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Here’s an issue of a comic book series that adapts MY FAVORITE MARTIAN -- a one-time popular TV sitcom series -- that appears to guest star THE FLINTSTONES’ pet snorkasaurus, Dino! But upon closer scrutiny, it’s apparent that the “living 3-D Martian nightmare” on this cover isn’t really Dino – but instead, a very close approximation! So how come a live-action Martian’s dreams resemble inexpensively animated TV cartoons from Earth? (MY FAVORITE MARTIAN’s star, Ray Walston, doesn’t exactly look thrilled to be sharing this cover with this rather inappropriately designed space-critter, does he?)

Hanna-Barbera Productions has had a long history of “borrowing” characters and concepts from sources outside their own studio. For example, THE FLINTSTONES was created as a prehistoric version of THE HONEYMOONERS, YOGI BEAR was an ursine version of Art Carney (by way of Disney’s “Humphrey” and baseball personality Yogi Berra), THE JETSONS was a futuristic version of BLONDIE, TOP CAT was a feline version of YOU’LL NEVER GET RICH/SGT. BILKO, WHAT’S NEW SCOOBY DOO? was a mystery-solving version of THE MANY LOVES OF DOBIE GILLIS, THE HERCULOIDS was an outer-space version of TARZAN, WACKY RACES was an animated version of THE GREAT RACE…well, you get the idea. So isn’t it unusual to see Hanna-Barbera get ripped-off for a change?

MY FAVORITE MARTIAN was a popular half-hour sitcom about a benevolent Martian who moved in with a journalist after the Earthman witnessed the crash landing of his spacecraft. The series premiered on CBS on September 29, 1963, airing for two seasons until it ended its first-run on September 4, 1966. MY FAVORITE MARTIAN starred actor Ray Walston as “Martin O’Hara”, the stranded Martian “uncle” of “Tim O’Hara”, a young bachelor reporter for the LOS ANGELES SUN as portrayed by Bill Bixby (who would go on to fame as THE INCREDIBLE HULK’s alter-ego, “Dr. David Banner”.) Barbara Britton played their befuddled landlady, “Mrs. Lorlei Brown” and Alan Hewitt played “Bill Brennan”, a suspicious police detective. 107 episodes of MY FAVORITE MARTIAN were produced by Jack Chertok. The live-action series led to a SatAM animated spin-off, MY FAVORITE MARTIANS (CBS, 1973 – 1975), produced by filmation. Decades later, in 1999, The Disney Studio produced a live-action MY FAVORITE MARTIAN feature film based on the original TV series, starring Jeff Daniels, Christopher Lloyd, Elizabeth Hurley, Daryl Hannah and Wallace Shawn.

Gold Key published a total of nine issues of MY FAVORITE MARTIAN. Cartoonist Mike Arens also drew many stories for Petersen Publications’ CARtoons, as well as working as a layout artist for Hanna-Barbera Productions during the 1960s! Arens’ H-B connection is probably how his Oddball version of Dino wound up in this comic.

This issue’s 16-page “My Favorite Martian” cover-story, “Once Upon A Ding-Ding”, was drawn by Mike Arens. It begins one morning as Tim gives Uncle Martin a lift downtown in his convertible sports car. Martin asks Tim to drop him off at the park so he can browse through the zoo:

TIM O’HARA:
How do you like that – a Martian, with all his superior intellect, and he spends the day feeding peanuts to the monkeys!

But Martin has his own plans:

UNCLE MARTIN O’HARA (thinking):
I’m going the visit the zoo all right, but I didn’t say WHAT zoo! Ah – my favorite bench! Just the spot for my little excursion! Now I’ll just close my eyes and dream about that fabulous zoo I used to visit when I was a little tot of a Martian!

Martin allows himself to fall into a self-induced trance; soon, he visualizes an oddly familiar-looking creature – a Martian “ding-ding”! It’s familiar-looking because, aside from minor cosmetic differences, the design is identical to that of Dino (originally designed by H-B cartoonist Ed Benedict), the pet snorkasaurus of Hanna-Barbera Productions’ THE FLINTSTONES! (Strangely enough, Hanna-Barbara had its own character named “Ding-Ding”, too; he was the diminutive sidekick to Hokey Wolf!)

UNCLE MARTIN O’HARA (thinking):
Hmm…a ding-ding! They were my favorite of all the zoo animals! Especially the young ones – their antics were a sight to behold!

While Martin spaces out, his visualization of the ding-ding comes to life, flying around the park and alarming the public. Moments later, at the offices of the LOS ANGELES SUN, Tim’s editor gets a phoned-in tip that there’s some sort of strange beast loose in the city’s park. He sends Tim to investigate the situation, and although Tim is convinced that his assignment is “to check out a monster some crackpot dreamed up”, but his mind is soon changed when he arrives at the park to find an excited crowd. Tim pulls out his camera when they direct his attention to the ding-ding, which appears to dive-bomb Uncle Martin’s noggin! Tim cries out a warning to his Martian “relative”, awakening him – causing the ding-ding to vanish with a loud >pop!<

TIM O’HARA:
That crazy beast! Where’d it go?

