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BOOK REVIEW!!!!! THE THREE STOOGES ; THE KNUCKLEHEADS RETURN (Malibu Graphics, 1989) 

Yeah, just about every tru-blu fanabla who reads this blog is more'n just a bit agog over the Three Stooges. But did any of you ever go for any of those Stooges cartoons that peppered up the television screens for quite a spell back in the sixties and seventies? I mean, the Robotic Stooges might have been good for a one-second laff, but would you want to watch a whole bunch of 'em for an entire hour? At least those Cambria 'toons had them live action wraparunds that had some redeeming Stoogian value. And as far as the comic book realm goes how many of you cherish alla those Little Stooges and Teenage Stooges books that were undoubtedly to be found twixt your copies of ARCHIE AND ME not forgetting ZAP! wallowing away in your own personal fart-encrusted bedrooms? Sheesh, even as a adlo comic rack and flea market comic book searcher I knew enough to avoid dribble such as that!

Face it, just because some sorta  entertainment commodity is a hit in one realm doesn't mean it's gonna translate well into another medium. Sure the Popeye theatrical cartoons were just as good as the original strips and I gotta admit to having liked the old Bugs Bunny comics at least until the art went zilch, but a good portion of the time translating a live action character into a comic book just doesn't cut it the way the producers of such items banked their ill-gotten gain on.

'n I gotta say this collection of Three Stooges sagas that have been reprinted in this not-so timely (right at the tail end of the big Three Stooges revival of the eighties) volume really don't do the Stooge memory any good. Not only is the cover misleading albeit on purpose (no Curly to be found in these pages but really, if a shot with Shemp or Curly Joe were to be used d'ya think it woulda sold any?) but the stories just can't compete with the rill dill as if whomps and baps come off so good on the printed page as they do celluloid. 

Oh yeah, the Norman Mauer etched Shemp-era comics have an eye-appealing swing to 'em and the stories, while far from filmic greatness, do tingle the nerve endings a little. And the Dell-period sagas (some which are comic book representations of then-current Stoogian cinematic fare) ain't as bad as anything you might find from any eighties upstart comic book publisher. But the magic level's particularly low as if any of the action here could compete with watching Vernon Dent getting all flustered or Christine McIntyre slapping Shemp all over the place. 

Well, the adaptations of the Hercules and Around The World films will appeal to those of you wo spent more'n a few Sunday PM's plopped in front of the tee-vee watching these oft-poo-poo'd flickers. 'n hey, even with the iffy results I'd rather read this book than comb through any of that hentai you guys slam your hams to thinkin' it's some sorta expression of your displaced masculinity, if that word still has any meaning these sad 'n sorry days.