It's ODDBALL ELECTION COMICS Week! Move over, Richie Rich - here comes Harvey Comics' newest star, Tricky Dick, only in today's installment of ODDBALL COMICS!
[fieldinserts][issuetitle]Title: [subissuetitle]Jackie Jokers[subissuetitle]
[issuetitle][issue]Issue: [subissue]No. 2[subissue]
[issue][publicationdate]Date: [subpublicationdate]May, 1973[subpublicationdate]
[publicationdate][publisher]Publisher: [subpublisher]Harvey Hits, Inc. (Harvey Comics)[subpublisher]
[publisher][coverartists]Cover Artist(s): [subcoverartists]Ernie Colon[subcoverartists]
[coverartists][introtext]It's ODDBALL ELECTION COMICS Week! Move over, Richie Rich - here comes Harvey Comics' newest star, Tricky Dick, only in today's installment of ODDBALL COMICS![introtext]
[fieldinserts]In the hopes of creating a more contemporary kid-strip, Harvey Comics introduced JACKIE JOKERS, a boy stand-up comic and comedic television and movie star! Part Jerry Lewis, part Dudley Moore and all lamely unfunny, Jackie's run was mercifully brief; only four issues of JACKIE JOKERS was ever published.
This cover illustrates the issue's two-part lead story, also drawn by Ernie Colon, which is entitled "The Senator Doubletalk Act". In it, Jackie deftly "handles" a drunken heckler while performing his nightclub act as "Senator Doublethink." Later, assuming he's the target of a practical joke by his girlfriend, Candy, Jackie lets himself be escorted to a meeting with the President! He's astounded to wind up at the actual White House, where he's greeted by a caricature of Dr. Henry Kissinger (who, one panel later, is depicted hitting on a White House maid!) Jackie is led to meet President Richard M. Nixon, who in tern introduces him to a waiting party of Hollywood celebrities as "Senator Shorty Longfellow"! ("Doublethink"? "Doubletalk"? "Longfellow"? Boy, am I confused here!) Caught off-balance, Jackie is coerced into playing the drums to accompany Nixon's piano playing! When Nixon gets a call on his "Warm Line" that the real Senator Longfellow has been kidnapped, Jackie unmasks, revealing his true identity. (Of course, Nixon immediately recognizes the famous kid comic.) Together, "Tricky Dick" and Jackie formulate a plan to rescue the hostage Senator. In a televised message to the kidnappers, Jackie does his act as "Senator Doubletalk", a double for the real Senator! Ultimately, Jackie's act intimidates kidnappers into releasing their captor, and he receives Nixon's grateful thanks. (But unlike Elvis Presley, Nixon fails to make Jackie an honorary drug enforcement officer!)
One gimmick of the short-lived series was to incorporate caricatures of various "real world" celebrities into the stories, and cartoonist Ernie Colon (a longtime Harvey Comics contributor who was also an editor/artist at DC a few years later) was perfect for this kind of assignment. Not only does President Richard M. Nixon appear in the cover-gag of this comic, but the lead story also features unauthorized, caricatured appearances by such show-biz types as Frank Sinatra, Clint Eastwood, Marlon Brando, Paul Newman, Fay Dunaway and Alfred Hitchcock, among others!
Other stories included in this issue of JACKIE JOKERS are "Flirtation Walk" and "Ventrilo-Quest" (which guest-features Jackie's Reggie-like jealous cousin, Rhett DeStarr, as well as a caricature of Dick Cavett!)
ODDBALL Factoid - Harvey Comics advertised a fifth issue of JACKIE JOKERS, but it was never published!
http://www.oddballcomics.com/article.php?story=archive2000-11-10
