The Adventures of Bob Hope is a comic book

Comic book

A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...

 series that was published by National Periodical Publications (an imprint of DC Comics). The series featured stories based on comedian

Comedian

A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...

 Bob Hope

Bob Hope

Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...

, as well as assorted other humorous stories. The series ran for 109 issues from 1950 through 1968.

Publication history

In the early 1950s, with sales for superhero themed comics on the decline, National Periodical Publications began licensing the right to use celebrity images, including Jerry Lewis

Jerry Lewis

Jerry Lewis is an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team of Martin and Lewis...

, Dean Martin

Dean Martin

Dean Martin was an American singer, film actor, television star and comedian. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?"...

, Alan Ladd

Alan Ladd

-Early life:Ladd was born in Hot Springs, Arkansas. He was the only child of Ina Raleigh Ladd and Alan Ladd, Sr. He was of English ancestry. His father died when he was four, and his mother relocated to Oklahoma City where she married Jim Beavers, a housepainter...

, and Bob Hope. Issue #1 (cover dated February–March 1950) set the tone for most of the 1950s. The lead story would feature Hope in a misadventure similar to his film roles; the back up stories tended to revolve around movie-related themes or characters. For example, issue #1 had a story on Rhonda Fleming

Rhonda Fleming

Rhonda Fleming , is an American film and television actress.She acted in more than 40 films, mostly in the 1940s and 1950s, and became renowned as one of the most beautiful and glamorous actresses of her day...

, Hope's co-star in the 1949 film The Great Lover

The Great Lover (1949 film)

The Great Lover is a 1949 comedy film starring Bob Hope, Rhonda Fleming, and Roland Young. A scout leader takes his troop on an ocean cruise, pursues a beautiful duchess and is stalked by a murderer.-Cast:*Bob Hope as Freddie Hunter...

.

By the 1960s, sales for the Hope series began to flag. The editors attempted to add some contemporary humor by introducing the character Super-Hip

Super-Hip

Super-Hip is a fictional character that appeared in comic books published by DC Comics. He first appeared in The Adventures of Bob Hope #95 , in a story written by Arnold Drake and drawn by Bob Oksner.-Publication history:...

 in issue #95. Despite the changes, the series was canceled with issue #109 (March 1968).

Artists and writers

The first four issues featured photographs of Hope on the cover; subsequent covers were illustrated. Owen Fitzgerald was the original artist for the series. He was eventually replaced by Bob Oksner

Bob Oksner

Bob Oksner was an American comics artist known for both adventure comic strips and for superhero and humor comic books, primarily at DC Comics.-Biography:...

, who provided the majority of the artwork for the run of the series. Oksner was replaced by Neal Adams

Neal Adams

Neal Adams is an American comic book and commercial artist known for helping to create some of the definitive modern imagery of the DC Comics characters Superman, Batman, and Green Arrow; as the co-founder of the graphic design studio Continuity Associates; and as a creators-rights advocate who...

 for the final four issues, with Mort Drucker supplying the cover art.

There were no story credits, though some sources credit Cal Howard

Cal Howard

Cal Howard was an American cartoon story artist, "mostly remembered for his work at Walter Lantz and Warner Bros.".-External links:...

 with writing some early scripts. Beginning with issue #88 (Sept. 1964), Arnold Drake

Arnold Drake

Arnold Drake was an American comic book writer and screenwriter best known for co-creating the DC Comics characters Deadman and the Doom Patrol, and the Marvel Comics characters the Guardians of the Galaxy, among others....

 received a byline, and would go on to write most of the scripts for rest of the series run.

External links

• The Adventures of Bob Hope at the Grand Comics Database
• The Adventures of Bob Hope at Mike's Amazing World of DC Comics - The DC Indexes]