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a mischievous gorilla

mask-wearing African natives

an alligator

on the tracks of a local amusement park’s roller coaster

the old Native American

incredibly ugly

“Once upon a time there was an engineer
Choo Choo Charlie was his name, we hear.
He had an engine and he sure had fun
He used Good & Plenty candy to make his train run.
Charlie says ‘Love my Good & Plenty!’
Charlie says ‘Really rings my bell!’
Charlie says ‘Love my Good & Plenty!’
Don't know any other candy that I love so well! “

To make the sound of the train whistle, buyers of Good & Plenty candy could blow through the empty box. The Good & Plenty TV ads were animated by UPA Studios, which also produced the original “Mr. Magoo” theatrical cartoon shorts.. In 1973, Warner-Lambert purchased Good & Plenty candy and in 1982, the product was purchased again -- this time to Beatrice Foods -- and moved to St. Louis. Then, in 1983, Huhtamaki Oy of Helsinki, Finland purchased Leaf Brands, the confectionery division of Beatrice Foods. Finally (for the time being), in 1996, Hershey Foods Corporation acquired the Leaf North American confectionery operations. They now produce Good & Plenty candy, as always, in a color assortment of pink and white. Researcher Alan Hirsch, MD, supposedly discovered that the combined aromas of cucumber and licorice-scented Good & Plenty candy tied for first place with the scent of baby powder in a study that tested which scents aroused women the most. Hirsch wrote in his study, "My advice to men would be throw away the cologne and get some Good & Plenty".

(Considering the reason for Choo Choo Charlie’s existence in the first place, it’s very Oddball that there’s no advertising for Good & Plenty candy -- or even a single mention of the product -- anywhere within this comic!)

Cartoonist John Stanley (3/22/1914 - 11/11/1993) has long been regarded as one of comic books' most skillful and entertaining cartoonists, writing and drawing hundreds of memorable stories. Prior to working in the comic book field, Stanley worked briefly for the Max Fleischer animation studios and contributed stories to MICKEY MOUSE MAGAZINE and gag cartoons to the NEW YORKER magazine. Although best-known for his work writing scripts, drawing layouts (for cartoonist Irving Tripp) and doing finished artwork for covers and the occasional "Tubby" story for the comic book incarnation of gag cartoonist Marge Henderson Buell's LITTLE LULU (from approximately 1945 to 1961), the resumé of John Stanley includes many other funnybook projects. These include AROUND THE BLOCK WITH DUNC 'N' LOO and THIRTEEN (GOING ON 17) (both teenage humor series for Dell), MELVIN MONSTER (in the vein of THE ADDAMS FAMILY and THE MUNSTERS, with Stanley’s usual touch of genius), KOOKIE (starring a cute but clueless blonde chick working in a beatnik-filled coffee house), CLYDE CRASHCUP (a licensed adaptation of a segments of Ross Bagdasarian and Format Films' THE ALVIN SHOW!), CHOO CHOO CHARLIE (a Gold Key one-shot candy tie-in about a little boy obsessed with trains), NELLIE THE NURSE (a one-shot adapting Larry "Kaz" Katzman's popular series of gag cartoons), the "Oona Goosepimple" and "Mr. McOnion" stories for Dell/Gold Key's NANCY comics, "Bridget And Her Little Brother Newton the Nuisance" (a one-page strip in the WHAM-O GIANT COMIC BOOK, O. G. WHIZ (Stanley's final comic book creation, a young boy who's also a wealthy toy tycoon). In somewhat atypical assignments, Stanley also wrote Dell's notoriously scary GHOST STORIES (only the first issue, featuring his legendary “The Monster Of Dread End”) and the "Dell Giant" one-shot TALES FROM THE TOMB (edited by Oddball cartoonist L. B. Cole). Even more surprisingly, Stanley wrote Dell’s LINDA LARK, STUDENT NURSE/NURSE LINDA LARK, a melodramatic medical/romance series! During the 1950s and 1960s, Stanley also drew cartoon storyboards for various New York-based animation studios. After leaving comic books, John Stanley worked as the head of a silk screen company in upstate New York and in advertising for many years, and even did cartoon illustration work for David C. Cook, a publisher of Christian-oriented books. Stanley's intelligent style of storytelling, ear for dialog and absurd-yet-grounded-in-reality sense of humor put him in at the top rung of his field of so-called "kids' comics" (read: "comics that anyone of any age can enjoy"), also occupied by such other brilliant cartoonists as Carl (UNCLE SCROOGE) Barks, Sheldon (SUGAR & SPIKE) Mayer, Walt (POGO) Kelly and Bob (THE ADVENTURES OF LITTLE ARCHIE) Bolling. In his final years, inspired by similar successful endeavors by Carl Barks, John Stanley accepted art commissions for painted re-creations of his earlier, published LITTLE LULU and TUBBY cover-gags.

