Sunday Supersnipe (sans Supersnipe)

For our Sunday Morning Funnies this week, let's revisit Supersnipe. The comic, not the hero, this time. We spoke previously of some of the back-up features and promised to come back to them later. I checked the calendar - it's later.

All three of our strips today come from issues for which we've already seen the covers, so they're presented here in smaller size, just for reference:

So, first up, let's visit with Dotty.
As we've seen on previous covers, "Dotty Loves Trouble". In later issues, they added a dog named Trouble, perhaps to soften the character a bit. Here in her first appearance, there's no dog named Trouble - she's just fond of the concept. While Koppy McFad is "the boy with the most comic books in America," Dotty "gets into more trouble than any other little girl in America." An interesting counterbalance they attempted here, before the cultural assumption became "comics are for boys" in this country. Like Supersnipe, Dotty was also drawn by George Marcoux.

Dotty for the win. As speculated above, they may have added the dog so she didn't come across as a completely wicked child.
And speaking of "wicked children" - it's well past time to take that promised look at Huck Finn & Tom Sawyer and their Robot Duck!, don't you think? We'll skip to their second episode, because that's when they find it. The first episode had them find a haunted house and have a first encounter, setting things up for the strip to really get going...

But we won't be following along on their adventures. Unlike the Wing Woo Woo strip we peeked at previously, which seemed to be trying to be a positive character portrayal, in a fumbling way, Dwig has no such intentions. In the following episode we get one page...

...and then they go to the jungle. Even the sea monsters...

So, anyway - now that we've had our cultural sensibilities jarred, how about screwing with how perceptions of people over time. Today, one can't hear the name Lou Gehrig without the word 'Disease' following right behind. Once upon a time...

Here, his death was merely a too soon end to a stellar career. Now, his death defines him. A little reminder of how perception of people (and things, and ideas) shift over time.

Hmm.
That wasn't very Sunday Morning Funnies-y, was it?

pages from Supersnipe v.2, #s 2, 3, 7, & 9 (1944)

Supersnipe's Got Ya Covered

Very simple post today - let's look at some Supersnipe covers.
Okay - let's look at a bunch of them - say, a dozen and a half. In addition to what we've already seen, that'll encompass most of the George Marcoux covers. I'm limiting this look to only those he did, though there were almost as many done without him.
I think that rather than any elaborate sorting scheme, we'll just go chronologically.

Note that blurb for the Pig Latin special course. That was a one page series that went on for over a year, pretty much just listing the Pig Latin version of various words for kids to memorize by rote instead of just getting them to use the rules and sort it for themselves.
I think this may have been the single oddest feature of the title, in its way.

NEW! Dotty Loves Trouble!
Yep - they added a 'girl's comic' to round out the book.

And the final, posthumously published, Marcoux cover:

I lied, kinda.
While those covers are indeed chronologically presented, my favorite three were withheld for the end here. Perhaps not surprisingly, they are the most phantasmagorical of his covers.

While other strips get blurbs on the cover, Supersnipe's frequent partners Ulysses Q. Wacky gets only one mention above, and kid detective Herlock Domes, none at all. (And, yes - that image that just popped up in your head is probably fairly close - deerstalker cap and all)

Of course, there was this one...

Not only does that mention Wacky on the cover, but it's actually a Wacky story that's the basis for the cover. Ulysses and Supersnipe team up to tunnel to the center of the Earth. Guess what they find...

Supersnipe covers by George Marcoux (1943-46)

The Adventure Continues...

Let us revisit yesterday's Supersnipe excerpts and see the story from which they came. We're still just on the second issue of Supersnipe, #7. (Ah, comics)

We open with Supersnipe on vigilant patrol...

But, soon enough, the two upon whom Supersnipe had been eavesdropping stir, and...

A brief, and bumbling, chase through the woods later, Supersnipe's luck & pluck leave him the victor...

Always eager to be recognized for the hero that he is, Koppy takes advantage of the situation, carefully keeping control...

Well, that worked out about as well as expected. But, on the up side, Supersnipe has found the kidnap victim!

While our young hero struggles with his new dilemma, the Fed and the Reporter have recruited the local Sheriff for back-up. "Uncle Toiks" and "Uncle Creeps" spot them coming and take off to avoid capture just before they arrive...

After their embarrassing escapades in the woods, our "Adults" decide a little payback fun is due, and quickly come up with a scheme...

This leads to a nice example of George Marcoux's use of the page in his layouts 75 years ago...

Rather surprisingly, despite "Chekov's Maxim", nobody steps on that rake when...

This would be the little trouble with bees mentioned yesterday, leading to Koppy's time in jail and Man Of 1955 fantasy sequence shown in yesterday's post. After his release from jail and a night's sleep, Koppy is annoyed and frustrated at the news coverage of his adventure...

But a new opportunity arises as he hears a series of terrible noises from outside, and Supersnipe is quickly back in action...

In following the lady in distress to rescue, Supersnipe leads to yesterday's other excerpt - with Doc Savage dropping down from above, and Koppy grabbing a shotgun wielded as a club, preventing Doc from being struck from behind while Supersnipe himself is flung into the driver's seat...

Supersnipe - The Boy With The Sorest Butt In America!

This was far from the last time other Street & Smith heroes would appear, of course...

most pages from Supersnipe v1 #7 (1942), tag image from v1 #10 (1943)