This is an in-universe article with out-of-universe material.
Scribbly #1 is an issue of the series Scribbly (Volume 1) with a cover date of September, 1948. It was published on June 25, 1948.
Synopsis for "Scribbly"
Scribbly has a vision of being the King of All Cartoonists where Miss Brown, his secretary, calls for him, saying famed cartoonist Red Rigley on how “Terrificman” can get out from a burning telephone booth. Scribbly boldly announces he can use a nickel to call the Fire Department and then coarsely fires Miss Brown for the forbidden act of looking over his shoulders. Dinky and a dog stand by, holding his tools. He soon forgives Miss Brown as long as she never does this again. His daydream ends when Dinky climbs onto his head while eating a sandwich, spilling jam everywhere on his mother’s breadboard where he’s apparently drawing. We see Mrs. Jibbet has been making a cake on an ironing board and finds that Scribbly has the breadboard, more upset that he took it than Dinky having ruined his cartoon. Scribbly leaves in a huff, saying he’ll show them and grouses as he goes to "Rational Comics Publications" to get a job with the editor of Terrificman. A girl next to him thinks about how she probably shouldn’t crush Scribbly’s unrealistic dreams of being a hit cartoonist right off the bat and the Editor (who seems to be DC Editor Whitney Ellsworth!) comes out to hand Scribbly back his cartoon and asks him to wait for something, but Scribbly takes this as confirmation and goes to make a phone call. He calls Mrs. Jibbet, telling her he’s made it and to “Tell Pop” and hire a maid! However, Dinky informs him that she merely fainted on the phone. Hearing the same news, Dinky also faints. He returns to the Editor’s secretary, who says he actually said to wait until he’s twenty-one!
Scribbly heads home dejected where we see Dinky is hanging out with his friends (apparently including Allergy Binks from Leave It to Binky) boasting about Scribbly’s fame until Mrs. Jibbet tells them to leave, addressing Dinky now as Snooney and dusts off her breadboard for Scribbly when her famous son comes back. Scribbly has gone to a diner for a tall glass of milk to drink away his sorrows as the red-headed girl from before returns, saying Scribbly can’t give up and that she’s also a cartoonist. Scribbly is impressed a girl can do so much and they trade cards. Scribbly is shocked to find that this is Red Rigley, the woman who created Terrificman! Nearby, a snazzy man tells an unemployed man, Lester, that he needs a good agent and that Ollie Oliver can be that man to him at the Mennin Building, since he can find a job for any artist! We cut to find Ollie is overrun by a heavy need for writers, much to the chagrin of his secretary manning the boards. Ollie is on the phone with one Tex Poopnickle, who says he needs a rider, which he takes to mean writer due to a bad phone connection. We soon find Tex has an entire closet full of horribly crippled riders. Scribbly is soon sent in to ride and mounts a horse that is very clearly Widow-Maker and the rodeo ends with the horse too tired from Scribbly repeatedly being thrown and landing on his back. Scribbly asks if he can draw some pictures and they tell him no and he leaves in a huff, saying his father would be furious if he found out what he just did. Scribbly tries to feign amnesia arriving home so he won’t have to explain anything, but Snooney just shoots him in the face with a squirt gun and Scribbly’s zombie-like walk spooks Snooney.
A worried Mrs. Jibbet tells Scribbly he has a telegram, but he feigns like he doesn’t know his own name. Mrs. Jibbet takes him to his apparent father, Mr. Jibbet, who exists. Later, they get a doctor in and finds Scribbly got a shock today. Mrs. Jibbet says that he did get a telegram from Red Rigley about how Scribbly did get him a part-time job at a newspaper. He asks which one and admits he was acting all along. Mr. Jibbet pays the doctor, who says that spanking won’t be necessary, since he’s apparently had one (via the rodeo) and that he’ll likely sleep on his stomach tonight anyways!
