Number 881
Jeep and Peep
Day three of "Superzeroes Week":
Jeep and...Peep? Could that really be the name of the team starring in Jeep Comics? Yep, and no other names are given, no secret identities. Jeep and his young friend Peep appear to be Jeep and Peep all the time to everybody.
Jeep got an Army jeep vehicle instead of mustering-out pay. He put a rocket on it. In Jeep Comics #1 it's shown that only two drops of lighter fluid will propel the rocket. The jeep isn't aerodynamic, but the first story, although not a true origin story, is very tongue in cheek, so it doesn't seem that important. Not so this second episode, with different artwork by Jack Alderman, he of the stiff figures, heavy ink line and dark shadows. (We've shown Alderman stories before, a couple of them in Pappy's #282 and Pappy's #668.)Jeep and Peep dress as civilians with only the addition of Jeep's cape. And of course his flying Army jeep. In this particular story Peep is getting fat. Holy childhood obesity problem! He passes by a hamburger stand, an antique version of McDonald's, but resolves he's going to lose some weight, "Even if I have to die doing it!" In the story the villain does what he does because no one would loan him money to market his weight loss invention. Holy small business bank loan financial crisis! It's a screwball story with a couple of screwball heroes.
From Jeep Comics #2, 1945:
I'm going to blame Chuck for putting you up to this. Now I'm just going to hug myslef and rock until I feel better.
ReplyDeleteDaniel, no need to blame Chuck. It's the imp of the perverse in me. I wake up in the morning asking myself, "What will rile Daniel today?"
ReplyDeleteI got a note via e-mail from a reader who told me:
ReplyDeleteJeep and Peep bring back a memory for me...no, not a comic book memory (altho' I was reading comics in 1945), but a collateral recollection. In the late 1940s/early50s, Crosley, manufacturer of appliances, radios & TVs, produced what might be considered America's first sub-compact line of cars. Among the models was a scaled down Jeep which was tagged the Crosley Peep. My cousin owned one.
Thanks for bring back my youth.
John Hindsill
Los Angeles
My fiancée claims to start her mornings that same way.
ReplyDeleteI don't stand a chance.
Hypothetical 1st gangster: "We got Tommy guns, knuckle dusters, lead coshes, grenades, flame-throwers, rocket launchers, atom bombs - wha've Poop'n'Peep got?"
ReplyDeleteHypothetical 2nd gangster: "A f-LAM-ing red cloak an' a tendency to burst semi-naked into his young ward's bedroom in the middle of the night!"
Hypothetical 1st gangster: "You're right - run for it!"
p.s.
I thought obsessing about weight loss in males was only a late 20th Century thing, but once again you've taught me better, Pappy!
I think Jeep's superpower was the ability to out-kick a Rockette.
ReplyDelete