After two adventures in the desert, Ding Dong #5 (1947) finds Toughy flying his carpet over the Swiss Alps.
And, yes, he finds someone in trouble. This time, the cry for help comes from a pretty Swiss girl named Heidi. Toughy is able to find out that her boyfriend Leif is in immediate danger, so he doesn't stop to get the full story before bringing Heidi aboard his carpet and zipping to the rescue. They find Leif being worked over by some thugs. But never bring just your fists to a fight with a tough kid on a flying carpet. You won't stand a chance.
Leif's leg has been injured. And Toughy learns that, in an ill-adviced attempt to make Leif jealous, Heidi had agreed to marry whomever wins the upcoming ski jump. So Leif's rival Alf has sent the thugs to make rig the contest.
But it's really Leif that Heidi loves. So Toughy tries to sabotage Alf's jump, but this only launches Alf on an even longer jump than he would have otherwise made.
Toughy then tells Leif to go for altitude. Leif jumps into a low-lying cloud, where he's then able to hitch a ride on the flying carpet before coming back down. He wins Heidi's hand in marriage. Happily ever after.
Toughy flies off, planning on visiting France. I wonder how the heck that little kid navigates?
As far as I know, there were no further issues of Ding Dong published and Travelin' Toughy disappears into Comic Book Limbo. Since his character development was complete--going from "I hate everyone" in the first issue to "I like helping people" by the end of the fourth issue--perhaps his saga was indeed complete. But, on the other hand, the stories are clever, full of good slapstick humor and enhanced by Ted Miller's wonderful artwork. Travelin' Toughy deserves to be remembered and it would have been nice if he'd stuck around longer.
Click HERE to read this issue online.
Next week, I think we'll visit the Planet of the Apes.
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