Hey, gang, since space considerations forced Roy to drop the sidebars I wrote for the article, I thought I'd post 'em here:
Winky, Blinky & Noddy:
A Stooge By Any Other Name
There's no denying the resemblance between Winky Doylan, Blinky Moylan, and Noddy Toylan, the Golden Age Flash's screwy pals, and those favorites of generations of mayhem-loving moviegoers, the Three Stooges. Noddy is the Moe counterpart, Winky looks like a fat Larry, and Blinky is … um… And there's the problem. Yes, the Three Dimwits are
based on Messrs. Howard, Fine, and Howard, but it does the characters a disservice to dismiss them as a mere homage (or rip-off, depending on your point of view).
Introduced in
All-Flash Quarterly #5 (Summer 1942) as bumbling henchmen of that story's heavy, the boys quickly abandon petty crime for the potentially more lucrative field of invention. Their personality ray, which earns them professorships at “Columbine University,” is but the first in a line of wacky, and often dangerous, creations of the trio of idiot savants (emphasis on the “idiot”). When they aren't making questionable contributions to science, the Dimwits are launching — and sinking — other careers for which they are singularly unsuited. At various times, the boys are restauranteurs, private tutors, lawyers, stagehands, firemen, elevator operators, house painters, radio repairmen, night watchmen, swing musicians, bakers, and even the parole board at Sing-Song Prison. Their main function, however, is to act as catalysts for The Flash's adventures.
So popular do Winky, Blinky, and Noddy become that they earn their own series, beginning in
All-American Comics #73 (May 1946). Drawn by their co-creator, E. E. Hibbard, for most of their brief run (the Grand Comics Database lists no writing credits for the series), the solo episodes contain few surprises but plenty of belly laughs. The day of the high-comedy sidekick is passing, however, and the strip disappears after
All-American #82 (February 1947). Just a few months later, the Three Dimwits make their final Golden Age appearance in
All-Flash #29 (June-July 1947).
The boys return for one last hurrah in
The Flash #117 (December 1960), a revival suggested by one Roy Thomas in the previous issue's letters page. “The Madcap Inventors of Central City” is the first script by Gardner Fox for the updated version of his creation and not, alas, an auspicious one. The Dimwits' slapstick shenanigans are out of place in the Silver Age. Reader reaction is “heavily” negative, as reported in
Flash #120 (May 1961), but Roy is pleased with the results: his enthusiastic letter in the same issue wins him the original art for “Madcap Inventors.”
Kid Flash:
Lightning Strikes Twice
The costumed kid sidekick, a staple of the super-hero genre since the debut of Robin in 1940, is alive and well at DC in 1959. Thus, no one is surprised when John Broome and Carmine Infantino introduce a junior version of their hit character, The Flash, in the 110th issue of his eponymous title (cover-dated December 1959-January 1960). From the very start, however, they and editor Julius Schwartz have more in mind for solemn but plucky Wally West than the clichéd role of tagalong Boy Wonder. Kid Flash is not Barry Allen's partner but an ally, an independent operative featured in a solo series that appears irregularly in the back pages of
The Flash beginning with #111.
Set in the Midwestern town of Blue Valley where Wally (originally short for Walter, later for Wallace) lives with his family—electrical engineer Bob, domestic engineer Mary, and a dog Infantino inserts in the art never otherwise mentioned—Kid Flash's adventures are low-keyed compared to his adult counterpart. Most episodes find Wally donning his tights to help a classmate or teacher at Blue Valley High School who has run afoul of criminals of some variety or other, criminals inevitably no match for the Teen Tornado's super-speed. Only once does Kid Flash tackle a costumed villain, teaming up with The Elongated Man to foil The Weather Wizard's latest scheme (
Flash #130). Broome scripts the first ten installments, giving them a nostalgic warmth well-served by the open, atmospheric art of the Infantino-Giella team. Still, it is an oddly quiet approach to a character capable of meeting far greater challenges than those offered.
Enter the Teen Titans. Introduced by editor George Kashdan, writer Bob Haney, and artist Bruno Premiani in
The Brave and the Bold #54 (June-July 1964), the teaming of Kid Flash, Robin, and Aqualad, later joined by Wonder Girl and Speedy, proves popular, earning the young heroes their own title. The Titans' missions, though self-consciously tailored to their presumably teenage readership, bring Wally and his friends into conflict with enough alien invaders, giant robots, international crime syndicates, super-villains, and miscellaneous monsters to satisfy the most voracious action fan. Small wonder, then, that the interim between Kid Flash solo stories grows longer and longer. Later installments in the '60s, written by Gardner Fox, maintain the laid-back feel of Broome's stories while injecting slightly more fantastic plot elements (e.g., an invisibility machine, mass hypnosis), but with
Teen Titans showcasing the character to better advantage, the backup series becomes redundant. Though new installments appear as late as
The Flash #325 (September 1983), most of his development as a character henceforth occur in the various incarnations of the Titans title.
Wally West will be one of the first kid sidekicks to fulfill the promise implicit in that role, inheriting the mantle of the Scarlet Speedster following the death of Barry in
Crisis On Infinite Earths #8 (November 1985), and it is as the Flash of a new generation of comics fans that he is best known today.
Cei-U!
I summon the CCF exclusive!
