Wednesday, 22 August 2012

Those Tiny, Tiny Cartoon People: A Baker's Dozen Of At-Best Pint-Sized Heroes & Villains (The Wednesday List)

In which the blogger takes the theme of tiny cartoon characters from yesterday's post about Henry Pym in the first half of the 60s - find it here - and suggests a baker's dozen of super-small folks from the comics.

 1. Green Lantern Leezle Pon;, "a superintelligent Smallpox virus"

I always liked the idea of Leezle Pon, though something of its absurd appeal disappears when the character's actually shown in its GL uniform. So here's Pon's mention, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, from "Mogo Doesn't Socialize", Green Lantern#188, 1985.

2. The Wasp: Janet Van Dyne, Be-Winged, Stinger-Firing Avengers Leader

By John Buscema, Tom Palmer & Roy Thomas, from The Avengers #83, 1970.
By Steve Sadowski, Andrew Currie & Geoff Johns, from Avengers vol. 2, #71, 2003
By Don Heck, H E Huntley, Stan Lee, in Tales For Astonish #45
          
3. Doll Man; Darrell Dare, Research Scientist, Lover Of Dog Sidekicks & Pilot Of The Toy-Like Dollplane 

From Doll Man #39, 1950, in which the newly super-intelligent Elmo the Hound lends a paw to his master's crime-fighting activities, with art by Al Feldstein & Chuck Cuidera
A detail from Nick Cardy's cover to 1973's DC-14 Batman 100-page Super-Specular (The two didn't meet inside the issue's cover)
From 1948's Doll Man #15, "The Iron Mask", art by Al Byrant
        
4. The Numskulls, A Race Of Tiny Creatures Living Within The Skull Of Edd Case, And, Indeed, Within All Of Our Heads Too

Both panels from "The Numskulls", creators uncredited, from The Beano, cover-dated 18/8/12
    
 5. "D.N.A. Scrapper-Troopers", as cloned by the DNA Project From The Newboy Legion's Feistiest Member 

From Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #136, by Jack Kirby, Murphy Anderson & Vince Colletta
From Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #142 by Jack Kirby, Murphy Anderson & Vince Colletta
          
6. The Klanridds, Fearsome Inter-Galactic Invaders From The Distant Planet Klahrr
           
From Jeff Hawke: Wondrous Lamp, by Sydney Jordan & Willie Patterson, 1963, as reprinted in Titan Books' "Jeff Hawke: Overlord"
         
7. The Micronauts, Micro-Dimensional Freedom Fighters Who Aren't So Small In Their Own Universe

Micronauts #2, story by Bill Mantlo, cover & interior art by Michael Golden & Josef Rubenstein
As above, except it's from the previous issue.
       
8. The Invasion's Miniature. Teleporting Attack Force, As Defeated By Oberon At JLI HQ

From Justice League International #22, by Giffen, DeMatteis, Maquire & Rubenstein

 9. Tim Boo Ba, Mighty Tyrant Whose Miniscule World Is Washed Away By A Drop Of Water From A Boy's Glass Cup

From Amazing Fantasy #9, by Stan Lee & Steve Ditko, 1961, as reprinted in Monster Masterworks 1989
              
10. The Superman Emergency Squad; Noble Brainiac-Compressed Kryptonians From The Bottled City Of Kandor

Cover & panel from "The Last Days Of Superman", from 1962's Superman #156, by Edmond Hamilton, Curt Swan & George Klein
11. Mega-Low Maniacs, Meteor-Traveling, Universe-Conquering TinyTyrants Seeking To Rule The Earth

By Jamie Smart, From The Dandy #3583

12. The Atom; Dr Ray Palmer, Master Of The Size-Change Triggering White Dwarf Star Matter

The JLA letter's page logo circa #100, by - ? - Murphy Anderson
Cover by Jim Aparo, a lovely example of The Atom as vulnerable and yet purposeful hero, from 1974
Cover and interior art by Gil Kane, with story by Jan Strnad, 1983
       
13. Green Arrow & Speedy, Whose Inadvertent Journey To The Giant-Filled Land Of Dimension X Left Them Seeming As If They Were "Tiny People"

"Prisoners Of Dimension X" by Jack Kirby, from Adventure Comics #256, 1958

Special Bonus Ant-Sized Crime-Fighter . Ant-Man, The Shrinking Super-heroic Alter Ego Of Dr Henry Pym

Ant-Man and the "Ant Brigade" begin the treacherous descent down the Vision's tongue and into the android's body, by Neal Adams & Roy Thomas, Avengers #93, 1971
           
Top absentee from the above who would've been a dead cert for inclusion is the 5-Year Later Legion take on Shrinking Violet. Sadly I lack access to the material to scan and post about her, but she would've been very high on the list.

