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the first “hot foot” in history

two-page sequence

he climbs back behind a hinged wall outlet

sheet music

“Reddy Kilowatt” first appeared on March 11, 1926 as a cartoon corporate spokescharacter for the Alabama Power Company. Reportedly created by the company’s general commercial manager, Ashton B. Collins, Sr. -- after allegedly witnessing two lightning bolts strike the ground simultaneously, briefly forming the image of a human figure -- Reddy was intended to represent electricity as a beneficial “servant to mankind”. Eventually, the well-received character was licensed for use by other local power companies, with the Philadelphia Electric Company as the first of hundreds of licensees. But -- primarily due to the growth of the environmental movement and the OPEC oil embargo -- Reddy’s exposure waned. In 1998, Reddy Kilowatt was acquired by the Northern States Power Company, which has, in turn, created the Reddy Kilowatt Corporation. Its function is to oversee all the uses of Reddy Kilowatt, as well as his new “sibling” Reddy Flame, a spokescharacter for natural gas.

Early in EC Comics’ history, those letters stood for “Educational Comics” and the publisher was Max Gaines. At the time that this issue hit the newsstands, EC’s other titles included PICTURE STORIES FROM THE BIBLE, PICTURE STORIES FROM AMERICAN HISTORY and TINY TOT. But soon, a family tragedy would change the course of the company. In 1947, young William Gaines was in his senior year at NYU when his father, Max, was killed in a motorboat accident on Lake Placid. Instead of following his goal to become a chemistry teacher, Bill took over the family business. EC changed its editorial direction as well as its name in 1950. Now those initials stood for “Entertaining Comics”, and instead of educational material, EC presented its “New Direction”, which consisted of tales of horror, crime, war, science fiction, suspense and humor in such notoriously memorable comics – containing superior writing and art, often with a dash of Old Testament morality and “shock endings”. Here’s a list of titles published by EC:

• ACES HIGH (1955)
• ANIMAL FABLES (1946)
• ANIMATED COMICS (1947)
• BLACKSTONE THE MAGICIAN (1947)
• CONFESSIONS ILLUSTRATED (1956)
• CRIME ILLUSTRATED (1955)
• CRIME PATROL (1948)
• CRIME SUSPENSTORIES (1950)
• THE CRYPT OF TERROR (1950)
• DANDY COMICS (1948)
• DESERT DAWN (1947)
• EXTRA! (1955)
• FAT AND SLAT (1947)
• FRONTLINE COMBAT (1951)
• GUNFIGHTER (1948)
• HAPPY HOULIHANS (1947)
• HAUNT OF FEAR (1950)
• IMPACT (1955)
• INCREDIBLE SCIENCE FICTION (1955)
• INTERNATIONAL COMICS (1947)
• INTERNATIONAL CRIME PATROL (1948)
• THE LAND OF THE LOST COMICS (1946)
• M.D. (1955)
• MAD (1952)
• MODERN LOVE (1949)
• MOON GIRL (1947)
• MOON GIRL FIGHTS CRIME (1949)
• A MOON, A GIRL…ROMANCE (1949)
• PANIC (1954)
• PICTURE STORIES FROM AMERICAN HISTORY (1945)
• PICTURE STORIES FROM SCIENCE (1947)
• PICTURE STORIES FROM THE BIBLE (NEW TESTAMENT) (1946)
• PICTURE STORIES FROM THE BIBLE (OLD TESTAMENT) (1946)
• PICTURE STORIES FROM WORLD HISTORY (1947)
• PIRACY (1954)
• PSYCHOANALYSIS (1955)
• REDDY KILOWATT (1946)
• SADDLE JUSTICE (1948)
• SADDLE ROMANCES (1949)
• SHOCK SUSPENSTORIES (1952)
• TALES FROM THE CRYPT (1950)
• TALES OF TERROR ANNUAL (1951)
• TERROR ILLUSTRATED (1955)
• THREE DIMENSIONAL E.C. CLASSICS (1954)
• THREE DIMENSIONAL TALES FROM THE CRYPT (1954)
• TINY TOT (1946)
• TWO-FISTED TALES (1950)
• TWO-FISTED TALES ANNUAL (1952)
• VALOR (1955)
• VAULT OF HORROR (1950)
• WAR AGAINST CRIME! (1948)
• WEIRD FANTASY (1950/1951)
• WEIRD SCIENCE (1950/1951)
• WEIRD SCIENCE-FANTASY (1952/1954)

Thanks to efforts by psychiatrist Fredric Wertham and Senator Estes Kefauver's Committee on Juvenile Delinquency, EC was more or less badgered out of the comic book business in 1956; fortunately, MAD is still published – in magazine format – by Warner Bros. under DC Comics’ supervision.

