Some of my greatest loves during the latter days of my single-digits existence were comic strips and old moom pitchers, tee-vee, radio and general pre-hippie entertainment. While I was existing in the late-sixties I felt I was stuck right inna middle of dayglo Peter Max boredom...only the older comics that were being drawn by twenties/thirties/forties survivors and leftover afternoon tee-vee entertainment, usually performed by leftover entertainers from my parents' generation, appealed to me. If I only had these Mutual Radio Network broadcasts of THE COMIC WEEKLY MAN to settle down and listen to boy would I have been one happy blubberfarm...imagine, two of my favorite pastimes combined making for a long of fun at least for this suburban slob who really could tell all of those faux hipster fourth-graders where they could stick their Woodstock dog tags, that's fo' sure!
So let's just say this volume of kiddoid radio really did the ol' nostalgia titty twist in my beano and for a good reason too! Lon Clark plays the title character who each and every episode, reads a selection from THE PUCK COMIC WEEKLY to Little Miss Honey, played by who knows who (tried googlin' to no avail) who does a pretty good job as not only a one-gal audience but a funtime foil to Clark and on occasion voice for some of the female roles such as that of Blondie (though Clark does Cookie who sounds just like a man doing a young girl's voice...wonder what went wrong there!).
But if you were one to sprawl out onna living room floor to read the funnies or fondly remember your own dad readin' 'em to you until your girth became the thing of hernia legends you'll probably get a kick outta these too. Clark tackles, with plenty of sound effects, roaring radio organ and occasionally some voice overdubs helpin' out, that particular week's Sunday funnies whilst handling the mighty Herculean task of keeping the right charactes and the right voices straight, adding that all-important oomph to the proceedings (well, I gotta admit that his Donald Duck coulda used a little more work!). After which Miss Honey throws in her own usually high-larious two-cents regarding that week's episode of anything from ROY ROGERS to HOPALONG CASSIDY and FLASH GORDON, UNCLE REMUS, BLONDIE and others that have also vanished (well, 'cept for BLONDIE) from the local comic pages. Y'know, them dayze after the relevant generation got in charge and axed all the good ol' comics with a radical vengeance. Sheesh, I'd hate to see what this show'd be like today with Clark having to handle a strip like RHYMES WITH ORANGE.
And yeah, it's all in good early-fifties fun for not only the Saturday Afternoon Barbershop Kid crowd but their spiritual offspring lo these sixtysome years later. The talents of Clark and Honey make these broadcasts just as suburban slob ranch-house PACKED these days as they were then, and like if you ever were one to tear open a freshly delivered newspaper and lunge at the comics section or maybe even listened to some old classic radio broadcast being rerun on some pokey AM station (like I have both) you'll appreciate these. Can't wait to hear the ones where the Comic Weekly Man tackles the newly Sunday-ized BEETLE BAILEY in a few more weeks...sheesh, I wonder how the overt sexiness of those would go over with Miss Honey anyhow???
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