UNCLE MARTIN O’HARA:
Oh, you must mean my ding-ding!

TIM O’HARA:
Your ding-ding?

UNCLE MARTIN O’HARA:
Oh, not really mine…I was only DREAMING about it! We have them in our zoos back home!

TIM O’HARA:
YOU were dreaming, but I SAW IT – DOZENS of people saw it!

UNCLE MARTIN O’HARA:
I’m sorry, Tim! I guess I was homesick and got carried away! You see, we Martians dream in 2-D, but I didn’t mean to let my dream get out where it would be seen by others! Of course, when you woke me up, it went away!

But when Tim phones his boss to explain that the sighting was just a false alarm, the editor blows his stack and refuses to be deterred. He orders Tim to bring back a story without bungling! When he begs Uncle Martin to re-conjure the do-do, if only for a photo, the Martian explains that the creature’s 2-D image won’t photograph. However, because he feels a bit responsible for Tim’s predicament, he agrees to help. Extending his Martian antennae, Martin quickly falls asleep, producing a huge, three-dimensional ding-ding! Tim snaps a photo, waking Uncle Martin, who’s alarmed to discover that the ding-ding’s still there!

UNCLE MARTIN O’HARA:
Oh, no! I’m awake, but it’s STILLHERE! Something went wrong with my dream mechanism!

TIM O’HARA:
Yeah! This thing is bigger than it was in 2-D!

UNCLE MARTIN O’HARA:
I’ll try to make some adjustments! Tell me when it begins to fade out! (Ulp!) This is a very rare brain complication…it’s called Morpheus retentionitus, or locked-in nightmare! On Mars we have specialists to cure it! Until I can diffuse the image, we’d best get out of this nightmare’s way! The ding-ding is harmless, but a grown one doesn’t know its own strength!

As the giant, flying pseudo-snorkasaurus panics the crowd, word gets back to Tim’s editor boss. Fed up with waiting for Tim to file a report, the LOS ANGELES SUN editor dons his hat and coat and heads downtown to check out the situation for himself. Meanwhile, the city police’s riot squad shows up, alarming Martin:

UNCLE MARTIN O’HARA:
If they blast this nightmare of mine, it will blow every fuse in my cranium!

Since the ding-ding seems to like Tim (“This sort of affection I could do without!”), Uncle Martin orders his “nephew” to lead the dream-critter into the woods while he handles the gun-happy police. But his cover is blown when the huge ding-ding, now as large as a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade balloon, rises from the protective foliage, carrying Tim in his spotted purple arms! As Tim’s editor-boss arrives, everyone follows the escaping ding-ding as it soars toward the highest building in the city. Taking a taxi, Martin beats the others to their destination and rides an elevator to ascend to the building’s roof. There, he extends his antennae and attempts to get rid of the ding-ding, which has moored itself (while still gripping Tim) to the building’s flagpole!

UNCLE MARTIN O’HARA:
I think I’ve got it, Tim…By reversing the poles and using one antenna, I should be able to dream in reverse and thus disengage the image! Now to doze off for a few seconds without falling off of here…There – that should have done it!

Unfortunately, it doesn’t do the trick; Martin’s “dream mechanism is jammed worse than he thought! Soon, in a scene highly reminiscent of KING KONG (1933), police helicopters surround the Martian, the giant ding-ding and its human captive – that is, until the Martian dream-critter vibrates its feet and flies away, easily outdistancing the pursuing cop-choppers! Meanwhile, a “giant computer” has been fed all data on the unknown monster and has just come up with an answer to the mystery of its origin: it’s from outer space! Assuming the Earth is being invaded, the panicked police chief contacts the Pentagon, and soon, the sky is filled with fighter jets heading for the ding-ding. Detecting their pursuers, Uncle Martian uses his Martian mental skills to jam the government’s radar and temporarily elude the Air Force’s armed search party. But as the ding-ding flies further out to sea, it becomes fatigued. Without any place to land, it rests its 50-ton bulk atop a trans-Pacific airliner! The added weight threatens to crash the jet into the ocean until Uncle Martin mentally transfers some of his powers into the ding-ding with a “levitation transfusion”. As they leave the lightened airliner, Martin, Tim and the ding-ding are once again spotted by the Air Force. Heading back toward the mainland, the ding-ding manages to out-fly the government jets, but in the process, it once again exhausts its energy. Headed for the mountains, where the atmosphere is lighter, the panting ding-ding crashes head-first into California’s Mount Whitney! When Martin bumps his head during the crash-landing, the impact jars his brain’s circuits back into order, causing the ding-ding to vanish! After being picked up by a rescue helicopter (and offering the excuse that “the thing from outer space went right back where it came from”, Martin and Tim are hailed as the city’s heroes. Returning to Tim’s apartment, Uncle Martin is worn out by the day’s experiences and lays down to take a nap. But Tim’s so worried that his “uncle’s” brain may still dream up more 3-D animals from Mars that he takes no chances, forcing Martin to drink two pots of coffee while Tim beats on a snare drum to keep him awake!

