Daniel Boone #7 (2026 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

If you're the execs at 20th Century Fox and Walt Disney refuses to sell you the rights to one of their most lucrative properties, the legendary Davy Crockett, what do you do? You've already got Fess Parker, who played Davy in a series of TV movies that spawned a craze in the mid-1950s. You even have Parker wearing a coon skin cap, like he did back then, along with a slew of frontier set scripts, some historical sets and several actors who could pass for native American Indians. You even have a corporate sponsor in the Feldspar Corp., ready to cover some of your production expenses. Yet, you just cannot come to terms on the licensing rights for your main character. 

So what do you do? In this case, you pivot and focus instead on another similar figure of early American folklore. Enter: Daniel Boone!

Daniel Boone was born in 1734 in what was Colonial Pennsylvania. He was a noted frontiersmen and behind the settlement of Kentucky. Settling the town of Boonesborough, Boone participated in a border war with American Indians, where his exploits became legend. He later represented Kentucky territory in the Virginia state assembly before encountering financial hardships and moving stakes from Kentucky to what would now be Missouri. Boone died in 1820, preceded by his wife Rebecca 7 years earlier.

The television show based on Daniel Boone debuted in 1964 on NBC. It takes place during Boone's having just settled Boonesborough and featured stories that involved skirmishes with the neighboring Miami tribe, the occasional visiting stranger with a mysterious past and legal disputes with the US government. There was very little historical accuracy however. Boone's wife, Rebecca was a character on the show, as are children Israel and Jemima. However, Boone in real life had a total of 10 children. 

Daughter Jemima was famously abducted by Indians and rescued by a posse led by her father. The incident later became inspiration for James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans. In real life, Jemima Boone was a hostage for 3 days. By the end of season 2 of the TV series, the character played by Angela Cartwright, soon of Lost in Space fame, Jemima was quietly removed from the show and never mentioned again.  

Jemima was no longer even a character on the show when this first hit shelves in 1966. The girl and her brother are the heroes of the backup feature titled 'Land of Giants'. When during an hunting expedition Boone and his compatriots are captured by hostile natives, the children use their knowledge of Native American folklore and pretend to be the giants of legend to scare the captors away. 

The opening story is titled 'The Battle for the Boats.' It involves a trader who foolishly believes that the Miami tribe living north of the Ohio River will embrace trading furs and other goods with him. Boone warns that the man's caravan of barges are going to be attacked and goes out to prevent the Miami from obtaining the guns and ammunition carried aboard before the weapons could be used against the Boonesborough settlement. 

Included along with the pair of Daniel Boone stories was a filler starring a character named Zachariah Yankee Peddler. He's a travelling salesman whose adventures have filled the pages of numerous Gold Key/Dell Western adventures such as The Lone Ranger. A pair of non-fiction one-pagers about Native American hunting practices grace the internal back and front covers along with a prose article on Chief Joseph. The exterior back cover features a photographed pin up of Fess as Daniel Boone. 

The 60s saw comic book artists and writers beginning to receive credit for their contributions. However, Gold Key was still rather late to that party. Current research indicates that  Paul S. Newman was the author behind all of the main stories and the interior cover scripts. Only the Chief Joseph biography is unaccounted for. Artwork and inks for this issue were split amongst Joe Certa, Mike Roy and Mike Peppe.

The Daniel Boone TV series ran for 6 seasons; lasting until Spring of 1970. Gold Key's adaptation ran for 15 issues. Published sporadically, it's last issue was dated April, 1969.

Completing this review completes Task #29 (A Fictional Comic About a Real Person) of the 2026 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

How to Eat a Lobster and Other Edible Enigmas Explained by Ashley Blom

The culinary arts are chock full of conundrums. How do you crack open a lobster in order to get the maximum amount of meat from inside? Is it possible to eat an artichoke without getting those eternally dry thistles stuck in your throat? Which fork do you use for the salad course? Can you prepare yourself to eat demonically spicy food when in reality, you've got the palette of an iceberg?

Food Blogger Ashley Blom explores dozens of mysteries that have dominated kitchens and dinner tables for centuries. This is a book I wish I had years ago. I recall a demo I did for my culinary students that used a technique that I learned in culinary school involving opening a coconut. The established way had me using the hilt of a very sharp chef's knife and bringing it down in force atop one of the fruit's trio of eyes. The blade ended up cracking off the handle and shooting about 10 feet across the lab. While quite comical, it could have ended disastrously if the blade impaled one of my students. Needless to say, I haven't conducted a coconut demo since. Now thanks to another possible method brought forth from this book, I'm willing to give the coconut another go!

