Smilin' Who..?
For those of you who missed growing up in the 50s, you also undoubtedly missed “Smilin’ Ed and His Buster Brown Gang”— or later on, after Smilin’ Ed died, Andy Devine stepped into his size - 14 Buster Brown Brogans and the show became known as “Andy’s Gang”… a wonderfully low-budget kiddie show, complete with fake prerecorded Peanut Gallery, a strange cast of characters, including Midnight, a stuffed wind-up cat, Squeaky the Mouse, and a Maniacal Rubber Frog named, Froggy the Gremlin, who brought a sort of rebellious, anti-social, raucous humor to the show…
For those of you who missed growing up in the 50s, you also undoubtedly missed “Smilin’ Ed and His Buster Brown Gang”— or later on, after Smilin’ Ed died, Andy Devine stepped into his size - 14 Buster Brown Brogans and the show became known as “Andy’s Gang”… a wonderfully low-budget kiddie show, complete with fake prerecorded Peanut Gallery, a strange cast of characters, including Midnight, a stuffed wind-up cat, Squeaky the Mouse, and a Maniacal Rubber Frog named, Froggy the Gremlin, who brought a sort of rebellious, anti-social, raucous humor to the show…
What does all this have to do with the story in question..? Well, “Smilin’ George & His Gang” opens up in the old Smilin’ Ed show’s format, before degenerating into one of my favorite stories among those I’ve done personally. Among other things, I just sort’a love the concept of “Ollie the Gremlin”--wisht I’d been able to do more with the character--but this was my last story for the last issue of Rip Off Comix, and as such it closed out the intermittent run of Uncle Joe’s Commie Strip…
What does all this have to do with the story in question..? Well, “Smilin’ George & His Gang” opens up in the old Smilin’ Ed show’s format, before degenerating into one of my favorite stories among those I’ve done personally. Among other things, I just sort’a love the concept of “Ollie the Gremlin”--wisht I’d been able to do more with the character--but this was my last story for the last issue of Rip Off Comix, and as such it closed out the intermittent run of Uncle Joe’s Commie Strip…
“What was Uncle Joe’s Commie Strip?”
you might ask…
“What was Uncle Joe’s Commie Strip?”you might ask…
Uncle Joe’s Commie Strip, as I sometimes described it, was “a melange of CheeseCake, CheepShots and Beetle Brained Political Humor.” Uncle Joe himself hosted the strip, speaking in a sort of “Lower Slobbovian” dialect (a la Al Capp) as he narrated various odd propagandistic stories to his “leedle Pal” (i.e. Stooge), Howdy Ivan, a marionette of the sort you might have found on various kid shows of the ‘50s and early ‘60s…
In fact, the Commie Strip was designed in a similar format to those old shows, as though that Fun-Luffink ex-Soviet Party Chairman, upon retirement had gone on to a career hosting this demented Kiddie TV puppet show… Most every episode would open with Uncle Joe or Howdy Ivan introducing the cast--including themselves, plus Commissar Svelte Svetlana, (later - Leedle Svetlana), Comrade Puppet Castro Boy, KG Bear, the T-34, along with miscellaneous antagonists, including Heidi and Etsuko, the Ghost of Trotsky and others. Then followed a bit of “Playful Banter” which could include anything from a bit of heavy-handed Roosky Humor to assault and battery (generally inflicted upon Howdy Ivan) before launching into one of Uncle Joe’s stories: “Once Upon a Time – Way back in 1941…” and which generally made up the bulk of the strip. Joe's stories were usually intended to illustrate a point of dialectic, though not necessarily the point which the readers might have been led to expect…
Uncle Joe’s Commie Strip, as I sometimes described it, was “a melange of CheeseCake, CheepShots and Beetle Brained Political Humor.” Uncle Joe himself hosted the strip, speaking in a sort of “Lower Slobbovian” dialect (a la Al Capp) as he narrated various odd propagandistic stories to his “leedle Pal” (i.e. Stooge), Howdy Ivan, a marionette of the sort you might have found on various kid shows of the ‘50s and early ‘60s…
