Scribbly #5 is an issue of the series Scribbly (Volume 1) with a cover date of May, 1949.
Synopsis for "Scribbly"
Clover is mooning over Scribbly being a real newspaperman and Scribbly brags about drawing a China Clipper on a rush order (instead of rushing it.) Scribbly soon heads in, greeting the receptionist, Liela, who seems dismissive and not wanting to make eye contact. He goes to see Red who is acting about the same and he questions it until she points out a gigantic note on his desk saying the boss wants to see him. He rushes to see O'Hara, but O'Hara points out that Mister Birdnest wishes to see him! Mr. Birdnest tells him he does like him personally, but the problem is that the rush order he drew the China Clipper on was misread, meaning they sent the entire 5 ton printing press to China via special delivery airmail at 53 1/6¢ per ounce! However, he says that it “only” cost them $82,000 and seemingly begins laughing it off, saying that they throw that much away every week and that Scribbly could pay it off in about only 90 years. Mr. Birdnest becomes more serious to let Scribbly know very loudly that he's fired. Scribbly wavers slowly out of his office and moves to the phone, beginning to very loudly complain to his mother on the phone. Mr. Birdnest begins to feel immediate regret over it and decides to rehire Scribbly immediately, only for him to walk out and find out that Scribbly is telling his mother that he stood up to his boss and told him he quit, making Mr. Birdnest trudge back to his office as Scribbly loudly claims that the Evening Globe called and said they want him to be editor and he soon leaves, condescendingly claiming that he may find the time to call them… only for O'Hara to reveal that his phone has been disconnected all week! Scribbly is emotionally shattered and Red is upset with O'Hara over his callousness.
Later, O'Hara calls for the Copy Boy, thinking how it might be fun to not be accidentally assaulted while doing so, only for someone who suspiciously like Scribbly wearing a large white beard, dark glasses, a blue hat and a smock to appear just as fast as Scribbly would. O'Hara quickly removes his disguise and tries to beat him with a phone until he leaves. As he thinks he's chased him out, O'Hara runs into someone who look suspiciously like Scribbly wearing a nose and goatee disguise, a different hat and a tuxedo and stilts with stilt pants, which O'Hara equally sees through. O'Hara is soon approached by someone who looks like Scribbly wearing padding, a queue and a racist caricature of a Chinese person as a disguise, asking to see the boss, only to instead reveal when Scribbly returns to get his hat that it's just a normal man who looks like a racist caricature of Scribbly in disguise named Moo-Goo Gai Pan, a representative from a Chinese newspaper. He reveals that his paper is the one who received their printing press and says they're prepared to demand the high price of $90,000 for it. Mr. Birdnest and O'Hara are aghast at this price, forcing Moo-Goo to raise the price to $100,000 “and not one yen more!” Mr. Birdnest angrily shouts for Scribbly to get back to work and O'Hara mimics him. Running downstairs, he puts a clothespin on his nose to make a call upstairs, asking if he needs a Copy Boy and Boy Cartoonist, but O'Hara angrily says they've already got one and he's very satisfactory. Scribbly is so overjoyed to hear it, he rips the phone out of the booth running upstairs to thank O'Hara!
Appearing in "Scribbly"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Mr. O'Hara
- Red Rigley
- Mr. Birdnest
Antagonists:
- Moo-Goo Gai Pan
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for "Littul Snoony"
Mrs. Jibbet tells Snoony to take a jar of applesauce to Mrs. Cooley across the street, interrupting his reading Scribbly itself. She later finds Snoony in a violent fistfight and goes to tell Mr. Jibbet about this, but Snoony says it's her fault! He reveals that the boy was “Big Feet” Finnegan, who seemed to not believe he had a jar of applesauce, which somehow led to violent battle.
