Mayor Monk

 

cover art by Victor Pazmino

It was within pages of America's Funniest Comics that we encountered Tommy the Time Traveling Cat, whose adventures we looked at a couple of years ago HERE and HERE. The first issue (September 1944) also gave us the one and only appearance of Mayor Monk.

The writer is unknown and the lively, expressive art is by Sam Singer. Our protagonist is Merivale Monk, a former street cleaner who has moved to a new city and is now running for mayor.

His campaign advisor tells him he needs to do two things: run on his record and kiss all the babies in town. This plan falls apart when it's publically revealed that his "record" is confined to sweeping up trash...

...followed by several embarassing incidents while kissing babies:

Well, there's still a chance if Merivale's big speech over the radio goes well. But an agent working for the opposition party switches the speech and Merivale publically promises to steal the city treasury before he realizes what he's reading. 

One more chance--his campaign manager arranges to stage a bank robbery, so Merivale can become a hero by stopping the robbers. This doesn't go exactly as planned--Merivale encounters real robbers without realizing who they are:

But he's punched into the getaway car, hits the gas by accident and chases the robbers into the hands of the police. He's now a hero and now sure to be elected, though the knowledge he fought real robbers causes him to faint.

As I said, Singer's art is fun to look at and the gags are effective and well-timed. Sadly, this is the only story we have starring Mayor Monk. It would have been nifty to see a few stories about him battling the corruption caused by the opposition party (who, by golly,  OOZE dishonesty in the one panel in which we see them):

Oh, well. So many quirky characters have faded into Comic Book Limbo and there is little that can be done about it now. At least we can enjoy Mayor Monk's single apperance HERE.

Next week, we'll visit with yet another character (this time a human) who had but one appearance before joining Tommy the Time Travelling Cat and Mayor Monk in Comic Book Limbo.