Previous | Next

a splash-panel

Super-Circus is so broke

the story’s point of view suddenly shifts

cracking his whip above Scampy’s head

“the ghost of all the animals you have ever tortured”

a house-ad

a cute little pooch

radio and television personality Arthur Godfrey

Cliffy is obsessed

Bongo the gorilla

grouchy new giant

a back-cover strip-ad

But the real star of SUPER CIRCUS was its Amazonian super-blonde bandleader, Mary Hartline. In fact, ringmaster Claude Kirchner routinely introduced Mary as “our queen”. Her striking looks and more-than-ample figure made her a natural for the black-and-white, low-definition television screens of the late 1940's and early 1950's. Mary would lead the SUPER CIRCUS band in at least one up-tempo number in each half-hour segment, participate in comedy sketches with the show's three clowns and guide youngsters from the studio audience through on-stage contests. Above all, Mary was the pitch-person for the SUPER CIRCUS sponsors' products, of SUPER CIRCUS licensed products and of her own product line, which included dolls, toys and clothing. (Ironically, Claude Kirchner would go on to appear in dozens of toy commercials for television.) Born in Hillsboro, Illinois in 1926 and married multiple times, Mary Pauline Hartline -- a former beauty queen -- also appeared on various early television series intended for young audiences, including TEEN TOWN/JUNIOR JUNCTION, THE MARY HARTLINE SHOW and PRINCESS MARY’S MAGIC CASTLE,

Cross Publications, Inc. published a total of only three comic book titles: THE PERFECT CRIME (1949), which ran for 33 issues: UNCLE MILTY (1950) which lasted only four issues; and SUPER CIRCUS (1951), with a five-issue run. (Although the official title of the comic was the hyphen-less SUPER CIRCUS, most of the interior references to the show are “Super-Circus”, with a hyphen.) The final issue of Cross’ SUPER CIRCUS was cover-dated September. 1951…but that wasn’t the end of SUPER CIRCUS in the realm of funnybooks. Dell picked up the license on the popular television series and published three issues of FOUR COLOR -- No. 542 (March, 1954), No. 592 (October, 1954) and No. 694 (March, 1956) -- with “Super Circus Featuring Mary Hartline” as their theme. These were primarily drawn by Joe (“J’onn Jonzz, Manhunter From Mars”) Certa.

This issue’s 12-page lead feature is an untitled “Super-Circus” story, signed by “Torb” (possibly Floyd Torbert). It begins with a splash-panel depicting three kids watching SUPER CIRCUS on their small-screened family television -- in glorious black-and-white -- accompanied by this introduction:

INTRODUCTORY CAPTION:
Sure, you tune in on SUPER-CIRCUS on Sunday and howl at the antics of the clowns and the acrobats, laugh along with the ringmaster, tap your foot in time to the music of Mary Hartline…But what about SUPER-CIRCUS before they went on television? Ever wonder about that? Weeeelll here’s the story…

Outside of a small town, in the middle of a storm, ringmaster Claude Kirchner and the bandleader “Queen” of Super-Circus, Mary Hartline, are feeling rather despondent:

CLAUDE KIRCHNER:
Another week of bad breaks and rotten weather, Mary and there isn’t going to be any Super-Circus!

MARY HARTLINE:
I know. You’d think we would have used up all our bad luck by now!

By this point, Super-Circus is so broke that it can’t even afford fire to feed their fire-eater! What’s more, the show’s fat lady is getting skinny, the magician is considering cooking the rabbit who lives in his hat, and the tattooed man is getting so emaciated that his “pictures are getting small”. But when the storm clouds part, it allows the folks of Super-Circus to put on a show that night. To bolster everyone’s spirits, Claude and Mary address the crew:

CLAUDE KIRCHNER:
Now listen to me. The show tonight has to be better than ever, greater than ever, bigger than ever. Because there will be a television agent in the audience…and if he likes the show…

MARY HARTLINE:
No more worrying about the weather, or bad business, or overnight jumps! So be great everybody!

