Number 1424: Boody Rogers’ Bigfoot sighting

A pair of tales from Sparky Watts #9 (1949) feature the oddball humor artist/writer Boody Rogers was known for. The scene of Sparky sharing a bed with the man he’s protecting, Buttermilk Sky, probably didn’t seem as odd in 1949 as it does now.*

The second story, a short and mostly pantomime strip features Sparky’s bigfoot pal, Slap Happy. I recently found this online, from a weird and vintage photography site

The unfortunate woman, Fanny Mills, photographed in the 1880s, was a victim of a hideously disfiguring disease, elephantiasis. I’m interested in her very large shoes. Since I’m always looking for comic artists’ inspirations, I wonder if Rogers had seen this picture, or something similar, and patterned Slap Happy after it? Boody’s explanation for Slap Happy’s feet was that he got the cosmic ray treatment from Doc Static, and it made his feet grow big. Or, it could be that Boody Rogers was just taking the slang term for old-time “bigfoot cartoonist” to an extreme.

*Sparky once shared a bed with Hitler in a two-part story! Click on the thumbnails to see.

Number 1329: Sparky Watts, the cosmic ray kid

In this Sparky Watts story, Sparky shrinks his way into Hubba-Hubba Land. Hubba-hubba is a term you just don’t hear any more. For those who don’t know that archaic expression, it was a way for a guy to let a babe know she was hot; a wolf-whistle and a loud “Hubba-hubba!” when she walked by.* In the forties you could even wear the expression on your belt and wallet.

Sparky Watts was given his super powers as “the world’s strongest funny man,” by cosmic rays. You remember that’s the source of the Fantastic Four’s powers, also. The FF got their powers from going into space; Sparky got his cosmic rays administered by his friend and housemate, Doc Static. But Sparky must have his cosmic rays renewed or he begins to shrink into a microscopic world. Sparky’s creator, Boody Rogers, used the idea of Sparky becoming super-small and entering a world unseen by normal-sized humans several times. It’s the plot of this funny 26-page story from Sparky Watts #6 (1947). I showed this a few years ago, but these are new scans.

*Beware, boys. Such behavior is also known as sexual harassment.

Number 1280: More Sparky malarkey

Boody Rogers' bizarre sense of humor is given full rein in this story featuring a wacky inventor and his screwball inventions.

I have featured Sparky Watts several times in this blog, including a two-parter from Sparky Watts #1 (1942), which is a compilation of the newspaper strips. You can find part one of the 39-page story — at one point featuring Sparky in bed with Hitler! — at Pappy's #899, and part two can be found at Pappy's #900. The latest story I have shown was over a year ago (incredible how time has gotten away from me), which you can read at Pappy's #1053.

From Sparky Watts #9 (1949):