“Fantasy Isle” was an experiment in Fantasy comics that appeared in Amazing Mystery Funnies. This anthology book from Centaur Publications ran from August 1938 to September 1940. In V3# #1 (January 1940) began the nine pieces that comprise this odd fantastical journey starring Tippy Taylor. The ninth and final piece appeared in The Arrow #2 (November 1940). Like the strips we looked at previously, Danny in Wonderland (February 1941-May 1943) , Dickey in the Magic Forest (January 1941-May 1942), Jimmy Jupiter and the Land of Nowhere (February 1942 to October 1943) and Sir Butch and the Land of Waydaheckout (Spring 1942-November 25, 1942) a central character will have multiple adventures in a changing landscape of strange and amazing creatures and people. “Fantasy Isle” pre-dates them all by at least a year. All these strips take some of their inspiration from Winsor McCay’s comic strip”Little Nemo in Slumberland”.
The writer/artist of “Fantasy isle” was George Loomis Jr. There is almost no information about this creator other than some credits with Centaur and book illustration. All of these comics can be found for free at DCM.
Episode 1 (V3# #1 (January 1940)
Tippy Taylor works for a newspaper, The Metropolitan Times in California. He is given a job to go on and report about a round-the-world flight. Unfortunately, due to storms, the plane is crashed. Tippy and the aviator end up on a strange remote island. We know almost immediately that this is a strange place when a dinosaur watches the two men go up the beach.
The duo meet more dinosaurs and get chased by an overprotective mother. This leads to Tippy finding a subterranean castle. It appears to be filled with wax figures. (They are actually plastic robots.) He also finds a wizard who tells him he is on the Isle of Phantasy. The wizard requires three elements for a spell he is working on: shells of Mugwug Monster eggs, three hairs from Collossus the Giant’s head and the Black Stone of the Tinilonian Kingdom. He convinces Tippy to go on a quest for these items. In return, the wizard will help him get home.
To facilitate his journey, the wizard introduces Tippy to Mr, Doaks, a giant talking bird. Doaks dumps him off in the Tinilonoan Kingdom with a warning: “You’re stickin’ your neck out, if you go to Tinilonia, chum!” It proves to be a world of cars and modern humans but of a very small size.
Issue #18 (March 1940)
Tippy explores Tinilonia, finding everything is tiny, including the cows. He hurries to the capital to ask for the blackstone. The president’s answer is to make a deal. In exchange for the stone, Tippy will help win the war against Microlavia. The visitor does a pretty good job of Gulliver-style giant stuff like throwing tanks. The war is over and the Tinilonians think they have won. But part of the deal is that Tippy will be arbiter. He says no one wins. The president of Tinilonia sees the female dictator of Microlavia and remembers the girl he fell in love with. They reunite. Tippy is given the blackstone.
Issue #19 (April 1940)
Tippy goes in search of Collosus the giant. Unfortunately, he has to enter Hell to do it. He first encounters some witches then some weird ghoulish figures in cloaks. He has to tackle one of them and throw him off a bridge to go on. He finds Colossus sleeping. He wakes and tries to eat Tippy. The tiny man knocks him out with a rock and takes some hair from his head for the wizard. Colossus wakes and Tippy uses two invisibility pills to get away. The only problem is he doesn’t know to become visible again.
Issue #20 (May 1940)
Still invisible, he enters a swamp filled with dinosaurs. He dives in the water and comes out visible again. He seeks the shells of the Mugwug Monster’s eggs. Tippy doesn’t realize he can be seen again and a dinosaur follows him. He tries to escape by crossing a vine over a ravine. The dinosaur tries too and gets stuck. Tippy pulls him over and the beast falls in love with him. The lad is hungry so when he finds an egg he cracks it open to eat. It’s a Mugwug Monster egg. He now has his shells. Momma monster isn’t happy though and attacks him. The friendly dino intervenes and Tippy gets away.