In fact, the Commie Strip was designed in a similar format to those old shows, as though that Fun-Luffink ex-Soviet Party Chairman, upon retirement had gone on to a career hosting this demented Kiddie TV puppet show… Most every episode would open with Uncle Joe or Howdy Ivan introducing the cast--including themselves, plus Commissar Svelte Svetlana, (later - Leedle Svetlana), Comrade Puppet Castro Boy, KG Bear, the T-34, along with miscellaneous antagonists, including Heidi and Etsuko, the Ghost of Trotsky and others. Then followed a bit of “Playful Banter” which could include anything from a bit of heavy-handed Roosky Humor to assault and battery (generally inflicted upon Howdy Ivan) before launching into one of Uncle Joe’s stories: “Once Upon a Time – Way back in 1941…” and which generally made up the bulk of the strip. Joe's stories were usually intended to illustrate a point of dialectic, though not necessarily the point which the readers might have been led to expect…
The Commie Strip seemed to puzzle those few who paused to think about it much at all - As one Socialist friend told me, He was puzzled about whether the strip was pro or anti-Socialism… As best he could figure, it seemed to be anti-Every Ideology - and I suppose it was… Just as Uncle Joe was a deliberately poor spokesman for the then still-active U.S.S.R., the various alternative characters to his heavy-handed point of view, who showed up in the strip, all seemed equally unpalatable… Whether Kapitalists, or Fascists, or Troskyites (“Oh My!”) they all had their foibles, and none seemed all that reassuring when selling their particular brand of demagoguery…
The Commie Strip seemed to puzzle those few who paused to think about it much at all - As one Socialist friend told me, He was puzzled about whether the strip was pro or anti-Socialism… As best he could figure, it seemed to be anti-Every Ideology - and I suppose it was… Just as Uncle Joe was a deliberately poor spokesman for the then still-active U.S.S.R., the various alternative characters to his heavy-handed point of view, who showed up in the strip, all seemed equally unpalatable… Whether Kapitalists, or Fascists, or Troskyites (“Oh My!”) they all had their foibles, and none seemed all that reassuring when selling their particular brand of demagoguery…
To backtrack a bit - Or, if you’re wondering about the reason for the Elves and all that… Now, myself, I don’t generally do Elf material, but way back in the ‘80s there was a Mag titled Fantasy Book, which mostly featured semi-pro fantasy prose stories… And, for some obscure and unlikely reason, the publisher asked me to create a comic strip for it… I thought about the prospects a bit (about 5 minutes)... I really didn’t have any affinity for Elf stuff... so I cooked up this concept to do a strip about the most obnoxious types of Elves possible… Nazi Ninja Fascist Elves… Surprisingly enough, they bought the idea…
To backtrack a bit - Or, if you’re wondering about the reason for the Elves and all that… Now, myself, I don’t generally do Elf material, but way back in the ‘80s there was a Mag titled Fantasy Book, which mostly featured semi-pro fantasy prose stories… And, for some obscure and unlikely reason, the publisher asked me to create a comic strip for it… I thought about the prospects a bit (about 5 minutes)... I really didn’t have any affinity for Elf stuff... so I cooked up this concept to do a strip about the most obnoxious types of Elves possible… Nazi Ninja Fascist Elves… Surprisingly enough, they bought the idea…
Then, a few issues later, a kid working at the local Comics Emporium asked me about the strip, only he misremembered the name, referring to them as the “Communist Elves,” and suddenly I realized that I’d overlooked the most noxious type of Elves of All..! So, shortly thereafter, Uncle Joe and his minions invaded the strip – conquered it, in fact – and began dispensing their own brand of Roosky humor… Then, three issues later, Fantasy Book folded, and Joe and the gang - plus myself - were all out of a job…
Then, a few issues later, a kid working at the local Comics Emporium asked me about the strip, only he misremembered the name, referring to them as the “Communist Elves,” and suddenly I realized that I’d overlooked the most noxious type of Elves of All..! So, shortly thereafter, Uncle Joe and his minions invaded the strip – conquered it, in fact – and began dispensing their own brand of Roosky humor… Then, three issues later, Fantasy Book folded, and Joe and the gang - plus myself - were all out of a job…
