This is an in-universe article with out-of-universe material.
Scribbly #7 is an issue of the series Scribbly (Volume 1) with a cover date of September, 1949.
Synopsis for "Scribbly"
Scribbly and Clover plan on going on a date. Later, O'Hara gets hit in the head with a baseball despite being at his desk and shouts at him. He wryly asks if this is a newspaper office or a baseball park, which Scribbly can tell because there aren't any bleachers! He angrily asks why he threw a baseball at his head, but Scribbly swears he didn't. He asks if Mr. Birdnest did it, only to find out that supposedly “dignified” head of their paper was throwing a baseball around, no less at his head. Mr. Birdnest walks out in a baseball uniform to say he was practicing in his Owls uniform and offers Scribbly come to his office to do much the same. O'Hara has a panic attack that his boss has gone insane, but Red calmly reminds him that Mr. Birdnest's lodge has had a baseball tournament every year since 1903, but he's never made the team until this year! Scribbly, in Birdnest's office, winds up for his Double Twist Zingeroo and immediately pitches it out of the open door to his office (in quite the interesting twisting motion) into O'Hara's head again. Mr. Birdnest says he'll definitely be the perfect pitcher, despite Scribbly telling him that he isn't part of his lodge, but Birdnest says they'll just let him join anyways. Scribbly points out he does have a date (not knowing the big game was that night,) but Birdnest tells him to just tell his girlfriend that it's the big championship game against the Elfs Club, so “she'll understand!”
Birdnest, without Scribbly actually agreeing, calls up his rival, Mister Cooley, to brag about their new pitcher as we find out that he's Clover's father! Scribbly tries to tell Clover he can't make the date, but Cooley slams the phone down, believing that the Owl Lodge just hired a professional player and that he'll definitely kill the pitcher when he finds him, worrying Scribbly. Mr. Cooley physically drags Scribbly to his backyard, but reveals he isn't going to murder him a baseball bat, but just wants him to help him practice hitting. Scribbly winds up and, without thinking, throws another Double Twist Zingeroo. Mr. Cooley offers that nobody could hit a pitch like that and immediately decides that Scribbly is joining the Elfs Club and when he voices any doubt, openly says that he won't be allowed to date his daughter if he doesn't. Our distraught Boy Cartoonist tries to call up Birdnest and ask if he can drop out of the game, which Birdnest says is fine… if he can get another job! Worried about this Baseball Sophie's Choice, Bentley Bilgewater returns to openly say he'll steal Clover from him somehow, which he somehow thinks this is a “good opportunity.” Scribbly offers he'll punch him in the face for being a chiseler, but Bentley brags he's got a hard jaw and he'll likely hurt his hand. So Scribbly just punches Bentley in the face hard enough to make his hand visibly red and swollen. Later, he goes to see Clover with his hand in a sling, saying he needs to talk to her dad and Mr. Birdnest first, only to find out they're both already at her house! Clover says that Bentley phoned them both to come over to explain his “embarrassing” situation and Birdnest and Mr. Cooley both agree they were too hard on our hero. However, Clover asks Bentley to instead teach her how to bowl, which is what Scribbly had planned on teaching Clover to do on their date. As such a “noble friend,” Bentley offers she can come to his house to use their private bowling alley in his play-room and we see Scribbly thinking of murderous deadly weapons as Bentley teaches Clover how to throw a bowling ball in a less than functional looking single bowling lane.
Appearing in "Scribbly"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Red Rigley
- Mr. Birdnest
- Clover Cooley
Antagonists:
- Mr. Cooley
- Bentley Bilgewater
Other Characters:
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Synopsis for "Littul Snoony"
Sisty tells Snoony that she'll bet him ten marbles that he can't answer the riddle she has! Snoony takes the bet without hearing what the riddle even is and she offers “If a ship could sail across the Atlantic Ocean in 6 days and the same ship could sail across the Pacific Ocean in 8 days, what's the Captain's name?” Snoony is, naturally, highly confused by this nonsensical riddle. He gives up and she reveals the answer is “Captain Jones”! When asked how she knows this, Sisty walks off merely saying “He's my uncle!” Snoony, cowed, decides to dupe a presumably dim-witted friend named “Meat-Head” McCarthy (who looks like a child wearing an oversized purple suit jacket and a saucepan on his head.) McCarthy accepts the bet, but ups it to twenty marbles. Snoony gives him the riddle, but McCarthy correctly answers “Jones” and that he also knows that he is Sisty's Uncle! Later, we find that Sisty and McCarthy were in collusion in scamming him, splitting up the marbles between them as Snoony and Dizzy watch menacingly from the fence, Snoony wielding a table-leg…
Appearing in "Littul Snoony"
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Antagonists:
- "Meat-Head" McCarthy
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Synopsis for "Scribbly (2)"
Bentley offers Clover go to Tillie's with him for a soda, which she says is fine… if they can bring Scribbly with! Bentley loses his sudden soda thirst and grumps off, wondering how to get rid of him as he sees a large ad for an (ostensibly) impressive used car and he thinks that it will likely do the trick. Going off to Happy Hal's to get one, he finds an orange sedan for the high price of $2,200 (Over $27K today!) Happy Hal offers him a blue sedan for only $1,000 (Over $12K today!) and Bentley sheepishly asks if there's anything he can get for only $20 (A lowly $252 and change today!) He points out that he can't buy a bicycle these days for that much, but when he goes to leave, he changes his mind, offering him a tiny old-style green car for $30 (Over $378 today) and gives it the old “it's still good” pound on th ehood, making it's left fenders just fall off entirely. Happy Hal offers he'll let it go for $25 (Over $315 today!) He starts it up and shows it does actually function. Bentley goes for his offer of $20 or nothing and drives off with it after, noting to himself that that's definitely worth a car that runs at all! However, the car (which seems to have tiny eyes like Speed Buggy or Goitrude) almost immediately fizzles out around a corner and Bentley legs it back to Happy Hal's, saying the car won't run. Happy Hall offers that he showed him it works before and that it's a “sensitive” car and “needs a lot of rest!” which boils down to that it will work for only five minutes a day.
