Funny Books

When I was old enough to read, back in the early 1950s, I took a keen interest in reading comic books, like most American kids. And, like most American boys, I liked to read action/adventure comic books that weren't really funny. But my interest in comic books didn't stop there. I liked all kinds of comic books and got a real charge out of the "funny" ones.

Eventually, all comic books became "funny books" to me, just like I called the Sunday comics in the newspapers "the funny papers". The funny papers would make another fun topic for this blog but, right now, I want to list some of the "funny books" that I read on a regular basis. And, yep, some of them were probably for girls, but when you grow up around girls, you often read what they read and then you find out that most "funny books" were meant for everybody. Even grownups.

Rather than make this blog post a mile long by going into detail about why I liked reading these "funny books", I'll just list the ones I was able to remember reading regularly, or at least more than once. One thing the comic books or graphic novels or funny books — or whatever you want to call them — did for me was to show me the lighter side of life and the creative, fanciful side of others that made me feel good about having a big part of me that could forego reality for a spell and enjoy action, fantasy and humor. Here are some "funny books" from my youth:

DC Comics

Batman, Green Lantern, Flash, Robin, Sgt. Rock, Superman, Swamp Thing

Dell Comics

Combat, Beetle Bailey, Bugs Bunny, Daffy [Duck], Donald Duck, Huckleberry Hound, Little Lulu, Tom and Jerry, [Marge's] Tubby, Tweety and Sylvester, Uncle Scrooge, Walt Disney Comics

Harvey Comics

Baby Huey, Casper the Friendly Ghost, Hot Stuff the Little Devil, Little Dot, Little Lotta, Richie Rich, Sad Sack, Spooky, Stumbo the Giant, Wendy the Good Little Witch

As you can see, the "funny books" from my past outnumber the action/adventure "comic books". But that never mattered to me. I wasn't keeping track of them. I wasn't counting them or categorizing them or looking over my shoulder to see who was watching me. I was too busy reading them. Over and over again.

The Wonder of Disney

More impressive to me than the automotive empire that Henry Ford built with his “assembly line” or the steel dynasty of Andrew Carnegie was the magical kingdom without a king created by Walt Disney in the mid-20th century.

The “house that Uncle Walt built” had television shows like “Disneyland” on ABC, which premiered on October 27, 1954, and which had prime time offerings that included wonderful family shows like “Davy Crockett”, starring Fess Parker.

When “Disneyland”, the TV Show, moved to NBC in 1961 it was broadcast in color and renamed “Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color” and it later became “The Wonderful World of Disney”. It was family entertainment at its best and it offered American children a wholesome opportunity to wish upon a star and see what happened next.

Disney meant Disneyland, the theme park in California, and later “Walt Disney World” in Florida. Walt Disney brought us the “Mickey Mouse Club” each weekday on TV in the late 1950s and dozens of animated films and “G-Rated” feature films, including quality westerns and action/adventure movies with big-name stars.

When Walt Disney died in 1966 his dynasty continued to flourish but the entertainment empire that Disney built was not the thing that really impressed me about Walt Disney. It was the man, himself. Here was a man who loved entertaining children and who dared to dream of mystical realms and magical kingdoms and of wonderful things that were bigger than himself.

And that kind of humble, hands-on, American entrepreneurial spirit hasn’t been seen or heard from since.