Sometime later, for reasons that also defy logic, the strip was picked up for Rip Off Comix – at which point it was officially renamed “Uncle Joe’s Commie Strip,” and we blundered on through intermittent issues, until the Rip Off anthology itself folded and Joe was deposed once again… As such, “Smilin’ George & his Gang” was the last story that I did for the last issue of Rip Off Comix – and it also more or less brings the Commie Strip to its untimely conclusion (I hadn’t intended for this to be the end, but that’s more or less how it turned out)…
Though, Possibly I should mention that the whole gang got together one more time, for a One-Shot comix: "Uncle Joe's Commie Book featuring Cutey Bunny", in which the Bunnies teamed up with Uncle Joe to help retell an "Untold tale of World War II" (Actually it was about the Teheran Conference - Just a laugh a minute there - and since the comix was published, I suppose one might argue that it's no longer an "Untold Story")...
Of our cast of characters, Heidi and Etsuko, those Fascist Cuties, had been the original Protagonist - Antagonists of the strip, way back when it was called “The Nasty Nazi Ninja Noodnik Elves,” (or something of the sort). Later on, after Uncle Joe had taken over the strip and the name had changed, the girls carried on as the natural adversaries to Joe’s particular brand of Rooskie Humor… In this final story, they seem to have discarded their rather skimpy military uniforms in order to Dress for Success as they join the managerial lifestyle to help explain the “New One World Order...”
I don’t know how much background on Heidi & Etsuko you really need... I don’t believe we ever specifically established this in the old comix strip, but they are half-sisters... At first they seemed at each other’s necks with intentions purely homicidal... though later they did unite - perhaps through mutual animosity towards Uncle Joe - Till in our current story offering, they seem quite chummy... (Perhaps their mood swings aren’t all that far-fetched considering that they are “family”)
The original Nazi-Ninja Elf strip, I must admit, really wasn’t very good - This at least partially due to my lack of empathy for the genre and characters - they were intended to be unlikeable - and in that, at least, they seemed to succeed... Then again, I often tried to stump myself, by creating unlikely cliffhanger endings that I had no clear idea as to how I was going to resolve... This made the whole thing a bit disjointed... Although after Uncle Joe took over narration duties, the strip seemed to settle down somewhat, probably because Joe had a definite agenda - whereas before, the only agenda had been mayhem for its own sake...
Uncle Joe is a character that I really enjoy..! while his namesake may have been a first-class BMF, in the comix he developed a sort of thuggish humor - like the Bully who considers he’s doing you a favor when he doesn’t hit you absolutely as hard as he can... Plus the Rooskie dialect is always fun, trying to think up improbable word-plays and double-think phrases... It’s a dialog to be spoken, and I used to repeat it out loud, over and over again, to get the rhythm of the patter... trying out different combinations till it seemed to bounce along on its own cadence...
Uncle Joe is a character that I really enjoy..! while his namesake may have been a first-class BMF, in the comix he developed a sort of thuggish humor - like the Bully who considers he’s doing you a favor when he doesn’t hit you absolutely as hard as he can... Plus the Rooskie dialect is always fun, trying to think up improbable word-plays and double-think phrases... It’s a dialog to be spoken, and I used to repeat it out loud, over and over again, to get the rhythm of the patter... trying out different combinations till it seemed to bounce along on its own cadence...
Then again, for some readers, this probably was a bit of tough going - especially when you take into account Heidi's tortured Katzenjammerisms and Etsuko's second-string Dlagon Lady inflections... At least, after a while, I gave up on distinctive type styles for each character's word balloons - This also made the hand-lettering a tad easier...
