Purim was the other day. You often see it referred to as the Jewish Halloween or
the Jewish Mardi Gras. A festival like Chanukah, rather than a holy day such as Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, Purim is indeed a time for people to dress up and be merry.
Cover to Magilla Gorilla #1 © 1964 Hanna-Barbera Productions.
Pencils, Inks: Pete Alvarado. Colors: Unknown.
The original idea behind the costumes was to emulate characters from the Hebrew
Book of Esther, since it’s from those events that the festival arose, but as with Halloween — where outfits are no longer limited to imitations of spirits and demons — in most communities a wider net is cast. Our synagogue held an annual Purim Carnival for the kids, and one year I made a pretty decent Mork (as in “… from Ork”).
What does this have to do with comic books?
I can’t think of Purim without thinking of Magilla Gorilla. While it may not have been a standout among Hanna-Barbera fare, you probably remember it if you grew up in the ’60s or ’70s like I did watching Saturday-morning and syndicated after-school cartoons: The big ape — Magilla Gorilla, gorilla for sale — would languish in the pet-store window, get adopted, cause or at least participate in zany hijinks, and end up back at the shop.
Anyway, The Book of Esther is also known as The Megillah. “Megillah” translates simply to “scroll”. You might have heard the phrase “the whole megillah” used to mean “the whole dad-gum story”. So I can’t think of Purim without thinking of Magilla Gorilla, and I can’t think of Magilla Gorilla without thinking of, you guessed it, a favorite old comic book.
The item in question is not the one pictured atop this post. More to come...
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