Secrets Of Spudo

I survived another foraging run down the hill and made it back up through the snow. Finally, we can have a post.

We spoke of Spudo in two previous posts, and in both we mentioned that his first story was not his first story. And then my mind wandered off and left things hanging.

So, let's go back to before Spudo's first adventure in The Barker #1 to National Comics #43, in which we find Spudo is a supporting character in The Barker's tale before he got his own series. This first story is written by Joe Millard and drawn by one of the classic Greats, Jack Cole -

Now if i can just figure out what i meant when i said that Spudo's final story wasn't his final story...

page art by Jack Cole for National Comics #43 (1944)

Hot Zig! My Greatest Discovery!

I'm feeling in the mood for some simple silliness today. Might be good for all of us.

Meet Dan Tootin, The Madcap Dentist -

Dan debuted in Hit Comics #9 (1941), from Jack Cole working under the name Ralph Johns. He had about 3 dozen one-page adventures over the next few years.

Here's about half of them...

"Now, Why can't I invent something like that?" became his final line. Seems like a good way to wrap up his series.

page art from Hit Comics #s 14, 17, 18, 20, 22, 27, 29-33, 37, 38, 40, 42, 43, & 46 (1941-1947)

Drawing Inkie

I've mentioned in the past my fondness for seeing artists putting themselves into the comics. There's one old character who made that gimmick a staple of the series - Inkie.

Let's take a look at a couple of his stories - one from Milt Stein and one from Jack Cole. Both names should be familiar to many readers. Jack Cole, of course, created Plastic Man - among his many works over the years. Milt Stein is perhaps more familiar to visitors of The 1940s Funny Animalphabet for his work on titles like Supermouse, though general audiences may know him better from his animation work - most prominently his work with Terrytoons.

Here they're working with someone else's creation (we'll get to that) and, as you'll see, the artist is by design a part of the strip. Here's Jack Cole's tale from #34 of Crack Comics -

Well - that could have been gruesome. Good thing Judge Doom hadn't introduced Dip yet, eh? But getting into trouble was one of Inkie's talents as we can see in Milt Stein's story from the following issue -

Inkie was indeed an odd little character. Even more-so in the beginning. The original conceit was that he wrote and drew his own tales. We'll get to that, and to his creator, next time.

page art by Jack Cole and Milt Stein for Crack Comics #s 34 & 35 (1944)