Bentley soon is trying to hock his sensitive car with a large red picket sign on it, only to see Scribbly come by. He tries to ply him into buying it off him for $25, but Scribbly says he was saving money for a formal jacket to take Clover to the Junior Country Club Dance, which Bentley takes faux offense to, saying that he's just going to make Clover walk?! Bentley tries to cut the cost down to only $20, which Scribbly thinks is a bit cheating, but Bentley is more than willing to part with it. He almost immediately buys a formal jacket and finds that Scribbly's car is being towed (for $5 /mile!) and he mocks that he almost feels bad for him… almost! On the night of the dance, Bentley tries to pick up Clover himself (seemingly without asking her to go with him at all), only for Scribbly to show up with a formal jacket and in an expensive taxi! Bentley asks how this can be and Scribbly states that a Mr. Smithson paid for his car… $200 for a “genuine antique car!” (Over $2,525 today!)
Appearing in "Scribbly (2)"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Bentley Bilgewater
- Happy Hal
Other Characters:
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Vehicles:
- Bentley's "Sensitive" Car
Synopsis for "Scribbly (3)"
Bentley has taken up the worst hobby possible: ventriloquism, mostly because he's using it to openly mock Scribbly. Despite him literally insulting him right in front of him, Clover gets upset that Scribbly is shouting at a “poor, defenseless dummy,” despite him literally starting it (especially since he's not a person) and just frankly asks Scribbly to leave until he can behave himself. Scribbly angrily heads home and finds that Snoony has managed to break one of Sisty's dolls and that she won't talk to him until he can fix it. However, he doesn't know how to and asks Scribbly for assistance. Scribbly is dismissive due to his anger, but Snoony goes off to take a bath, hoping he can take care of it later. Scribbly looks at the broken doll and finds that the mouth on the doll is broken in just the right way that it almost resembles a ventriloquist's dummy and can therefore be used exactly like one without any issues (also it's terrifying?) He soon dresses the doll up like Snoony and glues some yellow wool from Mrs. Jibbet's knitting basket to complete the look. He figures with mild practice, he'll be better at it soon. Meanwhile, Sisty worries she was too hard on Snoony for breaking her doll and decides to go apologize to him. Due to Scribbly doing some ventriloquism right next to his open window, joking about a hypothetical girl of strange proportions, which Sisty thinks is somehow about her despite the fact she can also see Scribbly holding a joke book. When he walks away for a moment to get Clover though, Sisty just hurls a brick through Scribbly's window, decapitating the Impostor Snoony and then freaking out that she seemingly murdered her boyfriend with a brick.
Luckily, Snoony is in the bathroom right next to them and gets easily confused by Sisty's seemingly mad ramblings about where his head is before she runs off in hysteria. Snoony gets out of the bath and pouts on his clothes that were on Sisty's Doll as Scribbly and Clover return to hear his act. He immediately goes for the “you won't believe how ugly my girl is” jokes with a setup of “Was your girl always so ugly or did she study for it?” only for the real Snoony that he puts on his leg to return coarsely “So my girl is ugly, eh? Well, why don't you get a leash for that St. Bernard you've got there!” earning Snoony a joke book to his head and Scribbly a chair smashed over his head.
