rickles and The Rat Pack

1 Jun

June 1, 2013

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Jack “King” Kirby could do no wrong. Many comics fans then and now believe that. After all, his characters are legendary- he co-created half the Marvel Universe, and ask any artists what “Kirby crackles” are. So when this comic came out, any fears or doubts were allayed by the banner atop the cover, blaring “KIRBY SAYS: DON’T ASK! JUST BUY IT!”

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Me? I would have asked quite a few questions. Don Rickles? Really? Well, just a couple of issues previous was one even more… interesting.

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Yes, this issue features Don Rickles and his superhero clone/twin/whatever “Goody.”

And now a few words from The Amazing Spider-Man:

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From the DC Wiki, here are the plots to 139 and 141.

139: Morgan Edge is beset by Goody Rickels, a Don Rickles lookalike, who wants to break out of his research job and is assigned to investigate a UFO landing nearby.  But Clark Kent is abducted by it, and the Guardian, the Newsboy Legion, and Goody are captured by Ugly Mannheim and Inter-Gang, who force them to eat a meal laced with Pyro-Granulate.  Mannheim them lets them all go, informing them that the chemical will cause them all to burn up in 24 hours.

141: Clark Kent is almost taken to Apokolips by the UFO, which is a trap of Darkseid’s, but is rescued by Lightray and sent back to Earth.  Morgan Edge is visited by Don Rickles, but Jimmy Olsen and Goody Rickels appear in his office and are about to combust from the Pyro-Granulate. The Golden Guardian appears, having forced Ugly Mannheim to give him the antidote, and cures Jimmy and Goody, having already cured himself and the Newsboy Legion.  Don Rickles, maddened by the happenings, hitches a ride out of Edge’s office with two members of the police bomb squad.

Interestingly, 139 and 141 are parts one and two of a two-part story. Issue 140 was a totally unrelated giant size reprint issue. Tells me someone missed a deadline.

Don Rickles is not the first comedian to come to mind when I think of comics. Of course, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis had their own title.

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This got me to wondering if the rest of the Rat Pack had their own comics.

Here is, as far as I can tell, Frank Sinatra’s only comic book appearance.

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Sammy Davis Jr. never had a comic book appearance, but we will give him a pass and let him into this group because of this:

Take that, Goody Rickles!

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(NEW!) Amercian Chopper: GEICO Military Tribute Bike

28 May

May 28, 2013

GEICO COMMERCIAL

When American Chopper ended last December, I thought that, with perhaps the exception of a Discovery/TLC special a year or so down the line, this would it be for both PJD/OCC and The American Chopper Weekly Rundown.

I firmly believed, and still believe, that without the television show both of these companies will lose significant orders. After all, despite starting as real motorcycle-building program, the show devolved into little more than commercials for the customers (with bad pranks and fake fights thrown in.)  Among people who are much more into bikes than I am, neither Paul Sr. nor Paulie are taken that seriously. They had great name recognition thanks to the network they used to air on, but that’s all over now. The free advertising has come to an end.

So I was pretty surprised when I saw this:

I wonder if GEICO signed their contract before the show was canceled? Or, more likely, since PJD had already done a pair of bikes for them, this might have  just been fulfilling a contract for a series of bikes.

But to the point, that is one ugly bike. Not only is it covered in large, comically shaped words, making it look like something out of Schoolhouse Rock, but the giant lizard in the helmet totally fails to scream “military tribute.”

I suppose this commercial is giving some badly-needed visibility to PJD and of course the GEICO contract is nice money, but in the long run, I wonder how much time is left in PJD’s tank. OCC will limp along, I’m sure, but PJD was still a relatively new startup and when last we saw them, Paulie had sunk a lot of money into the new studio he planned to use of commercials and animation.

There’s been little new information about either OCC or PJD online. I assume nothing major has changed since the show ended. I’m always up for some Teutul gossip but one thing I will bet- Mikey and Paul Sr. still have not talked.

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