Unfortunately, Super-Circus’ streak of bad luck continues. For example, the sight of a kid sucking on a lemon causes the trombone player in Mary’s band to hit flat notes! Then, just as the parade of clowns starts, Satan the tiger escapes from his cage, forcing the clowns to scatter until the striped beast is recaptured. Surprisingly, the aforementioned television agent sitting in the first row is quite impressed:

TELEVISION AGENT:
What a sensational piece of business that is! Who thought of that phony escape? It’s a real crowd pleaser but we’d never be able to do it on T.V.

Next, the circus’ team of aerialists, “The Daredevils”, narrowly avoids a tragedy, again impressing the television agent:

TELEVISION AGENT:
WOW! What a show stopper that is! That’s the most daring stunt I ever saw in a circus!

When a gag involving the clown car’s tire goes explosively wrong, it sends the television agent into paroxysms of hilarity:

TELEVISION AGENT:
Ho ho…I’m weak with laughter! What a finish! I don’t see how they could top the rest of that routine but the explosion did it!

Stuck for an encore, Cliffy and Scampy perform an act with a so-called “hot dog machine”, delighting the kids in the crowd when they turn a trained dachshund into a string of hot dogs and back again:

TELEVISION AGENT:
Just as I thought! This would be a natural for a television show…Look at those kids! They eat this up!

Then, the show’s ringmaster makes a dramatic announcement:

CLAUDE KIRCHNER:
And now…The Battle Of The Behemoths…the elephant parade! Te pachyderms prance…and for your entertainment…Mary! Strike up the band!

But Claude is unaware that the elephants are restless and uncooperative, due to the reduced amount of feed the circus can afford. Soon, disaster seems to strike when the huge critters go wild, but it turns out that all they want are the peanuts tossed to them by an appreciative audience!

NARRATIVE CAPTION:
Once again Super-Circus bragged victory from defeat!

TELEVISION AGENT:
What a thrill that was! I would have sworn those elephants were stampeding!

Next, Claude introduces the circus’ resident magician, Marlini, who prepares to do his sawing-a-beautiful-woman-in-half routine, prompting Mary to cover her eyes:

MARY HARTLINE:
If something goes wrong with this trick -- if only our bad luck will hold off…I can’t look -- but wait -- I hear applause! Now I can REALLY strike up the band!

TELEVISION AGENT:
That cinches it for me! A T.V. show with acrobats, magicians, clowns…the color and novelty of a circus…It’s bound to be a hit!

CLAUDE KIRCHNER:
Sure, that’s what I told you…And now for the grand finale! And now to end our show on a pinnacle of peerless performance…Ladeeez and gentlemen…the grand finale! The Calgary stampede!

The cowboys’ show wows the audience as well as the television agent:

TELEVISION AGENT:
What a spectacle! This will make television history.

Then the ringmaster thanks the crowd; he barely finishes before the television agent rushes up to him, a contract clutched in his hand:

CLAUDE KIRCHNER:
And now all that remains to be said is to thank you for your kind interest and applause…And to all of you, good night!

TELEVISION AGENT:
Come here…Here’s the contract. Now you get this all signed and we’ll soon be ready to go on the air!

CLAUDE KIRCHNER:
Sure!

Soon, Super-Circus’ performers -- both human and animal -- are eating regularly and returning to their normal selves:

NARRATIVE CAPTION:
And no longer did The Great Marlini have to drool over his rabbit…

In a television studio, Claude is overseeing rehearsals while Mary works with the band in preparation for their upcoming television show, for which Claude has devised a special gimmick:

MARY HARTLINE:
Take it on the upbeat -- This is going to be the happiest, funniest show that ever was!

CLAUDE KIRCHNER:
That’s right! ‘Specially with that new idea of the penny bowl…

SCAMPY THE BOY CLOWN:
Penny bowl? What’s that?

CLAUDE KIRCHNER:
Here it is…See all those pennies? Well, during the show…there’ll be games and puzzles for the children in the audience…And the ones that win can have all the pennies they can take out of the bowl!

SCAMPY THE BOY CLOWN:
Like this?

CLAUDE KIRCHNER:
Yes, but remember you have to earn the right to go to the penny bowl!