Appearing in "Scribbly (3)"
Featured Characters:
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Antagonists:
- Bentley Bilgewater
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Synopsis for "Liz"
Liz sees an attractive young man, Jerry Barton, who looks very handsome and adult because he smokes a pipe. She wonders why he never asks her out and worries that he thinks she's going with Freddy, since she's out with him often. She decides to deviously tell Jerry's sister Margie about it, knowing she can't keep a secret! Liz is able to casually talk with her to find out Jerry isn't seeing anyone just now and that she's not dating Freddy who is merely "our age", professing she only likes older fellows (like Jerry!) She demands that Margie swear to keep it a secret, but Margie seems adamant on doing so, prompting Liz to offer she shouldn't mention it on purpose, but she should "just mention it" by accident
Appearing in "Liz"
Featured Characters:
- Liz
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Synopsis for "Scribbly (4)"
Snoony sees an apparently highly-attractive poster (despite him being somewhere from an actual baby to maybe seven) and he leaps into the air to wolf-whistle at “Dimples Darling the Lovely Teen-Age Movie Star…” so much so that he looks around to make sure no one is watching before he just tears it off the wall and tacks it to his own wall at home. Sisty comes over to see Snoony and Mrs. Jibbet says he's upstairs. Sisty is furious to see he has a picture of another woman on his wall and puts him in a Giant Swing, equating this to somehow cheating on her. Snoony claims he “can explain” as she climbs on top of him preparing to beat him with a toy airplane (even the Dimples Darling poster is shocked!) Snoony says Scribbly is the one who put it up, which means that Sisty has almost immediately forgiven him… until she realizes that Scribbly didn't hang it up in his own room (they apparently don't… share one anymore?) Sisty immediately returns to aerial violence, only for Snoony to reach into his pocket and pull out another lie, claiming that he's doing it to keep Clover off his back, leading Sisty to believe that Scribbly somehow knows Dimples Darling, which Snoony just also confirms is the case, going so far as to say she came to town specifically to see him. Sisty decides to immediately tell all her girlfriends about this. She tells her friend Lulu who tells her friend Maybelle, only for Lulu's Mother to snatch the phone from her, implying she's misusing it, then calls Mrs. Cooley to gossip anyways.
Soon, Clover punches Scribbly in the face directly in front of her house, mostly confusing him as to what he did wrong as he head in to the Morning Bugle. O'Hara tells him he's got a special assignment for him and tells him he's meeting with Dimples Darling for a publicity stunt of picking up Dimples and driving her around town for good couples' type pictures. Scribbly worries this will only further anger Clover, only for O'Hara to claim that Clover will get jealous and therefore possessive of him, which Scribbly finds preferable. Elsewhere, Snoony's baby friend shows up and says that that Scribbly really is a rat, two-timing Clover with Dimples Darling and Snoony is revealed to have some form of conscience, telling him that laughing at Scribbly for a lie that he spread is wrong. Snoony tries to internally rationalize that Scribbly had it coming to him for how often he's gotten him in trouble, only for his conscience to point out he's not there to answer questions, instead only asking if Clover stays mad at Scribbly does it actually benefit Snoony at all. Snoony instead answers that it'll serve him right, deviously imagining Clover leaving Scribbly for Bentley Bilgewater. His Conscience points out that if Scribbly becomes an “old-maid brother,” he will certainly just end up consistently living with him, being generally annoying and will let Snoony's irritating son be as horrible as he likes, which drive Sisty to moving back in with the strangely absentee Ma Hunkel and he will essentially be chained to his own brother.
Snoony sees the error of his ways and runs off to fix it, spilling the beans to Clover that he made it all up, but Clover just suspects that Scribbly told him to say that. Snoony manages to convince her that he didn't realize what he was doing and squeezes out crocodile tears for it as Clover goes to phone Scribbly and apologize, but Snoony says she should just go find him at the office before lunch. Clover goes off to do so and Snoony calls the office to see if things worked out, only to find out that Scribbly seemingly did go off to beach with Dimples Darling. The operator says she told Clover that Scribbly would be at the beach, but not with whom! Snoony tries to dash off, thinking that Scribbly did start dating Dimples Darling and his conscience offers that he smash his piggy bank to take a taxi to find his brother. He soon finds Dimples and Scribbly at the beach and tries to divert Clover to tell her that he's definitely not at the press center, only for her to not believe this. Snoony runs into the crowd and announces that there's nothing between Scribbly and Dimples and instead makes a better lie that he's the one going with her and they're practically engaged! However, when Snoony tells Clover she doesn't need to be angry at Scribbly, Clover instead reveals that she wasn't, instead saying that she's proud that he got to get his picture with a famous person like Dimples Darling! However, Sisty certainly heard and saw Snoony do this and chases him, preparing to beat him senseless with what seems to be a dazed live fish. Snoony “tries to explain,” but Sisty says they're done and she's turning his yo-yo in to his house to prove it in the morning. Snoony's Conscience points out that he did do the right thing for Scribbly and won't have to live with him his whole life, but Snoony just tells him “Ahhh… SHADDAP!”
Appearing in "Scribbly (4)"
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Notes
- This issue also includes:
- A half-page Lora story.
- "Superman on Safety First!", a one-page public service announcement starring Superman that appeared in many DC Comics in this time period.
Trivia
- Despite the cover, Scribbly pointedly doesn't get upset at Clover for scoping a lifeguard nor does Littul Snoony try to sell ridiculously expensive vitamins (As they'd be over $126 today!)
See Also
Links and References
