Number 1960: The impolite Spencer Spook

It is day three of our ACG Week.

Spencer Spook appeared in ACG’s Giggle Comics. The character was created by writer Hubie Karp and artist Ken Champin for Giggle #21, and carried through to the end of the Giggle run in 1955, when the title of the comic book was changed to Spencer Spook for the last two issues. Unlike another ghostly character, Casper, Spencer was part of a group hired to haunt houses.

My favorite Spencer stories were drawn by Jack Bradbury, like the one I’m showing today. Bradbury was an animator, as were most of the funny animal artists who drew for ACG’s humor comics. He had begun his career in the mid-1930s working for Disney, and ended his career at Western Publishing drawing stories featuring the Disney characters. According to a wonderful website created by his son, Jack Bradbury did over 6600 pages for Disney. Due to copyright none of those pages can be shown. I don’t want to rile Disney lawyers.

In this hilarious tale Spencer is pitted against an angry housewife. In the story we find out Spencer is “the spook of Spencer Plotz.” I don’t think that information is included in Don Markstein’s Toonopedia entry on Spencer..

Bradbury, born in 1914, died in 2004. The story is from Giggle Comics #66 (1949).

Number 681


Ectoplasmic Giggles


Two goofy ghost stories from Giggle Comics.

Moonlighting animators wrote and drew the humor comics for what became the American Comics Group. These early issues were produced for the publisher by the Sangor Shop. Hubie Karp wrote the Spencer Spook story, but the writer isn't credited for Spooky. Ken Champin, who did Spencer, was a longtime animator and comic book artist. The Grand Comics Database is spotty on information for this title, but I think Spooky was succeeded by Spencer, who appear to be similar characters. Over the years the feature was handled by several artists. In my opinion the greatest artist of them all was Jack Bradbury. Go here for several of Bradbury's hilarious Spencer Spook stories, lovingly preserved and scanned by Jack's son.

"Spooky" is from Giggle Comics #8, 1944, and "Spencer Spook" is from #22, 1945.

Number 48


Jack Bradbury's Spencer Spook


After the unintentionally silly story in Pappy's #47, here is a story that is intentionally silly.

This is a Spencer Spook story, originally published in Giggle Comics #54, June, 1948. Jack Bradbury drew it.

Bradbury (1914-2004), was originally an animator and turned into a fine comic book artist. He worked on funny animal comic books for Richard E. Hughes, the same writer/editor who turned out Adventures Into the Unknown, Forbidden Worlds, and many other comics over the years. Later on Bradbury went to work for Western Publishing and did many Mickey Mouse and Disney stories for Dell Comics.

Personally, I thought his Disney stuff seemed stiff compared to the freedom his line showed in the old Giggle and Ha-Ha Comics.

This story contains a stereotyped African-American woman, a maid, who may be offensive to some readers. I'm presenting this story as it originally appeared 58 years ago, when this sort of racist caricature wasn't that uncommon.

Several artists over the run of the Spencer Spook strip worked on the character, but I liked Bradbury's version the best. The character was revived in the 1980s, with new stories illustrated by Pat Boyette. I appreciated Boyette's skill, but in my mind no one could top Jack Bradbury.