When the “boy clown” pesters Claude to have a shot at the penny bowl, the ringmaster arranges an “egg race” between Scampy and Cliffy…with raw eggs! Unknown to the two clowns, someone turns on a television camera and broadcasts the sight of them running with raw eggs balanced on spoons clenched in Scampy and Cliffy’s grease-painted jaws -- and their spectacular collision when one of them trips:

SCAMPY THE BOY CLOWN:
It’s all your fault…BOO HOO…Now we can’t go to the penny bowl!

CLIFFY THE CLOWN:
Boo hoo yourself…You tripped me egg head!

Suddenly, the story’s point of view suddenly shifts back to those three kids back in the splash panel watching egg-spattered Scampy and Cliffy on their television set’s miniscule screen:

KID #1:
HA HA…What funny clowns…I bet I could win a race like that!

KID #2:
Sure…But watch what’s going to happen now…

CLAUDE KIRCHNER (on television):
Ladeeez and gentlemen…The first performance of SUPER-CIRCUS has now begun…You’ll thrill…you’ll chill as the “Daredevils”…dare all in death defying feats…

KID #1:
Gee…Some show, huh?

KID #2:
I’ll say…

NARRATIVE CAPTION:
And back in the television studio…All the members of SUPER-CIRCUS are happy because…when they hear laugher…they know they are a success!

CLAUDE KIRCHNER:
Yes this is your show…SUPER-CIRCUS…Be sure and tune us in every Sunday!

NARRATIVE CAPTION:
The rest of you know because you, as well as everyone else, thrill to the fun and excitement of…SUPER-CIRCUS!

(Yeah, I realize that none of this makes a lick of sense…but neither do many other twelve-page-long blatant commercials!)

Also included in this 52-page issue of SUPER CIRCUS are the following stories, features and advertisements:

• “The Show’s On, Gang! New! Super-Duper! Simply Terrific! Television Bank”, a black-and-white, inside-front-cover ad for “the last word in elegance” with “all-steel construction”, available via mail-order from the “Kent Merchandising Co.”

• “Scampy The Boy Clown” in “Grin And Bear It”, drawn by Jay McKellar. -- “So many things go into the making of a real circus performer…One with tanbark in his blood like Scampy -- the boy clown. Take the time he got interested in animal training!!!” Scampy and his blabber-mouthed parrot Chumley befriend Teddy. a cute and friendly bear that belongs to “Tyranno The Great”, Super-Circus’ animal trainer; unfortunately for his beasts, Tyranno has a bad reputation for being “too hard on his animals”, despite the rumor that Tyranno is secretly afraid of his performing critters. When the cruel-hearted animal trainer catches Scampy spending time with the lovable little bear, he blows his top, cracking his whip above Scampy’s head, claiming, “All animals fear me! And I want it that way! It’s the only way to train them! You have to be fiercer than they are!” Scampy decides to teach Tyranno a lesson by proving that “you can train animals with kindness instead of a whip”. With Tyranno unaware of it, Scampy and Chumley build a relationship with Teddy, teaching the little bear how to ride a tricycle. But when mischievous Chumley flies away with Tyranno’s whip, Scampy and Teddy chase after the bird, climb to the top of a tent in an effort to retrieve the whip. Bu when Chumley drops the whip on Tyranno’s head, it draws the animal trainer’s attention upward to notice Scampy and Teddy. When he realizes that Tyranno plans to punish Teddy, he resolves to help his furry friend. Around midnight, Scampy dons a moth-eaten bear costume and pays a visit to Tyranno’s tent, where he pretends to be “the ghost of all the animals you have ever tortured”. Leaving a shaken Tyranno, Scampy uses his acrobatic skills to make it appear that the “ghost bear” has vanished, further making his lesson stick with Tyranno. From then on, the once-cruel animal trainer now treats his four-legged pupils with kindness, prompting Scampy to remark, “Sometimes you have to train the animal trainer!”

• “Now A Brand New Comic Book All America Is Reading & Talking About”, a house-ad for UNCLE MILTY No. 1 (December, 1950).