… As for the change in format to: "Smilin' George and his Gang" - Well... Smilin’ George and his hand puppet Danny had made a few cameos in earlier editions of the strip, so for regular readers (all both of ‘em) it may not’ve been a big surprise when Uncle Joe shows up to protest that his spot in the mag had been appropriated - as in fact it had…
The quirky thing about this story is, Recalling back when it was originally written and drawn, the U.S.S.R. was seemingly reeling but still powerful - we’d rolled through the “Gulf War” Incident, leaving an unresolved situation... (Bad for general peace of mind - but good for Military
planners and Arms Merchants)... and then the Warsaw Pact, Which since World War II had stood armed and menacing behind their Iron Curtain, began to unravel... (If that isn’t mixing metaphors to think of an Iron curtain unraveling instead of rusting... but perhaps they did a bit of both)... First Poland and then the others were declaring their freedom to forge their own futures, separate from the Mighty U.S.S.R. - East Germany threw in the towel and united with their western brethren, while the Berlin wall was thrown down, Something that I hadn’t imagined that I’d live to see... I was in grade school when it went up and the Wall, I suppose, more than any other artifact, became a symbol of the Russian Totalitarianism... Ironic, in that most people looked on it as a symbol of glowering power - while in reality, it reflected the failure of the system that erected it - it wasn’t a bastion of defense, like the Great Wall of China, but a Cage to keep its citizens within... It’s interesting to contemplate, that Stalin never would’ve needed a Berlin Wall, or countenanced the weakness it evidenced... While Nikita Khrushchev and his successors clutched it as a crutch and bandage to hold together the rupturing system...
But I digress, I suppose... And while the Warsaw Pact was disassembling, I don’t think many of us expected the U.S.S.R. to just give it up and hand over the keys to an Empire, won over the decades through blood and terrible sacrifice... Surely the Commissars wouldn’t just close the doors to the Kremlin and walk away from it all... But that’s pretty much what they did... And for that, I think we owe them a great debt of gratitude...
planners and Arms Merchants)... and then the Warsaw Pact, Which since World War II had stood armed and menacing behind their Iron Curtain, began to unravel... (If that isn’t mixing metaphors to think of an Iron curtain unraveling instead of rusting... but perhaps they did a bit of both)... First Poland and then the others were declaring their freedom to forge their own futures, separate from the Mighty U.S.S.R. - East Germany threw in the towel and united with their western brethren, while the Berlin wall was thrown down, Something that I hadn’t imagined that I’d live to see... I was in grade school when it went up and the Wall, I suppose, more than any other artifact, became a symbol of the Russian Totalitarianism... Ironic, in that most people looked on it as a symbol of glowering power - while in reality, it reflected the failure of the system that erected it - it wasn’t a bastion of defense, like the Great Wall of China, but a Cage to keep its citizens within... It’s interesting to contemplate, that Stalin never would’ve needed a Berlin Wall, or countenanced the weakness it evidenced... While Nikita Khrushchev and his successors clutched it as a crutch and bandage to hold together the rupturing system...But I digress, I suppose... And while the Warsaw Pact was disassembling, I don’t think many of us expected the U.S.S.R. to just give it up and hand over the keys to an Empire, won over the decades through blood and terrible sacrifice... Surely the Commissars wouldn’t just close the doors to the Kremlin and walk away from it all... But that’s pretty much what they did... And for that, I think we owe them a great debt of gratitude...
But back to the story - if you’re paying attention, towards the end we make a prediction that the USSR would break up and large portions of it would join the Third World… At the time, I considered this a bit of a 
long-shot that wouldn’t be likely to happen till maybe 10 or 15 years down the line – if at all - (and to give credit where it’s due, I was really only distilling information gathered from many sources)… Then, Imagine my surprise, when in the few months between delivery of the story and waiting for its publication, the rumblings within the Warsaw Pact began to reach the U.S.S.R., which itself began to disassemble… At first there was a wave of euphoria – not only did it seem that the Cold War would soon be over (which seemed like a good thing at the time), but I had been Correct..! I could imagine myself proclaimed the next Cartoon Prophet (Look out, Cheech Wizard)! But then, with the accelerating rate of events I began to panic, it looked as though, while “my” prediction was proving correct, it might all be all over before my story was published..! This was nail-biting time,.. would the mag be published while there was still a U.S.S.R. to kick around..?? Then Rip Off missed its press date,.. 
