COMIC DETAILS
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Comic Description:
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Four Color 1176 Universal
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Grade:
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9.6
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Page Quality:
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OFF-WHITE TO WHITE
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Pedigree:
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File Copy
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Certification #:
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0910888015
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Owner:
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4GEMWORKS
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SET DETAILS
Owner's Description
Dondi 11/61 File Copy
Photo Cover: Dondi (photo of David Kory)
Script: Gaylord Du Bois
Pencils & Inks: Joe Certa
Second best copy of six graded to date. A single 9.8 is on top. 05/13. I originally bought this graded, as is, from Heritage Auctions.
Table of Contents
1. 0. Dondi
2. 1. Dondi
3. 2. [no title indexed]
4. 3. A Dream Comes True
the Dondi movie actors 3 photos from movie on the back cover of some copies of this issue.
5. 4. Be a Six Gun Expert! This is an AD back version of this issue and is also the back cover of this copy.
Some data courtesy of the Grand Comics Database under a Creative Commons Attribution license. http://www.comics.org/
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode
http://www.comics.org/issue/16580/
Wikipedia has some information about this barely remembered character.
Dondi was a daily comic strip about a large-eyed war orphan of the same name. Created by Gus Edson[1] and Irwin Hasen, it ran in more than 100 newspapers for three decades (September 25, 1955 to June 8, 1986).[
Characters and story [edit]
Dondi's original backstory describes him as a five-year-old World War II orphan of Italian descent.[4] The boy had no memory of his parents or his name, so when a pretty Red Cross worker said he was "a dandy boy," he thought she was naming him "Dondi."[3][5] Two soldiers who spoke no Italian, Ted Wills and Whitey McGowan, found the child wandering through a war-torn village. The soldiers brought the child back to the United States and Ted eventually became his adoptive father.
Like other comic strip boys, such as Dennis in Dennis the Menace, Dondi's character never ages. This became problematic in later years, as Dondi's age made the origin story implausible. Eventually, references to his Italian origin ceased, and he was adopted by Ted and his wife, the former Katje Bogar. "Pop" Fligh, a former pro baseball player, became Dondi's adoptive grandfather when he married Ted Wills' widowed mother. Following this, Dondi was portrayed simply as an adopted child, although in the early 1960s there was a reference to his being an orphan of the Korean War. During the mid-1970s, there was a reference to his being from Vietnam.
A recurring character was Mrs. McGowan, who was the mother of Whitey McGowan. In a rather startling development for a comic strip at the time, Whitey and his new bride died in a car crash on their honeymoon, leaving Dondi to Mrs. McGowan, who had initially resented the boy, but came to love him and accept him as her grandson. This explanation was permitted to fade into the mists as the strip grew farther away from World War II.[2]
After the death of Edson in 1966, Bob Oksner teamed with Hasen, and the two remained with the strip until its 1986 conclusion. When the strip ended, it was carried in only 35 newspapers.[2]
Films [edit]
Dondi was adapted into a family-oriented film with David Kory in the title role and David Janssen as his American G.I. buddy, Dealey. Cameo appearances were made by Edson, as a police captain, and Hasen, as a police sketch artist. The movie (and especially Kory's performance) were negatively received by critics. Kory, the son of Rockette Diane Kory, had one minor TV role in 1963 and never made another movie.
Produced and directed by Albert Zugsmith, the film was released 26 March 1961.[6] Film historian Leonard Maltin asserted, “Watch this film, and you'll know why Janssen became a fugitive!” A comic book adaptation of the movie was published as Four Color #1176 by Dell. Another Dondi comic book, with stories closer to the strip's style, was published as Dell Four Color #1276.
The comic strip is featured in a scene in Kenneth Anger's short film Scorpio Rising (1964).
Awards [edit]
Hasen received the National Cartoonists Society's Award for Story Comic Strip for 1961 and 1962 for his work on the strip.[7]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dondi
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