• “Claude Kirchner” in “Claude Kirchner As The Ringmaster In The Bewitched Circus”, drawn by Jerry Fasano. -- “CLAUDE KIRCHNER the ringmaster thought he had seen everything that could possibly happen in a circus…until the day that Val Vox, the new act, joined the circus and then…the ringmaster began to doubt his sanity!!” Claude is introduced to “the First of May” -- circus slang for a new act who has never played a circus before. It’s also a circus tradition to play practical jokes on a “First of May”, but what Claude doesn’t know is that the newcomer, a fellow named Val Vox, is a master ventriloquist. When Claude asks Val to retrieve his ringmaster’s whip under the circus’ “elephant shower”, the talented ventriloquist gets drenched with water, but turns the tables on Claude by endowing a cute little pooch with a voice, claiming that he is so insulted to be called a “mutt” that he’ll never speak again! Enjoying the results -- Claude thinks he’s losing his mind -- Val proceeds to supply voices for a pair of the circus’ horses supposedly discussing the Kentucky Derby. Next, determined to teach Claude not to play any more practical jokes, Val hoaxes Claude, convincing him that a midget has become trapped in one of his trunks. Finally satisfied that Claude has learned his lesson, Val reveals the fact that he’s a ventriloquist. That night, while Claude gives him a glowing introduction to the circus’ audience, Val has a private conversation with his dummy, who asks, “We sure showed him today didn’t we boss?”, to which Val replies, “Shhh…We mustn’t tease him anymore. He’s promised not to pull any more practical jokes!”

• “Let’s Have Some Fun With Super-Circus Games!”, a one-page feature showing how to stage a “string race” party game.

• “Save Your Eyes! -- With This Amazing ‘No-Glare Television Filter”, an ad for a device that will allow its owners to “enjoy crisp, clear television without eye-fatigue” -- and a free “big portrait” of radio and television personality Arthur Godfrey that’s “ready for framing” -- available through mail-order from the “Robert Edwards Company”.

• “Mary Hartline” and “Cliffy The Clown” in “Practice Makes Perfect!”, drawn by Cal Massey. -- “Everyone knows the only way to get EXTRA good at athletics, schoolwork, or anything else is to practice as often as possible…It’s the same with circus folks and as our story opens we find Mary Hartline, queen of SUPER CIRCUS, diligently practicing with her whirling baton…Cliffy The Clown seems to have something on his mind…” Cliffy is obsessed with learning how to “whirl” a baton like Mary does, but his efforts only produce chaos around Super-Circus. First, Cliffy’s baton gets away from him, punching holes in an angry percussionist’s drum-heads. Cliffy explains to Mary that he’s made a bet with Rudy Trixem, “the band master of the Jumbo Circus”, that he can learn to twirl a baton in only three days, and if he loses the bet, he’s got to buy Rudy “all the chocolate nut sundaes he can eat…for a month!” Mary agrees to help Cliffy, but only if he acknowledges that “gambling is a very bad thing that always gets people into trouble”. But despite Mary’s tutoring, Cliffy finds it nearly impossible to master the baton, a feat that even Bozo the monkey has accomplished. Fortunately, Mary comes up with a clever idea that she secretly whispers to Cliffy. On the day of truth, Rudy Trixem shows up, anxious to win their bet, but silent Cliffy, accompanied by his “second”, Scampy, performs some impressive feats of baton-twirling, even twirling two batons simultaneously. When Rudy tries to match this stunt, he only succeeds in clobbering himself in the head with an errant baton. It turns out that the baton-twirling “Cliffy” is actually Mary Hartline in disguise: “I’m sorry you bumped your head, Rudy! I only wanted to teach you and Cliffy that gambling always leads to headaches but I guess you know that by now!” Later, at a local soda shop, Cliffy and Rudy insist on paying for round after round of each other’s chocolate nut sundaes.

• “Scoop -- Snapshots Of The Stars”, an ad for “fine photos chosen by the stars themselves”, available via mail-order from “Robert Edwards”.

• “Laugh Clown, Laugh!”, an unsigned two-page text-feature.