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- Allergy Biggs
- Whitney Ellsworth
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Synopsis for "Scribbly (2)"
Scribbly finishes his glass and heads out for his first day on the job as Mrs. Jibbet feeds Snooney. Saying he’ll always be her baby. He heads to his job at the City Desk of Mr. O’Hara, his new editor, showing off his new idea of "Speedy-Man". He accidentally leans on an extendable phone and it smacks O’Hara in the face. He quickly accepts the idea of being a Copy Boy at $13.50 a week. Mr. O’Hara tells him to go buy him a beefsteak to put on his new shiner that he will definitely take out of his check. He ends up tackling an Italian tomato vendor and realizes that he told his mom to hire a butler! He calls home and finds there’s a butler there and decides to spend the $5 he had for beefsteak on getting a ride home from a highly identifiable fat bald man in a derby hat driving a yellow taxicab. Scribbly arrives home to find that they now have a butler and maid (and seemingly a cook too) as he soon finds that Snoony is out with Sisty and Mrs. Jibbet isn’t home after Scribbly gets a flower pot thrown at his head. He asks the Kids for help dispatching the servants so he won’t have to pay them and Sisty calls up some cousins to help him. The cousins soon storm in, claiming they live there and Sisty scares the maid by gerning in the window, making her faint. Later, Mrs. Jibbet returns and says the ad was clearly fake and that The Plastic Heatless Pot Company’s big plan of sending their staff to their house free of charge to make them a luncheon. She says she was expecting a beefsteak and Scribbly realizes that he didn’t get the beefsteak for Mr. O’Hara. He soon runs into the Italian fruit merchant again and runs back to his office. Mr. O’Hara says he needs Scribbly’s help to tell Red Rigley that he didn’t get his black eye getting into a fight. Unfortunately, Scribbly does this by physically reenacting it, hitting Mr. O’Hara in his other eye! He soon goes to get a second beefsteak.
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Synopsis for "Littul Snoony"
Sisty is driving a crude skateboard and Snoony notes that they’re in the worse part of town. For some reason, he is terrified by an older boy with a blackjack, especially considering that Sisty immediately punches him in the face. Snoony asks how she did that and she admits that he has big feet, which makes him a slow mover and says guys with big feet go down easily with a quick punch to the face. Littul Snoony decides to try this out and rides his tricycle into the worse party of town and runs into a large baby-faced older boy. However, he finds the brutish boy has big cuffs on his legs, but very small shoes. He soon finds another boy with huge shoes and tries to intimidate him (with Runt, who has appeared again), only for the big footed boy to smash his trike over his head. He goes to a pawn shop and manages to get $3 for his busted trike and goes to see the kid, offering him the $3 to buy shoes that fit!
Appearing in "Littul Snoony"
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Synopsis for "Scribbly (3)"
Mr. O’Hara is surrounded by Scribbly’s art all over his office, all of them mocking him. Red says she won’t let him fire Scribbly, since he’s clearly a genius and offers he instead encourage him, publish his cartoons and that if he won’t she’s breaking up with him and she walks out. Mr. O’Hara calls for Scribbly and asks him to draw a cartoon under duress, asking him to draw the before picture on an ad for Pilso health tonic. He soon puzzles for a strange face to draw, but soon finds it in a portly man in a green jacket, purple vest and with strange hair. He soon does so and two other workers note that he’s making fun of Mr. Birdnest, the owner of the paper. Mr. O’Hara realizes he can just blame this on Scribbly and decides to let him. Red soon comes to see him and calls him out on his actions. Mr. O’Hara tries to say that Scribbly is hard-hearted enough that he won’t be destroyed by it and she walks out on him again. He begins smoking anxiously until Mr. Birdnest bursts into his room and demands to know who did this and how much he appreciates honesty. Mr. O’Hara tells him that it was him and Scribbly and Mr. Birdnest commends it and says Scribbly is a born newspaperman! What’s more, regardless of how mildly insulting it may be, the Pilso Company just gave them an extra $20,000 because they loved the ad that much! The next morning, Mr. O’Hara tries to call Red for a date for fixing it all, but Red says Mr. Birdnest wants her to take lessons from Scribbly so she’ll be really busy. We cut away to see Mr. O’Hara has locked himself in his office with signs for quiet while he tries his best to draw rude pictures of Scribbly with a book labeled Be a Cartoonist in 10 Easy Lessons!
