House of Mystery #193

House of Mystery #193 (On Sale: May 13, 1971), has a beautiful cover by Bernie Wrightson, his second for DC, this being the followup to the stunning House of Secrets Swamp Thing cover.

We begin with "Voodoo Vengeance" by Alan Riefe and Tony DeZuniga. A white plantation owner gets into a voodoo duel with his laborers. He comes up with a plan to fake his death and tell them his spirit will torment them forever, but after he is put inside the mausoleum, one of the laborers rolls a stone down an incline so that it blocks the mausoleum wall and entombs the white man.

Next is "Dark Night, Dark Dreams" by Gerry Conway and Bill Draut. A landlord doesn't want to sublet a room so when a woman shows up on his doorstep he assumes that she is the woman that he wasn't expecting for another week. A police report comes over the radio that a number of dangerous lunatics have escaped from a nearby asylum and he takes the opportunity to use light and sound effects as well as a dropped knife to scare her into a faint. 

He laughs to himself that when she comes to she won't want anything to do with the place. He turns on the radio once more and the police are warning that only one lunatic still remains at large but she is the most dangerous of all and warn those who come into contact with her not to provoke her. The description they give reminds the man of the girl he met on the doorstep, and he is unaware that she has picked up the knife and is advancing upon him from behind.

Following that is a "Cain's Game Room" by Sergio Aragones and a one-page gag, "The Hero" by Lore Shoberg. The entire issue was reprinted in Showcase Presents: The House of Mystery #1 (2006) and House of Mystery: The Bronze Age Omnibus #1 (2019).

Edited by Joe Orlando.

Adventures of Jerry Lewis #124

Adventures of Jerry Lewis #124 (On Sale: March 4, 1971), has a cover by Bob Oksner. This is the final issue of the Adventures of Jerry Lewis, which started life and lasted for 40 issues as the Adventures of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. I was not a fan, though I did buy the issue with the Flash in it and over the years collected the four issues that Neal Adams drew. 

We begin with our cover-story, "Hot Wheels and Cold Sweat" by Alan Riefe and Bob Oksner. Jerry takes a job moving a grandfather clock to Pier 6 when he sees two guys with a racecar and becomes enamored with it. The two men are looking for someone stupid enough to test drive the car. Being late for the pier, Jerry agrees and shoving the clock in behind him, takes off for the pier. 

The car has some experimental fuel in it and Jerry is unable to control the car, ending up in a race, where he among other things, ends up driving the wrong way down the track (just like the cover shows). In the end, he and the dar are thrown out of the race and he ends up crashing at the pier. There Jerry discovers that killer Tiny Tony was inside the clock and trying to make a getaway. He is captured by the police who offer Jerry any reward he wants and he asks for a newspaper as he now needs to look for a new job.

Next is a one-pager, "From Bed to Nurse" by Henry Boltinoff and Bob Oksner. Jerry works as a hospital orderly and has to come up with a unique solution when he is told to change the linens of a patient in traction.

We have another one-pager, "A Witch Doctor Who Makes Calls" also by Henry Boltinoff and Bob Oksner. When Renfrew gets sick, Uncle Jerry calls on a witch doctor.

Lastly, we have "The Bird with the Million-Dollar Beak" by Murray Boltinoff and Bob Oksner. When Jerry takes Renfrew for a vacation up in the mountains, he complains that he really wanted to go to the beach. That night, a violent rainstorm sweeps their cabin off the mountain and down to the water where it peacefully floats. The next morning a couple comes looking for the cabin and sees it out in the water. Jerry thinks the couple is coming to rescue them, but they are actually after a diamond they stashed in the cabin.

As the cabin sinks the couple makes Jerry swim down looking for the diamond, which has actually been picked up by a seagull. Spotting the gull, they all follow it to shore where the bird puts the diamond in his mouth and then joins a huge flock of other gulls. They spend the entire night searching for the diamond and Jerry eventually finds Renfrew sleeping in a gulls beak. Wow, what a sorry note to end the series on. 

Edited by Murray Boltinoff.

Adventures of Jerry Lewis #123

Adventures of Jerry Lewis #123 (On Sale: January 14, 1971), has a nice cover by Bob Oksner.

