Gus Mager and Un-Natural History

Cartoonist Gus Mager is well-respected for his pioneering newspaper strips. But he seems to have let his fertile and fanciful brain trespass into his supposedly scientific feature for Popular Science. Some of the "facts" given in his column appear somewhat dubious, to say the least. The business about the grapefruit was all settled well before Gus was working in the 1930s.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Oct 13, 2012 - Comments (5)
Category: Animals, Comics, 1930s, Natural Wonders

The Violent Noah’s Ark Boys

Allan Holtz calls himself "the stripper". (He's a comic-strip historian.) On his blog, he recently directed his readers' attention to the Noah's Ark Boys — an odd series drawn by Ben McCutcheon that briefly ran in the Chicago Sunday Tribune back in 1911.

Holtz explains that the Noah's Ark Boys strip was inspired by the Noah's Ark figurines that were (and still are) the toys of choice in many religious homes. Children were supposed to learn wholesome Biblical values by playing with these toys. But McCutcheon evidently learned a slightly darker lesson, because every week his strip concluded with the Boys on the receiving end of some kind of horrific violence: burnt, blown apart, frozen, crushed, etc. Although the Bible is pretty violent, when it comes down to it. So maybe he did get the right message.

Click the images to enlarge.

Posted By: Alex - Mon Sep 17, 2012 - Comments (6)
Category: Religion, Violence, Comics

Altergott Does SpongeBob

[Click to enlarge]

I am taking the liberty of "reprinting" a page from the latest SpongeBob comic because it features the newest work from our resident genius artist Rick Altergott. The whole issue is hilarious, and you should grab one for yourself or any young budding WU-vie.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Sep 15, 2012 - Comments (6)
Category: Television, Weird Universe, Comics, Cartoons

Smells Like Harvey Comics

Now that DreamWorks has acquired the rights to the Harvey Comics characters, surely they will zealously protect properties such as Little Dot and issue a lawsuit against such blatant ripoffs as Dot Perfume.

Posted By: Paul - Sun Jul 29, 2012 - Comments (3)
Category: Lawsuits, Comics, Perfume and Other Scents

Anime Makeup

Never too early to start thinking about your Halloween look!

Posted By: Paul - Tue Jul 24, 2012 - Comments (3)
Category: Cosmetics, Costumes and Masks, Comics, Asia

Jughead Licks An Old Man Wearing Ice Cream

[Click to enlarge]

Forever will the image of Jughead licking icecream off the head of Pop Tate haunt your every waking moment.

But if that's not enough old-school Archie weirdness for you, please click the link and purchase the newest volume of the Archie Archives.

Posted By: Paul - Fri May 11, 2012 - Comments (2)
Category: Food, Comics, 1940s, Eating, Goofs and Screw-ups

Do You Kiss Betty and/or Veronica With That Mouth?

This is not an artifact of me fooling around with Photoshop. Nor can I imagine some Google drone did this during the newspaper-scanning process. You're welcome to look at the original here.

My guess is some bored artist or letterer in 1947 seeing what he could sneak past the editor.

Posted By: Paul - Sun Apr 22, 2012 - Comments (12)
Category: Comics

Rick Altergott News

What has the brilliant cartoonist Rick Altergott--who created our fabulous site banner--been up to lately?

He's started a new online strip about a young woman's romantic travails. And he's offering free sex advice!

Episode 1 here.

Episode 2 here.

Sex advice here.

Posted By: Paul - Thu Dec 15, 2011 - Comments (2)
Category: Sexuality, Weird Universe, Comics

Strange As It Seems

News of the Weird has several ancestors. One is Strange As It Seems.

Strange as it Seems featured bizarre stories based on cartoons created by John Hix who was a staff artist at the Washington Herald. The comic strip Strange as it Seems was syndicated in American newspapers between 1928 and 1944. Strange as it Seems was comparable to Ripley's Believe It Or Not. Sponsored by Exlax in the 1930s and Palmolive Shave Cream when the show reappeared in 1947-1948.

The brand has recently been revivied, and features a YouTube Channel. Check it out!

Posted By: Paul - Thu Nov 17, 2011 - Comments (2)
Category: Newspapers, Radio, Weird Studies and Guides, Comics, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s

Electra Woman and Dyna Girl

All you need to know here.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Oct 01, 2011 - Comments (6)
Category: Television, Comics, 1970s, Parody