DC Comics had a portal Fantasy comic in the tradition of “Fantasy Isle”, “Dicky in the Magic Forest”, “Danny in Wonderland”, “Sir Butch”, “Jimmy Jupiter” with “Jimminy and the Magic Book”. The strip was written by Jack Mendelsohn and drawn by Howie Post.
The series was found in the last seven issues of More Fun Comics (April -November-December 1947). 1947 was pretty late in the game with most of the others appearing five years earlier. DC was cancelling its earliest comics like More Fun Comics, which had originally reprinted comic strips from the newspapers. Now a company with such hits as Action Comics, Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, these old fashioned anthology comics were put to bed. (Others like Adventure Comics were converted into venues for more Superman stories.) When the end came, Jack and Howie had five Jimminy’s left, so the final issue of More Fun Comics is a Jimminy-fest.
Howie Post, the artist of the entire series, brought an animation style to his cartooning. This was because he had worked for Paramount’s animation studio as an in-betweener (one who draws the frames in between the main animator’s drawings). The job paid little so he wandered into comics to help pay the family bills since his father was an invalid. He came to comics through Bernard Baily. By 1945, he joined National Publications (later known as DC Comics) and produced a variety of Western and funny animal strips. Howie’s art in this comic reminds me of the best of Walt Kelly in Fairy Tale Parade and other comics. It’s the animation experience that gives the art a nice feel.
Most of these titles here are my own. All art by Howie Post.
Issue #121 (April 1947)
“The Very First Jimminy Story!” begins with Jimminy Crockett receiving the magic book from his father. Taking it to the soft grass by the pond, Jimminy drops it in the water. He was looking at a picture of King Neptune when this happened so the sea king appears. The king has his mermaids take Jimminy in an air bubble to search for the book. It turns out the Gnome King has it. Jimminy tricks him into digging a passage back to the surface and returning the book. Jimminy foolishly looks at a page about a giant. The titan shows up and is about to eat him. “Fee Fi Fo Fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman!” Jimminy tells the giant he is American with many different nationalities in his family. The giant turns him down because he is worried about getting an upset stomach. Jimminy makes it home at last.
“Fairyland Forest!” begins Alice in Wonderland style. Jimminy sees a talking hat in his book. The hat appears on a scarecrow. The hat can’t talk but the white rabbit inside it can. It’s Benny the Babbling Bunny. And for the price of a carrot he offers to show Jim the wonders of fairyland. First they go to speak with the trees. But Old Man Oak isn’t talking nor any of the others. Benny approaches the fairies but they run away. He discovers a mean giant is in the forest. He and Jimminy concoct a plan to get rid of him. Jimminy shows up riding a frog and brandishing a sword. The giant chases him into a tree where there is a bee hive. The bees chase the giant away.
Issue 122 (May 1947)
“Jimminy Goes to Sea!” has a turtle named Admiral on a raft. He take the boy to sea. They runs foul of Cap’n Blah and his pirates. The boy and turtle end up in the galley peeling potatoes. The spuds take out Cap’n Blah before Jimminy returns to reality.
“Sir Jimminy!” has Jimminy fall asleep and dream of Camelot. He floats through space before he is challenged by Sir Launcelot. Jimminy wins a joust then gets to face another giant.
Issue 123 (June 1947)
“That Darn Cat!” starts with a cat appearing in the bucket in the well. The bucket takes them to ancient Greece where Jim sees the Pegasus and meets Zeus.
“Christopher Columbus!” has Jimminy join Chris Columbus as he arrives in America. The native people are friendly. One of the conquistadors is an evil man and gets eaten by the dark forest.
Issue 124 (July 1947)
“Champion Jumper!” is Jimminy’ Australian adventure with a kangaroo, a boomerang and a big hairy brute that chases them.
“The Mechanical Horse!” has an inventor and his metal horse. This one is odd in that the inventor kills himself and appears as an angel at the end, happy to try out his new wings.
Issue 125 (August 1947)
“The Four Winds!” has a magic carpet that takes Jimminy to visit the four winds. The cold polar wind is the most dangerous.
“The Return of the Cat!” is a really crazy one with a doctor from an animal hospital trying to catch a cat. This one has Warner Bros. style gags like the doctor shooting himself in the face with a gun. The cat is vaguely similar to old Krazy Kat.
Issue 126 (September 1947)
“The Slave of the Wonderful Lamp!” has Jimminy finding a genie who takes him to ancient Arabia.
“The Pirates!” has an alligator who takes on more pirates in a swamp. The alligator is a vegetarian and the treasure proves to be carrots.
Issue 127 (November-December 1947)
“Prehistoria!” has Jimminy find a caveman who takes him to a prehistoric world full of dinosaurs. Jim gets home at the end with an exploding volcano, of course! Howie Post would later in 1968 create the caveman comic, Anthro for DC. Not surprising, this one is my favorite.
“Cap’n Burly!” is an interesting old sailor friend of Jimminy’s. First there is an adventure with a lion and a goat then a ship full of pirates.
“Trip to the Moon!” is Jimminy’s Science Fiction adventure. A pilot of spaceship shows up and takes Jim to the Moon. Things don’t go well and the Moon is blown up. But at least it is made of tasty cheese.
“Cow Heaven!” has Jim’s mom send him out to milk their ailing cow, Petunia. A donkey kicks Jimminy to Cow Heaven where he finds Petunia’s soul and returns it to her body.
“The Lonesome Wizard!” is the final tale. Jimminy stumbles upon an invisible wizard. He follows the magician to his house and discovers he is an evil sort. After several failed spells, Jimminy meets the real wizard. The other one was only his stupid apprentice. Taking off his magic hat, he turns out to be even younger than Jimminy. Jim returns home and the series ends.
Conclusion
The Fantasy world of Casper followed Jimminy in St. John’s 1949 Casper the Ghost. I have called this The Land of Harvey, after its later publisher. Much of what Harvey Comics would do with Casper, Wendy, Stumbo and Hot Stuf’ was tried in the earlier portal comics like “Jimminy and the Magic Book”. Howie Post worked for Harvey Comics, drawing Hot Stuff the Little Devil, Spooky the Tuff Little Ghost, Wendy the Good Little Witch, and the Ghostly Trio in the 1960s. Harvey dispensed with the obligatory “It was all a dream!” scenario, making the forest where Stumbo the Giant, Wendy, the Good Little Witch and others dwelt on the edge of our reality, an actual place where fantastic fun could still happen.
