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April 1, 2006
Our Favorite Fools
There was a time when funny books were really funny. We can't let April Fools Day go by without saluting some of our favorite fools in comics...
Not Brand Echh was a comic published by Marvel in 1967. It featured a lot of great parodies of Marvel's characters in every issue. Forbush-Man was the mascot, a little nebbish who wore a pot for a helmet, and raggedy longjohns for a costume. Even though Forbush Man was a cover mascot, he got his own origin story later in issue #5. The first issue has a Fantastic Four parody by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby; a Two-Gun Kid and Rawhide Kid parody by Roy Thomas and Marie Severin; a Golden-Age Human Torch vs. Sub-Mariner re-dubbed parody; a Nick Fury-Howling Commandos parody by Gary Friedrich and John Severin.
The Fantastic Four story is titled "The Silver Burper". It makes fun of the classic FF story where the Silver Surfer mistrusts Doctor Doom and allows him to steal the Power Cosmic. You would have to think the Surfer was pretty stupid to let that happen!
DC's most famous cut-up was Ambush Bug (who is due to make a return in 52), created by Keith Giffen and Paul Levitz. Ambush Bug appeared in a DC Comics Presents story featuring the Doom Patrol and Superman. Initially a villain who wore a bug costume and transported around with little bug-like gadgets, Ambush Bug graduated to his own mini-series. At the end of each issue, Ambush Bug confronted Darkseid.
This is my favorite--meeting Darkseid at McDonalds. Make that a Super-Sized order and cook my burger with that Omega Force, please!
I kept wondering how Ambush Bug would get out of this Darkseid mess. Turns out it was just an inflatable dummy. I know people in San Francisco who would pay big money for that dummy.
Last but not least, another favorite fool was Major Bummer. I loved this series by John Arcudi and Doug Mahnke, which answered the question, what if a slacker received superhuman powers? Lou is a skinny young adult who spends most of his time on a sofa playing Nintendo and eating junk food. One night he opens a mysterious package that adorns him with beefcake muscles. He gets involved with zany aliens and a group of superteam wanna-bes that features members like the Gecko. On this cover to number 4, you see the costume of Fly-Girl (guess what her power is), which is kind of ingenious: it's the inverse of most super-babe outfits, which have the slit at the top. This one seems even more impratical as her breasts would have to fall out just due to gravity!
Major Bummer would make a great movie or TV show. It's too bad that DC will probably never reprint it, but you can always download it...oops! Who's the fool now? Nuff said.
