Saturday, November 1, 2014

The original Dale Gribble--More incarnations of Bill Molno's recurring Gribble-esque hero


Dale Gribble (above): "Was I created by Bill Molno??"
Moe Gallagher (below): "Who is that guy impersonating me??"


As noted in our last post, decades before the character Dale Gribble appeared in Mike Judge's King of the Hill, Bill Molno was drawing a Gribble look-alike for Charlton Comics.  Here is Proto-Dale as he appeared in the December, 1960 "Canary Cage" installment of U.S. Air Force, (Vol. 1, No. 13):



Our friend returned for the cover of the Sept., 1962 U.S. Air Force (Vol. 1, No. 23), and in the interior tale, "Special Target."





Four years later, in the No. 53 Fightin' Air Force (Feb.-Mar., 1966), readers encountered not one, but two Gribbles:



Two years earlier, in the no. 44 issue of the same series, this guy popped out of nowhere for a single-panel appearance in the issue's final story, "The Turning Tide":


Here's the problem--if these are all the same guy, including Dale, what can possibly account for the character's eternal youth?  Besides the fact that he's a drawing?  Well, maybe that's the answer.  Guess I solved my own mystery.

Lee

No comments:

Post a Comment