A very short read, both in size and length, this 2017 guide from Quirk Books would make a great gift for the foodie in your life. Pair it with a bottle of wine and you've got an exquisite house warming gift. Add a portrait of Ulysses Grant or Ben Franklin inside and you've got an informative graduation gift that might help bring another lost soul into the world of food and fine dining. Just overlook the millennial slang peppered throughout these pages.

Featuring tips for food prep, table etiquette and how to interact properly when challenges arrive dining out or as a dinner party guest, this should be required reading. Everybody eats. But not everyone knows just how to do it. I've been in the culinary industry for nearly 2 decades and I learned new tips and tricks here. This is definitely going to be a reference book for me to use in my culinary lesson plans. 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Classics Illustrated Junior #531: Rapunzel (2026 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

In 1953, Gilberton began a spin-off of its vastly popular Classics Illustrated series of comics. Titled Classics Illustrated Junior, this new line was aimed at readers younger than 8. Issues featured fairy tales, nursery rhymes and fables. To distinguish itself from the sister line, Classic Illustrated Junior began its numbering at #501. This makes  #501, 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' the first issue in the series that lasted until 1971, when new owners Twin Circle Publishing discontinued all of its former Gilberton holdings.

In this issue, the story of 'Rapunzel' is explored. The fairy tale of the maiden with the lengthy tresses, locked away in a very tall tower is popularly attributed to the German folklorists, the Brothers Grimm, in their 1812 fairy tale collection Children's and Household Tales. However, modern researchers trace origins of the story to a couple of 17th century French fairy tales as well as the classical myth of the Greek hero Perseus, whose mother was confined to a bronze tower by her father. Regardless of the origins of the story, Gilberton focused on the Brothers Grimm as the primary source material.

The tale begins before the main character is even born. Her mother is having cravings for a salad made of rampion, a flowering plant with edible blossoms and roots. The nearest source of the plant is in the next door garden which belongs to an evil witch. Refusing to eat anything else except for the tantalizing rampions, the expecting mother sends her husband to gather some of the plants. 

Afraid of the witch, the husband sneaks into the garden and steals some of the rampion. He's caught by the crone. But since the plants are for the wife, the witch allows her rampions to be harvested- for a price! In return for the edibles, the old woman gets ownership of the couple's daughter; to which the very afraid husband willingly agrees.

After the birth of the child, the witch takes the infant girl into her custody. The babe is named Rapunzel, which is another name for rampion. Over the years, Rapunzel's hair grows ridiculously long. At around age 10, the conjurer imprisons Rapunzel in a tower that has no entrance way except for a lone widow at the very top. After destroying the ladder that gained the witch entrance into the tower, the hag checks on Rapunzel each morning by ordering the girl to lower her lengthy tresses. The witch then climbs up the hair to provide nourishment.

One day, a travelling prince hears Rapunzel singing in her tower and becomes immediately enamored. Hidden in a thicket, he witnesses the witch commanding Rapunzel to lower her hair. When the sorceress leaves, the prince makes the same request of Rapunzel and after making his climb, asks the girl to become his bride. But first, they've got to get rid of Rapunzel's jailer!

While Classics Illustrated Junior has a lessened page count than its older sibling series, there are several added features to the issue. Also included is a one-page recital of the nursery rhyme 'Little Miss Muffet', the Aesop Fable of the belling of the cat (titled 'The Mice in Council') as well as a 'The Animal World', a small nature strip about the abilities and  attributes of the Arctic reindeer. A connect the dot activity which reveals a kangaroo and a coloring page depicting Rapunzel in her tower bedroom round out the offerings. 

While it was not industry standards to attribute credits to the writers and artists who contributed to these pre-bronze age issues, devoted fans and comic book historians did exhaustive research in order to learn just who to admire for their work. From what I could look up, Lin Streeter painted the cover. He's also credited as the illustrator of both the title story as well as the Aesop Fable and the color page in the inside back cover. Alex A. Blum is ascribed for drawing the art for the 'Little Miss Muffet' page. William A. Walsh drew the reindeer lesson. 

No writer information was readily available. The Brothers Grimm are not even given credit for inspiring this tale whereas other issues, such as #525 'The Little Mermaid', bestows cover credit to Hans Christian Andersen.

Completing this review completes Task #28 (An issue of Classics Illustrated Jr) of the 2026 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

Faculty Funnies #1 (2026 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

In the late 1980s, Archie Comics revisited the Riverdale superheroes concept. Only this time, it was the teachers and staff of Riverdale High School that became empowered.

When Archie's science experiment explodes, several members of the faculty gain superpowers based on skills they've developed over their careers. Thanks to years of writing across a lengthy blackboard, Ms. Grundy's right arm becomes super-stretchy. Coach Clayton, develops super breath, thanks to his persistence with a P.E. whistle. His sneezes can also stun a criminal! Principle Weatherbee develops clairvoyance due to years of anticipating problems that arise within the realms of public education. Rounding out the group is Professor Flutesnoot, who became nigh invulnerable thanks to decades of suffering through exploding science experiments.