In addition to appearing in a series of comics such as this one, Reddy Kilowatt also starred in a number of animated educational films animated by Walter Lantz Productions. As noted, this is an adaptation of the first one, REDDY MADE MAGIC.

The film REDDY MADE MAGIC (1946) was produced at Walter Lantz Productions; Ashton B. Collins is listed as co-producer. The eleven-minute animated short was directed by Dick Lundy. The short’s Director Of Photography is listed as Fred Weaver, while the composer of music was Darrell Calker.

Walter Lantz (4/27/1900 - 3/27/1994) was born in New Rochelle, New York, the son of Italian immigrants named “Lanza”. A former auto mechanic, Impressed by his talent, Walter was helped by a wealthy client to enroll in New York City’s Art Students League, as well as taking a job as a copy boy at the NEW YORK AMERICAN, a daily newspaper owned by William Randolph Hearst. There, the fledgling cartoonist met a number of cartoonists working for Hearst’s King Features Syndicate, including Winsor (LITTLE NEMO IN SLUMBERLAND) McCay, George (BRINGING UP FATHER) McManus, Frederick Burr (HAPPY HOOLIGAN) Opper In 1916, Hearst opened his own animation studio, intending to create cartoon shorts starring the comic strip characters owned by his syndicate. Within a few years, Hearst shut down his animation studio, so Walter moved over to working for a studio boss, J. R. Bray, on the COL. HEEZA LIAR cartoon shorts. Walter, who had, by now, been writing, directing and animating his own cartoons, finally created his first original cartoon characters for Bray, ”Dinky Doodle” and “Weakheart”. But when changing tastes forced Bray to shut down his cartoon studio, Walter Lantz spent a few years vacillating between the East and West Coasts, working on live action projects of Bray’s in New York and comedy shorts by Hal Roach and Mack Sennett in Hollywood. Walter’s big break came when he was hired as a part-time chauffeur for Universal Studios’ Carl Laemmle. The movie mogul already had his own cartoon studio, one that made shorts starring “Oswald The Lucky Rabbit”, a character originally created by Walt Disney. Laemmle sensed that the studio’s constant financial turmoil with its distributor was too difficult to make sense of, so he shut down the entire operation, starting from scratch with his limousine driver as its boss! At only 28, Walter Lantz found himself the head of an animation studio, but his business savvy and animation experience served him quite well. In 1935, Walter managed to negotiate a deal for him to become an independent producer supplying cartoons to Universal, and in 1940, he negotiated a deal to own all the characters his studio worked on for Universal. Over the years these characters included not only “Oswald The Lucky Rabbit” (recently re-acquired by the Walt Disney Company), but also “Woody Woodpecker”, “Chilly Willy”, “Andy Panda”, “Charlie Chicken”, “Homer Pigeon”, “Wally Walrus”, “Space Mouse”, “Inspector Willoughby”, “The Beary Family” and many others. In 1957, THE WOODY WOODPECKER SHOW began airing in syndication; every episode features a live-action segment starring Walter Lantz himself, imparting valuable nuggets of information on cartooning and the process of animation, inspiring a generation of young cartoonists. It wasn’t until 1972 that Walter Lantz finally shut down Walter Lantz Productions; it was just getting too difficult to financially justify making cartoon shorts.

This issue’s 15-page REDDY KILOWATT story is “Reddy Made Magic”. “The Amazing True Story Of Electricity” begins right on the cover; after its bizarre splash-panel, we’re treated to a prehistoric scene that looks like a bargain-budget version of the classic “Rite Of Spring” sequence in Walt Disney’s animated FANTASIA (1942). Then, using that bolt of lightning as a thematic device, the narrative suddenly jumps ahead by millions of years.

NARRATIVE CAPTION:
Down from the skies thundered the first electricity known to man...He called it “LIGHTNING”. -- Yet many centuries were to pass before this primal energy was harnesses by man to become the miracle of electricity we know today…so vital a part of our daily lives!

Then, after a panel depicting sculpted busts of such noted scholars who “have contributed to the advancement of electricity” -- including Grey, Volta, Galvin, Gilbert, Brush, Horse, Watt, Bell, Ampere, Henry, Faraday, Franklin, Steinmetz and Edison -- this comic takes us back to the year 600 B.C., where we meet the ancient Greek philosopher known as Thales. Picking up a piece of amber he finds laying in the road, Thales soon discovers its ability to hold a charge of static electricity by the unexpected effect it has upon the hairs of his beard.. Next, Thales tries out the attractive qualities of static electricity upon the tail feathers of a pigeon -- it plucks ‘em right off of its body! Oddly, the effect here is credited to a mischievous cartoon character:

NARRATIVE CAPTION:
Thales had discovered Reddy Kilowatt! Reddy reached out with his magnetic hands -- ad pulled he light objects to the amber!

