Number 2567: Sparky Watts, glamour boy

Sparky Watts, the creation of cartoonist Gordon “Boody” Rogers, got his super powers from Doc Static and Doc's cosmic ray machine. Sparky was the strongest man on Earth, and could fly, but for some reason he still wore glasses. Occasionally Sparky had to get his powers recharged by Doc Static’s cosmic rays.  In this story Doc Static makes a mistake and Sparky becomes beloved by all, because Doc pushed the wrong button, the glamour button.

The story was published in a one-shot, Columbia Comics #1, in 1943. Boody Rogers had joined the Army the year before, but he had done a Sparky Watts newspaper comic strip before leaving civilian life, and this story appears to be an edited version of one of the continuities from the newspaper appearances. The story seems a bit crude compared to Rogers’ postwar work in Big Shot Comics and occasional full-length Sparky Watts comic books.

In the story Sparky defines “mugging” as a violent crime and robbery. He then flies off to catch the muggers. I remember as a kid being puzzled by the word “mugging.” In the context I knew it did not mean a drinking cup. When I asked my mother she said “mugging” was a slang word that meant kissing. Good thing I didn’t go to a big city and based on her definition, look to be mugged.

 

Number 1736: Boody Rogers’s Tree-Top Timmons

This 12-page backup to a 52-page (!) Sparky Watts story by Boody Rogers is from Sparky Watts #2. Both stories are compilations from Boody’s time as a newspaper comic strip cartoonist.

It is a Li’l Abner-styled strip about hillbillies. The men are lazy, and the women are smarter than the men. Or are they? They end up doing all the chores. Well, I guess someone has to, and if that man won’t get his lazy ass out of bed then I guess it is up to the womenfolk. In this case the lazy men are Tree-Top, Grampappy, Nubbin and Pappy (no relation). Tree-Top, despite being the title character, is basically a supporting player in his own comic strip.

Tree-Top is so tall his head is never shown. That is a funny sight gag, and forty years later, in 1982, it also showed up in the six-episode TV series, Police Squad. In this screen capture of a scene, Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielson) and his partner tell tall guy, Al, he has something on the side of his face. The series, made by Zucker-Abraham-Zucker, led to the Naked Gun movies. I don’t think they got the joke from Boody, I think it is just one of those things that people think of, independent of another’s ideas. Or, maybe they did get it from Boody. Surely, you don’t expect me to know. (“No, I don’t...and don’t call me Shirley.” Ba-da-bam! sound of snare drum rimshot.)

Whoever pasted up the strips made a mistake on page 8. Panels 3 and 4 are reversed.

Number 1424: Boody Rogers’ Bigfoot sighting

A pair of tales from Sparky Watts #9 (1949) feature the oddball humor artist/writer Boody Rogers was known for. The scene of Sparky sharing a bed with the man he’s protecting, Buttermilk Sky, probably didn’t seem as odd in 1949 as it does now.*

The second story, a short and mostly pantomime strip features Sparky’s bigfoot pal, Slap Happy. I recently found this online, from a weird and vintage photography site

The unfortunate woman, Fanny Mills, photographed in the 1880s, was a victim of a hideously disfiguring disease, elephantiasis. I’m interested in her very large shoes. Since I’m always looking for comic artists’ inspirations, I wonder if Rogers had seen this picture, or something similar, and patterned Slap Happy after it? Boody’s explanation for Slap Happy’s feet was that he got the cosmic ray treatment from Doc Static, and it made his feet grow big. Or, it could be that Boody Rogers was just taking the slang term for old-time “bigfoot cartoonist” to an extreme.

*Sparky once shared a bed with Hitler in a two-part story! Click on the thumbnails to see.

Number 1329: Sparky Watts, the cosmic ray kid

In this Sparky Watts story, Sparky shrinks his way into Hubba-Hubba Land. Hubba-hubba is a term you just don’t hear any more. For those who don’t know that archaic expression, it was a way for a guy to let a babe know she was hot; a wolf-whistle and a loud “Hubba-hubba!” when she walked by.* In the forties you could even wear the expression on your belt and wallet.

Sparky Watts was given his super powers as “the world’s strongest funny man,” by cosmic rays. You remember that’s the source of the Fantastic Four’s powers, also. The FF got their powers from going into space; Sparky got his cosmic rays administered by his friend and housemate, Doc Static. But Sparky must have his cosmic rays renewed or he begins to shrink into a microscopic world. Sparky’s creator, Boody Rogers, used the idea of Sparky becoming super-small and entering a world unseen by normal-sized humans several times. It’s the plot of this funny 26-page story from Sparky Watts #6 (1947). I showed this a few years ago, but these are new scans.

*Beware, boys. Such behavior is also known as sexual harassment.