Appearing in "Littul Snoony"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Mr. Wilton Jibbet
- Mrs. Clara Jibbet
Antagonists:
- "Big Feet" Finnegan
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for "Big Doings"
Part I
Scribbly asks Mrs. Jibbet if he can go to Washington, since he promised a friend. She says she wouldn't let him if he promised the President of the United States, only for Mrs. Jibbet to find that the President of the United States is here now. Mrs. Jibbet goes to her Husband (Apparently named “Wilton”) and says The President is here (albeit hiding He gives her some water as she begins to look faint and goes to see what's up, dropping his own glass of water and joining his wife (apparently named Clara) on the couch in undefinable shock. Scribbly is offended at their supposed rudeness. They ask why he's there and assume Scribbly has done something unconscionable, only for Red to lean in and say he did something to be proud of and explains:
Scribbly accidentally knocks several large books onto O'Hara's head while trying to retrieve a dictionary and O'Hara fires him until Red comes in to tell him to knock it off. Mr. Birdnest enters to see what the noise is about and points out to Red that O'Hara does have authority to fire him, despite her argument that his constant accidents are shockingly beneficial to the company. Mr. Birdnest says that he did send that printing press to China. Red returns that they somehow made $18,000 in that deal and O'Hara says that won't happen for another million years. Scribbly meekly reveals he's destroyed the water cooler by accident while they were talking. Somehow the entire room starts flooding as a man from the water cooler company has come. Suddenly though, the man reveals that they shouldn't drink from it, due to a cooler problem, 20 water coolers were technically full of poison and returns all their money! Mr. Birdnest is entirely convinced and even welcomes the idea of new accidents that will improve everything!
Scribbly runs into a typesetter, destroying the headline for the front page and Mr. Birdnest demands O'Hara tally up how much money this will somehow make them. The typesetter says some of the letters were busted and the headline accidentally changes from NEW TYPE PLANE TO CRUISE IN PUBLIC TODAY to the far less healthy NEW TYPE PLANE TO CRASH IN PUBLIC TODAY! O'Hara goes to point this out, only to hear on the radio that the Newtype Plane has crashed and the government is so shocked by this that they're sending G-men after them! Mr. Birdnest is soon arrested by the FBI and interrogated until Professor Smarty, the Plane's creator asks about Scribbly's strange and unknowable powers, theorizing he may be more powerful than the atomic bomb! Scribbly is brought in and walks across a room, somehow spilling an ashtray and Prof. Smarty has the rug its spilled on sent away for testing. Confidentially, he tells the JCS that Scribbly has “MUM” Marvelous Unconscious Mistakes: a ridiculous theory that science and discovery are fueled by mistakes like Columbo's travel to the New World while trying to find India, Newton's discovery of gravity (apocryphal,) Alexander Graham Bell trying to invent a hearing aid and making the telephone (showing a scene of him randomly hearing a call from a random person that never happened.) He gets the tests back and finds that unlike the 20% MUM that Columbo had, most geniuses only have a .02% MUM (and the genius makes up for the rest and that Scribbly has 1,000% MUM and then reveals that the ashes being spilled somehow inspired a new form of tooth powder and more or less declares that Scribbly is now government property. However, Scribbly refuses, facing a charge of treason, since he's been out after supper twice this week already and his Mom won't let him! Thus, the President himself has come to ask her about this.
Part II
Mrs. Jibbet serves refreshments to Clover, Snoony, Sisty, assorted other Hunkel Cousins, Red and O'Hara as they hear on the radio of Scribbly being brought in to help production of the Tri-State Canal which has been stalled for 17 years now. Everyone more or less expects Scribbly to do something and when thinking vaguely about what an actual engineer would do, depresses a rogue plunger attached to active dynamite that someone left around. However, the Foreman points out that the MUM Boy can do whatever he pleases basically. 17 years of government architecture is ruined and the Foreman has a broken arm. Everyone hears that Scribbly is being declared a hoax and may stand trial for treason… before the Foreman discovers the destroyed canal revealed a rich stripe of gold, oil, diamonds, rubies and uranium valued at $7,000,000,000,000,000,000.36 (This would be Seven Quintillion, more money than has ever existed) and Scribbly receives numerous awards. Meanwhile, in a random Arizona canyon, Little Sunshine Dawton is leaving the ranch life because she has learned poise and personality from a book from the city. She gets on a Widow-Maker like horse and says she's leaving, but her grandfather insists that the Dawton Family has a legacy of banditry and she points out he lost his fortune years ago when he forgot where he hid it. Further, he complains that he hasn't been in the papers since 1879 due to nothing being “worth stealin' no more!” Little Sunshine reveals the MUM Boy in the paper and Pappy Dawton runs off in a hoot and a holler, rallying up his sons Zeke and Bub. The men are worried that stealing from the government won't go well, but Little Sunshine says that they're just borrowing like the Lend-Lease and constantly corrects their poor English. They immediately manage to somehow kidnap Scribbly from a government facility off-panel.