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Synopsis for "Liz"
Liz finds most of her records are missing from being lent out, broken or lost. She tries to throw a party where she can steal records from her friends, offering the only invitation needed is bringing a record. Unfortunately for her, all her friends bring the same record "Hurry Murry," mostly because it's on sale and everyone is strapped for cash. Her boyfriend soon comes in, saying he has a different record, Nearby,... which is just the A-side of "Hurry Murry."
Appearing in "Liz"
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- Liz (First appearance)
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Synopsis for "Scribbly (4)"
Mr. Birdnest tells Mr. O’Hara that he wants Scribbly making cartoons instead of just being a Copy Boy, much to O’Hara’s insistence that he’s only a kid. Mr. Birdnest compares Scribbly to famed child star Margaret O’Brien and O’Hara calls him in, showing off his first problem with him is that Scribbly constantly breaks down his door. Mr. O’Hara gives Scribbly some film to take to their photographer, since known bandit “Bug-Eye” Bertram is holed up in a building on Pine St. He races off and Mr. Birdnest asks what this proves and Mr. O’Hara highly implies that Scribbly will manage to somehow screw this up. Scribbly, arriving, finds that he can’t fit through the crowd and a large man just kicks him to the curb literally. Scribbly thinks on it and takes a staircase to go up to the roof. He soon arrives and finds Bertram cleaning a gun amid a pile of weaponry and says he shouldn’t be up there, since there’s a dangerous criminal around. Bertram asks why he’s up there and Scribbly says he’s different, since he’s the press and offers Bertram turn himself in. Bertram says he’ll do it if Scribbly comes with him and then draws a bead on him. Scribbly debates the idea and decides to go out a hero, declaring he must deliver this film, making Bertram shoot the box of film to pieces in his hand. Scribbly flies into a rage and punches Bertram’s hat on his head and knocks him out, making him misfire into the air. Mr. O’Hara soon tells Mr. Birdnest it’s been a half hour and Scribbly certainly hasn’t come back. He gets a call in, but repeats it in stilted words, slowly revealing that Scribbly has apparently put Bertram in the hospital singlehandedly! Mr. Birdnest taunts his lack of faith as their Photographer returns and complains the film never came back. Mr. O’Hara argues that he didn’t actually deliver the film like he was told, but Scribbly soon arrives, having drawn the situation in cartooning, which Mr. Birdnest declares he’ll put on the front page and that Scribbly is a real newspaperman! While Scribbly is confused at the situation, things become more complicated as Red plants a kiss on his lips… and both cheeks too!
Appearing in "Scribbly (4)"
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- "Bug-Eye" Bertram
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Notes
- This issue also includes:
- A half-page Bonny story by Hy Rosen.
- A one-page Gerry story by Harry Lampert.
Trivia
- The first story reuses the Widow-Maker plotline from All-American Comics # 14, wherein Scribbly is dragged into a rodeo for idiotic, fraudulent reasons and mounts a horse backwards, but still wins the rodeo all the same (somehow.)
- The third story reuses the Miss Loomis plotline from All-American Comics # 8, wherein Scribbly draws an unflattering picture of someone for the "Before" section of a medicinal ad, upsetting someone, being lauded for it and someone going insane due to the madness of this situation and turning to cartooning themselves.
- Though "Dinky" is a common term meaning "insignificantly small," Scribbly's Brother is now given the confusing nickname of "Littul Snoony" (Sometimes spelled "Snooney,") a name of no clear origin or meaning.
- Despite formerly being a child sidekick and amateur hero of remarkable amounts of violence, Snoony now seems to be remarkably afraid of the bad side of town and cowers in fear of Sisty's violent nature, where once he was her partner in quasi-judicial attacks, usually with baseball bats.
- First apparition of Scribbly's love interest Red Rigley.
See Also
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