In National Comics, a Quality Comics publication from the Golden Age (1938-1950ish) of comic books, a character by the name of The Barker was introduced in issue #42, May 1944. Previously this fine publication's feature character had been Uncle Sam (!), a superheroized version of the recruiting poster image! But as the world war wore down, Uncle Sam slipped from the front cover to fade away like a good little old soldier in the back of the book, making way for the carnival thrills and humor of Carnie Callahan, The Barker! The Barker was a humor-adventure strip created by artist Jack Cole, also creator of the legendary and groundbreaking humor superhero Plastic Man (and later, the very first cheesecake cartoonist for Hugh Heffner's Playboy Magazine - Va-Va-Va-Voom), but the strip was soon taken over by the talented artist Klaus Nordling - who wrote penciled, and inked every bigtop adventure by himself!
Although the humor might seem a little brittle and squeaky-clean in this day and age, the artwork remains outstanding and timeless, so from time to time your personal Barker here at Thimbleton's is gonna reach into his trunk locker, dust off a copy of National Comics from his collection (your Barker collects many different...things, kiddies), and share a peek into the pasteurized past with a blast from the Other Barker!
This story is from National Comics #53, first published in April 1946. Art and story by Klaus Nordling. Click each picture to enlarge to reading size!
Look for more comics, stories, pictures, and general weirdness from your Barker here at the blog, every Monday through Friday!
NEXT WEEK:
All-New Freak of the Week on Monday, I'll teach you how to do a magic trick to astound your friends and bamboozle your enemies, a featurette on Clyde Beatty - star of the cliffhanger serials, and much more! See you then!
1 comment:
You're much cuter than Carnie Callahan! Thanks for this bit o'fun to jump start my weekend. Barker, you're the best!
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