Number 2341: Boy Beetle, Herbie

This is a story about Herbie Popnecker, and how he found pop music stardom. He stuck a mop on his head, turned his name around to Eibreh Rekcenpop, then warbled a couple of songs to drive the girls wild! As pop stars of that era will tell you, it was not easy to compete with the Beatles. It was more of a long and winding road to stardom for most. But Herbie, errrr, I mean Eibreh, has some sort of irresistible charm about him. Herbie is so charming that he charmed a whole bunch of people into buying his comic book in the sixties, and even now it is seen as something still charming, even unique in comic book history.

In “Herbie, Boy ‘Beetle’” the Beatles really aren’t prominent; they appear in a few panels and then vanish, leaving the rest of the story to Eibreh and jealousy from established artists Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra. Just when you think the story couldn’t get any screwier, Dean and Frank assault Herbie by cracking objects over his head. That physical stuff never works on Herbie, who is impervious to harm..

Written for Herbie #5 (1964) by ACG editor Richard E. Hughes under the name Shane O’Shay, and drawn by the master of deadpan humor, Ogden Whitney. Herbie is, as always, a very unusual hero. And we love him, yeah yeah yeah.

Number 2267: Herbie goes through Hell Hades for good ol’ Peepwhistle Prep

In a comment for a 2012 posting, “Herbie and the Spirits*,” reader Kirk says, “I love the deadpan drawing style. It makes Herbie seem even weirder, and funnier.” A thought that might take me 100 words to express is boiled down to 14 words. Thanks, Kirk. You not only kept it succinct, but perfectly captured my attitude toward Herbie. Ogden Whitney, represented in this blog, was capable of drawing many things. Over his long career he had drawn superheroes, crime, horror, romance and even more genres I can’t think of right now. It seems only right that all of his skill as an artist came to a culmination in his team-up with ACG editor Richard E. Hughes, writing as Shane O’Shea, with his “deadpan” drawing style.

“Good Old Peepwhistle” has Herbie, at his father Pincus Popnecker’s demand, going on to higher education, Peepwhistle Preparatory School. He is invited to join a fraternity, Tappa Kegga Koke (ho-ho), until other frat members meet him. What else can I say except that Herbie is misjudged by people at first, but he’s more than capable of the most impossible tasks.

From Herbie #7 (1965):

*The “Spirits” story. Just click on the thumbnail.

Number 2100: Herbie takes care o’ business!

Pincus Popnecker, Herbie’s not-so-smart dad, goes into the balloon business, which has the air taken out of it. Dad Popnecker’s balloons won’t fly. Herbie, in his own inimitable and bizarre way, helps his father by taking a job. The job takes him to planet Percival.

All part of the surreal goings-on of our favorite morbidly obese comic book character, chronicled in Herbie #6 (1964). “Space-Age Herbie” is written by ACG editor Richard E. Hughes, using his pseudonym Shane O'Shea, and drawn by Ogden Whitney.

I showed the first story from this issue, featuring Ticklepuss, the cavegirl with a crush on Herbie,  in 2013. See the link below.

Here is the other crazy story from Herbie #6. Just click on the thumbnail.

Number 2069: Herbie and Dracula’s Pizza

We are leaving June, and Herbie Popnecker, as the Fat Fury, is taking us out.

Herbie meets Dracula, who has a taste, not for blood, but for pizza. That seems typical of a Herbie story, doesn’t it? Anyone familiar with the character knows the comic book has a surreal atmosphere, and the charm of Herbie is that nothing is surreal to him. He just solves problems put before him. Nothing seems out-of-bounds for Herbie, even a pizza-loving vampire.

I make note that the Comics Code (created in 1954), prohibited characters like vampires as well as other monsters. From the Code itself: “(5) Scenes dealing with, or instruments associated with walking dead, torture, vampires and vampirism, ghouls, cannibalism, and werewolfism are prohibited.” The Code was relaxed a bit for so-called classic monsters like Dracula, Wolfman, mummies, even the Frankenstein monster. That may have been the effect of the age of the late night horror hosts and old monster movies on television. And as television went, so did the Comics Code, adapting itself along with other popular media of the era. But Herbie...I doubt Herbie could have existed anywhere but in comic books, especially in his superhero identity as Fat Fury.

From Herbie #20 (1966). Written by editor Richard E. Hughes using the pseudonym Shane O'Shea, and drawn by Ogden Whitney.