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Now About Comics Publish Joseph Eichberger's 1950's Cartoons About Priests

Published Mon, 18 Jun 2018 08:30:40 -0500

About Comics, the same publisher that celebrated Easter this year (and April Fool's Day) by releasing seven collections of 1950's nun cartoons by Joe Lane and others, is at it again. To celebrate Father's Day, they released The Fathers, a collection of single panel cartoons about Catholic priests that was originally released in 1952. The cartoons first appeared in the Catholic magazine Extension.

The Fathers is credited to Joe Lane, a cartoonist best known for his many nun cartoons but obviously interested in all people of the faith. "Joe Lane" was actually one of several pseudonyms for Joseph Eichberger, a Chicago fireman and Navy veteran who under his own name contributed humorous work to DC Comics in the days before superhero comics. Reverend Francis C. Lightbourn, writing in The Living Church, said the cartoons "will be relished equally by Anglican and Roman clergy – and by all who know the clergy."

In addition to The Fathers, About Comics has also just brought back to press another book of Lane's cartoons, Heirs of Heaven. This 1955 collection is the most diverse of his books, in that it includes both nuns and priests. And sells for $100 on Amazon. Best Sellers: The Semi-Monthly Book Review said that readers would find a "bundle of refreshing gaiety in this collection which finds that humor is not banished from the lives of those who dedicate themselves to service of the Lord in convent and in parish church. No matter who you may be, these cartoons will bring chuckles without risking a single blush.") Unless you use gaiety in that fashion a lot, obviously.

Both of these paperbacks are available for immediate ordering from Amazon.

About Comics is a boutique publisher currently celebrating its 20th anniversary. Besides having recently become America's leading publisher of nun cartoons, About has been acclaimed for publishing materials for those wanting to become comics creators, and for reprinting The Negro Motorist Green-Book, the classic Jim Crow era travel guide.

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