SPECIAL NOTE: Last week, I said I would talk about a story in which a squirrel attempts to skip school. It's a story I found online in a comic book that has fallen into the public domain. But, after reading it, I failed to make a note of the comic book's title. Now I can't find the darn story! Too many funny animal comics were being published at the time and that naughty squirrel is thus able to hide from me. So I'm moving on to a time-traveling cat.
America's Funniest Comics #1 (Sept. 1944) was the first in that title's two issue run. Both issues include a story about Tommy the Time Traveler, a young cat who has access to a time machine. Well, it's not every day you stumble across a time traveling cat. So we'll cover his premiere adventure this week and his final adventure next week. The artist who chronicled Tommy's adventures is Thurston Harper. The writer is unknown.
Tommy has an interest in history. At the museum one day, he sees a suit of armor that had belonged to a knight named Watts Cookin. This night is said to have one day disappeared from King Arthur's court and was never seen again. Anxious to find out what happened to the knight, Tommy asks to borrow Dr. Goatee's time machine.
What's interesting is that Dr. Goatee implies that Tommy has borrowed the time machine in the past and already had some adventures. This comic was put out by one of the many small publishers who came and went during the 1940s. It's possible that Tommy had showed up in another, largely forgotten book before this. But if so, I can find no record of it.
Of course, if this is Tommy's first recorded adventure, then the "he's done this before" vibe allows the writer to get the backstory out of the way in just one panel, leaving plenty of room for the actual adventure. If I had to guess, I'd go with this being Tommy's first appearance.
Anyways, Tommy is soon dressed in Watts Cookin's armor and winging his way into the past on the uniquely designed time machine. He reaches Camelot in 592 AD and greets the knights of the Round Table (who were busy playing jacks) with the phrase "What's cookin'?"
Tommy's odd speech patterns confince the knights he's a witch and they drag him outside to burn him. We learn here that the time machine is sentient, has it clobbers the knights and saves Tommy.
Tommy manages to convince the knights that he's friendly. He rides out with them on a quest to defeat a giant and the giant's pet dragon.
When they see the dragon, Tommy assumes it's a fake, because dragons exist only in fairy tales. Well, it turns out they also exist in stories starring anthropomorphic animals. The dragon is real, but Tommy's sword blows tickle it enough to make it run off.
Tommy gets rid of the giant by hanging a large mirror in front of its cave, frightening the big guy into running off. I have no idea where Tommy got the mirror.
The two monsters soon return, though, convincing Tommy its time to jump into his time machine and fly home. It's only when he gets back that he realizes that the knights of the Round Table thought Tommy's name was "Watts Cookin" based on how he initially greeted them. The knight was Tommy all along.
The story is fast-paced and fun, effectively blending silly humor with adventure. Tommy, in his eagerness to time travel and learn more about history, is an appealing protagonist. We'll join him next week for his second (and sadly last) adventure.
Click HERE to read the story online.
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