Please note the subtle difference between this one-shot comic’s cover-logo (CHOO-CHOO CHARLIE) and its actual, hyphen-less title as listed in its indicia (CHOO CHOO CHARLIE).

This issue’s 8-page “Choo-Choo Charlie” lead story, “A Swinging Train”, was written and drawn by John Stanley. It begins as Choo Choo Charlie stops his train -- its rails just happen to run right past her house -- to pick up his unnamed girlfriend, one who always seems to be playing “dress up” with her mother’s flowered hat and shoes. (The closest Charlie ever gets to addressing the girl by name is to occasionally refer to her as “lady”!) But when she’s finally on board, Charlie switches his engineer hat for a conductor’s hat, causing a problem to arise:

GIRL:
Okay, Charlie, you may GO now!

CHOO CHOO CHARLIE:
Not yet! Ticket please!

GIRL:
Charlie, you know perfectly well I don’t need a ticket to ride on your ol’ train!

CHOO CHOO CHARLIE:
But I have to collect something!

GIRL:
Why, Charlie, WHY?

CHOO CHOO CHARLIE:
Because I’m wearing this HAT!

GIRL:
SILLY! Take the hat off and you won’t have to collect anything!

CHOO CHOO CHARLIE:
There IS a certain logic in what she says…

While his girlfriend nags him to drive safely, we learn that, apparently, Choo Choo Charlie’s train is powered by his imagination as much as it is by Good & Plenty candy:

GIRL:
And for goodness’ sakes, watch out for elephants on the track!

CHOO CHOO CHARLIE:
ELEPHANTS?

GIRL:
We’re going to AFRICA, Charlie!

CHOO CHOO CHARLIE:
Listen, lady, I’m the one who decides where we’re going! And we definitely are not going…to…

With that, Charlie’s train passes between the legs of a giraffe and then “gooses” the massive posterior of a dozing elephant, immediately awakening it:

GIRL:
I told you, Charlie! I told you! Remember? I told you!

ELEPHANT:
ZZ

GIRL:
Well, don’t just stand there like a ninny! Toot your tooter at him!

SFX:
TOOT!

But instead of scaring away the pesky pachyderm, the noise from Choo Choo Charlie’s tooter causes it to fall in love with his locomotive! As a sort of “gift”, it begins stuffing the train’s smokestack with foliage plucked from a nearby tree. As it returns to the tree for more leaves, Charlie sees his chance for escape, leaving the elephant sobbing in dismay:

ELEPHANT:
TOOT!

GIRL:
Tsk…tsk…Is there anything sadder than a rejected elephant -- except maybe a rejected whale -- HEY! What’s HAPPENING, Charlie?

CHOO CHOO CHARLIE:
NOTHING, lady! The engine never ran so SMOOTH! It’s like riding on AIR!

And indeed it is, since a mischievous gorilla has grabbed the roof of Charlie’s locomotive with its feet and is swinging through the jungle! Choo Choo Charlie and his anonymous girlfriend abandon the train, jumping out over what look like a number of haystacks, but actually are the huts of mask-wearing African natives. (The giveaway is that one of the “haystacks” sports a TV antenna. “Who sticks ANTENNAS in haystacks?” “Maybe it’s TV for cows!”) Although their masks appear to be grinning, the girl “bops” one of them with her purse, just to make certain that they’re friendly. Of course, this raises their ire instead, and to escape the now-hostile natives, Choo Choo Charlie and his girlfriend dash deep into the jungle:

GIRL:
Quick, in this tall grass, Charlie! They’ll NEVER find us here! It’ll be like looking for a noodle in a haystack!

CHOO CHOO CHARLIE:
Two noodles -- HEY! I hear heavy breathing!

GIRL:
Of course, Charlie -- It’s the GRASS! Didn’t you know that grass breathes, too?

CHOO CHOO CHARLIE:
Oh…

GIRL:
And TALL grass like this breathes HEAVILY!

LION:
ROAR!

CHOO CHOO CHARLIE:
How about ROARING?

GIRL:
No, silly, that’s a LION!

CHOO CHOO CHARLIE:
A LION!

The fierce feline chases Charlie and his girlfriend right up a tree. Trapped there, Charlie’s girlfriend has an idea:

GIRL:
I suppose we’ll have to stay here for a while...While we’re waiting I might as well have lunch!

CHOO CHOO CHARLIE:
Lunch?

GIRL:
I had the good sense to bring along a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for myself! You’ll notice, Charlie, that I said “for myself”!

CHOO CHOO CHARLIE:
I couldn’t eat anyway…All I can think of is my lost train…

Fortunately, the curious -- and hungry -- gorilla returns, apparently eager to swap the girl’s peanut butter and jelly sandwich for Choo Choo Charlie’s train. Before she can bop the simian with her purse, Charlie negotiates a great deal -- he gets the sandwich if he places Charlie’s train back on track, and in the direction in which they’ve been traveling:

CHOO CHOO CHARLIE:
He’s back -- with my TRAIN!

