Married with Children Lotto Fever Issue #01

Married with Children Lotto Fever issue 1 of 3
NOW comics
Cover date Dece 1994

Yea by the end of 94 NOW had a bad habit of solicting lots of mini series.And lots of these mini series would publish 1 issue and that was it. So you never got the entire story.

Also around this time instead of keeping the "monthly" Married with Children comic series going,I hear that the second volume was one of NOW's best sellers in this time period,they cancelled that series and brought MWC back as a series of mini series and one shots.

Some of these stay in the continuity of the 2 volumes of the main comic. That would be stuff like Bud Bundy Fanboy in Paradise(a one shot where Bud goes to a thinly disguised San Diego Comic Con and meets lots of parodies of popular comic artists from the 90s boom) or Kelly goes to College 3 issue mini series(Another of the many MWC comics that would come with posters of Christina Applegate as Kelly).But you also had series that were obviously not in continuity with the other MWC comics. Series like Married with Children 2099(NOWS parody of Marvels 2099 line) or my favorite MWC comic Quantum Quartet(A solicted as 4 issue mini series in which the Bundy family gets the Fantastic Four's Powers).

Now the Lotto Fever mini series,well you can't tell if it is in continuity with the main series. All because only the first issue got published.Or at least I have found no proof that the other 2 issues got published. But you never know. For close to 15 years people were not sure if the 3rd and 4th issues of the Quantu Quartet mini series got published. I know they got published,cause I dug the flip book that contains both issues out of a cheap bin at Coast Con back in 2010. Same bin and timeframe that I got my copy of Lotto Fever.

Ok enough backstory and history of this forgotten and never competed comic mini series. What happens in the one issue that did get published?

There is Al sitting on what I guess is the Bundys couch. Surrounded by money. Most NOW comics in this timeframe came with a poster in the center. I guess that was part of their way to justify charging $2.50 for a color comic when Marvel and DC were charging maybe $1.50 at the time. The poster in this issue is the front cover but minus all the dropped in logos,masthead and writing.

Ok time to see who worked on this comic.
Geoffrey White is the writer,Tom Richmond handles the pencils,Barry Daniel Petersen/TOdd S Tuttle/Patrick Williams are the THREE Inkers,Holly Sanfelippo was the colorist,Andrea Albert is listed as type stylist(I guess that is fancy talk for letterer),Joan Weis is the editor,Julian Berkin is the publisher and Richmond(I assume Tom Richmond)/Mowry(???)&Albert(assuming Andrea Albert) are listed as cover artists.

We open on a splash page. Al is at work at Gary's Shoes. And the  place is packed with customers. Quite a few episodes of the Married with Children TV show started off this way.

After the hellish day at work Al goes home to his horrble family. They give Al hell and he goes out to get a six pack of beer.

The above 4 pages don't make much sense once you think about them. The Bundys live either in Chicago or in a tiny suburb right outside Chicago. So why would Al be so worried about getting the last 6 pack of beer in what has to be one of a few thousand places that sell beer in Al's area.

But the first time you read those pages they are fairly funny. And it helps set up the premise of this mini series.

Also wanted to point out how the artist is pretty good at getting the main cast to look like they should in this comic.

And anyone that has seen MWC knows that Al will rarely win. Which makes that last panel of him holding the lottery ticket stand out.

WTF they let Al win!!!! One thing about NOW Comics that made them stand out to me ,is like Continuity Comics,the colors in stuff published by NOW had a brighter look and feel to them than anything Marvel or DC was doing. Might have been because NOW didn't use plain newsprint.

The rest of the issue is just set up for the next 2 issues. Al tries to go home and pack without his family knowing. Another place where it makes no sense if you think about it. Al just won millions,wtf does he have at his house that is so valuable and he couldn't replace now that he is a millionaire. Sure I would understand it if they showed Al packing up his Bigg'ums nudie mag collection.

But I guess if Al didn't go home this story could end in one issue. WHich might have been a good idea.

AL gets home the family knows something is up. Then the next morning when all the print and tv news is on the front lawn the other members of the Bundy family learn that they are filthy rich.

And to end this post here is a house ad for the never published issue 2 of MWC Lotto Fever.

I do hope that say the scripts for the two unpublished issues get out into the fandom. Sure the NOW Comics Married With Children comic wasn't an amazing comic. But it is a neat curioisty piece for fans of the show.And it shows that with the right art and scripts anything that become a comic.

Hope yall enjoyed reading this. I got more NOW MWC comics and once I find them I will do more reviews. Once I find my copy of Lotto Fever #1 I will add a pic of it to this comic. Cause while I do have comic scans,they come in hand when doing reviews,I also own close to 90% of the comics I have reviewed on this blog.

Gold Key's Little Monsters comic

The above cover is what caught my eye last summer when I was going through the local comic book store's cheap bins. But back then when I saw the cover and place the comic into my buy stack I didn't know that this one forgotten comic would cause me to do a few hours of research...

Back in the fall of 1964 Gold Key was wanting a original comic series to tap into the ever growing interest in the classic Universal monsters. The kids of this time frame,known as Monster Kids ,were the godfathers of modern horror fandom. It is cause of these Monster Kids that my generation got stuff like Fangoria and all the other great horror themed mags and zines in the 80s through 90s.