This issue begins with "The Kook in the Cockpit!" by Alan Riefe and Bob Oksner. Jerry stows away on an airline and is suspected of being a hijacker.

Next is "The Knottiest Guy in Town!" by Alan Riefe and Bob Oksner. Jerry literally ties himself into a knot.

We end with "My Fur Lady" by Alan Riefe and Bob Oksner. Jerry finds an old fur coat and it smells so bad that Priscilla the Gorilla falls in love with Jerry.

Edited by Murray Boltinoff.

Adventures of Jerry Lewis #122

Adventures of Jerry Lewis #122 (On Sale: November 12, 1970), has a cover by Bob Oksner.

I usually read the Jerry Lewis books before posting, I'm traveling from California to Texas to Utah and then back to California, and time for reading is getting hard to find. We begin with "The Target in Tights" by Alan Riefe and Bob Oksner.

We end with "High Man on a Totem Pole" also by Alan Riefe and Bob Oksner.

Edited by Murray Boltinoff.

Adventures of Jerry Lewis #121

Adventures of Jerry Lewis #121 (On Sale: September 8, 1970) has a cover by Bob Oksner.

We begin with "Schnook and Ladder" by Alan Riefe and Bob Oksner. While playing checkers at the local firehouse, Jerry's new bicycle is stolen. Jerry accidently catches a ride with the firemen to a fire, only to end up on the end up on the wrong end of a the ladder and saving fire-eater Madame Flamazola. Jerry ends up falling through a skylight and into the shop of the bicycle thieves. In the ensuing paint gun fight, Jerry set a torch to a crate, resulting in so much popping that the bicycle gang feels out numbered and gives up. Ends up they were in Popopski's Popcorn factory. With the help of the firemen, Jerry recovers his stolen bicycle.

Next is  "Pizza Pie in the Sky"  written by Len Wein, Marv Wolfman and Howie Post, drawn by Bob Oksner and Tex Blaisdell and reprinted from Adventures of Jerry Lewis #109. Jerry takes a job at a pizza booth, but can't get the hang of tossing the dough and ends up getting fired, as usual.

That is followed by our cover story, "A Boob in the Woods" by Alan Riefe and Bob Oksner. When Renfrew complains about Uncle Jerry's guitar playing and singing, Jerry heads to the woods for quiet place to practice. Instead of quiet, he runs into the gun-toting hillbilly family, the Shacknastys: Paw, twins Clark and Errol and daughter Sairy June. Jerry is taken at gunpoint to join their family band and ends up caught in their feud with the Jugbender family.

Jerry escapes but runs into a music producer who wants to tape the two families music. Jerry agrees to help (for money), and the producer ends up signing both families to contracts. Jerry takes his money and buys a tuba, causing Renfrew to ask him to go out to the woods to practice.

We end with "Low I.Q. High Snafu" written by Don Segall, penciled by Bob Oksner and inked by Oksner and Tex Blaisdell, and reprinted from Adventures of Jerry Lewis #108. Jerry takes a job painting flagpoles, but starts at the bottom ending up trapped at the top till the paint dries.

Edited by Murray Boltinoff.

Adventures of Jerry Lewis #119

Adventures of Jerry Lewis #119 (On Sale: May 19, 1970) has a cover by Bob Oksner.

We begin with Jerry Lewis in "The Dropout Who Dropped In" by Alan Riefe and Bob Oksner. Wanting to better himself and finally get a diploma, Jerry reenrolls in high school, where he makes every teacher's life a nightmare. Some problems are caused by Jerry's lack of brain power, but many of the things he is accused of are actually the work of two other students, who have decided to make Jerry's life miserable after Jerry ruins their gag to soak the principal. In the end, Jerry inadvertently helps stop the two kids from stealing exam questions that they plan on selling to other kids. Regardless, Jerry flunks out and a month later is trying to ship an apple to his teacher in correspondence school.

Next we have Jerry Lewis in our cover-story, "The Teenie-Weenie Genie", also by Alan Riefe and Bob Oksner. While playing football in a junk yard, Jerry destroys Renfrew's football but finds a genie in a stove pipe. The genie is not very good and when Jerry asks for a million dollars the genie conjures up a wooden nickel. When he asks for a lot of diamonds, the genie gives him a deck of cards. The genie confesses that he has lost his powers and that his fiancé's family is out to get him since he backed out of the marriage he no longer feels worthy of.