• “Nicky The Tramp Clown” in “A Little Place To Sleep!”, drawn by Augie Scotto. -- “We join Nicky as he departs from a hobo camp where he has been spending his time between shows on TV’s SUPER-CIRCUS…Railroad detective Oscar Offenbickle who has been chasing Nicky for years is bidding Nicky a fond bon voyage…” Making his getaway on the last car of a train marked “Special Express”, Nicky climbs into a darkened boxcar through a rooftop hatch. Finding it already occupied, Nicky assumes his roommate is his old friend O’Hoolihan, but when he lights a match, the “tramp clown” soon discovers that he’s sharing his travel-space with Bongo the gorilla! Frantic, Nicky tries to make his escape through the ceiling hatch, but in the process, he succeeds in getting his pants pulled off by the aggressive ape. Later, Bongo’s keeper checks on his hairy charge and makes a bizarre assumption: “Gosh! It looks like Bongo has eaten some poor tramp! Here’s nothing left but his pants!” Meanwhile, riding on top of the train in his long underwear, Nicky finally locates a safe place to take a nap -- in the coal car!

• “Cliffy The Clown And Scampy The Clown” in “Cliffy And Scampy Meet The Cranky Giant!” -- “If there was one thing that Cliffy and Scampy could not stand. It was to have a crank around the circus -- and there was no doubt about it the new giant was cranky all right! That was what caused all the trouble!” Unable to make Super-Circus’ grouchy new giant laugh, Cliffy and Scampy (standing on Cliffy’s shoulders) disguise themselves as a giant clown. But despite all their efforts, the “cranky giant” refuses to crack a smile. But when the two clowns trip and tumble into a tub of water and reveal themselves, the real giant is so amused that he can’t stop laughing, Then he explains the reason he’s so “sulky” and “nasty” -- his shoes are too small and hurt his feet! When Cliffy and Scampy suggest that he get new, bigger shoes, the giant refuses to listen: “I go home at night after a hard day and my wife nags me! I sit down in my special char, I relax and take off my tight shoes…Whew…What a relief! That’s what I look forward to all day -- taking off these tight shoes!” Astounded by his nutty reasoning, Cliffy and Scampy think that the giant’s just trying to prove he’s a funnier clown than they are!

• “Learn The Truth About The Inside Story Of Professional Wrestling!”, an ad for THE WRESTLING SCENE, a book written by “veteran radio and television sportscaster” Guy LeBow, with an introduction by Mel Allen, available through mail-order from “The Wrestling Scene”.

• “No ‘Dudes’ Allowed! Real ‘Western Sets For Honest-To Goodness Cowboys And Cowgirls!”, a ad for a variety of toy guns, holsters and belts, available through mail-order from “Progressive Products”.

• “Bobby Benson’s B-Bar-B Riders”, a black-and-white, inside-back-cover ad -- drawn by cartoonist Bob Powell -- for a “Fillum Fun Theatre”, (“projector -- plus screen -- plus movie house -- plus 2 films -- plus two batteries -- 78 pictures in all…”) -- available via mail order from “Fillun Fun, Inc.”

• “Scampy And Cliffy in The Great Invention”, a back-cover strip-ad for “Weather-Bird Shoes”.

ODDBALL FACTOID – The SUPER CIRCUS television show also featured appearances by future superstar newsman Mike Wallace, who promoted “Peter Pan” peanut butter while dressed as a sideshow barker!

New Next Week: ODDBALL COMIC #1,225 -- MONDAY, MAY 19, 2008 -- No, you haven’t been sniffing glue! This week’s ODDBALL COMIC is an issue of ARCHIE’S MADHOUSE with a great cover-gag about the “monster model” fad of the Swingin’ Sixties drawn by TALES CALCULATED TO DRIVE YOU BATS’ brilliant co-creator Orlando Busino! Plus, tons of pop-cultural stories, articles, gags and an early tale of “Sabrina The Teen Witch”, with the whole magilla hosted by Archie Comics’ forgotten superhero, Captain Sprocket! But what’s the story on the incredible coincidence between this cover and a concurrent similar-but-entirely-different one for MAD magazine?

Just how odd is today's Oddball Comic?
Cast your vote right now -- from one to five oddballs --
in the poll on the left. Then come talk about it
on the Oddball Comics' discussion board!