Thursday, January 15, 2009

Comic Book Interlude: Squeeks - TV Jitters


When it comes to comic books some people will read anything. Don't make me name names, but this post just might be for you. Squeeks the monkey and his foil Tiger Tom are the poor person's Lucky Duck and Rocky Rabbit, which I've posted previously. In fact Squeeks #5 published by Lev Gleason, from which this story hails, is from June 1954, written and drawn in the same era as Lucky. It shows a similar inking line and plot device, except less of each -- meaning a chase just for the sake of chasing, with a lot of scenery destroyed in the process. Nothing wrong with that really, and the pages tend to look better (to me) the larger I scan them. My father also did the covers for this issue and #4. Those human-hand looking feet on Squeeks kinda creep me out...or maybe I'm only jealous because I don't have opposing thumbs on my own feet.









I'm not certain who created Squeeks and Tom. The covers of the first three issues are by Charles Biro and the editor(s) are different. I'll know more when I can get my hands on some copies, hopefully if/when I make it to the NY Comic Con in a few weeks.

Speaking of editors, you might have noticed the name Harold Straubing as editor on this cover. Harold and his family became long-time friends of ours. In an upcoming post we'll revisit, well, a different kind of work my father did for him, almost ten years after this, when Harold led my dad down the garden path toward...

4 comments:

eeTeeD said...

this is really interesting! thanks for sharing!

if i'm not mistaken squeeks was originally the sidekick of a lev/gleason golden age boy superhero named CRIMEBUSTER.

http://www.toonopedia.com/crimebst.htm

i guess biro decided to try a funny animal variation on the character.

p spector said...

Yes, Biro did the covers, at least, for issues 1-3. I haven't seen the insides of those yet but hope to when I hit the NY Comic Con a few weeks from now. Issues 4-5 have lots of Squeeks stories in them, all but a couple by my father.

eeTeeD said...

issues 1 & 2 are available on ebay

p spector said...

Oh yeah, they show up all the time -- cheap too. I just get tired of paying the shipping fees on taking chances that don't pay off.