The Adventures of Jerry Lewis #107 (2024 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

In the early 1950s, one of the hottest comedic duos in Hollywood was the team of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. Having met a couple of years prior, Martin and Lewis became a team in 1946 on the recommendation of Lewis after another singer bailed from performing at the 500 Club in Atlantic City. Martin played the straight man, suave with the ladies and good in voice. Lewis was the comedic foil, doing slapstick and skits which hilariously interrupted Martin while singing. 

The two went on to co-star in 16 movies for Paramount. However, tensions started coming to the surface as Martin felt that the plots were becoming ever so focused on Lewis instead of a duo. 10 years to the day Martin and Lewis had first become a partnership, the pair broke up, never to speak with each other for another 20 years. 

Starting in 1949, National Periodicals/DC Comics began to license rights from some of Hollywood's top entertainment as characters in comic books. Matinee star Alan Ladd was first, followed by comedian Bob Hope. Ladd's book was more adventure focused and only ran for 9 issues. However, with the popularity of Hope's humor book, DC decided to continue with their experiment by nabbing Martin and Lewis in 1952, right at the apex of their comedy careers together. 

The Adventures of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis ran for 40 issues from 1952-57. Though the pair split a year earlier, DC had a small backlog of stories starring both Martin and Lewis that needed publishing. As the inventory ran low, editor Larry Nadle renegotiated terms with Jerry Lewis to restructure the comic book to focus solely on his comedic exploits. With issue #41, the series was retitled The Adventures of Jerry Lewis. 

As just a solo act, Lewis would occasionally pair up with some of DC's biggest and brightest stars including Superman and the Flash. Even the villains would get into the act as Lex Luthor and the Joker were notable guests in the re-branded series. In the 1960s, the cast would grow to include a rapscallion nephew named Renfrew, a bewitching housekeeper named Witch Kraft and a straight man foil named Uncle Hal. No relation to Jerry, Uncle Hal was actually the headmaster at the Genghis Khan School for Boys where Renfrew and the other rowdy youths of Jerry's hometown were enrolled. 

In this issue, Jerry plans on taking his nephew on a cross-country road trip during Spring Break. Renfrew tricks his uncle into letting him take his entire class on the trip which prompts Jerry needing to borrow one of the buses from Renfrew's school. Meanwhile, Uncle Hal's deadbeat brother has come to town along with his bookies. Owning thousands of dollars, Hal is forced to pay down his brother's debt. This results in Hal having to make deliveries of counterfeit cash all across America while acting as chauffeur for Jerry's bus full of rowdies. However, not wanting to be caught with the phony money on his persons, Hal feigns injury, tricking gullible Jerry into make a series of madcap deliveries all the while being trailed by Treasury agents and that pair of bookies.

Included at the end of this issue is a letter from Jerry to his fans. It's doubtful that Lewis actually wrote this article himself. It is more than likely that an assist to the comedian wrote down a number of Lewis' jokes which were relevant to this issue's theme of travel and vacation. 

Though there are no credits to this issue, the DC wiki credits Arnold Drake with writing the script. Artist Bob Oksner penciled and inks both the cover and interiors.

The Adventures of Jerry Lewis would continue until June, 1971 with issue #124 being the finale. The cancellation of the series had less to do with the popularity of the title and more with DC rebranding. By the following year, DC's entire line of humor books would be cancelled in favor of more superhero and horror themed books.

Completing this review completes Task #32 (A Fictional Story About a Real Person) of the 2024 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

Surprisingly funny and well plotted.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars

The Invaders #4 (Classic TV Comics Week)

I've discovered a new favorite show over the Summer. Well, it's new for me. The show is called The Invaders. Having run from 1967-1968, it starred Roy Thinnes as David Vincent; a man who witnessed an alien threat to the earth and seeks ways to stop their invasion of our planet.

MeTV has been showing reruns late nights on Saturday and I've been enjoying it very much. There's a slew of stars, many not yet at the height of their popularity, such as Dabney Coleman, Barbara Hershey and Jack Warden. There's even some sci-fi legends appearing on this show; such as Michael Rennie (The Day The Earth Stood Still) and Kevin McCarthy (Invasion of the Body Snatchers.) Seeing David Vincent travel the country in an attempt to find allies as he single handed tries to stop the Invaders has been a lot of fun.

In this comic, David has apparently finally found an ally; an older gent named Edgar Scoville. Together, the pair face the Invaders in two stories. The first, titled 'The Doomsday Window', is about a mysterious device that can pull in objects from another realm. The Invaders seek to use it to help bring more of their kind across the far reaches of space fastest than travelling via a flying sauce. It's got a great Twilight Zone-esque ending. In the second story, Vincent and Scoville learn that not all of the Invaders want to conquer the earth. 

I really like the premise that some of the aliens were actually allies. Unfortunately, that idea never really came to fruition as A) this was the last issue that Gold Key published and B) The TV series was soon cancelled; never to be renewed for a third season.

There was a revival miniseries that might have lead to a new series in the 90s. Scott Bakula took over for Thinnes, who did appear in the two-part event. But ratings stunk. Many fans do see similarities between The Invaders and The X-Files and consider both to be in the same universe. I'm one who likes to think that's so. But other than X-Files creator Chris Carter claiming to be a huge fan of The Invaders, the link has never been made official.

This book is proof that if you take the time to search through random boxes of comics, you can find some great stuff. I wasn't looking for this book. I was actually on the hunt for issues of Gold Key's Man from U.N.C.L.E. comics and other stuff based on classic TV shows from the 60s. I just happened to luck out an find this near mint beauty. 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.