Gee Whiz, Delivery Boys Face Terrible Dangers, Don't They?

 

cover art by Walt Kelly

As I pointed out a few years ago, when Walt Kelly was writing and drawing Our Gang for Dell Comics, he had an advantage in that the movie shorts had ceased production. Kelly was thus free to use any characters and invent any plot he wanted.

I love his work on this book, as it highlights both his skill at presenting comedy and his ability to tell an adventure story. Our Gang #21 (Jan-Feb. 1946), for instance, is one of many examples in which he brings these genres together into a purely entertaining mixture. 

It all begins innocuously enough when Red is roped into a job as a delivery boy by Froggy, who wants to add to the gang's meager treasury. Red, in turn, ropes Froggy into helping them and they are soon carrying a heavy package to the home of Dr. Philpot.

Well, the Gang does tend to run into criminals a lot, so perhaps its no surprise when they are taken prisoner by an insane scientist who has invented (or at least he thinks he's invented) an atomizer--a device that is essentially a matter teleporter. The real Dr. Philpot (who has been hiding in a barrel) frees the kids. A combination of whacking the insane guy over the head with a piece of equipment, smashing his eye glasses and giving him a hot foot puts him out of commission and saves the day.

But stopping the schemes of a mad scientist doesn't end Red's work day. The store owner is about to fire him for taking so long with Dr. Philpot's order, but he likes Red's excuse so much that he keeps him on. A story about teleportation and mad scientists is apparently a step up from the stock excuses usually used for late deliveries.

So they are given a package to take to an elderly spinster. They spot Bucky being pulled along in a wagon by his pet goat Julip. Bucky soon finds himself drafted as a delivery driver. Soon after, a successful struggle to keep Julip from smashing a pet store window (Julip wants to attack his own reflection) earns them the appreciation of the pet store owner.

In a nice touch, that pet store owner shows he was more concerned with Julip getting hurt than with the window. The kids like that and offer to deliver a package for him for free.

So now they have two packages. And, in a plot twist that is predicatable but still funny, they take the wrong package into the spinster's home and end up accidentally releasing a bunch of mice.

The spinster and her friend panic and call the fire department. The kids manage to gather up the mice, but forget that, while chasing the mice, they had put Julip out of the way in a cabinet.

So the fire department finds no mice, but does rescue a goat from the cabinet, earning Julip a ride on a fire truck.

And, gee whiz, the gang's home town has a crouchy fire department, don't they?

This issue uses its premise to essentially combine two stories into one. The Mad Scientist story and the Mice Run Wild story are completely seperate tales, linked only by the Delivery Boy Plot Device. And that's fine. Each mini-story has fun art and strong comedic moments, with the Mad Scientist half building a real sense of adventure and danger into the tale as well. Kelly was a master storyteller and a wonderful artist. He's best remembered for Pogo, of course, but his other work at Dell Comics (including Our Gang and Fairy Tale Parade) is also worth celebrating. 

Next week, Asgard and Olympus go to war!

Cover Cavalcade

Cute and Fun cover by Walt Kelly from 1947.

Riverboats, Goats and Criminals

By 1946, the Our Gang shorts were no longer being produced by MGM, but Dell Comics was still publishing an Our Gang comic book. That meant writer/artist Walt Kelly had more freedom in the stories he told--able to freely introduce his own characters, use whichever members of the gang he wanted in any particular story, and tell action-adventure tales in addition to giving us slapstick comedy.

A prime example of this is a saga that ran from Our Gang #26 (September 1946) through #29 (December 1946). In earlier issues, the gang had met vaudeville performer Professor Gravy and helped capture a crook named Barrel. Now, Professor Gravy has bought a riverboat and plans to use it as an old-fashioned showboat, cruising along the river along with a number of different acts and putting on shows.

Two of the gang, Froggy and Red, are able to come along. This is a clear sign of the freedom Kelly had--because the comic existed on its own merits and didn't have to showcase the movie shorts, Kelly wasn't obligated to use characters based on the Our Gang actors. He could add or subtract from the cast based on what it best for a particular story. Here he takes Froggy (a character who had appeared in the shorts) and Red (a character I'm pretty sure is original to the comics--though I'm not complete certain of that), leaving the rest of the gang behind for a few issues because they didn't fit into the story he wanted to tell. Of course, each issue included stories by other artists, so any particular character was rarely gone from an entire issue.

