Herbie Popnecker

Herbie

Herbie, from Forbidden Worlds #114 (Sept. 1963).
Art by Ogden Whitney
Publication information
Publisher American Comics Group
First appearance Forbidden Worlds #73 (Dec. 1958)
Created by Richard E. Hughes and Ogden Whitney
In-story information
Alter ego Herbie Popnecker
Notable aliases Fat Fury
Abilities Flying
Invisibility
Ability to talk to animals
Time travel

Herbie Popnecker is a fictional character, who first appeared in Forbidden Worlds #73 in December 1958, published by American Comics Group. He was created by Richard E. Hughes (using the pseudonym "Shane O'Shea")[1] and Ogden Whitney.

Herbie is an antithetical hero: short, obese, unstylish, and young. Ironically, he is also one of the most powerful and best-known beings in history. Deriving some of his powers from genetics and some from magical lollipops from "the Unknown," Herbie can talk to animals and sometimes even inanimate objects (who all know him by name), fly at high enough speeds to quickly travel to other galaxies (by walking through the sky), become invisible, cast spells and summon spirits from other dimensions, quickly dispatch his enemies with apparent ease, and (once he got his own title) travel through time. Herbie is emotionless, terse, irresistible to women, consulted by world leaders, and more powerful than Satan.

Publication history

Herbie made several appearances in Forbidden Worlds, in issues #73, #94, #110, #114, and #116 — the final two issues with Herbie featured on the cover. Herbie also made a cameo appearance — albeit very much out of character — in Unknown Worlds #20, published in 1961.

Herbie received his own title in April 1964. The series ran for twenty-three issues until February 1967, shortly before the demise of American Comics Group.

Fictional character biography

Herbie's parents are unaware of his great powers and fame. His mother is reasonably supportive, however his father, Pincus Popnecker, repeatedly refers to him as a "little fat nothing" and wishes he had a son who "did something". Herbie's father, despite his wholesome and conservative "1950s dad" appearance, constantly engages in harebrained schemes and fails. Herbie is always obliged to bail him out in each circumstance, though the clueless Pincus always takes the credit and believes himself to be a financial genius.

Herbie is practically always shown with a lollipop, and lollipops are the main subjects of several stories. Herbie can "bop" adversaries with his lollipops, immediately defeating them. Herbie intimidates his adversaries by asking them rhetorically, "You want I should bop you with this here lollipop?", which almost always results in them backing down.

Fat Fury

In Herbie #8 (March 1965), Herbie feels a need to become a costumed superhero, but after failing superhero school, he creates the Fat Fury by donning full-body red underwear with a drop seat, a blue cape, a blue plastic mask, and a plunger on his head. He is bare-footed. Herbie's clueless father then begins to wish that his little fat nothing of a son could be more like the Fat Fury.

As the Fat Fury, Herbie does not have any powers beyond the many he had before donning the costume. Although Herbie travels back in time, the Fat Fury never does. The Fat Fury was featured in even-numbered Herbie comics from #8 to #22.

Powers

Recurring gags

There are many recurring gags in Herbie comics:

Critical analysis

In a review of the Dark Horse Comics collections Herbie: Volume One and Herbie: Volume Two, The New York Times described Hughes' Herbie Popnecker as,

...a corpulent kid with half-lidded eyes, thick glasses and a hideous bowl cut. His father calls him a “little fat nothing,” not realizing that Herbie is actually a colossus striding across the cultural landscape of his era. With the aid of his super-empowering lollipops, Herbie punches out Sonny Liston, confronts Fidel Castro and gets sent on a secret mission by U Thant. Hughes took a while to perfect his stories’ tone of deadpan absurdity, but Whitney’s slightly stiff, matter-of-fact artwork improves the gags by understating them.[3]

Collections and revivals

In the 1990s, there were some attempts to revive Herbie. A-Plus Comics (which had purchased the American Comics Group reprint rights) published six black-and-white issues of reprints in 1991. Dark Horse Comics published two issues of a planned twelve in 1992, the first with a new story by John Byrne. Flaming Carrot Comics #31 (1994) featured an appearance by Herbie (words and pictures by Bob Burden). America's Comic Group (a publisher affiliated with A+ Comics) published a new story written by Roger Broughton with artwork by Dan Day.

In 2008, Dark Horse Comics announced that they would reprint the original Herbie stories in a series of hardcover archive volumes. The first Herbie Archives came out in August 2008 (ISBN 978-1-59307-987-1) and collects Herbie stories from Forbidden Worlds #73, 94, 110, 114, 116, Unknown Worlds #20, and Herbie #1 - 5. The second came out in December 2008 (ISBN 978-1-59582-216-1), and collects issues #6-14. The third and final volume came out in April 2009 (ISBN 978-1-59582-302-1), and collects issues #15-23.

Awards

Herbie comics received the Alley Award for Best Humor Comic Book 1964 and 1965. The Herbie Archives received the Eisner Award for Best Humor Publication in 2009.

References

  1. Herbie and The Fat Fury at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived (Herbie and The Fat Fury) from the originals on December 14, 2012, and April 16, 2012, respectively.
  2. Hughes, Bob "The Popnecker Papers: A Herbie History," Amazing Heroes #173, November 1989.
  3. Wolk, Douglas (December 5, 2008). "Holiday Books: Comics". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 15, 2012. Retrieved December 15, 2012.

External links

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