Picture Picnic 🅿🅿: Count Screwloose : Rarely Seen Comics Pages by Milt Gross

Milt Gross comic book scan detail of a funny man smoking seven cigars at once

Here's a Count Screwloose comic book story that's been hidden away from most readers for the last 60 years. I found this loopy gem buried on pages 35-41 of a 1947 issue of ACG Comics' The Kilroys #5 (Many thanks to the original scanner, and to Aussie500 for posting many full issues of The Kilroys on http://goldenagecomics.co.uk ).

"Count Screwloose of Tooloose" was originally a newspaper Sunday page, starting its run in 1929. Count Screwloose was an inmate of an insane asylum, and in every he would escape and have frantically energetic encounters and adventures with the "outside world." Many years later, Milt Gross brought Screwloose back when he created brand new comic book stories for the American Comics Group (ACG).

Thumbnail images of all the pages from Count Screwloose story from ACG comics Kilroys

At the end of each story, the Count would realize that life on the outside could be crazier than in the nuthouse, so he would break back in to the sanitarium where things more sane.

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Based on this totally cool house ad from the inside cover of Kilroys #3, these stories were done around the same time (1947) as the famous two-issue run of Milt Gross Funnies.

Inside Front cover interior house ad for Milt Gross Funnies drawn by Dan Gordon

It looks to me like this ad was ghosted by Dan Gordon...look at the kid and the turtle...

cartoon drawing of excited boy by Dan Gordon

...looks more like "dang" than Gross!

For more info on Milt Gross and his comics,
see this article from Don Markstein's Toonopedia

Milt Gross Count Screwloose and friend walking toward a Pool Hall

...and for LOTS more quality scans of Milt Gross newspaper strips and more, be sure to check out THIS LINK to the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive. There are many many different entries with scans covering a huge chunk of his illustrious career!