Kelly was brilliant at pure comedy, but he was a skilled storyteller no matter what. The first part of the Riverboat Saga involves Barrel, the crook who wants revenge on Professor Gravy, getting a job on in the engine room under a false name. Some other crooks show up as well. But the kids, their pet goat Julip and a few of the adults manage to get the best of them.

The next issue is pure slapstick--Julip swallows a mechanical parrot, which provides him with the illusion that he can talk. A lady wrestler named Guinevere sneaks aboard to look for work on the show and gets mixed up in a scheme to shoot Julip out of a cannon. It is sincerely funny stuff, but also moves the story arc as a whole along, since Guinevere will play a key role in the final two issues.

Because more crooks are stalking the showboat--the unnamed river its sailing on seems to have an
awfully high crime rate. Professor Gravy agrees to transport a valuable race horse. Crooks sneak aboard to rustle the poor beast.

I love Kelly's art here. Most of the action takes place at night and Kelly uses light and shadow brilliantly to generate suspense. Reading this story almost makes you sad Kelly eventually dedicated his career to the comic strip Pogo. That strip was one of the finest to ever grace a newspaper page, but Kelly shows us here he could have been equally superb at giving us adventure stories.

The crooks after the horse accidentally kidnap Froggy and Red, who were in a horse costume at the time.

The crooks talk about doing away with the kids, but reinforcements arrive in time to foil this. It's here we really see how much the Our Gang comics have drifted from the original shorts--while in the movie theaters, it was rare to see a bad guy in an Our Gang short catch fire and run screaming in fear and pain.

The last part of the riverboat saga involves one of the horse thieves escaping. Professor Gravy, Guinevere, Red and Froggy pursue, but Red is captured after the crook rejoins one of his companions.

Red escapes, though the crooks think they've killed him. This gives Red a chance to freak out the bad guys by quickly improvising a haunting.

That's another creepy panel up there, isn't it? By golly, Pogo, look what you took away from us!

Anyway, Gravy, Guinevere and Froggy arrive and--after a brief but sharp gun fight in which the Professor is wounded--the bad guys are captured. The saga ends at this point because Red and Froggy have to return home to attend school. Though after multiple fights for their lives, kidnappings, escapes and gun battles, one wonders what else there is they really need to learn.

Next week, we'll join characters based on toys as they rampage through a toy store.

If You Love Dogs...

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If you love dogs (and who doesn't love dogs--because they're awesome and not cats), then a particular Our Gang short is required viewing for you. 

For many of us, we more readily think of these shorts as The Little Rascals, because that's the name used when they were syndicated on TV and that's how we grew up knowing them. 

The series began in 1922 and was produced at Hal Roach's studio and originally distributed by Pathe', an independent film distributor that was around during the 1920s. It lasted for two decades, with regular cast changes as child actors kept annoyingly growing up. Those of us who were introduced to them on television are most familiar with the Spanky & Alfalfa shorts made in the 1930s, because those were the ones most often shown. 

By the way, Roach sold the series to MGM in 1938, but later bought back many of them and repackaged them for TV. The legalities involved in this is why they became The Little Rascals when they appeared in the new medium. 

Anyway, 1927's two-reeler Love My Dog is one I never saw as a kid and only recently saw as a grown-up. Gee whiz, it's wonderful.

The Gang at the time included Farina (Allen Hoskins) and Joe (Joe Cobb), who pretty much take the lead in this one. Farina befriends a homeless and hungry mutt, only to find out that the local dog catchers are on a jihad to catch and put to sleep any unvaccinated canines.

One of the strengths of the Our Gang series throughout its run is that the kids acted like kids. Yes, it was in an exaggerated, comedic manner--but you never had any problem accepting them as real children. This was something that added both to the comedy and the heart of the series.

So when the kids in Love My Dog come up with desperate plans to protect their dogs that involve disguising them as other animals, we have no problems running with this. In our minds, these are real kids, so that means the dogs are real dogs in real danger. The balance between silliness and a sense of real danger is perfect.

Farina's poor dog has quite a day. He helps rescue other dogs out of the dog catcher's wagon (the dog catchers, by the way, are cartoonishly evil) and pauses to rescue a toddler from the ledge of a tall building. But he is himself caught and taken to the pound to be gassed to death, the Gang has to very quickly raise the $5.00 needed to save his life. Will they make it? 

This is a funny, thrilling, and ultimately touching comedy short.