The four faculty members decide to become a superteam. Grundy sews up a quartet of very itchy wool costumes and the staff of Riverdale High become known as the Awesome Foursome. Their first adventure uncovers a plot in which the town's criminal underground seems to increase the crime rate through subliminal messages implanting in discount video tapes rented to Archie and his friends. 

George Gladir scripted with art by Stan Goldberg. Rudy Lapick inked. While not billed as a miniseries, Faculty Funnies was not intended to be a new regular title. The concept came to a planned end with issue #5, seeing the teachers losing their special abilities and realizing that being an educator who cared as their true super powers. 

The book was filled with the usual one-page gags and short stories; this time around starring other members of the RHS faculty. Gladir crafted a one-pager featuring the former drill Sargent turned Assistant Principal, Mr. Howitzer. Hal Smith wrote the 2-page filler starring the oft flummoxed Miss Haggly. And yes, that's the same Hal Smith who played town drunk Otis on The Andy Griffith Show! Again, the art in both was provided by Stan Goldberg with inks by Lapick. The pair also crafted the cover to this issue.

A fun, and at times silly comic of which I wouldn't mind having the other issues to round out a complete run.

Completing this review completes Task #26 (An Archie Comics release from the 1980s) of the 2026 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Pep Comics #287 (2026 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

With a cover teasing the most one-sided snowball fight of all time, winter fun is the theme to this 1974 issue of Pep Comics. The opening story virtually has no dialogue, except for an exclamation from Archie that closes everything with a punchline. In 'Archie Says "It's Always the Same Old Story on a Weekend Ski Trip", Archie and Reggie head to the slopes. The tale is narrated like one of those Disney mockumentaries starring Goofy, as it's explained what to expect when you make an impromptu trip to the mountains. The unseen voice regales the reader with narration of a magical weekend ski trip while in reality we see everything go wrong for Archie and Reggie.

Follow up stories include Li'l Jinx engaged in a good ol' fashioned 1970s battle of the sexes. The task at hand: who makes a better pilot; men or women? But since Jinx and her pal are way too young to fly a commercial airliner, they'll have to settle for figuring out who can fly the better paper airplane. 

Archie bemoans a sudden snow storm in one yarn while Reggie and Moose struggle to get Archie up in time for a big game. Rounding out the issue are one-page gags starring Coach Kleats and Big Ethel as well as prize winning reports from members of 'Archie's Club News'. There's also a pin-up in which Archie gets Jughead to wrap him inside a giant gift wrapped box as Veronica's Christmas present. It's the only holiday themed part of this issue.

There are no creative credits anywhere to be found in this issue. But according to MyComicShop.com, Dan DeCarlo penciled the cover, Bob Bolling was the artist behind the ski trip opener and the Li'l Jinx story was written and illustrated by character creator Joe Edwards.

Completing this review completes Task #25 (An Archie Comics release from the 1970s) of the 2026 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

Jughead as Captain Hero #1 (2026 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

Ever since it's beginning, comic books featuring the everlasting teenager Archie Andrews, have reflected the trends and fads of the age. The creation of Archie himself, was built upon the romantic misadventures of the Mickey Rooney character Andy Hardy. In the 1960s, when dashing spies such as James Bond and Napoleon Solo dominated the silver screen as well as television's nationwide, MLJ Comics (later Archie Comics) issued a series of parody adventures titled 'The Man From R.I.V.E.R.D.A.L.E.'

As superheroes returned to prominence in comics and pop culture, the editors at Archie decided to cash in by turning Archie into the orange tights wearing Pureheart the Powerful; later renamed Captain Pureheart for some reason. The first appearance of the super-powered Archie occurred in issue #42 of Life With Archie. Dated October, 1965, the concept was a joint collaborative of publisher John Goldwater and writer Frank Doyle. A few issues later, Pureheart returned with an origin story that introduced the 'PH factor' in which a character's pureness of heart bestows powers to the user. Eventually Reggie, Betty and best pal Jughead would be granted a portion of Archie's Pureheart powers; although Reggie would become more of a villain than hero when transformed into the guise of Evilheart.

Jughead's debut as a superhero occurred in LWA #50. His character, Captain Hero, had super strength like Superman with the arsenal of Batman. His gadgets included high-powered binoculars and rocket powered water skis. To transform into Captain Hero, Jughead had to recite a mantra similar to Green Lantern: 'Teeny weeny magic beanie pointing towards the sky; give me muscle, power, vigor - form a super guy!". However, a triple dose of Pop's famous hamburgers would enhance his powers much like spinach does for Popeye.

