“Danny in Wonderland” was a Fantasy comic strip that appeared in Pep Comics #12 to #39 (February 1941-May 1943). It was written by Harry Shorten and drawn by Lin Streeter (12-29), Bob Montana (30), Red Holmdale (31-39). It premiered a month after “Dicky in the Magic Forest” in another MLJ comic, Zip Comics. The editors must have felt both magazines needed a fairy tale style comic for children. Both strips had a line up of superheroes, valiant government men and detectives as well as a single Fantasy-based strip.
The opening story has Danny working on his Uncle’s ranch breaking horses. After a hard day, Danny reads a book of fairy tales. He wishes he could go to a land of wonder. His wish is granted by a fairy who appears and takes him to a world of giants and witches. She does this by sending a cyclone to sweep up Danny and his dog, Snapper. Once in Wonderland, the fairy sends Danny on different missions, beginning with the giant who lives up a beanstalk. With the help of the giant’s wife, Danny frees the children the giant eats as dessert. He escapes the ruddy-colored monster by making him sneeze with pepper. Danny is blown up to the oil lamp above. He pores the oil on the giant and lights him on fire.
The inspiration for this first adventure isn’t hard to see. Being drawn in 1941, there had been two big movies (both actually did poorly at the box office) that had an influence. Disney’s Pinocchio (1940) probably gave us the fairy, while The Wizard of Oz (1939) the cyclone. It is possible Shorten read them in their original story form, but the movies had a huge influence on comic creators. Disney’s “Mickey and the Beanstalk” was still six years away.
Danny’s second adventure skips any mention of our world and goes right into Danny’s next mission. He is to retrieve an amulet from a witches’ neck so he can revive a princess who has been put to sleep. The witch chases Danny and Snapper around before Danny shoves her into an oven Gretel-style. Children killing monsters based on adults seems to be a recurrent theme so far. Being a Golden Age comic before the Comics Code, such violence was acceptable.
Danny goes on to meet all kinds of classic monsters including dragons, a Moby Dick-like whale, a cyclop, and genies, even the Devil.
As the comic progresses, Danny finds himself inside classic children’s tales like The Arabian Nights, Alice in Wonderland, pirate yarns, castle intrigues and jungle adventures with talking animals.
It should be remembered that this comic began as World War II was warming up. Before the comic ended the US would be involved too. This meant the comics became propaganda vehicles with plenty of fun poked at figures like Hitler. Danny’s Wonderland was no exception.
Danny began his adventures with only his dog, Snapper at his side. Until Issue #31, when Snapper dies. (For real!) Earlier in the strip Danny gained another friend, the dwarfish, Kupkake or “Kuppie” for short. Now Danny had a new counterpart to do all the silly pratfalls and make big mistakes.
In the final analysis, “Danny in Wonderland” was a “cuter” comic than “Dicky in the Magic Forest”, closer to what later Fantasy land comics like Harvey’s world of Casper and Wendy will be in what I call “The Land of Harvey”. Lin Streeter’s art can be very cartoony at times but Red Holmdale was even worse. Danny’s first comics are most like “Dicky in the Magic Forest”, with evil witches and nasty giants, but as the comic went on it became softer. No surprise, I like Dicky better because it is closer to a Sword & Sorcery comic. That, of course, would not exist until Gardner F. Fox and Joe Kubert did some in the 1950s .
All these comics are available free at DCM.
