Sunday, December 6, 2009

Byrne-ing to Read: Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch #2

Okay, Groove-ophiles! You've waited long enough! Based on the short-lived, but well-remembered NBC cartoon series, Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch (September 1974-August 1975), here's the almost mythical Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch #2 (July 1975) with veeeeery early John Byrne art.
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3 comments:

  1. Edo BosnarDecember 6, 2009 at 12:07 PM

    Thanks for yet another oddball feature. Your comics collection never ceases to amaze me, nor does the astounding array of obscure (to me, anyway) titles on which Byrne worked for Charlton.
    By the way, do you know actually scripted the story? I'm asking because of rather questionable choice of 'comical' letter inversion in the dialogue in the 4th panel of the second to last page. Maybe I'm being over-sensitive, but it really jumped out at me, especially since this was published not long after the US finally withdrew its troops from Vietnam...

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  2. The Groovy AgentDecember 7, 2009 at 2:01 PM

    I don't really know who scripted this ish, Edo. To me, a safe guess would be Joe Gill, Byrne himself, or Tom DeFalco (who did write a few later issues).

    I dunno if that inversion in the panel you mention was on purpose or not, but it surely is an unfortunate choice, isn't it?

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  3. AnonymousFebruary 15, 2010 at 1:06 AM

    I doubt very much that it was intentional. For one thing, it wouldn't make any sense in that context. Also, the character who said that was Revs of the Chopper Bunch and a running gag was his getting words mixed up by inverting the first letters of two words. Thus, the pronunciation would rhyme with the sound of the word "look" and would not sound like the derogatory phrase in question.

    BTW, I absolutely LOVE Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch! Thanks for including it!

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