GIRL:
I think he wants to trade your silly train for my SANDWICH!

CHOO CHOO CHARLIE:
Well, give it to him, for goodness sake!

GIRL:
ABSOLUTELY NOT -- until he puts the train back on the TRACK! -- With US on it! Come on, Charlie! I don’t know what would have happened to you if I hadn’t come along, Charlie!

Then, when Choo Choo Charlie’s simian friend attempts to cater to the girl’s demand:

GIRL:
No, silly, around the OTHER way, pointing OUT of Africa!

GORILLA:
Yum!

GIRL:
Drive carefully, Charlie, and watch out for that lovesick elephant on the way back -- an elephant never forgets, you know!

CHOO CHOO CHARLIE:
Oboy!

Also included in this issue of CHOO CHOO CHARLIE are the following stories, features and advertisements:

• “Now I Bake Betty Crocker Cake Just Like Mommie!”, an inside-front-cover strip-ad for the “Betty Crocker Easy-Bake Oven” made by “Kenner Toys”, with a coupon for the “Betty Crocker’s Cakes Kids Love” “party book” available via mail-order from “”General Mills”.

• “Choo-Choo Charlie” in “A Bad Case Of Squeebles”, written and drawn by John Stanley. -- Choo Choo Charlie is engrossed in trying to lubricate his locomotive -- he uses an oil can that makes the distinctively Don Martin-esque sound effect of “Nukka, nukka, nukka” -- but he can’t get any oil to come out -- except when the nozzle is pointing directly at his face! When his unnamed girlfriend drops by, she notices that his engine makes squeaking noised even while standing still: “Charlie…I hope you won’t be offended when I tell you this, but I’m afraid you engine has SQUEEBLES!” She goes on to explain that “They’re like gremlins, only they SQUEAK! They’re found in new shoes, old stairways, chalk when you write on a blackboard…” Charlie announces that he’s going to take the train and his girlfriend on a little trip, to that section of track that sank in Ochokee Swamp. After setting the throttle, he and the girl abandon the engine, which sends the locomotive into the waters of Ochokee Swamp. When it finally re-surfaces, it seems that Choo Choo Charlie’s train has somehow “lost the squeebles and gained an alligator” at its helm. Then, vengeful Charlie uses a branch to pry apart the train tracks diverting the track up a nearby tree! The gator falls out and runs away but now poor Charlie’s convinced that he’ll never see his beloved train again. Instead, the loco locomotive flips out of the treetop with an “Ah-choo-choo!”, lands upside down, then -- since it somehow seems to have caught a slight cold while underwater -- Choo Choo Charlie and his girlfriend climb aboard and ride the train down the tracks, doing somersaults with every sneeze it makes!

• “Lee Rider In ‘The Brand Rustlers’”, a strip-ad for “Lee” brand blue jeans.

• “Enter The ‘TV Star’ Sweepstakes”, a two-page, center-spread advertisement for a contest with a Grand Prize of “a personal appearance on FAMILY AFFAIR over CBS-TV network”,

• “Hey Boys And Girls”, a Western Publishing house-ad offering mail-order subscriptions to THE GOLDEN MAGAZINE FOR BOYS AND GIRLS.

• “Choo-Choo Charlie” in “Wheeling And Squealing”, written and drawn by John Stanley. -- After making “a wrong turn”, Choo Choo Charlie’s locomotive somehow winds up high in the air on the tracks of a local amusement park’s roller coaster. After it flies off of the roller coaster’s tracks, Charlie’s train winds up on top of a Ferris wheel, a situation that’s less-than-welcome by the attraction’s irate operator, who yanks a lever to “throw the wheel into SPIN-DRY”, but only accomplishes causing the Ferris wheel to come loose from its moorings, rolling wild through the amusement park grounds. His train finally escapes its position atop the rolling Ferris wheel when it becomes entangled in an empty parachute from another ride and is softly lowered to the ground. But his nameless girlfriend is still trapped aboard the freewheeling giant wheel! Fortunately for Choo Choo Charlie, the errant Ferris wheel proves easy enough to track down -- it’s plowed a path through the amusement park’s sign, a freeway overpass and other would-be obstacles, only to finally come to rest -- but still spinning -- atop the city’s tallest building! But when a fly comes to rest atop Charlie’s girlfriend’s flower-festooned hat, its otherwise insignificant weight throws off the Ferris wheel’s balance and it plummets toward the ground far below -- with Charlie’s girlfriend still aboard. But as it passes a platform on the building on its way to the ground, Charlie grabs the young “lady”, saving her from winding up as street pizza. Typically, she’s still nagging Choo Choo Charlie -- “But WHO gets lost and winds up on a ROLLER COASTER?”, to which Charlie answers, “I’m only HUMAN, lady!” -- and refuses to ride on his train ever again. And after taking an elevator to the ground floor, her promise looks all-too-possible, since Choo Choo Charlie’s train is nowhere to be seen! Fortunately, a friendly sewer worker volunteers news of its whereabouts -- its brakes must have slipped and it rolled into an open manhole! This gives Choo Choo Charlie a great idea, but his mouthy girlfriend remains utterly unwilling to endure a tour of the city’s sewer system!

