Travelin' Toughy, Part 3

 

Ding Dong #3 (1946) finally gives Travelin' Toughy a prominent cover appearance. And that's good, because the tough little guy deserves it.

This issue's story has Toughy floating on his rug over a Middle Eastern desert. Where two issue earlier, he had been declaring that he was mean and tough and hated everyone, now he's enjoying the quiet desert ambience. 

That quiet is interrupted when a signal rocket whooshes by and someoe takes off on a flying carpet of his own. Toughy realizes something is up and follows the guy.

He soon overhears a plan to rob a kid named Karim is about to spend a lot of gold to buy his mom a new home. The bandits--forty of them equipped with flying carpets--are in on this plan. Well, as Toughy says "Not if I kin help it!"

He locates and warns Karim, but it may be too late. One of the bandits gets the drop on Karim. But Toughy then gets the drop on the bandit. Literally. Toughy drops a brick on him.

The unknown writer and artist Ted Miller now give us an absolutely delightful chase scene, as Toughy, with Karim as a passenger, dodge a squadron of bandit-driven carpets before Toughy crash-lands in a pool at the king's palace. 

The kids hide out in the palace. In another delightful plot twist, they end up hiding in the harem. When the bandit leader comes looking for them, Toughy tickles the king's favorite lady on her hip when she's not looking. She thinks the bandit did and and the king quickly has the guy hauled off to prison.

The Travelin' Toughy stories continue to be pure fun. And Toughy is growing as a character, remarking that it is getting easier to do his daily good deed to keep his flying carpet working. Initially, he might have done good deed out of necessity to keep his flying carpet working. Now, he's doing them because he wants to. It's an effective and legitimately touching bit of character development.

You can read this story online HERE.

Next week, we'll jump back over to the DC Universe and visit with the Atom.