Okay, I am interrupting my usual commercial messages to talk about something else that happened in the world. To me, this was an event of momentous, cosmic, eternal cultural significance. However, as usual, the mainstream media totally ignored something this important.

It was the appearance of The Three Stooges on the World Wrestling Entertainment's Monday Night Raw program. 

 

A new version has been created for a Farrelly Brother film! You know, the brudders who made "Dumb & Dumber," "There's Something About Mary," "Shallow Hal," etc. which just happen to be some of the funniest movies ever! And let's not forget "Me, Myself and Irene," which I think is one of the most underrated films of all time.

I have waited a lifetime for this. I have been a professional wrestling fan since the 1970s, when Marc "Rosie" Rosenthal of the CBGB scene brought me to a card held by the WWF back around 1978: Haystacks Calhoun, the Grand Wizard, etc. It was a great show, and back then these shows were held in high school gymnasiums!

Anyhow, to get back to the Three Stooges appearance on Monday Night RAW:

It was... Good! Better than I thought! Definitely better than OK! 

 

It was weird! I would have thought that WWE fans would WELCOME the Three Stooges to the wrestling ring! Instead,they were booed so bad that one of them could be heard asking: "Should we keep going?" I have to admit that I've never heard ANYONE on live TV talk about quitting! But this is how bad they were getting booed...

See, this is why I keep watching WWE: It's live! Stuff happens that you won't see anywhere else. So they kept going, and I got to admit that the "New Stooges" did such a great job of bringing back the Old Stooges that I wanna see the film.

 

 To get back to the Stooges on WWE Raw? They did everything right. Curly (played by Michael Chiklis, who also played The Thing in the Fantastic Four films, which I was disappointed by but sort of enjoyed), did a spot-on impersonation of Hulk Hogan, but the crowd was still booing throughout.

(Hey, even before Bruce Carleton drew "The Three Stooges of Death" for Comical Funnies, I thought the Three Stooges would make a great tag team for the World Wrestling Federation. But it never happened, and our culture is all the worse for that.)

 

Well, anyhow... Back to the WWE Monday Night Raw program:

Curly of the Three Stooges was power-bombed by Kane, the "evil monster" of the WWE, who also power-bombed Pete Rose during a Wrestle Mania And so the crowd went wild! And so The Three Stooges were redeemed!

I guess you just had to be there... 

 

 

 

So, anyhow, this is how it all happened: A few years ago, I got a request from some crazy cartoonist guys from Italy! And they asked to contribute to their cartoon jam for their cartoon character: PUCK!

Well, just mention stuff like PUCK magazine (Or Judge) to me (or any late 1880s or early 1900s cartoonists), and I melt. I love this stuff!  When PUNK magazine moved our offices to 225 Lafayette Street, I was amazed, astounded, amused and thrilled that we were now just two blocks away from the original PUCK magazine building, which still stands at Broadway and Lafayette in all of its glory. 

 

 PUCK magazine was like the original MAD magazine.

 

"Puck" was the Robin Goodfellow character from the Shakespeare play "A Midsummer's Night Dream," who plays the "trickster" or whatever, I always fashioned my character Bosko after this kind of guy. He's most famous for his saying: "What fools these mortals be." 

I could not agree more. Do you think you are intelligent? Do you think you are smarter than the rest? Sorry, we are all a bunch of dummies: Shakespeare had you pegged. But I am getting off the subject,

 

Anyhow, I just wanted to mention that I was involved in a wonderful, amazing, unbelievable international comic strip collaboration put together by Ivan Hurricane in Italy: The PUCK Comic Party, published in Italy. 

It brings together comic artists from all over the world! For instance: Tom Bunk (the amazing MAD magazine illustrator, who did the amazing cover above and represents the original anarchic art style of the eternal spirit of MAD), Danny Hellman (who deserves a whole book about his work!), Howard Cruse (who did work with me at Bananas for many years!), Foolbert Sturgeon, Mark Bode (son of Vaughn Bode, who was a HUGE influence on my work), Milton Knight (a good friend for many years whose work is sadly neglected lately and could use a revival--just look at it!), as well as so many GREAT cartoonists as Bruce Carleton,  Al (Mad Magazine "Fold-In"), Jay (Nard 'N' Pat) Lynch, Skip Williamson, Johnny Ryan, Glenn Head, Bill Griffith, Robert Armstrong... Cheez Whiz, I can't keep track of everyone!Even my best friend Bruce Carleton contributed!

Especially because many other contributors are international cartoonists like Sergio Ponchione, Giorgio Franzaroli, and Ivan Hurricane, who made it all happen.

Thanks, Ivan!!! 

 

 

 Above: My contributions to the PUCK Comic Party. Pretty good, right?