I too remember the Bob Hope and Jerry Lewis comics (mostly for Mort Drucker's delicious caricatures), but this kind of celebrity comic book was not unusual.  I suggest that you look at the annual Comic Book Price Guide published by Robert M. Overstreet (readily available in many libraries and bookstores with a "collectibles" section).  It is a comprehensive listing of just about every mainstream comic book ever published.  You can also find information about the guide at http://www.gemstonepub.com/

One short-lived comic book (that I discovered thanks to Thomas Pynchon) was "Hello, Pal!" comics, which featured a celebrity's photo on the cover of each magazine (which otherwise had stories about superheroes and other fictional characters).

There were also low-budget short films and TV shows that tended to blur the lines between some actors (eg, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, even Johnny Weismiller) and the characters that they were playing in those productions.  (The Jack Benny Show, which was often about how Jack was "preparing" for a show--a bit like GARY SHANDLING, except with his own persona) is another example of the kind of phenomenon you ask about.  Commercials and some radio shows did similar things.

Don Larsson


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"Only connect!"  --E.M. Forster
Donald F. Larsson
Department of English
Minnesota State University
Mankato, MN  56001
[log in to unmask]


________________________________

From: Film and TV Studies Discussion List on behalf of Robert Hunt
Sent: Tue 2/24/2004 11:31 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: John Wayne Adventure Comics



One of the interesting bits of information comtained in J. Hoberman's new
book "The Dream Life" is a reference to a comic book called "John Wayne Action
Adventures" which began publication in the late 1940s and lasted for about 3
years.Does anyone know about this? Was Wayne presented as himself, i.e., a movie
star, or did the comics project some other sort of image for him?
When I was young (the early 60s), DC published comic books with Bob Hope and
Jerry Lewis as the hero, but aside from a few one-shot oddities (Prince, Alice
Cooper), I don't know of any other comic books based on real celebrities..

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