• “Choo-Choo Charlie” in “The Loose Caboose”, written and drawn by John Stanley. -- In a situation that’s extremely reminiscent of Stanley’s LITTLE LULU stories, Choo Choo Charlie and two of his Native American feathered-headdress-wearing male friends are extremely resistant to allow Charlie’s girlfriend to accompany them on a trip through “some pretty rough country”. (Her response is, “If you boys don’t take me with you you’ll be in rough country right here and NOW!”) It’s finally decided that she can accompany them, but sealed inside of the windowless caboose of Choo Choo Charlie’s train. But once she’s inside, sneaky Charlie uncouples the caboose so he and his friends can go on their train trip without her. But what he hasn’t counted on is that his young “lady” friend is so determined to go along with them that -- unseen by Charlie and his pals -- she uses her body as a living link connecting the caboose to the rest of the boy’s train. Mystified, Choo Choo Charlie ties the unhitched caboose to the track, then takes off on their adventure with it left behind. But when he takes his train through “one of the wonders of the world, a tunnel through a giant tree”, Choo Choo Charlie and company unexpectedly encounter a contentious bear living inside the tree! Throwing the train into reverse, Charlie manages to stay ahead of the enraged bruin, but when he crashes into his left-behind caboose, things look bad for Choo Choo Charlie and his friends. But as the bear ties a dinner napkin around his neck, Charlie’s engine uses its smokestack to give their attacker a blast of smoke in its face. Passing through the tree-tunnel a second time, Charlie and his buddies eventually arrive in “a spooky place” in the forest, one that once was a place where “old worn-out Indians came to retire…They sat in the hollow of a tree and slowly faded away…” But when they see an old Native American doing just that, Choo Choo Charlie and company freak out and run for their lives, dashing for Charlie’s train. But when they finally arrive -- with the old brave hot on their heels -- they find Choo Choo Charlie’s strong-willed girlfriend behind the throttle of his train. (She was hiding on the floor of the train’s coach all the time.) When the old Native American climbs on top of the coach of the “little iron pony”, he explains, “Old Injuns stop fading away in tree many moons ago…Me go in tree to get out of rain, and fall asleep!” Then he directs Choo Choo Charlie and his friends to “Drop-em off Chief at first nice motel where can retire and fade away in comfort watching TV…”! What can Charlie say to that command, except “Yes SIR, Chief!”

• “Fire Technology” a one-page installment of “Prehistoria”, an ongoing illustrated educational text-feature.

• “Join The Gold Key Comics 4-A-Month Club”, a Western Publishing house-ad for subscriptions to WALT DISNEY’S MICKEY MOUSE, WALT DISNEY’S UNCLE SCROOGE, WALT DISNEY’S DONALD DUCK, BUGS BUNNY, PORKY PIG, WOODY WOODPECKER, TOM AND JERRY, DAFFY DUCK, LITTLE LULU and YOGI BEAR.

• “Win $1,000 College Scholarship Or Other Grand Prize Awards…And Get The Prizes You Want At No Cost!...Or Big Cash Profits”, an inside-back-cover advertisement soliciting for people to join the “Junior Sales Club Of America” to sell boxes of greeting cards for the “original J.S.C. of A.”

• An incredibly ugly back-cover, rebus-style advertisement for a new “Toot Sweet” toy that turns “Tootsie Roll” candies into edible toys, made by “Mattel”.

ODDBALL FACTOID – Pink Good & Plenty candies are colored with a red dye called “K-Carmine”, one that is produced from the bodies of the female Cochineal beetle!

New Next Week: ODDBALL COMIC #1,213, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2008: We’ve all seen Batman and Robin The Boy Wonder fight The Joker, The Penguin and Two-Face! But didja know that the Dynamic Duo used to spend much of their time facing alien menaces like a “space spider” and the deadly “Kranjan cave-eel”? You don’t wanna miss “Batman’s Interplanetary Rival!”, a space-spanning story from a super-silly Silver Age issue of DETECTIVE COMICS! Plus, “Roy Raymond, TV Detective” in “The Mirages That Went Mad!” and “John Jones, Manhunter From Mars” in “The Girl With The Martian Powers!” (Pssst…this great ODDBALL COMIC also features one of those infamous “Robin-In-The-Corner” covers!)

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