For anyone that's passing, there'll be a little personal celebration of a recently passed landmark in this blog's life up later on today. You'd be very welcome to pop in. Things have changed, it seems, change has arrived without my noticing it. Beyond that, tomorrow will most probably bring a review of one of this week's books.
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17 comments:

  1. Oh, wonderful stuff! I like little people. Remember the fun-sized JLA from Lois Lane #111?

    http://www.comics.org/issue/24379/cover/4/

    I suppose they're covered by entry no.5!

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    1. Hello Martin:- Oh, I remember that cover! Always wanted to have the comic, only got it a few years ago. (I love that fact that only Aquaman's doing the donkey work. I suppose he got the short straw again.)

      These lists are by no way Statcounter winners. But I do enjoy putting them together, so rating be darned! They do OK, and I like doing them.

      By which I mean, I've finally gotten round to internalising your advice about just doing the stuff that's fun and hang the rest :)

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  2. Hey does anyone remember an issue of Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane where our eponymous heroine was tied up by a bunch of lilliputian versions of the JLA? That cover was quite saucy back in the day.
    Oh, S**t? Martin's gone and beaten me to it! Ive just read his above comment!
    [goes to look at nude pics of Prince Harry on the internet].

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    1. Hello Karl:- Martin always has to be the first one to show up with a relevant Lois Lane cover. Always.

      Well, let him get a Lois Lane cover out of next week's subject!

      Delete

    2. I accept the Lois challenge, Colin - do feel free to give me advance notice!

      And how I hated Sword of the Atom - a hero with one unique selling point, and he's send to live with people who are relatively the same, made to wear a loincloth over his shorts and forced to fight junebugs* with needles.

      And to add insult to injury, Jean Loring does the dirty on him with a man sporting a pencil tache. As if!

      * I have little idea what a junebug is, but it sounds pretty.

      Delete

    3. Hello Martin:- Well, that would actually be really good fun, if and when of course you've a moment to do so. The Martin Grey Lois challenge would be one of those where-did-that-idea-come-from things which would endlessly cheer me up.

      I'll get you the next one on Saturday. Obviously, with all that journalism and real life and blogging and stuff, there's alot of stuff to come first. But the very idea cheers me up.

      That pencil tache had a lot to answer for. Without that, Jean's decline from smart, able professional and wife to INTERGALACTIC SUPER-CRIMINAL might never have started.

      Sword Of The Atom. Great creators, some fine ideas, a great big misplaced turning out to nowhere ...

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    4. Oh, and "junebugs". Things with needles, I think. Little things, but deadly ....

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  3. Along with Shrinking violet, a longer list could include her fellow legionnaire, Quislet. Also, there's the FF villain from the Lee/Kirby days, Psychoman, who turned out to be a microscopic fellow animating a human-sized costume. A fine list, and I was happy to see Doll Man and the Scrapper Troopers included--that's inclusive!

    -mikesensei

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    1. Hello mikesensei:- Quislet is a strange thing for my mind to forget. Good call. Psychoman too. I have no reason why, but there character always scared the younger me, and some trace of that remains. I really must go and see why that should be so ...

      Who could possibly ignore Doll Man and the Scrapper Troopers? Of all the lil'super-men, I think Doll Man is my favourite; that Doll-Jet is adorable! And the Scrapper Troopers? I wish I had a few ranks of them looking after me, I can tell you.

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  4. Would the Banzai Battalion from 2000AD (or Judge Dredd's Mega-City One to be more precise) count in your list too?

    Kiwijohn

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    1. Hello Kiwijohn:- I was so straining to try to remember a good example from 2000AD. To my shame, I couldn't remember any. The Banzai Battalion? Tiny robot gardeners fighting off insects and the like? That would have gone straight in, no doubt.

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  5. I don't suppose anyone else is old enough to remember Jiffy and the Glyphs from the Sparky?

    Or maybe it was the Beezer.

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    1. Hello Martin:- I didn't remember, Martin, but I checked out the link below and memories of seaside reading have begun to re-emerge. Or maybe that's hindsight. I suspect I could convince myself that the Beatles played in my Aunty May's Musselburgh sitting room if I tried hard enough.

      http://petergraycartoonsandcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2009/12/topper-comics-jiffy-and-glyphs-by.html

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  6. What about the smurfs? They were really cool in Peyo's early Johan et Pirloit books. Peyo was a true master.

    Too little European comics in your blog Colin! ;)

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    1. Hello CJ:- Ah, but the Smurfs appeared in last week's list, CJ. They were there - playfully - in the Marxist characters list. I didn't want to use them twice.

      http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/those-marxist-super-people-bakers-dozen.html

      Fair point about the European comics in the list. I hope you might consider letting me know things that I might have added in the future. I'd be fascinated to know what opportunities I've missed.

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  7. Ah, yes. I forgot about that. Sorry. :)

    Haha Okay, I'll send you a list of some non-anglosaxic things that you might have missed. :)

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    1. Hello CJ:- THANK YOU for the suggestions. I shall sit down with them just as soon as I get the latest deadlines out of the way. You're a generous egg and no denying :)

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