"CIVIL RIGHTS ARE FOR PINKOS"

A very rare Hoverboy find from 2007! Mr. Comics (the first publisher to produce a LEGAL Hoverboy comic in nearly thirty years) created this t-shirt to promote the release of their comic "HOVERBOY: THE REPUBLICAN SUPER-HERO #1". The image is lifted from part of the cover to "Hoverboy: Commie Smasher #4" from 1963, though it's been clearly re-inked and re-colored. According to our source at Mr. Comics, the t-shirt was SUPPOSED to read "Civil Rights don't apply to Pinkos!" but the Guatemalan shirt manufacturer spoke no English and sent a box of two hundred shirts with the incorrect phrase. As a result, they were never sold to the public, but instead, given to a homeless shelter in Toronto. They were primarily put to use as cleaning rags, because shelter workers claimed "no one here is willing to wear a shirt with so confusing a political agenda".

And a great bonus today.

MOJO TOYS
LEGS LUTHOR

We continue our look at MOJO's line of Hoverboy toys with "LEGS LUTHOR", as seen in Wednesday's Classic Hoverboy Comics! Update (see below).

LEGS was the first toy MOJO produced in the Hoverboy line, made of discarded legs from the Raymond Burr "Ironside" action figure produced by Mattel in the early seventies. There are several discrepancies between MOJO's Legs Luthor and his more familiar comic appearance. First off, his face is on the boot, rather than his thigh, in what the side of the toy box claims was an attempt to hide his secret identity behind a "shoe-mask", which makes no sense whatsoever. Also, the addition of a utility belt--made by MOJO designers (very likely illegal immigrants)-- is entirely useless to "The Human Asterix", who had no hands. Certainly, the people who modified these toys for MOJO weren't exactly clear on what they were doing and were just happy to be not deported or beaten.

Though Legs Luthor was one of the more popular Hoverboy characters in the magazines, the doll itself did not sell well in its initial release. Children reported feeling "queasy looking at it" according to internal MOJO memos. It is quite rare to find an intact copy of the toy nowadays as most of them were purchased in the eighties and nineties by collectors who used them as spare parts for better toys that had lost their legs. This particular figure was found at a Value Village in Oakville, Ontario in 2003 by a fan who instantly recognized it's rarity and sold it on ebay for nine dollars.

HOVERBOY Floating Fighter of Crime #10
February, 1973

One of Hoverboy's more popular villains, Legs Luthor, makes his debut in "HOVERBOY: FLOATING FIGHTER OF CRIME" #10, Feb,1973.

Hailed as an the "world's most original super-villain" by creator, 'Jazzy' Jack Gibson, Luthor had no torso, no arms, no genitalia, four extra legs, and a face on one of his thighs. The character was not intended to look anything like this in the earliest draft of this story, as writer 'Tiny' Curt Dobbs described him only as a thug with "a pair of huge, muscular legs". But Dobbs accidentally typed that phrase three times in the script, and it and caused Gibson to interpret the super-villain in his more familiar six limbed form. "I was always a leg man" Jazzy Jack would say about his famous creation, though he admitted later that he liked the character because he was lousy at drawing hands. Gibson's fondness for leg-based bad guys extended to creating the TRAMPLER, "Ankles" McGee, THIGH MASTER and MIGHTY SHOE for Vigilance over the next few years.

Besides his bizarre physique, "The Human Asterix " was best remembered for his many catch phrases –"Looks like the shoe is on one of the other five feet!", "Seig Heel!", "Here's my stomp of approval." , "How about a Toe-Job?", "This is how I get my kicks", and many others. The Frantics Comedy troupe has denied that their catch-phrase "Boot to the head"was inspired by a Legs Luthor word balloon on the cover of HOVERBOY: Floating Fighter of Crime #39, though it seems clear to this Hoverboy fan that it was.

Legs Luthor appeared regularly in comics, toys, and cartoons until the tragic events of 1981 which caused Hoverboy to disappear from the public for decades. Over all that time, it was never revealed what mutation or scientific mishap created Legs in the first place, or indeed, who had given him boots.

NOTE: This issue ALSO marks the first appearance of "The Little Sarge", an equally strange Vigilance series about a four year old boy who gets drafted into the Korean Conflict and ends up rising to the rank of Sergeant through battlefield savvy and sheer guts. More on this intriguing war comic in an upcoming entry!

MOJO TOYS
THE TRAMPLER

We return to our regularly scheduled updates today with another of MOJO's Hoverboy toy line. Today... THE TRAMPLER!

Like most of the MOJO line, the TRAMPLER was assembled from existing molds left over from the defunct MEGO factory. TRAMPLER's legs are likely from the same robot dinosaur as SILVERSAURUS. The face, which is different from the comic book image of The Trampler appears to be from an NHL Bobble Head of one of the Stanley Cup winning Philadelphia Flyers. Or possibly a St. Peter statue made by Christian Faith Specialties, a company that made religious souvenirs.

It speaks to the breadth of Hoverboy's villains over the years that these left over parts, when assembled, more often than not resembled some member of Hoverboy's rogues gallery. Or it may just be the lack of imagination of the creators who kept recycling ideas.

In this case it was THE TRAMPLER, a one-issue villain from Hoverboy Digest #26. Gary S. Tomp was a world renowned "robotisist" and misanthrope. When not designing robotic limbs, Gary enjoyed stomping on flowers, cats or children. In what would seem to be an act of divine retribution, a car accident maims Gary, robbing him of his legs and his career. In a none too subtle exchange Gary is told by his employers, "How can you design robotic legs if you don't even have real human legs. Shorty!" Gary vows revenge. But everyone laughs as he is forced to roll himself home in a shopping cart. After a sleepless night, and a bite from a radioactive grasshopper Gary decides to build huge powerful legs. (The Grasshopper is obviously a rip-off of Peter Parker's spider bite, but since Gary actually builds his legs, rather than grows them, it seems especially gratuitous.)

Gary takes parts from a bulldozer, a Buick and a Samsonite Card Table set and constructs powerful legs, then returns to 'stomp some sense' into his former employees. The best line in the issue: The Trampler corners his former boss, who sobs, "Can't we talk this out?" The Trampler replies, "Let's get one thing flat!" And then he stomps the boss into a pulpy pancake.

His short but brutal rampage ends when Hoverboy shows up and Hovers over him. As The Trampler tries to kick him, Hoverboy deftly slips aside, and The Trampler kicks himself in the head. This causes brain damage and The Trampler becomes even stronger. So Hoverboy shoots him.

Most TRAMPLERS found today are out of box, as the first thing most kids did when they started paying with him was had TRAMPLER crush it.

SIDE NOTE:
Mojo Toys has been called the Ponzi Scheme operation of collectables. The company had a few molding machines, but scores of boxes of old toy parts. MOJO would rent a warehouse, move in, hire workers, and produce figures, usually for no more than six weeks. By then the newly hired workers, who had yet to be paid, would go onstrike or walk off the job. Often the Landlord would threaten to padlock the operation unless rent checks stopped bouncing. The company's owner would claim bankruptcy, empty the factory, and shut down leaving everyone in the lurch. A few months later he would set up shop in a new factory across town, make more action figures, and then shut down again when landlords, suppliers, advertisers and factory workers got angry.

MOJO TOYS
SILVERSAURUS

We continue our look at MOJO toys Hoverboy line today with the awesome SIVERSAURUS!

SILVERSAURUS was one Hoverboy writer's attempt to capitalize on the two most popular toys amongst boys--namely robots and dinosaurs. This SILVERSAURUS toy is in very good condition, but it is missing the small gun turrets that went on the side. In some photos of this toy you can see the holes on the side of the robotic body. The missing guns fired small rockets which were deemed a choking hazard after two children , one parent, four factory workers, two test chimps, and one of the toy's designers choked on them; so they were only shipped to Mexico and Canada.

This was one of the few Hoverboy toys that also made a sound. In this case if was a combination of some Robot/computer beeps mixed with various animal roars.

Since this one is in the box the owner is loathe to open it to find out exactly what sounds it does make. Perhaps another Hoverfan will oblige us? I'll update if someone sends it in!

MOJO TOYS
MR. GRAVEL

We begin our look at MOJO Toys Hoverboy line with this rare find, which was submitted by Neville Barnswell of Devonshire England.

His father was in the British Diplomatic corps and was posted to Canada during the turbulent Kim Campbell era. During that hectic four and a third months, Neville's father sent him a number of toys not available in England, including this Hoverboy Action figure. The character, Mr. Gravel, was famous for hiding in gravel driveways and in gravel streets and then leaping up and hijacking trucks carrying precious loads. Despite his crude rough appearance, apparently inspired by Jack Kirby's 'The Thing', the evil Mr. Gravel was very smart and well spoken, describing himself as a 'Road's Scholar'. He was into drugs, saying, "Lets get stoned." and "Rock and Roll." The rocks on his belt are actually gadgets, shaped like rocks. One is a weapon--a rock he throws at people. The second is a communication device--a rock he ties notes to and hurls through windows. The third is a device to allow him to see over barriers--a rock he sets on the ground and stands on, tippy-toes. The second and third rocks doubled as weapons because Mr. Gravel could wing them at people too.

According to toy historians, who were more than happy to talk with us at length on this and any other topic, Mr. Gravel was a MEGO Fred Flintstone figure actually covered in small rocks. The adhesive that had to be used to get rocks to stick to plastic was quite pungent, and caused blinding headaches and uphoria in children who spent too much time playing with the figure.

Mr. Gravel appeared numerous times in the obviously named HOVERBOY COMIC BOOK: WORDS WITH PICTURES!, starting with issue #6 in the story entitled "Mr. Gravel the Villan". Mr Gravel returned a year later in "Mr. Gravel Returns to Menace Hoverboy" in issue #18, and finally in "The Last Story about Mr. Gravel". We'll be taking a look at the bizzare writing style of this book in an upcoming article.

Thanks Neville!

WEEK OF DECEMBER 8

WEEK OF DECEMBER 1

This week in 1945: Perhaps jumping the gun on the effects of the Atomic bomb on Horoshma, Glory Comics rushes out GIANT NIP ATTACK! In which irradiated Japanese grow to immense size and wade across the pacfic to attack America with laser vision and deadly lava breath. Glory's entire cast of superheroes including Navy Pete, Rivetting Rita, The Mysterious G.I., and Hoverboy all appear. Unfortunatley, by the time the book was ready, the horrific images of the human devastation caused by the A-Bomb had begun to leak out, making the thought of our nation's heroes blasting 200 foot tall japanses soldiers not only unrealistic, but somewhat distasteful. A last minute cover change to the title, REMBEMER PEARL HARBOR!! along with a particlarly graphic image from that fateful day helped sales somewhat. But with the war wanning Glory Comics golden days were coming to an end...

America's Best Cereal
CRISPY FISTS & SUGAR BUCKETS
Circa 1983

After decades with the ABC Breakfast Food Group-Fujitawa Baked Goods Corporation, Hoverboy's career as a cereal spokesman ended twenty six years ago with this final edition box of Fists 'n' Buckets.

Originally separate breakfast foods, Hoverboy's Crispy Fists, and Hovergirl's Sugar Buckets were introduced to a delighted world in 1949, and were a big hit in the wheat belt throughout the Fifties and Sixties when farm children craved cereals that were not at all based on wheat.

The two products were forced to merge in the mid-seventies when sales slumped, and by the mid-Eighties, with Vigilance Comics out of business and Vengeance Pictures bankrupt, ABC's Fists & Buckets was the last "official" Hoverboy product on the market

By June of 1983 it was over. The box to the right is often considered by collectors as the last "Silver Age" appearance of Hoverboy.

America's Best Cereal
KAREEM ABDUL-JABBAR'S
Hoops 'n' Balls.

Immediately after the cancellation of Hoverboy's Crispy Fists & Sugar Buckets product line, ABC-BFG/FBGC signed a deal with legendary basketball star, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to be their new spokesman.

The company was in such a hurry to get their new star out to the public that they rushed through a new package design, keeping much of the original artwork intact, including an overlooked pistol, still pointed out at the customer.

While it might be considered amusing to see a gun in the hands of a bucket wearing white super-hero, a black man with a gun on the side of a box of cereal was deemed more than America could handle, and the cereal was quickly pulled from shelves.

America's Best Cereal
OJ'S FISTS 'n' BALLS
Summer 1994

After ten years of focusing primarily on their porridge and pastry lines, ABC got back into the athlete-endorsed cereal industry with a re-purposing of their previous Hoverboy and Abdul-Jabbar cereals as an OJ Simpson based breakfast product in June of 1994.

Unfortunately, Mr. Simpson was arrested a few days later on a private family matter and the cereal was quickly pulled from shelves.

HOVERBOY LIGHT SWITCH FACEPLATE

We here at the Hoverboy website were sent this by a fan, and we tried to find what we could about it.

Our research tells us this was made by Nelman Novelties in the eighties. It's one of a series of decorative faceplates from their "Be a Mentor" series. The other faceplates were almost identical, using the same mold for the boy & girl, but with other adult figures replacing Hoverboy up top. Among the options for the adult figure were Jesus, Moses, a Catholic Priest, Elvis. beloved TV puppet ALF, and U.S. President James Buchanan, (Ironically, the only President who was never married and who lived with another man for over a decade.)

Nelman Novelties was a small company in Connecticut, that seems to have existed from 1987 to 1989, and stayed primarily in the novelty Night Light and face plate industry.

Likely, this was not licensed, as the raised letters at the top of the faceplate seem to read "Hover-Toy" instead of Hoverboy.

A disturbing product, to say the least.

WEEK OF NOVEMBER 17

This week in 1955: filming begins on the Vengeance Films Hoverboy action serial, "INVASION OF THE UNDERSEA ESKIMOS", directed by Lyle Ponce, the man who made the aquatic classics "THE THREE STOOGES MEET NEPTUNE" and "THE 60 FOOT MERMAID of PARTY BEACH".

The plot was admittedly a standard "Soviet-funded Eskimos sabotaging the Northern DEW Line radar stations and blowing up American submarines" kind of story, but this Hoverboy serial featured some of the most unusual underwater stunts ever attempted. The Eskimos traveled underwater with sleds pulled by trained stingrays, and used weapons made from live eels and piranha. The scene where Hoverboy fights the scuba bears is considered the finest underwear fighting bear footage ever filmed.

With so much of the budget tied up in expensive stunts and highly trained animals, costs were kept low by using sets and backdrops created for a Perry Como Christmas special, and interiors were shot in an Encino High School, primarily using their Olympic sized pool to double as the Arctic Ocean. At one point Hoverboy exclaims, "The rotten Snow-Commies have drawn black lines on the bottom of the sea to make it easy to infiltrate America's waters."

This week in 1955: filming ends on the ambitious "INVASION OF THE UNDERSEA ESKIMOS" movie serial. The relatively tight shooting schedule of only four days may explain the number of drownings among the stuntmen, actors, extras, caterers, production assistants, drivers, make-up artists, gaffers, grips, scriptwriters, lighting crew, cameramen, agents, innocent passers-by, and family members of the production team. The film claimed, truthfully, that no animals were injured during the filming of the movie, but it fails to mention the eight dogs and one hundred and thirty eight stingrays that were killed.

Eagle eyed viewers will notice the American Submarines have Swastikas in many shots, due to stock footage from 1947's "The Phantom Submarine" purchased for the submarine shots, and used carelessly.

FUN TRIVIA: All the Eskimos actors in the serial speak Chinese, and most of their dialogue translates into English as variations of the phrases, "What's going on?" , "Who are you people?", "Where is my family?", "Please let me leave…", etc.

HOVERBOY #2
1978

This Mexican comic book (an illegal edition from 1978, which reprints the two part story "Down Mexico Way" from Hoverboy #45 and #46, back in the sixties) includes many unfortunate and racist cliches from an ignorant creative staff who probably didn't intend to offend. Everyone in the story wears a sombrero, including the President and doctors in an operating room, there are chihuahuas on every street corner, and all the storefronts sell either tacos, tequila or young women of questionable virtue. "We'd never been to Mexico," said Bert Gibson, artist for this issue, in a rare interview in the Comics Journal at the time..."Not even to buy fireworks or whores...so there's going to be a few mistakes in the story." The story line involves a bullfighting villain named El Toro who uses a magical red cape to dazzle and confuse his victims, before he bashes them with a club, then stabs them with a half dozen bullfighting spears. .

Sales in Mexico were poor and the series was cancelled with the next issue. That one sported a cover we cannot show on a family website...illustrating a story entitled "I love my Burro! Yeeehah!" The villain in this one was called Pédrø Pinåtå. When Hoverboy defeats him, the villain is split in half, and candy pours out onto the street. Children run out and gather up the candy, which is covered in Pinåtå's guts.

All of the unsold comics were then shipped to Guatemala, which at the time was not getting along with Mexico. They sold well, because Guatemalans thought this was a satire that was making fun of Mexicans.

WEEK OF OCTOBER 27

This week in 1947: Bolt Fester, the first man to play Hoverboy on the radio dies of filth.

This week in 1950: Hoverboy villain ROWBOT premiers in Hoverboy's Sea Terror Tales #2. "Part Rowboat, Part Robot... All Terror!", the cover exclaimed, but the character turned out to be an collasal failure with the fans. It was used only twice more throughout the decade, each time followed by an avalanche of mail from reasders requesting never to see the character again. Rodney Schlickmann, Hoverboy editor at the time, never lost his confidence in his creation, and would scream "The Robot-rowboat thing should have WORKED!!" in his famously phleghmy howl, to anyone who would enter his office, until he died in 1965, of an overdose of phlegm...

This week in 1965: The constant yelling must have made an impression on a young editor's assistant named Abe Smith, who was promoted to editor-in-chief of the the Dinkle line of Comics when Rodney Schlickmann passed away of a phlegm-related injury. Abe's first decision as editor of Hoverboy was re-team Rowbot and the Battlin' Bucket in a new series titled "Hoverboy-Rowbot: The Strange and Unusual Friends". This title paired them up as partners that fought crime in ponds and small lakes, but this quirky combination was cancelled with issue #2 when distrubtors simply refused to carry the book anymore. Ironically enough the series ended up bankrupting the Dinkel company when they lost a half million dollar lawsuit launched by the Schlickmann family, and who successfuly proved that the Schlickmanns legally owned the ROWBOAT character and had not authorized its use...

Rowbot's end came in Hoverboy #45, when Hoverboy was forced to sink him for his socialist leanings.

This week in 1973: the WW2 Hoverboy title YELLOW PERIL MYSTERY FUNNIES is briefly resurrected, in hopes of shoring up support for the Vietnam War. Polls show approval for continued military support rose by 30% in 8-12 year olds.

WEEK OF OCTOBER 20

This week in 1937: Just four months prior to collaborating with artist Bob Stark to create Hoverboy, writer C.L. Nutt creates his first comic character. The publisher of Glory Comics, Bill "Babe" Baxter, partners C.L. Nutt with artist Donald O'Riley to come up with a new hit character. After a week of work, Nutt and O'Riley submit their first story of DANNY BANNAN, THE PANTSLESS SLEUTH. A mysterious, sophisticated hero in the SHADOW/SANDMAN vein, Danny Bannan fought crime with his two tommy guns, and a wore a mask and full suit except [as his name suggests] pants. Nutt had Danny Bannan take off his pants to, "...so disturb and confuse the thugs at the sight of my naked self, that it will give me the advantage I need to outgun the devils of this world!" And this was two years before Bob Kane had Bruce Wayne don tights as Batman to strike fear into the hear ts of the, "superstitious and cowardly lot". Though Baxter knew this was not the hit character he was looking for, he ran the story as the backup in Violent Comics #12.

This week in 1962: HOVERBOY AND THE ATTACK OF THE BOG WOMEN is released to theaters. It's the only movie to be made in both SMELL-O-VISION and PSYCO-RAMA. Tifty Features producer Mort Nancy thought the combination of two of the newest film techniques would bring out the crowds in droves. But while each technique on it's own was a quaint and harmless gimmick, together the combination of fowl smelling scratch 'n sniff cards and single-frame imagery of skulls and rats brought on seizures, vomiting, and violent headaches. The only ever film to produce a similar reaction was a Jerry Lewis//Doris Day film comedy call, "Take Her, Mister, She's All Mine" which was never released.

This week in 1976: beloved GAY CAVELCADE star Orval Allan is officially pronounced dead. Though no body had been discovered, the passage of seven years (in which he had not been seen), and the lack of any recorded activity with financial institutions, credit cards, phone records, or government bodies of any kind, caused the Federal Census Bureau to change Orval's classification from "Unknown" to "Presumed dead/perhaps living off the land, backwoods hillbilly crazy" on October 22th 1976.

