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COMIC BOOK REVIEW! SAD SACK ARMY LIFE PARADE, VOLUME ONE NUMBER 16 MARCH 1967 (Harvey Comics)

I gotta say that these old cover-less comics that have entered into mine life for ages do have a sorta cheapoid charm to 'em which dredge up a whole load of funtime memories. I get these weird vibes about their previous owners and alla the fun they mighta had reading such comics which have become all war torn and ragged o'er the years before being discarded, and now the fun and jamz have been passed down to me. A kinda romantic way to look at these things unlike Bill Shute's old comic book reminiscences which reek of cabbage and ass with a few old litter boxes tossed in.

Harvey Comics have a special reverberation in my own sense o' existence but for a very strange reason. When I was a kid my father used to give me haircuts with this pair of clippers he had (still has, since he was giving me especially requested baldies as late as 2009!) but he'd let me go with him to the barber shop just to do some father/son bonding other'n me getting whacked on the rear end with a belt. (I guess dad wasn't wise enough to figure that since he cut his hair, maybe I should be cutting his!)  

Anyway that's the place where I was introduced, not to THE POLICE GAZETTE but to Harvey Comics which were piled on the little stand near the door. Being a fan of the tee-vee CASPER cartoons these were rather popular with me as were the other Harvey titles I wasn't quite familiar with until then, like HOT STUFF (which I later eschewed reading due to its connections with the occult) and of course SAD SACK. Being a BEETLE BAILEY fan I really went for these army toons which to me came off as a cheap imitation of the real thing but then again even as a kid I knew that cheapness was a lasting virtue when it came to things made especially for us single-digit fidgits. Things like snacks and of course Harvey Comics.

I'm sure this particular issue of  SAD SACK ARMY LIFE PARADE had a pretty good life of its own before it came into my possession, and although Bill Shute has spewed out enough fun facts about this particular character maybe it's time for me to do some rheumy reminiscing myself. Back to this coverless issue --- considering the math problem featured in the margins of page one and the occasional magic marker blacking out of various characters whoever was in possession of this got his moneysworth outta the thing. Makes it kinda nice and lived in so to speak, and I also gotta admit that the stories in here were good enough to entertain this aged fanabla as much as it woulda my grade school self. Of course now I can appreciate alla the sexy references to females that wooshed right by me when I was a kid, and considering the kinda gals I was surrounded by back when I was a kid it's no wonder it all went by me faster'n Milk of Magnesia!

Lotsa BAILEY cops here from a Killer Diller cum Cosmo swipe (Hi-Fi) to a pudgy oaf who is reminiscent of the long discarded Dawg, while the Sarge can be gruesome enough to even make Snorkel come off cuddly. The General ain't so Halftrackesque tho and can be rather dull as he is in the final story where he decides hold a show for the entire camp to prove he's not a humorless turd and ends up being the butt of a ventriloquist's jokes. Which reminds me that if I ever do come across SAD SACK AND HIS FUNNY FRIENDS FEATURING THE GENERAL maybe I should do a little bit of avoidance in order to save a precious dime from a buy I probably should not make.

Sure this mag contains some tales that were old 'n tired even by the time this 1967 ish hit the stands but eh, this 'un still please me enough. Fearless Fosdick's old nemesis Anyface gets remade as "Anybody", a criminal who can make himself look like anyone he wants and thus disguises himself as all the men in the company on payday in order to cop their salary. Even funnier's the old brain exchange gag which always gets me up 'n roarin', and although this 'un ain't as funny as the time the castaways got their brains switched around on GILLIGAN'S ISLAND it was still a hoot seeing Sack and a giant frog get their identities topsy-turvied around thus fooling the bejabbers outta Sarge!

Frankly I can't see any teenbo ranch house kiddie not being amused by a beat up comic like this, unless he happens to come across a Japanese pearl diver issue of NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC instead. Kinda makes me wanna go out 'n get a haircut, but then again I haven't had hair in twenny-five years and like, I don't think I can get my scalp trimmed any without doin' a whole lotta bleedin'!