Why is there no Platinum Age Forum? 5 5

[markseifert]

IRON MAN PROTOTYPE!

 

Rather funny coincidence, isn't it?

 

The "helmet", the boots, the stance... a little similar!

 

Even the cover blurb seems to echo the caption text there, in a way:

 

HE LIVES!

HE WALKS!

("...exultingly striding up and down...")

 

HE CONQUERS!

("...Indian-Exterminating, Hunting...")

 

But still! Just kind of a general similarity, though a few of them. And we comic fans tend to reach for those connections.

 

Then the other shoe dropped on my head. A couple issues prior, in the same series:

 

 

1852 Satirical image, A.J.H. Duganne.

 

America's first Iron Man did not possess mechanized armor, though it seems he was sometimes drawn as if he did. In reality, he was a creator of widely varied talents -- an author, poet, musician, and political activist.

 

Far as I can tell, he came by the Iron Man nickname for a lengthy and challenging musical performance he gave using a variety of instruments of his own design. The name stuck throughout his life and was widely used by the press, and he even briefly launched a weekly paper (as noted in the caption there) called "The Iron Man".

 

Duganne was a founder of the Know-Nothing political party, and an associate of the far more famous Ned Buntline. Buntline was himself a promotional force of nature, sort of a prior-era Stan Lee Face Front True Believers type, whose claim to fame is fictionalizing the Buffalo Bill legend and turning Bill and many other foundational American heroic figures into the icons we know today.

 

As for Duganne, in one of history's amusing little coincidences, his first dime novel work was critically reviewed in 1864 by none other than William Everett -- a great uncle of a certain familiar name who gave a fictional smackdown to his own generation's Iron Man (at least once) a century later.

 

Perhaps it all means little, except... history whispers to us, always.

 

 

[markseifert]

So the title has a double pun - rain-->mizzle, reign-->mizzle.

 

Brilliant! Great catch, and thanks for posting those interiors. I've always appreciated your eye for cool rare stuff. It's amazing how much undiscovered territory is still out there...

[porcupine48]

More?

[porcupine48]

[porcupine48]

[BOOT]

1852 Satirical image, A.J.H. Duganne.

Great stuff!

[BOOT]

Happy Turkey Day!

[porcupine48]

[damonwad]

Happy Turkey Day!

 

Thanks for posting those Buster Brown's (especially the Thanksgiving story).

Some very entertaining comics in those Platinum Age books.

 

[Tsp99]

Love the "moral" to the story too. We should be thankful each and every day. Thankful for our funny books

[OtherEric]

Not exactly a platinum age comic, but closely adjacent enough that I figure it's worth posting here; just found it.  Based on the comic strip, published around 1906:

 

[Sqeggs]

10 hours ago, OtherEric said:

Not exactly a platinum age comic, but closely adjacent enough that I figure it's worth posting here; just found it.  Based on the comic strip, published around 1906:

 

Cool! Denslow was the artist for the original edition of the Wizard of Oz.  That cover illo has some of the flavor of his Oz illustrations. 

[OtherEric]

8 hours ago, Sqeggs said:

Cool! Denslow was the artist for the original edition of the Wizard of Oz.  That cover illo has some of the flavor of his Oz illustrations. 

The Oz connection is why I recognized the book and grabbed it.  My oldest copy of Wizard is a 5th state from 1930 or so, though; would love to get an earlier one.

[archiefan]

2 hours ago, OtherEric said:

The Oz connection is why I recognized the book and grabbed it.  My oldest copy of Wizard is a 5th state from 1930 or so, though; would love to get an earlier one.

Used to have a Denslow signed first edition of the Wizard. It was a beautiful book

[Sqeggs]

30 minutes ago, archiefan said:

3 hours ago, OtherEric said:

The Oz connection is why I recognized the book and grabbed it.  My oldest copy of Wizard is a 5th state from 1930 or so, though; would love to get an earlier one.

Used to have a Denslow signed first edition of the Wizard. It was a beautiful book

I read a bio of Denslow many years ago.  Can't remember much apart from the fact that after working on the Wizard of Oz, his career (and life) didn't go too well.  I think he got into a copyright fight with Baum over the Wizard, iirc. 

[MusterMark]

Reading this was a lot of fun. 

[archiefan]

1 hour ago, Sqeggs said:

I read a bio of Denslow many years ago.  Can't remember much apart from the fact that after working on the Wizard of Oz, his career (and life) didn't go too well.  I think he got into a copyright fight with Baum over the Wizard, iirc. 

Yes he did. He was the more popular of the two prior to their collaborations - having been a celebrated poster artist in the 1890s. After the Oz stage play in 1902-3 they had a major falling out but they owned the copyright jointly. Baum never again would allow an illustrator to own any part of his works. Denslow ended up with mediocre commissions here and there over the next 15 years or so (never achieving Baum's level of popularity) and died of pneumonia following a alcohol binge after getting a big cover commission to Life magazine in 1915.

[archiefan]

Giving this thread a bump with some cool Mutt & Jeff books from Ball publishing in the early 1910s. Now you see these around here and there but something about these copies is a little "different"

 

[gadzukes]

54 minutes ago, archiefan said:

Giving this thread a bump with some cool Mutt & Jeff books from Ball publishing in the early 1910s. Now you see these around here and there but something about these copies is a little "different"

 

What a great find.  So cool to see "mother appreciation".

[Yorick]

5 hours ago, archiefan said:

Giving this thread a bump with some cool Mutt & Jeff books from Ball publishing in the early 1910s. Now you see these around here and there but something about these copies is a little "different"

 

First books off the press?!!!  Well I'll be.  What do you think of that?