“Now I am become Dilton, the destroyer of worlds.”
As per my wondering if there were any Archie atomic bomb covers from the “Atomic Age” era, along comes longtime reader Paul with his meticulously hand-crafted piece of speculative comical-booking:
Yes, yes, if it were “Atomic Age” it would be ten cents not twelve, but c’mon, what’s two cents between friends? But boy, that’s a comic I’d read in a heartbeat.
So anyway, I’m getting myself all discombobulated answering questions left on my most recent questions post and then answering questions and comments left for me in response to those answers and I promise, I’m reading everyone’s input and will reply to what needs replyin’. Between busier evenings, the frailty of the flesh and some new health type stuff (not COVID, not serious, don’t worry…just a tad dear) my bloggin’ time is somewhat impacted. But I’m not going anywhere, and the people MUST BE ANSWERED so I’ll get around to it all in short order.
Speaking of which, let me go back to my post about the “Omaha” The Cat Dancer record where P.J. left the following inquiry just a few days ago:
“Hey Mike, not sure if you’ve covered it, and it’s comic strips, not comic books, but are you familiar with the floppy record that was packaged with one of the Doonesbury collections in the mid-80s? Don’t ask me to recall the name of it. I had it as a kid, not sure what ever happened to it.”
No, in fact, I’m not, and I had…well, still have, actually…a full set of the Doonsebury collections starting from that very first one, just called Doonesbuy, until well into the 1990s, maybe even early 2000s. Can’t say for sure why I fell off at that point, but boy I was sure into the strip for a long time.
And I have to say, I don’t recall any flexidiscs. Not saying there wasn’t one, as there very well could have been one, but I never came across any in any of the volumes I own. It’s possible that there was a special edition of strip reprints containing material I already had in other books which could have had a record insert, and I passed on buying it. That Action Figure! collection, which came with, as the title would suggest, an action figure toy of Duke (and I definitely bought that!).
Googling “Doonesbury flexidisc” just brings up the “Billy and the Boingers” record that came with a Bloom County collection. But it did lead me to the Wiki entry on Doonsebury which told me about some actual musical releases (a single and a full LP) with songs by the strip’s character “Jimmy Thudpucker,” and now I guess that’s on the ol’ want list now too.
So, no, P.J., I can’t think of a Doonsebury flexi, but I’m sure if someone reading this knows about one, we’ll hear about it in the comments! I hope there is one, honestly!
My recollection is that the Jimmy Thudpucker album came with a booklet collecting that character’s appearances in the strip. You’ll want to make sure any copy you find has that.
Apparently, the actual singer is the same one who played Jimmy on the TV special, James Allen Brewer. You can find both the special and a couple of the songs on YouTube.
The Duke action figure and book! If only I could get Duke or Hunter Thompson to autograph it…. both seem equally likely at this point.
Hey, Mike, I’ve got this one, too. Doonesbury’s Jimmy Thudpucker’s Greatest Hits. From 1977, there’s no performer credits listed, only Steve Cropper as producer and a few engineers. There are ten songs with lyrics printed on the interior sleeve. I didn’t see it when it came out, but I set my friend who used to go to many record shows to be on the lookout for it. It took him a couple years before he found it. Now there are probably several copies listed on ebay, not that I checked.
The 8-page booklet has 3 Sunday strips and 12 dailies.
I’ll have to dig around to find the collection, which has a CD-Rom rather than a flexi-disc and I think had the first 15 years of the strip. I’ll write more if I discover what the heck it is.
8 copies of Jimmy Thudpucker’s Greatest Hits currently listed on eBay.
Steve Cropper has a remarkable resume: he was a founding member of Booker T & the MGs; he co-wrote, and sometimes produced, such songs as “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay,” “In the Midnight Hour,” and “Knock on Wood”; he was in Levon Helm’s post-Band band; he would have recorded with the Beatles, had Brian Epstein not gone paranoid and canceled the session. And yet, somehow, there are a lot of people out there who know him only for backing the Blues Brothers.
According to what I admit is a very quick check on-line, another member of the MGs and the Blues Brothers band, guitarist Donald “Duck” Dunn, also performed on the Jimmy Thudpucker album.
I found the CD-ROM that came with Doonesbury: Flashbacks which is also marked “25 Years of Serious Fun” I think Flashbacks must also be the book title. I wonder if I dare try to play this. I seem to remember it as not being that easy to search on, but that’s probably due to my less than stellar computer skills.
I hope somebody comes up with the flexi-disc, but I don’t remember one.
A quick look on eBay shows lots of copies of this book available, but only a couple people offering the CD-ROM. There’s even an expensive signed edition with a few listings. I wonder if this might be a case of only the first edition having the disc included?
Have they been offering any kind of 50 years complete strips package for this strip?
I should have looked over Jimmy Thudpucker more carefully. I was reading the comic strips from the 8-page insert this morning and there on the back cover are all the musician credits for the album. On one song, there’s an extra credit for “Harmony vocals: Jimmy Thudpucker.
Hmmm….found this on Youtube. Never knew it existed. If I ever found it on my deep digs in record stores, I’ll send you some MP3s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcvLS77ZNB4
JohnJ, they just published Dbury@50: The Complete Digital Doonesbury.
the flexi was probably the Bloom County one, and i also saw the Duke action figure! Always tempted to buy it, but never did.
BTW, Hunter S Thompson HATED that character!
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