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.

2016 Comic Challenge 158 Married with Children:Lotto Fever #01

TITLE-Married With Children:Lotto Fever #01
PUBLISHER-NOW Comics

Coming out sometime in the fall of 1994,NOW had a habit of issues shipping late or never even being published,this is one of the last Married With Children comics to come  out. During the time that NOW had the publishing rights they churned out 2 regular series,most of which included posters of Kelly Bundy,and piles of mini series. Some of these mini series never got completed. Like Lotto Fever.

Geoffrey White is the scripter.Tom Richmond handles the pencils. And it took 3 people to ink this issue. The art on the cover is the exact same style as the interior art so I am gonna assume Tom Richmond did it.

The story is simple.After a horrible day selling shoes at Gary's Shoes,Al heads home. Remembers why he hates his family and heads out to get some beer. For some reason when discovering that the store he went to only has one six pack of Al's favorite beer,instead of maybe going to one of the other hundreds of stores in Chicago that sell beer,ends up in a foot race down the aisles of a corner store. Racing this big fat dimwit redneck.Al gets beat. And ends up with the rednecks lotto ticket.This ticket wins Al 48 million bucks. He tries to sneak home and pack,why bother packing when you got 48 mill,but of course Peggy and the kids spot him. Then the house gets surrounded by people that want to borrow money from Al. And in the final panel Al declares that the family is moving.

For $2.50 NOW really didn't give you much.The story is pretty bare bones and feels padded.The paper has a weird feel and smell to it. Even the cover has a strange texture.NOW did include a poster of the cover in the center of the comic. Which is nice. But IIRC in fall 94 your average comic was $1.50,so if you are gonna charge me an extra buck I want to see something added.

I do wonder how the story would have went. Might see if I can track down Geoffrey White. Who knows if any other issues even made it to the plotting stage,

Married with Children:Lotto Fever #01 gets a Pass.

2016 Comic Challenge 073 Married with Children:Bud Bundy Fanboy in Paradise #01

TITLE-Married with Children:Bud Bundy Fanboy in Paradise #01
PUBLISHER-NOW Comics

I love NOW comics. They mostly relied on licensed titles. Stuff like Terminator,Speed Racer,Green Hornet and the kind of under-rated Married with Children comic.Plus since they had newstand distribution I could get them without having to goto the comic shop. And in that cause of all their licensed titles they reminded me so much of Whitman comics. And as a kid I was a huge Whitman Comics fan.

When the Married with Children comics were coming out I would grab an issue here and there. Then a few years back at a con I found a huge stash of them in some dealer's cheap bin. All of them mint and looking like they had never been read.

This comic is all about how Bud has created a comic book. And is going to a con to try to sell the idea to a comic company. Since the issue came out at the height of Image/Valiant speculator hype it is mostly a parody of that. There is a Todd McFarlene parody that is damn funny.

What I find odd is this comic took 3 people to write it. Todd S Tuttle,Joan Weis and Geoffery White are credited with writing it.Looking at www.comicbookdb.com I see outside of Weis,who did a tiny bit of work for DC,all three of them pretty much just worked for NOW. Tom Richmond is the penciler. And seems he also worked on other MWC comics and did lots of work for Mad Magazine. Finally David Mowry is the inker.

One last thing. This issue came with poster of the cover. Which for many years I had hanging on my wall. Had quite a few people see it and mention how much they loved MWC but never knew there was a comic of it.

Married with Children:Bud Bundy Fanboy in Paradise #01 gets a borrow.

2016 Comic Challenge 072 Mr T and the T-Force #02

TITLE-Mr T and the T-Force #02
PUBLISHER-NOW Comics

Yep in 1993 NOW comics teamed up with Neal Adams/Continuity Studios and Mr T to create a comic. I had kind of forgotten about this comic until I found an almost complete run in a dealer's 10 for a buck bin.

Neal Adams and Pete Stone are credited with story. With art credits going to Neal Adams&Continuity Studios.Plus Mr T being listed as Star and Creative Director. And the art has that samey look that almost everything from Continuity had.So what about the story? Mr T fights a cyborg Incan. And gets shot with needles full of drugs. Which causes T to start hallucinating. Yeah that is the story.Oh and some at risk teen is back at T-Force HQ and trying to decide if he should change his life.

From what I have read and heard every issue came bagged with a trading card. Most of the time containing cover art but missing all the logos and stuff. This issue comes with what I must assume is a panel from the first issue of Mr T and the T-force.

Mr T and the T-Force #02 gets a borrow.