AN INVALUABLE AMERICAN "ARTY-FACT": "The Soupy Sales Comic Book Magazine #1" [1965]

It's an unusual malady nowadays, but I suffer from being a huge fan of the late SOUPY SALES [January 8, 1926 – October 22, 2009]

It's pretty hard to explain, actually...  I was born in 1964 in Arizona, when Soup was really at the height of his fame and influence, so I am not the usual "boomer" with childhood memories of legendary local B&W TV programs and anarchist kid show antics. 

Still, I AM old enough to remember his appearances on one of my all-time seminal fave TV shows-- the late and almost entirely forgotten  SHA NAH NAH-- as well as his later, one-season, syndicated color show from the KTLA studios circa 1979-80, and I can honestly say I count him a bizarre influence on all my life and thought [however frightening that may be in its myriad implications!]

Recently I [finally!] found my own copy of one of the strangest comic books ever published in the USA, the now-infamous ARCHIE Comics one-shot devoted to the man himself... first published in the Year Of Our Lord, 1965 A.D.!

Now mind you... I don't actually have the ability to scan this invaluable item, but other folks already applied that technoligy to a fair ammount of its images, so here is a decent sample of its legendary contents courtesy of the great ODDBALL COMICS website:

First, the front and back inside cover photos--

Next, the back cover... a pinup that tied SOUP into the Archie Universe once and for eternity--

And finally, for your cultural edification, a pretty darn random selection of some of the other vitally important pages--



And here, just so you can get the full impact of the comic, is SOUP himself  performing the actual hit record of "THE MOUSE" on the old teen music show HULLABALOO... this was, mind you,  an actual #76 nationwide pop hit in 1965:

OKAY... so he wasn't Shakespeare... or even LENNY BRUCE... but I'll be doggoned if that old hambone cut-up doesn't make me smile BIG every time I even get close to his legacy!

Love ya, SOUP!

PEACE