Jughead's demeanor was an almost 180 switch from Riverdale High School Jughead. Captain Hero was much more serious, focused and determined. It was almost as if becoming a superhero was Jughead's purpose in life and that he had been wanting planning for it since birth. Compared to Archie when in superhero mode, Captain Hero is also much more competent and less prone to klutzy accidents. 

After a few more adventures in Life With Archie, Jughead's super-powered alter ego received solo status with the debut of Jughead as Captain Hero in the fall of 1966. Both Archie and Reggie's superhero personas would be given solo titles as well. Betty',s Superteen would not see independent action until year's later in a 2020 one-shot.

The action for the main story begins on the cover! The Whammy, has used his persona-reversing powers and turned Archie Andrews into a juvenile delinquent! This prompted Jughead to transform into Captain Hero. Inside, the opening page has Captain Hero ready to restore his friend back into a good guy. However, the foe uses a slithery villain named Python and a lumbering lackey named The Beam to distract Captain Hero as evil Archie vandalizes downtown Riverdale.

In the 2nd feature, a villain called the Collector has decided to add teenagers to his collection. First on the list is Veronica. Pureheart the Powerful and Evilheart both attempt to free her and wind up becoming the newest additions to the antagonist's collection. Using his amazing gadgets, Jughead turns into Captain Hero and follows the Collector's trail which will lead the super-powered teen to a tropical island filled with criminals and captive teens from Riverdale.

Issue #1 was written by Frank Doyle. Cover and interiors by Bob White. It also contains a one-page gag starring Li'l Jinx as a superhero of her own. It was written and illustrated by Li'l Jinx creator Joe Edwards.

Jughead as Captain Hero ran for 7 issues. By 1970, the Superteens experiment was all but finished. Pureheart and friends would continue to reappear over the next 5 decades, primarily in reprint form in digests and trades. In 2019, the Superteens, now including Veronica as Powerteen, would return in a 2-issue crossover with another Archie Comics band of superheroes, the Mighty Crusaders, to take on an evil substitute teacher bent on revenge against the students of Riverdale High.

Completing this review completes Task #24 (An Archie Comics release from the 1960s) of the 2026 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

500 Great Comicbook Action Heroes (2026 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

Comic book historian Mike Conroy examines the history of comic books through the lens of action heroes of all sorts. Instead of just focusing on superheroes, Conroy provides thorough, albeit brief publishing histories of 500 different protagonists, many of which would be categorized as possessing tenacity, bravery and are superior physical specimens without being super-powered. 

His categories are male heroes, female heroes, teams, science fiction heroes, western heroes, horror and supernatural heroes and heroes that originated from the funny papers or pulps. The male heroes chapter is disproportionately the largest chapter. But considering how male dominated comics have been, it's understandable the amount of attention Mike Conroy bestows to those heroes.

It could be argued that most comic book heroes were granted a female paramour such as Dale Arden to Flash Gordon or Superman's girlfriend Lois Lane. However heroic those characters might be from time to time, don't expect to find any entries on them in the chapter highlighting female heroes. From 2002, don't expect very many anti-heroes to be in this book either. Characters such as Lobo, Harley Quinn and Deadpool are nowhere to be found. In fact, if there is a villain mentioned inside, it's in brief as framing for an action hero's reason for vengeance or ultimately meeting their demise; permanent or temporary. Perhaps those who straddle the line between right and wrong are listed in Conroy's companion piece devoted to 500 Comic Book Villains. 

The author provides encyclopedia-like entries for hundreds of characters. But one should not expect to find 500 of them. I think Conroy counts a lot of the 500 heroes as the brief mentions in articles he devoted to French comic heroes or Marvel's experiments with horror in the 1970s. Being from the U.K., Conroy spends a large portion of this 376 page book discussing British comic book heroes. However, Manga and a few other European heroes who have garnered universal appeal among comic book readers are explored- briefly.

One thing that I didn't bank on was the poor editing. Now I realize that I make my fair share of typos and mistakes in the blog posts I write. But I don't have a professional editor helping me either. Some of it could be explained as this is how a British writer spells words. I have no qualms with that. However, when he says that such-and-such character debited in issue #185 and died in issue #166, something is seriously wrong here. Unfortunately such confusing data happens more than once in this book. As much as I learned a lot about new characters and other series and minis that I might want to collect in the future, if this edition is any indication of what you'd find in Conroy's villain examination, I don't think that I have any desire to pursue obtaining it.

Features a foreword by comic book legend Will Eisner with additional contributions by cover artist John Watson.

Completing this review completes Task #40 (A prose non-fiction book about comic books) of the 2026 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.