Number 2450: Beatin' on Beatniks

Going through my mental files and asking myself a question. What do I know about beatniks, who had an image problem in the late '50s, early '60s? I don’t know much. Just a Roger Corman movie, Bucket of Blood, cartoons about beatniks in mainstream magazines, Maynard G. Krebs (Bob Denver) in the TV comedy, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, “Howl,” a poem by Allen Ginsburg; also City Lights Bookstore and the Jack Kerouac books I read over 50 years ago. I admit I didn’t pay much attention during the beat era to stories about beatniks that were not bent toward ridicule by conservative America. The two stories I am showing today are examples of that.

Steve Ditko did this short story for Charlton’s Unusual Tales #29 (1961), a tale of square guy in love with a beatnik girl. I don’t think we saw enough of Ditko’s sense of humor over his long career, but this is an example.

Cool Cat was from Prize Comics, and lasted all of three issues. This story is from the first issue (1962). It is written and drawn by Jack O'Brien, who also created, wrote and drew G.I. Juniors for Harvey Comics, and perhaps thousands of gag cartoons that popped up in joke books of the era. O’Brien is also known as a cartoonist whose career supposedly ended in 1970 when he was arrested and went to prison on obscenity charges. Knowing that gave something of a new meaning to the Cool Cat cover: a guy with a smirk on his face, parked in a lonely spot with two girls...

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