Super Duck
From Hey Kids Comics
Super Duck was a comic book character created in 1943 for what was then MLJ Comics (now Archie Comics) by staff artist Al Fagaly (1909–1963).
His first appearance came in Jolly Jingles #10 (Summer, 1943). As his name implied, Super Duck (nicknamed "Supe") was a parody of Superman, even down to a red and blue costume. He got his powers from a prescription for vitamins, much in the manner of Hourman, the Blue Beetle and others. He soon switched to a green and red suit, presumably to avoid legal action, but his time as a superhero was short, and by Jolly Jingles #16 (the last issue) his stories became more conventional, in the Carl Barks mode. By this time (late 1944) he had gotten his own book, fully titled Super Duck, the Cockeyed Wonder and his most familiar attire: a black shirt, red lederhosen and often an Alpine hat.
Supe now had a temperamental girlfriend Uwanna, a rival Dapper, a bratty nephew Fauntleroy (sometimes called Fluke or Faunt, sometimes identified as his younger brother), and a burly derelict friend named Mushnoggin.
Stories from this period of Super Duck's run involved Supe getting into hapless situations, such as:
- "Mopy Duck" - Supe yells at Faunt for thinking that someone could actually live inside a whale after reading the story of Jonah. Supe then accidentally falls off a cruise ship and, in short order, gets swallowed by a whale, meets someone living inside it, gets tossed around inside the whale, and manages to get out and land back on the ship after the whale throws him up in the air with his water spout. When Faunt sees that he's all wet and tells him so, Supe takes Faunt's book on Jonah and says, "Faunt, I'm all wet about a lot of things."
- "The Nifty Thifty Trip" - Supe and Faunt go camping in the country to save money, but Supe - against Faunt's advice - tries to steal apples and milk from farmers, and camps on private property. He is forced to spend money to pay for damages, pays exorbitantly when he and Faunt hitch a ride home in what turns out to be a taxi, and ends up with the worst case of poison ivy his doctor has ever seen. Even though he never wanted to hear about milk or the country ever again, Supe is forced to live on milk for month per doctor's orders and then has to go to the country for a long rest.
- "Cool Water" - Supe ricochets himself across a farm in attempt to pull a bucket of water from a well to drink. He gets the water and starts drinking it only to find frogs and insects in the water.
- Supe and Faunt advertise that they'll travel anywhere for money. A huckster with a Southern accent takes them to "The great state of Textucky." There, he tricks them into boarding a three-stage rocket. In outer space, when the rocket breaks up, they drift around until they meet an extraterrestrial used-spacecraft salesman, who sells them a flying saucer (for Supe's glass marbles; glass is unknown on his home planet). They fly the saucer back to "Textucky," where the conman pays then the 50 grand—in Confederate money! It's worthless! Faunt says, "Aw heck! We won't be able to spend it anywhere except here in ol' Textucky!" Supe thinks about this. So that's what they do!
The Super Duck comic book ended its run at 94 issues in 1960. His escapades would be reprinted in Archie Comics' digest series, Jughead Jones (at least as late as 1979), Laugh and Madhouse.
Robert Crumb wrote and drew a sexual version of Super Duck and Uwanna in a 7-page story in Mystic Funnies #3, published in 2002 by Fantagraphics Books.
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