Issue #21 (June 1940)
Tippy runs into Mr. Doaks, who flies him back to the wizard’s castle. The sage takes the gathered ingredients Tippy gathered and creates a potion that gives life to robots. With hundreds of these robots, the wizard plans to change Phantasy island into a modern reality, where the robots do all the work and humans can laze about. The robots quickly learn to make more robots. Tippy meets Electra, the wizard’s secretary. She has all his knowledge except his magic. She warns the humans: “BEWARE the rolling snowball! It will increase in size until it becomes a roaring avalanche!” She secretly organizes the robots for revolution. They try to decapitate the humans. The wizard disappears then shows up to save his friends. The robots flee but not from the magic that can paralyze them. An earthquake has struck. Tippy falls down a hole…
Issue #22 (July 1940)
Tippy falls into an underground world. He opens a jar and a genii pops out. The genii gives him a ring that will summon him if he is needed. Tippy walks on but is being watched by the queen of the underworld. She sends someone to get him before she demands Tippy marry her. She will give him time to think it over. During that time a dancing girl falls in love with the stranger. The queen gives Tippy the keys to her kingdom but he is not to enter one room. Of course, he does, finding the dead bodies of the previous husbands. The queen decides to turn Tippy into a statue instead of just killing him. The dancing girl helps him escape, giving Tippy a pill that will shrink him. He returns to our world but at what size?
Issue #23 (August 1940)
Now small, Tippy finds a village of bug people but everyone is frozen. Talking to a smoking caterpillar on a mushroom, he finds out that an evil witch has cursed them. The caterpillar suggests Tippy go to her hut and find the antidote. He sneaks into the hut being small. The witch’s cat catches him and he must fight to survive. In the struggle, a candle in a bottle falls on the cat, killing it. This releases the Queen of the Fairies who had been trapped in a spell. The queen shows Tippy the witch’s spell book before she flies off. Tippy hides in a skull on the witch’s table…
Issue #24 (September 1940)
The witch knows someone has been in her hut. She looks in her crystal ball for an omen. She sees a skull. In disgust she throws the crystal and it hits the skull where Tippy is hiding. Captured, the witch sends her prisoner into a weird dream where vegetables cook people. Tippy awakens from this to find himself in a mouse trap. He pulls himself out and sees the witch asleep. While she slumbers, he looks in her spell book and creates a potion. This he shoots into the witch’s face with a bow and arrow. The spell turns her young, beautiful and nice. She agrees to smash the Vial of Tears, freeing the Enchanted City. The insect folk go back to their usual activities including politics and science. The witch tells Tippy if he wants to regain his size he will have to sleep one night by the house of two oaks.
The Arrow #2 (November 1940)
Tippy goes to the creepy house. Of course, there is a thunder storm. Tippy discovers a grave that has been dug up. He knows a ghoul is at work. He approaches the house but a trapdoor sends him to the basement. A voice announces that he is in The House of Satan. He tries to climb back up but the ladder falls down a second trapdoor. He finds the missing coffin and the man who took it. He is a scientist, who looks like a butcher. He tells Tippy the demons will soon arrive and no one survives them. Tippy wants to return to his normal size. The doctor offers him a potion. Tippy refuses it. A walking dead man named Carlos knocks their guest out. Tippy awakens to find himself tied to a chair. The doctor admits he is Satan. He hypnotizes Tippy to drink the potion. The lad has a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde transformation into an ugly monster. In this form, Tippy scares away the demons. Satan tries to run but Tippy kicks him down. Satan takes on his usual red underwear look and admits Tippy has beaten him. The sun is rising so Tippy is returned to his normal size. He is trapped in the house so he has to break out through the roof. The wizard’s subterranean castle has disappeared.
Conclusion
Tippy’s adventures end there. We never get to see him use the Genii ring. We don’t find out what happened to the wizard and the robots. George Loomis Jr. has run out of ideas so the comic simply ends. Looking back at the segments it isn’t hard to see influences. The most obvious is Alice in Wonderland. That caterpillar with the hookah pipe is a dead give-away. (This pre-dates Disney’s cartoon by ten years so Loomis must have read the book.) Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift is also here. We also find Bluebeard, fairies, genies and giants from fairy tales and legends. Mixed in with that and wizards like Merlin are the Science Fictional elements: robots, dinosaurs, underground people. My favorite is the final episode with its Shudder Pulp feel, with a fat doctor who experiments on people in a creepy house. Loomis runs the gamut, mixing it all in a kaleidoscope of strangeness.
Tippy never becomes the sword-wielding hero of Sword & Sorcery but he does open the door to such fare in a decade. Gardner F. Fox will give us Crom the Barbarian in ten years. Danny, Dickey, Jimmy and Jupiter will all follow in the months ahead along with the guy in our next post, Jimminy and the Magic Book.
