Comic Info
Comic Name: Four Color Comics/Marge’s Tubby
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Writer: John Stanley
Artist: John Stanley
# of Issues: 6
Release Date: 2010
Four Color Comics #381
Reprints Four Color Comics #381, 430, 444, 461, and Marge’s Tubby #5-6 (March 1952-October 1953). Tubby finds himself the captain of a pirate’s ship, battling lions, fighting “Indians”, and thwarting kidnappers and bank robbers. Even with all his adventures, the one thing Tubby can’t do is win Gloria’s affection.
Written and illustrated by the great John Stanley, Little Lulu’s Pal Tubby Volume 1: The Castaway and Other Stories picks up the four Tubby issues from Four Color Comics before it launched into his own spin-off title Marge’s Tubby. Collected by Dark Horse Comics, this collection is the first in the set of the Tubby solo-tales. Also featured in this collection is Four Colors Comics #461 where Tubby meets the Martians which become a running theme in his stories.
Little Lulu and Tubby were a lot of fun. They were kind of Dennis the Menace type of characters who weren’t always nice, but they weren’t mean or cruel. Tubby is kind of the lovable lunkhead that it doesn’t matter if he wins because he’ll always lose. It isn’t as bad as Charlie Brown, but Tubby’s run of luck is pretty poor. Other than a reward for captured bank robbers, Tubby’s never seems to profit from his actions, but unlike Charlie Brown or Eeyore, Tubby never seems to let it get him down or keep him down…He just goes with the flow.
Marge’s Tubby #6
The comic by today’s standards are pretty racist and un-PC, but they aren’t really done in a malicious way. In particular, the “Bugaboo Indians” story that kicked off Marge’s Tubby #5 was particularly rough and a good example of what I mean. The Native Americans are of course “Indians” (but I still struggle with this PC change sometimes), and Tubby blends in with them by dying his skin bright red with berries. The Indians are savage warriors bent on killing and kidnapping white girls, but Tubby and Gloria escape them…It is redeemed a bit in that it was all in Tubby’s head, but still, things like that probably wouldn’t fly today unless it was on something like South Park which isn’t aimed at kids.
I do recommend reading Little Lulu’s Pal Tubby 1: The Castaway and Other Stories especially if you’ve never read Little Lulu or Tubby before. It is a fun, quick read and presented nicely and in full color by Dark Horse. Little Lulu and Tubby demonstrated that kids’ “funny” comics don’t always mean dumb and goofy. It is refreshing to read a classic read like this and be taken back to the golden age of comics. Check Tubby out! Little Lulu’s Pal Tubby 1: The Castaway and Other Stories was followed by Little Lulu’s Pal Tubby 2: The Runaway Statue and Other Stories.
Related Links:
Little Lulu’s Pal Tubby 4: The Atomic Violin and Other Stories
