Scott Shaw!, whose name should never be spelled without that exclamation point, has a nice column today about one of the all-time great comic books. And I can say that without caring if I drive the price of 'em up because I long ago completed my set of Sheldon Mayer's brilliant Scribbly. Perhaps too subtle for its time — no broad slapstick, no grisly deaths, no nubile teen girls flashing their undies — the comic didn't last long. While it was around, it caught the fancy of every young boy who wanted to be a cartoonist and who felt he was a bit of a nerd. "Nerd" was not a term in common usage at the time but the feeling — of not fitting in, of not being good enough to fit in — is as old as the lungfish. Doubtlessly, there were Cro-Magnon nerds.
Scribbly Jibbet (he's the guy with the lovesick look) was of the late-40s/early-50s variety (though he'd first appeared in '36) and we liked him a lot. His loss from the newsstands cleared space on Mayer's schedule so he could create his long-running, more-successful Sugar & Spike, so that was some consolation. I think Sugar & Spike is one of the greatest comic books ever done…but I think Scribbly was even better.