I give you Captain Tootsie. Okay, that just makes me laugh. I know times were different when this character was created, but were they THAT different? Didn't anyone think maybe calling a "superhero" Captain Tootsie was all wrong? Apparently not. Would Captain Roll have been any better? Captain Toot? It gets worse, but you'll need to continue reading for that.
This image is from the July-August 1951 Archie comic. Since I'm not a comic book collector I had never seen this character. Okay, I've had this comic for years, but had never noticed or at least remembered this ad. He's apparently well known amongst serious collectors.
Now, I was a big fan of Tootsie Rolls as a kid and even used them to help take out loose teeth. Yes, it's true, a kids loose tooth and a Tootsie Roll work perfectly together. I won't go into the details. Suffice it to say it was a relatively pain free way to get the tooth disconnected from the gum when it was hanging by a thread and my mother just kept saying, "Pull it! Just pull it!" I liked the Tootsie Method better.
Let's check with Wikipedia to see how Captain Tootsie came about.
Captain Tootsie is an advertisement comic created for Tootsie Rolls in 1943 by C C Beck and Peter Costanza. It featured the title character Captain Tootsie and his sidekick, a boy named Rollo and 2 other young cohorts named Fatso and Fisty. It had many generic stories in the form of full colour one page Sunday strips, black and white daily strips usually with very few panels and 2 issues of a comic book of the same title released by Toby Press.
The character was extremely similar to Beck's other main work, Captain Marvel published by Fawcett Comics. The way all the characters featured were drawn looked to be stolen and changed very slightly from one of the stories of Whiz Comics (the Fawcett Comics feature of which Captain Marvel starred).
The stories were written to happen quickly without any background information and were usually quickly solved in only a punch or two, then ended off with 'the gang' enjoy a delicious snack of a Tootsie Roll product.
The advertisement comic was featured by many publishers who rivaled Beck at Fawcett, Fawcett and in the newspapers.
It is currently unknown how many stories were created for these ads, but some full stories can be found around the web. His powers were quite generic. He seemed to be quite strong and quicker to the punch than any of his enemies. He was never seen flying or bouncing bullets off him, but it never really came up. His stories were kept as light and 'kid-friendly' as possible.
Oh why, oh why, couldn't my comic have Fatso and Fisty in it? But Fisty? Seriously? Captain Tootsie and Fisty? Not goin' there.
To see more Captain Tootsie ads click on any of the following links:
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment