 | Jimminy and the Magic BookOriginal Medium: Comic books Published by: DC Comics First Appeared: 1947 Creators: Jack Mendelsohn (writer) and Howard Post (artist) image: © DC Comics. |
During all the shuffling around American comic book publishers did in the mid-1940s, trying to keep going as the superhero fad, which had fueled the industry's early growth, ran its course, DC Comics' longest-running title, More Fun Comics, got itself shuffled right out of the deck. In 1946, the superheroes it was still running (Superboy, Aquaman, Green Arrow and Johnny Quick) were transferred to Adventure Comics so More Fun could concentrate on funny stuff such as Dover & Clover and Genius Jones. But that formula doesn't seem to have worked very well, so the following year the focus switched to a new feature, Jimminy & the Magic Book.
Jimminy Crockett (no relation) was a
farm boy, probably about 8-10 years old, who had an unusually
active imagination. His Magic Book provided focus, suggesting
things for him to imagine. Like Dickie
Dare, he would then go off on a fantasy adventure based on what
he'd read; but unlike Dickie, his adventures may have been, in some
sense, real. Sometimes he'd simply open the book and start reading,
but sometimes he'd look something up deliberately, and go from
there.
Jimminy was created by writer Jack Mendelsohn (whose highly varied other credits include a very unusual comic strip, Jackys Diary, and the Dell Comics adaptation of Mell Lazarus's Miss Peach); and artist Howard Post (who has also drawn Hot Stuff the Little Devil for Harvey Comics, Care Bears for Marvel and Anthro for DC). He was introduced in More Fun Comics #121 (May, 1947), taking over not just the cover, but also more than his share of the inside.
But Jimminy didn't save DC's longest-running title, which ended in December of the same year, with its 127th issue.
