I wrote in Pappy's #798 my opinion of why Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Superman's creators, created Funnyman in the wake of being sacked by DC Comics, losing their most famous creation.
Funnyman wasn't funny — at least not as funny as the premise of the character made him out to be, a baggy-pants, old school shtick comedian with a secret identity:
Yuk, yuk.
Funnyman is an interesting failure, and also interesting as part of the still ongoing history of the world's most iconic superhero, and the tragic story of its creators.
From Funnyman #2 (1948):
3 comments:
That couldn't have had a wide circulation...
Ger posted some of the Funnyman newspaper strips at his blog not long ago. Apparently, Shuster drew the earliest strips, then John Sikela took over, then a third artist.
Larry Davis appears to have been modeled on Red Skelton - who was much funnier.
Funnyman could best be summed up as "the Joker minus the evil."
rnigma, yes, now that you mention it, I can see Larry Davis channeling Skelton: "These two seagulls, Gertrude and Heathcliff . . ."
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