So the mag was set back another month, and they missed it again..! (Turned out later that they were waiting for some other contributors who hadn't yet turned in their material)... At this point, they were so far behind that they had to re-solicit the mag, and when it finally did hit the stands, months later, the U.S.S.R. was but a fading memory (as were my dreams of Prophetorial Glory)…
Oh well,.. guess that’s the way it goes… Just, I’ll probably never again get another chance to be that right about such a momentous moment in history… But as for the story itself, I think it still holds up well and has even more relevance today… Back when it was written, President George was trying to sell the idea of a “New One World Order” to a generally unreceptive or apathetic public… Today we are living in the New World Order… (Just a lot of you may not have realized it yet – and some 10 years later, it’s no longer quite so new or quite so orderly)... Under President Bill-Boy the packaging changed, not the marching orders… And whether the New One World Order is a good or bad idea, I suppose is debatable… Myself, I’m a bit ambivalent about the whole thing, since – as long as we, the citizens of the world, submit to rule by the type of people who probably shouldn’t be trusted to manage a 7-11, then the New One World Order in some form or another is likely inevitable…
long-shot that wouldn’t be likely to happen till maybe 10 or 15 years down the line – if at all - (and to give credit where it’s due, I was really only distilling information gathered from many sources)… Then, Imagine my surprise, when in the few months between delivery of the story and waiting for its publication, the rumblings within the Warsaw Pact began to reach the U.S.S.R., which itself began to disassemble… At first there was a wave of euphoria – not only did it seem that the Cold War would soon be over (which seemed like a good thing at the time), but I had been Correct..! I could imagine myself proclaimed the next Cartoon Prophet (Look out, Cheech Wizard)! But then, with the accelerating rate of events I began to panic, it looked as though, while “my” prediction was proving correct, it might all be all over before my story was published..! This was nail-biting time,.. would the mag be published while there was still a U.S.S.R. to kick around..?? Then Rip Off missed its press date,.. So the mag was set back another month, and they missed it again..! (Turned out later that they were waiting for some other contributors who hadn't yet turned in their material)... At this point, they were so far behind that they had to re-solicit the mag, and when it finally did hit the stands, months later, the U.S.S.R. was but a fading memory (as were my dreams of Prophetorial Glory)…Oh well,.. guess that’s the way it goes… Just, I’ll probably never again get another chance to be that right about such a momentous moment in history… But as for the story itself, I think it still holds up well and has even more relevance today… Back when it was written, President George was trying to sell the idea of a “New One World Order” to a generally unreceptive or apathetic public… Today we are living in the New World Order… (Just a lot of you may not have realized it yet – and some 10 years later, it’s no longer quite so new or quite so orderly)... Under President Bill-Boy the packaging changed, not the marching orders… And whether the New One World Order is a good or bad idea, I suppose is debatable… Myself, I’m a bit ambivalent about the whole thing, since – as long as we, the citizens of the world, submit to rule by the type of people who probably shouldn’t be trusted to manage a 7-11, then the New One World Order in some form or another is likely inevitable…
Today, we live in a world seemingly less stable than when the U.S.S.R. and USA went toe to toe - deadlocked in a Cold War Standoff... Most of the Thousands of Nuclear Warheads are still around - though some apparently have "Gone Missing"... While America, Japan and others seem bent on destroying ourselves through a gluttony of waste... The World Ecosystem is convulsing, possibly dying... But little if anything seems being done... While those few who bother to pay attention to the approaching catastrophe, basically watch helpless to help or hinder...