Category Archives: Remix

The Further Adventures of Li’l Bruce Wayne

Posted on by

From Wikipedia:

Often disregarded as part of any continuity, Li’l Bruce Wayne was a long-running series of light-hearted comic books aimed at children, detailing the life of a young, fantastically wealthy Bruce Wayne (known in the series as “The Happiest Kid On Earth”) in the years before the deaths of Thomas and Martha Wayne and his subsequent transformation into Batman

The series was originally created by Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson to fill a gap in DC‘s publishing schedule after the cancellation of More Fun Comics in 1946, and ran through the majority of the Silver Age despite being regarded by editors and fans alike as being “extremely depressing” [citation needed] and is usually left out of any discussion of the character. It is notable, however, as being the first published comic book work of writer/artist Frank Miller.

 

 

 

 

Truly, a forgotten treasure.

The Improved Richie Rich

Posted on by

I hate Richie Rich.

I hate him so much, in fact that when I was having lunch with Dr. K yesterday, an offhand remark turned into a two-hour discussion of why I–and, as it turns out, the good Doctor–can’t stand the little oligarch. Essentially, it boils down to the fact that Richie, a kid known for doing things like building a little castle out of cash and playing football with a huge chunk of pure silver (and, of course, for having terrifying abs), throws around so much cash that it makes P. Diddy look like a Franciscan monk, and he does it with his friends who can’t even afford to buy a new pair of pants.

The only other explanation, and the one that I think we’re supposed to buy given the “Poor Little Rich Boy” tagline, is that Richie isn’t ostentatious, he just has absolutely no concept of the value of money. Seriously, that’s the better of the two possibilities, and imagining Richie’s blank stare as Freckles tries to explain why he doesn’t just sew hundred-dollar bills onto his jeans doesn’t do a whole lot to generate sympathy.

The only way you can make these stories work, then, is to do them with a character that understands a little something about loss, who learns the hard way that there are problems even improbably large safes full of gold coins can’t solve. Someone like…

Ah yes.

 

 

Much better.

The Improved Azumanga Daioh

Posted on by

Some of you might recall that my enjoyment of Yotsuba&! led me to become somewhat fascinated with Kiyohiko Azuma’s earlier work, Azumanga Daioh, and that his knack for quirky characters led me to read through all four volumes of it, despite the fact that a solid third of the series was incredibly frustrating.

The problem, I think, comes from a structure that just doesn’t seem to translate well. Despite the fact that it seems to read a lot better as one continuous story, Azuma sets most of the books up as a series of individually titled four-panel comic strips, and the snag here, as I’ve mentioned before, is that he often neglects to include what we in the humor “biz” refer to as “a punchline.”

Well, thanks to a surplus of fourth-panel gags from someone who mastered the format, I think I’ve managed to solve that problem pretty handily:

 

 

Ah. Much better.

 

The source of tonight’s frivolity can be found in the economical and, believe it or not, highly enjoyable Azumanga Daioh Omnibus, while Charlie Brown’s heroic battle against Oopsy Doopsy Ex Foopsia can be found in The Complete Peanuts v.8: 1965-1966, which no one should be without.