A Herbie comic for you to enjoy

Again With the Comics presents an early-1960's comic books story about one of the weirdest and most intriguing super-heroes ever, Herbie, the Fat Fury. This 9-page story is called “Professor Flipdome’s Screwy Machine.”

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Herbie was the creation of ACG editor Richard E. Hughes, writing under the pseudonym Shane O’Shea, and first appeared in Forbidden Worlds #73, December 1958. The plump lump went on to star in his own series and eventually took on a costumed identity, the Fat Fury. Costume or no, Herbie was one of the most omni-powered beings in comics history, meeting any and all challenges with an unflappable, deadpan cool and his bottomless arsenal of specialty lollipops. The stories were whimsical, madcap, and unabashedly silly, and this one is no exception. From giant menacing flowers, to strap-on bee butts, to tiny micro-world duplicates, this comic has more crazy ideas than a Grant Morrison clone farm, and all in nine pages. Link

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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Vanwall

Yay! Herbie Popnecker and his plunger hat! I loved the cover with Elizabeth Taylor (!!) as Cleopatra. One of the best comic series ever.
your neighborhood librarian

Didn’t Chris Ware or someone resurrect Herbie a few years back? Maybe as a last-page mini-feature?

Wikipedia mentions an early-90′s Dark Horse version, but I am fairly certain I am remembering something more post-modern.
Stefan Jones

Cripes, that was seriously strange!
kip w

Thanks so much! Herbie’s an all-time favorite, and Professor Flipdome was one of the few recurring characters apart from Herbie’s immediate family.

Interesting thing about his secret identity: the only reason he wore a superhero costume seems to have been to keep the truth from his parents, who were not quite smart enough to figure out what almost everybody else in the world (and in all of time) know already — that Herbie rules.

I still have the first Herbie comic I ever bought… though not the cover. Heh. Issue number two. It was twelve cents well spent, and it hooked me.
Registrado

Herbie, the Fat Fury

Misread that as “Herbie, the Fat Furry.” I guess that’d be a completely different sort of comic…
OM

…Ah, Herbie. AKA “The Adventures of Tom Galloway when he was a ~~Boy~~ Man” :)