The leads of  Little Monsters are 'Orrible Orvie and Awful Annie. Two Frankenstein's Monster looking kids. Going by the cover,which as you can see shows the kids parents too,I just assumed this comic was Gold Key's rip off of the Munsters/Adams Family. Then I went and looked and Munsters and Adams Family started on TV pretty much the same month that the first issue of Little Monsters was hitting the newstands. So I doubt Little Monsters was ripping off either TV show,and more Gold Key riding the cresting wave of Monster fandom that had started in the very late 50s thanks to Famous Monsters Of Filmland magazine and the Shock Theater packages of old horror films being syndicated all across the US.

This issue of Little Monsters has 4 stories. Back in this timeframe ,issue 29 came out in the summer of 1975,most Gold Key comics had multiple stores in one issue. The pacing and flow of the stories in issue 29 feels like the stuff Harvey comics was doing in the mid 70s on their various Casper,Richie Rich,Sad Sack and Hot Stuff the lil devil comics. Just fairly straight forward stories that while they are written for kids also work for adults and aren't talking down to the kids.

Gold Key's Little Monsters comic ran for 44 issues across 14 years.

The last issue,cover is over to the right,came out either the last month of 77 or early 78. Looking around at various online comic book sellers it appears that even a reader copy of this issue will run ya at least 6 bucks. I am assuming this high price is partially the last issue having a lower print run. Plus back in 78 most Gold Key stuff was sold outside the direct market. Which means instead of someone buying a copy reading it maybe once then boarding and bagging the issue,placing it into a longbox and the issue being perserved in good shape, you got kids buying a copy off the spinner rack. That comic got read 100 times,rolled up and put in a kid's back pocket. And then years later traded away to a friend for some baseball cards.

All of that means higher grade copies of most 60s and 70s comics that aren't superhero based are harder to find. Which is one of the reasons why anytime I find a 60s or 70s Gold Key comic for under a buck I usually grab them. Doesn't matter if it is Charlie Chan and his Chan Clan or The Hair Bear Bunch,if it is Gold Key/WHitman and a buck or less it will go into the buy pile.

One interesting tidbit I learned while doing some research on Little Monsters,is that pretty much every Gold Key title didn't come out monthly. To the left is issue 30 of Little Monsters. Issue 29 has a cover date of June 75.Issue 30 has a cover date of Sept 75.  I saw that and thought it was odd. I have heard of comics that come out say every other month. And comics that come out say 4 times a year.But looking at the year of 75 Little Monsters had 4 issues total published. Sometimes it was 2 months between issues sometimes it was 3. This got me to look at a few other Gold Key titles from the same timeframe and yep it looks like Gold Key comics just came out whenever. The more popular titles ,stuff like Bugs Bunny and the like,would usually have 10 issues in a year.






Sadly like most Gold Key titles you get no creator credits on the comics. And I do not like this at all. I want to know who wrote the comic,who did the pencils,inks and colors. Hell I want to know who did the lettering. With none of the online comic databases I know of having the writers or artists listed  I started using some Google-Fu to see if maybe the info was out there. This let me to at least 10 different comic book or/and horror themed blogs. It is from these blogs that I have gotten the cover images I am using through out this article. On one of these blogs I saw the name Chase Craig listed as the writer of Little Monsters and a few other Gold Key comics.

Mr Wingate Chase Craig started in the mid 40s editing and scripting comics for Dell and Gold Key. Including workng on some of their top selling Disney titles.From the mid 40s until the mid 70s Chase scripted and edited Gold Key/Dell titles quite of few of them selling 1 million copies each month. Think about that for a minute. How long has it been since a non-superhero non-DC/Marvel comic book sold 1 million copies? Gold Key had series that every issue for years was selling 1 million copies.


THere is so many of these forgotten comics like Little Monsters. And it looks like stuff like this will never be reprinted. Since to most modern comic fans the only original Dell/Gold Key creations they care about are Dr Solar,Magnusand Turok. The so called Gold Key Three. But there is many other Gold Key originals that deserve a second look.

I hope yall enjoyed this look at Gold Key's Little Monsters comic. Figured it was time to do another written piece up here at my old trusty blog. Plus to silence one insane person,who likes to claim that I don't buy comics and just pirate all of them,here is a pic of my copy of The Little Monsters #29. Sorry for the light. It has been a nice cool evening so been sitting out on my pier enjoying being out and away from everything while writing this.

Yep it is a well read and loved copy. Been tempted to take some tape and repair that cover tear on the inside. I love finding well read copies of comics like this. You just know that this one issue has been read by at least 40 people in the over 40 years it has been since issue 29 was published.

And as always if you want to see/hear more of me rambling on about various items from my collection of various media formats search for Asshat Podcast on Youtube. Mondays,Wednesdays and Fridays at 11:45 AM Central time zone a new video appears on that channel. Wednesdays are normally comic book related. The other two days can be almost anything. And this upcoming Saturday will be the first installment of a new series of videos. These videos will be made by Bat32,the insane brain behind Exploited Cinema Podcast and Sleaze Fiend Magazine. And he will be covering comic books from his collection. Bat32 has a smallish but very interesting collection of comics. So be sure to check the Asshat Podcast channel on Youtube. WWW.Youtube.com/asshatpodcast
This Saturday for the debut of this new series. And thank you to everyone that has read this blog.