Jerry moves the genie into his house and they realize he just needs his bottle back to restore his powers. Jerry and Renfrew go in search of bottles just as the genie's fiancé and family find them. A chase ensues and the genie is trapped back in his bottle by a family member who then commands the genie to send them home, which the genie does. He just doesn't go with them. Jerry got bonked on the head and Renfrew wishes that he would snap out of it.  Jerry does, but he has a tremendous headache which he wishes would go away. Renfrew realizing they have just blown two of their three wishes, tells Jerry to shut up, that all he really wanted was a new football. And so he is given one.

We end with Jerry Lewis in a one-pager called "A Smashing Good Time", by Henry Boltinoff and Bob Oksner.  Jerry is driving his car and can't remember where he is going. He doesn't need gas, he doesn't need to wash the car. As he smashes into a wall he remembers that he needed new brakes.

Edited by Murray Boltinoff.

Adventures of Jerry Lewis #117

Adventures of Jerry Lewis #117 (On Sale: January 20, 1970) has a cover by Bob Oksner featuring Jerry and the new Wonder Woman.

This issue has the book-length "Jerry Meets the New Wonder Woman" by Alan Riefe and Bob Oksner. When Jerry accidentally hurts Wonder Woman's knee near a theater, he, his nephew Renfrew and Wonder Woman are transported to Paradise Island. The Amazons explain that Zodor has kidnapped Hippolyta and demands the sacred pearl as ramson. SinceWonder Woman's knee is broken, it falls on Jerry to rescue the queen. You have to appreciate the way DC weas pushing the new Wonder Woman, here and in The Brave and the Bold a month or so ago.

Edited by Murray Boltinoff.

Adventures of Jerry Lewis #114

Adventures of Jerry Lewis #114 (On Sale: July 22, 1969) has a cover by Bob Oksner.

We have Jerry Lewis stories: "The Flowers That Boom in the Spring" by Alan Riefe and Bob Oksner. Getting out of a taxi at the Garden Show, Jerry and pretty young woman, Abigail, accidently switch suitcases. While waiting for the Butterfly Exhibition to be cleared from the room, Jerry orders a steak. Meanwhile Abigail arrives to her meeting on a small island where she is going to sell her latest invention, the world's most powerful explosive, for a million dollars. She opens her suitcase only to find boxes of plant food. Realizing where the switch must have taken place, Abigail and some goons head for the Garden Show.

Jerry notices that his daisies look a little hungry. On opening his suitcase though, all he finds is a bottle of what look like water. Jerry feeds the explosive to his daisies and they perk right up. After a Venus Fly Trap eats the last steak in the place, Jerry dines on some flowers that turn out to be a Borneo Pepper Tree. Running to the restroom, Jerry douses the heat inside with water and refills the explosive bottle with water for later on.

Abigail shows up and Jerry gives her back her suitcase. Jerry is finally assigned a place for his plants and on the way plays "she loves me, she loves me not" with the petals of the daisy, which explode whenever they land, destroying the other entries in the show. Jerry is run out of the hall and into the arms of Abigail and her men, she having realized there was only water in the bottle Jerry gave back to her. They capture Jerry and take him back to the island. There they strap him to the lens of a lighthouse and let him heat up. He keeps telling them he fed the explosive to the daisies, but they don't believe him. A henchman tosses the daisies to the side and the entire island is destroyed in the resulting explosion. Jerry decides that raising daisies is just too dangerous.

That is followed by "The Nut That Holds the Wheel"  also by Alan Riefe and Bob Oksner. Jerry is learning to drive when his instructor flees and Jerry is carjacked by some bank robbers, who disguise themselves as women. Meanwhile, at a local theater, a frantic stage manager wonders when the Three Queens will show up for their performance. As Jerry and the bank robbers attempt to get away, the Three Queens realize they passed the town they were suppose to be playing in and turn back.

The police catch up to Jerry and the robbers but they think they are the Three Queens and offers to escort them to their show. On the way they crash into the car of the real Three Queens. The police tell Jerry that the reward for capturing the bank robbers should just about cover the damage that Jerry has made to the cars.

Edited by Murray Boltinoff