But in the next panel, REDDY KILOWATT IN “REDDY MADE MAGIC” sets the record straight, science-wise:

NARRATIVE CAPTION:
Thales had made a great discovery though he did not understand its full meaning. Today we know that by rubbing the amber he caused friction and that friction produces heat which in turn creates ENERGY!

Giving public demonstrations of his discovery regarding amber -- his audience includes a buck-toothed chap who must have been the resident village idiot of ancient Greece -- Thales soon learns not to overestimate the intelligence of his audience:

THALES:
Very interesting -- don’t you think?

VILLAGE IDIOT:
Say! Aren’t you a little too old to be playin’ with feathers?

THALES:
Bah!

NARRATIVE CAPTION:
Discouraged by lack of public interest, Thales abandons his experiments. Though Reddy Kilowatt had shown what he could do no one put him to work. Was this the end of Reddy’s career? No -- it was only the beginning! And it is from the Greeks wee get our word -- “electricity” -- for they called these amber stones “electrons”. Reddy Kilowatt remained in the amber for 2000 years.

It’s not until the 1600’s that we encounter Reddy Kilowatt again, when Dr. William Gilbert --having read about Thales’ experiences with amber -- discovered that he could use the amber (after rubbing it on his sleeve) to flip the pages of a book without touching them. But once again, the general public doesn’t take such experimentation particularly seriously; that “village idiot” reappears in updated garb to represent them!)

NARRATIVE CAPTION:
The next step in Reddy Kilowatt’s career was in 1660. When Otto Von Guericke invented a friction machine which produced electric sparks. It was a rather crude machine, consisting of a ball of sulphur mounted on an axle with a thread suspended above the ball. When a cloth was held against the spinning ball of sulphur, electric sparks leaped into the thread.

REDDY KILOWATT:
Well! Look who’s turning the crank! What do you think of Otto’s invention?

VILLAGE IDIOT:
Da-a-a- I think it’s silly!

REDDY KILOWATT:
-- When are they ever going to find out how to use me?

NARRATIVE CAPTION:
Most people of that time did think Otto Von Guericke’s invention was silly, but thanks to men like Stephen Grey, Reddy was not forgotten -- progress continues.

We’re next taken to 1729, where scientist Stephen Grey is conducting experiments regarding the electrical conductivity of various materials.

NARRATIVE CAPTION:
Grey suspended an 800 foot thread from the ceiling through loops of silk. Then by means of friction he electrified a glass rod. He touched the rod to the thread and Reddy Kilowatt leaped on to it.

STEPHEN GREY:
Now! I’ll run across the room to the other end of the thread!

NARRATIVE CAPTION:
And sure enough Reddy Kilowatt had traveled along the thread and was waiting to grab the paper from Grey.

But once again, the village idiot ain’t impressed; after all, he can use a thread to operate a Yo-Yo! Then we flash forward to 1745, where, in Leyden, Holland, a Professor Musschenbroek becomes “the first to discover a means of storing electricity”.

NARRATIVE CAPTION:
The professor filled a glass jar with water then with the aid of -- a friction machine he found that water could be electrified -- and the glass prevented Reddy Kilowatt, or electricity, from escaping! When a number of these Leyden jars were grouped together a considerable amount of electricity could be accumulated.

In a special demonstration to the King Of France, Reddy Kilowatt gives an armored knight what may be the first “hot foot” in history:

NARRATIVE CAPTION:
Reddy Kilowatt stopped the show -- he nearly brought down the house!

Meanwhile, in America, statesman/scientist Benjamin Franklin reasons that “electricity by lightning and electricity by friction” are one and the same thing.

NARRATIVE CAPTION:
In 1757 to test his theory Franklin attached a metal key to one enc of a kite string and released the kite up into a lightning storm. The wet kite string enabled Franklin to lure Reddy Kilowatt down from the skies.

REDDY KILOWATT:
Congratulations, Ben! My name is Reddy Kilowatt! You’d be surprised at all I’ve got and all the things that I can do if put to work by men like you! So long! I’ll be seein’ you!

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN:
My word! A most amazing fellow!

But once again, the village idiot remains unimpressed:

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN:
Look! This kite has proven my theory!

