The Adventures of Bob Hope

(DC, 1950-1968)
™ and ©1967 Bob Hope

Entertainer Bob Hope was a star of stage, screen, and television when the world was young and dinosaurs roamed the earth, so it’s no surprise that he also enjoyed a successful comic book series throughout the 1950s and ‘60s. With super-hero comic sales in the dumps, DC turned to humor, among other genres, to win readers in the 1950s, and licensed the rights to produce comics about famous film stars such as Hope, Jerry Lewis, Alan Ladd, and others.

Bob Hope, as portrayed in the comics, relies on the witty, wise-cracking, and slightly off-kilter persona Hope cultivated in his stage and screen act, contrasted with extravagant situations that only the comic book medium could provide. The Adventures of Bob Hope was clearly aimed at a younger audience, but provided work for some of DC’s better artists of the time, including Gil Kane and Neal Adams.

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