Part III
The Dawton Family get confused about how to monetize having kidnapped Scribbly, ordering him to touch their cabin and turn it into gold, which instead just breaks it into logs. Little Sunshine says they need to use poise and Pappy asks what that is. Little Sunshine shows him her copy of Poise and Personality, revealing it's a combination of being graceful and mannered and he agrees they should teach Scribbly poise. Pappy Dawton notes that this was his grandfather's cabin from 100 years ago and Zeke and Bub find gold suddenly on the ground and declare themselves rich! Zeke says that the boy is clumsy and Bub runs up the hill to find Little Sunshine, only to find that they've cured his miraculous clumsiness by teaching him poise. Pappy and Zeke complain that they'll be hanged for ruining government property. Using the newfound abilities of poise, he knocks the guns out of Bub's hands and fires at the other Dawtons, destroying their guns. The Dawton Boys immediately turn themselves in and Scribbly walks in behind them, wearing bandoleers and boots with spurs. The Sheriff soon calls up the government and Prof. Smarty comes to retrieve him and finds he's learned poise, being stunned and in despair. Little Sunshine enters and admits it's her fault and says things haven't been the same since she taught him poise, because she's clumsy now! She slips and hits her head directly into a telephone, but in a way that it cracks open and drops a ton of nickels, slowly flooding the room as Prof. Smarty shakes Scribbly, saying that he's given the MUM to someone else and he'll get a second medal for this!
Appearing in "Big Doings"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Littul Snoony
- Sisty
- Red Rigley
- Mr. Wilton Jibbet
- Mrs. Clara Jibbet
- Clover Cooley
- Professor Smarty
Antagonists:
- "Pappy" Dawton
- "Little" Sunshine Dawton
- Zeke Dawton
- "Bub" Dawton
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for "Liz"
Liz hears her mother on the phone, saying she's changed her mind, something she calls a “woman's privilege.” She decides to exercise this and calls up Freddie for a drive. He asks his Mom and borrows the car, but Liz then instead exerts her “Woman's Privilege” and offers they walk instead. He decides he'll drive his car back home and tells his mother Liz wants to walk. He thinks well of having a walk, but Liz decides to exert her “Woman's Privilege” again to say she's tired and she does want a drive now. He chides her indecision and she decides adamantly that they drive and chats to her mother about her antics while Freddie goes to get his car, but her mother says she doesn't use the “Woman's Privilege” often. Freddie returns, having expected her to change her mind again, but Liz says she didn't, deciding now not to exert his “Woman's Privilege” too often. Freddie says that his mother decided to change her mind, since that's her Woman's Privilege!
Appearing in "Liz"
Featured Characters:
- Liz
Supporting Characters:
- Freddie
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Notes
- "Big Doings" is a three-chapter story, with each chapter being as long as a standard Scribbly story.
- This issue also includes:
- A one-page Lad and Dad story by Harry Lampert.
- This issue reveals that Scribbly's parents have actual names: Wilton and Clara. Previously, she is only ever referred to as "Mrs. Jibbet" and Mr. Jibbet simply never appeared until a few issues ago.
Trivia
Despite what the cover indicates, Scribbly does not tame a horse for a third time and never interacts with Little Sunshine's Horse in any way.
See Also
Links and References