VILLAGE IDIOT:
Da-a-a- Anybody can fly a kite!

Next, we’re taken to 1831, where Michael Faraday develops the forerunner of the modern electric generator.

NARRATIVE CAPTION:
By this time scientists were beginning to apply Reddy Kilowatt to practical inventions. The most important of these were the telegraph by Samuel Morse, the telephone by Alexander-Graham Bell and the arc light by Charles Brush. But perhaps the greatest single achievement in the progress of electricity was made in 1879 when the first successful light bulb was developed by Thomas A. Edison. When Edison turned the switch Reddy flashed into action. He charged up and down the wires until they were RED HOT and the bulb lit up!

REDDY KILOWATT:
Congratulations Mr. Edison! You’ve made it possible for me to light up the world! And this is only the beginning!

NARRATIVE CAPTION:
Reddy was right! For Edison later started the electric light and power industry when he built the first small power station in New York City in 1882. Similar plants began to spring up throughout America & other nations. Today there are thousands of plants. To operate the huge generators, water power is used where available. Some use oil or gas. -- But most plants depend on coal to supply the necessary energy! From these huge plants a constant supply of electric energy -- or Reddy Kilowatt, your electric servant -- travels with the speed of light, 186 thousand miles per second! Reddy travels over these high voltage wires to transformers where the voltage is lowered to the necessary level to make Reddy the right size for the jobs to be done…Jobs at the busy industrial plants -- in stores and office buildings -- and on modern farms -- as well as in million of homes that welcome the most reliable and economical of all servants -- Reddy Kilowatt!

Indeed, the following two-page sequence shows thousands of Reddy Kilowatts apparently conquering the world! Then, emerging from behind a wall outlet, Reddy puts on a quite a little show for us, demonstrating his usefulness around the home while singing his own theme song. Reddy cranks some gears, makes some toast, serves up some frozen ice cream, turns on a lamp, washes laundry while listening to the radio and brews a pot of coffee. Then, in a room chock-full of electrical devices, Reddy spots a familiar face -- that of the village idiot:

NARRATIVE CAPTION:
No, Reddy, you’re not seeing things. Our skeptical friend seems o have survived he ages and here he is surrounded with his modern labor saving electric appliances! But what is he up to now?

Reddy leaps onto the V.I.’s desk, where he’s playing with a piece of amber and a feather:

REDDY KILOWATT:
Now what are you doing?

VILLAGE IDIOT:
Shh-h-h Quiet! -- I’m discovering electricity!

REDDY KILOWATT:
You don’t say!

Delighted, Reddy offers forth his glowing hand:

REDDY KILOWATT:
Congratulations! I hope your discovery won’t be too shocking!

VILLAGE IDIOT:
WOWW

As he climbs back behind a hinged wall outlet, Reddy delivers a final speech:

REDDY KILOWATT:
That’s my life history folks so when there’s work to be one call on me -- cause I’m Reddy Kilowatt -- your electric servant! I’m right in here 24 hours a day -- so remember -- JUST PLUG IN -- I’M REDDY!

Also included in this issue of REDDY KILOWATT IN “REDDY MADE MAGIC” is the actual sheet music for the “Reddy Polka”. Here are the lyrics, written by Del Porter, with music by Darrell Calker:

“I’m a real live wire and I never tire Yes Sir! I’m a red hot shot -- I can cook your meals, turn the fac’try wheels --‘cause I’m Reddy Kilowatt -- when you toast your toast or you roast a roast it is I who makes ‘em hot -- I can freeze ice cream, make a light globe beam, ‘cause I’m Reddy Kilowatt I’m the little man who’s always there I’m a pow’rful high voltage guy -- I’m so full of spark I can light up the dark and you should see me wink my ‘lectric eye -- I can wash your clothes, play your radios I can heat your coffee pot I am always there with lots of power to spare ‘cause I’m Reddy Kilowatt.”

ODDBALL FACTOID – Former Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh uses Reddy Kilowatt as his mascot!

New Next Week: ODDBALL COMIC #1,209 -- MONDAY, JANUARY 28, 2008: “C’mon, you cream-puffs -- LET’S FIGHT!” It’s the one and only ODDBALL issue of KNOCKOUT ADVENTURES, the last gasp of the legendary Fiction House line of comics! Don’t miss these tales of “fighting men & danger” and “two-fisted tales of he-man action”, starring “Rip Carson” of “Risks Unlimited”, “Kayo Kirby”, “Hooks Devlin, Special Agent” and “Señorita Rio”! (Hey, how did she get in here?)

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