Also included in this issue of MY FAVORITE MARTIAN are the stories and features:

• “Setside Snapshots”, a black-and-white inside-front-cover photo-page.

• “My Favorite Martian” in “Kid Stuff”, drawn by Mike Arens. – Playing a tennis match against his extraterrestrial “uncle”, reporter Tim O’Hara soon realizes that he’s “no match for a Martian”. To compensate, Martin steps aside to sniff from a vial containing a Martian substance that will dull his extra-sensory perception to even up the odds. Spying this, Tim incorrectly assumes that Uncle Martin’s inhaled “some Martian concoction he uses to improve his game”, and takes a big whiff from the alien vial. When Uncle Martin and Tim return to the tennis court, the benevolent Martian is shocked to see that Tim’s body been transformed into that of a three-year-old! Martin deduces, “That stuff dulls my senses so I can’t tell what you’re thinking! But since most of you Earth people don’t have extrasensory perception, the same thing causes you to retrogress physically!” Since Tim’s still shrinking, they hop into his convertible sports car to rush home; hopefully, Uncle Martin can find some way to reverse the effects of the otherworldly inhalant. But when a motorcycle cop spots tiny Tim driving, he gives chase. Before they pull over, Uncle Martin and Tim swiftly exchange places, barely deceiving the ticket-happy police officer. But by the time they arrive at Tim’s apartment, the reporter’s has retrogressed to the point that he resembles a baby! Before Uncle Martin can carry Tim inside, they’re intercepted by their landlady, Mrs. Brown. Martin tries to explain that the baby is Tim’s niece’s nephew, but Mrs. Brown is so enchanted with the “infant” that she grabs Tim and dresses him up in “proper” baby clothes and forces a bottle of baby formula down his hatch. Meanwhile, Uncle Martin desperately tries to whip up a formula of his own – one to reverse the effects of his Martian inhalant. But just as Martin switches his unperfected formula – which will only keep Tim from becoming any younger -- for hers, Mrs. Brown returns, anxious to enter “Babykins” at the baby show they’re holding at the local shopping center! At first, Martin is concerned, but he figures the distraction will give him more time to concoct an actual antidote. When Mrs. Brown and Tim fail to return as scheduled, Martin head for the shopping center, concerned that his makeshift formula will wear off, allowing Tim to further retrogress. Once there, he has some trouble discerning which baby is Tim, but once he does, he interrupts the contest to feed his infant “nephew” another dose of his retrogression-delaying formula. But when a mob of angry mothers confront him, Uncle Martin accidentally drops his bottle of formula. Grabbing baby Tim – who by now is in danger of turning into a sperm and/ or egg -- Martin flees from the wrath of moms.* Cutting through a playground, the Martin trips and falls into a wading pool. Soaking wet and sneezing, little Tim’s condition begins to stabilize – and then reverse itself! Offering Tim (who’s still wearing the ill-fitting baby clothes) his overcoat, Uncle Martin helps him sneak back home. There, he explains, “I overlooked the most obvious remedy! Since you sniffed the stuff in – sneezing was the best way to get it out!” When Mrs. Brown barges in, she wonders where Tim’s niece’s nephew is, but Uncle Martin reassures her that “he’s in good hands”. Then, turning her attention to the robed-and-bundled Tim, she assumes that he’s recovering from a cold, so she forces him to drink a glass of warm milk – as if he hasn’t already had his fill of milky formulas, enough to last him a lifetime! * (A subtle reference to the Oddball 1983 film DOCTOR DETROIT. – SS!)

• “Strange Cargo”, a black-and-white inside-back-cover puzzle page with the premise: “A man from Mars visited our planet and returned to his home with five different creatures as samples of life on Earth. He didn’t know their names, but this is how he described them. Can you help our Martian friend by correctly naming these five creatures from Earth?”

• A back-cover photo pin-up of MY FAVORITE MARTIAN’s stars, Ray Walston and Bill Bixby.

ODDBALL Factoid – The first issue of Gold Key’s MY FAVORITE MARTIAN was drawn by the great Russ Manning, who was much better known for his work on Gold Key’s MAGNUS -- ROBOT FIGHTER comic book, the TARZAN OF THE APES comic book and syndicated comic strip, and the STAR WARS strip!

For more from Scott Shaw!, visit his Web site at http://www.shawcartoons.com/.

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