Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Buster Brown Goes to Mars

Earlier this month we blasted off into the stratosphere with Clutch Cargo, now today we find everyone's favorite shoe mascot Buster Brown and his four legged friend Tige taking a detour into the weird realms of science fiction too. Buster Brown comics were in-store, promotional give-aways (today's tale is from 1958), and you can bet getting one of these 4 color mini-masterpieces most definitely made a trip with mom to the shoe store just a little more tolerable-- especially one with cover art as gorgeous as this!


















Overstreet notes that Reed Crandell worked on a few issues of an earlier Buster Brown comic book series, does anyone know who worked on this issue? (GCD entry HERE!)


8 comments:

Mykal Banta said...

Karswell: What a fantastic comic! You gotta love Space Hound. What I love about this comic, and most kids' comics, is the strange, surreal universe they create. Like in this one, the adult humans are recognizable, accurately drawn human adults in modern dress. Then there is Buster, with his huge circle of a head, pageboy haircut, and tiny hands; dressed in suit coat and shorts. It's such a damn world of dreams. Well drawn, too.

Thanks, as always, for taking me back in time. They sold Buster Brown shoes in the shoe department at Sears where I come from – which is where I was bought all my clothes. You ever see a Sears jean version of “bellbottoms?” Shit, I still get the shivers.

Anonymous said...

That certainly is one heck of a nice cover! I have to admit my favorite thing in this entire post is the crazy rabbit in the Easter ad, he looks like he's up to something!

The black and white photo ad of Buster Brown and the dog is just creepy though.

Mr. Karswell said...

I remember Buster Brown from my childhood too, I even remember the free comics but I'm not sure if it was actually from there or Red Goose Shoes (which had the golden egg machine and you got a toy) ...or maybe I'm just thinking of Shoney's Big Boy comics? Hell, I miss the days when you got a free comic at any place ANYWHERE!

Thanks again for the comments.

Prof. Grewbeard said...

great story, very Casper-like and i love the way Tige is drawn! YARF!

Prof. Grewbeard said...

and i'll tell you what that Easter Bunny's up to! he's gonna hide an egg in your shoe and then when you slip your foot in, SPLORTCH!...

Doc Mars said...

According to Oddball Comics Blog, this cheesy comic was written by Don R. Christensen and drawn by Tony Sgroi.
http://www.oddballcomics.com/article.php?story=archive2003-09-30

Mr. Karswell said...

>when you slip your foot in, SPLORTCH

Ah, the 'ol Egg in the Shoe Trick...

>According to Oddball Comics Blog

Thanks for the info Doc! There's some other neat info at the link too for anyone interested in not only this comicbook story, but also some brief history on Buster Brown give-aways (and the creepy dude that played him in real life!)

Cindy M said...

Oh man, that took me back! Buster Brown shoes; how could I have forgotten? Our small town's shoe store, "The Cobbler Shop," sold them and of course my sister and I wore BB shoes. They were excellent quality. Never saw BB comic though...that I recall. I'll bet the model who posed for the actual pics hated every minute, lol!

I'm liking this "new" blog, Karswell. :-) I've been out of the loop for a while.