THE SPIRIT

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Bumbazine in "Albert The Alligator"

 

 

 

An early appearance of Pogo with Albert the Alligator and Bumbazine. Bumbazine would only appear in a few more stories before the series switched entirely to funny animals.

 

 

Reblogged from http://apocolytesworldofcomics.blogspot.com/2010/02/albert-alligator-leaves-swamp-for-big.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm aware of criticism of the way Walt Kelly depicted Buckwheat in "Our Gang" comics. Bumbazine and the other black people in this story look much the same. But it would seem to me that the black people are depicted in a more favorable light than the white people in this story. And there are no women, although there is a character that appears to be a little girl. The one character in POGO that was presumably supposed to be a pretty girl was a skunk. I'd say that all of that was a little strange.  

 

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OUR GANG #1 By Walt Kelly

OUR GANG as drawn by Walt Kelly. This story was originally published during the second World War and contains a reference to scrap metal being used to build tanks for the war effort.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"The Gas House" was a tough neighborhood in New York. After the end of the "Our Gang" series, Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer and Tommy "Butch" Bond appeared in some "Gas House Kids" films.





OUR GANG comic books:
http://ourgang.wikia.com/wiki/Our_Gang_Comics

William Thomas ( "Buckwheat" ):
http://ourgang.wikia.com/wiki/William_Thomas_Jr.

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Ebony, Buckwheat, and Bumbazine

 

 

In Will Eisner's THE SPIRIT, Ebony White is the hero's kid sidekick,  who assists him in his adventures.

 

 

 

 

Ebony was a stereotyped comedy character and was frequently used as comedy relief in the stories. 

The Spirit sometimes mistreated his sidekick, subjecting him to violence in one story which was supposed to be funny*. The character's complaints of not being treated fairly were also supposed to be funny.

 

 

 

Ebony was sometimes shown with a group of white kids, which resembled "Our Gang" somewhat.

Ebony may have been influenced if not inspired by Our Gang's "Buckwheat", who was played by William Thomas. Buckwheat also appeared in the comic book adventures of Our Gang, which were originally done by Walt Kelly.**

 

 

 

 

 

 Today Walt Kelly is best known for his comic strip POGO, a tale of anthropomorphic animals set in the south. What is not so well known is that these comics originally included a character who was similar to Buckwheat, and who could even be considered a later version of the character that Kelly had been drawing in OUR GANG.

 

 

Here the character was called Bumbazine. Bumbazine was the only important human character in these stories ( sometimes the only human character to put in an appearance ).  It could be said that the early POGO was something like a different version of OUR GANG, with funny animals in place of the other kids.

Bumbazine was eventually dropped from the stories and the cast of POGO then consisted entirely of funny animals.

The way that the old artists depicted black people in their comics is frowned upon today, but it's been said that during his period on OUR GANG comics Walt Kelly thought that later on he improved the character of Buckwheat and made him less of a stereotype. While I am not familiar with those comics myself, it appears to me from his early POGO comics that Kelly liked the black character and thought of him as being "one of the boys", which was also supposed to have been the idea in the original OUR GANG comedies.

While complaints about the stereotyped black characters used by both Will Eisner and Walt Kelly may be seen in some accounts, there is not as much criticism of their work as there is of some of their contemporaries. This seems to be related to an adulation of their work over that of some of the other artists of that period.



*"The Spirit Am Unfair To His Assistant", Spirit story for August 17, 1941.

** Ebony beat Buckwheat into the comics, but Buckwheat was in the OUR GANG comedies before Ebony's comic adventures had begun.



OUR GANG comic books:
http://ourgang.wikia.com/wiki/Our_Gang_Comics


William Thomas ( "Buckwheat" ):
http://ourgang.wikia.com/wiki/William_Thomas_Jr.




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Dawn Wells

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The first photograph taken after the cancellation of Gilligan's Island in my front yard and in a red dress. I let my hair down and said to the photographer take a picture of me as a grown up. It's one of my favorites.

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Dawn Wells

Dawn Wells

Hello? Are you there? Yes, I am here. Where are you?

And I'm here

 

 

 

And here!

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NAPOLEON In FAMOUS FUNNIES

NAPOLEON was a famous comic strip and was republished in the comic book FAMOUS FUNNIES. .

Sometimes NAPOLEON even made it onto the cover.

 

 

 

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