Two days later, on October 24th, his surviving relatives petitioned the court and the classification was again changed, this time to "No, he's probably dead." Orval Allan's heirs held a funeral service that afternoon and then divided up his considerable estate into a caravan of rented U-Haul trucks. The family members each drove off, never to contact each other again. There is no record of what was said at the service, but apparently the Director of the Funeral Home had to ask the Allan clan to mind their language and keep the noise down beca use there was a wake going on in another part of the building and that family was complaining.

One week later, Orval showed up at his the office of his former agent (Morty Shiffman) very much alive. It turned out Orval was trying to win a seven year old, three hundred dollar, drunken bet that he couldn't get himself declared legally dead if he tried. He had spent the seven years as a clerk at a Model Ship magazine publishing company in Wisconsin. Enraged and unwilling to pay the three hundred dollars, Morty argued with, and eventually shot the former puppet star. Orval tumbled backwards out a three story window and into the path of a double-decker tour bus, actually killing him. His relatives refused to stage a second funeral service, because they feared it would lead to more arguments over Allan's estate. Morty Shiffman served 5 years. Allan's body was donated to science. But Scienc e refused to take it.

WEEK OF OCTOBER 13

This week in 1947: The night before his record breaking flight in the Bell X-1 jet at Muroc Air Force Base (now Edwards AFB), test pilot Chuck Yeager broke two ribs, falling from a horse. Or his wife. It depends on who is telling the story. He hid his injuries from his commanding officer, so as not to miss the flight, but the pain in his ribs made it impossible to shut the aircraft's canopy from a seated position. A member of Yeager's grounds crew gave the pilot a tightly rolled up magazine he'd been reading, basically an extended lever with which he could reach out and pry the canopy lever shut. That magazine, "Hoverboy's Air Funnies #6", now sits in the Smithsonian, still inside the X-1 cockpit where it helped make history.

"I have to confess", Yeager said years later "…that I started to read the comic up there in the air, and became so caught up in the story, I think I broke the sound barrier without my noticing."

This week in 1947: The HOUSE UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES COMMITTEE begins looking into Hollywood's Commie connections, starting with the cast and crew of "Hoverboy Vs. The Immigrants" a movie serial that had been filming for over three years without ever wrapping, making it the longest running production in history (up until that time), and a suspected commie nest. When Stark and Nutt, were called before the committee, they were so terrified of being connected to Hollywood and their un-American ilk, that they offered their Hoverboy character up as a possible committee mascot in their opening statement.

"We would feel proud to see Hoverboy doing Senator McCarthy's good work in the movies and the funnies, and he'd really enjoy showing the pinkos who's boss around here! In fact, we'll do anything you'd like as well…and we mean anything."

Although twenty-nine annual private meetings were set up with Roy Cohn (Sen. McCarthy's attorney), nothing ever came of them, making them the longest running meetings in history. Years later, when a Hoverboy fan at a convention panel mentioned to Stark that Cohn was a notorious homosexual, Bob Stark laughed, shook his head, said, "Oh really." Then he decked the kid and ran away.

This week in 1962: The Missile Crisis spans this entire week back in 1962 as the world is brought to the brink of atomic war. A Hoverboy comic is rushed into print less than 48 hours after U2 spy planes photograph missile bases in Cuba, to educate America about the crisis. The issue, called "Hoverboy Explains the Crazy Commie Cuban Crisis", has a cover which depicts Hoverboy slapping Fidel Castro in the face with an eagle. In the background, a whimpering Ché Guevara is seen trying to dye his hair blonde to avoid being recognized. Inside, however, the comic is nothing more than a reprint of Hoverboy vs. the Commie Hoards #16 from 1959, a story entirely about Chinese communists, not Soviet ones. Hastily added 'round eyes' and thick beards barely fooled new readers. Some historians claim the confusion helped fuel the anxiety of the times, and undermine confidence in John Kennedy's presidency around the country. Since only 3,000 copies were printed, and most never sold, it's hard to give that theory credence. Much more interesting is the claim that you can see a man wearing a bucket in the background of the Zapruder film of John Kennedy's assassination. Or that Robert Kennedy's assassin, waiter Sirhan Sirhan was seen wearing a hotel ice bucket on his head for two entire days before the fateful attack, muttering, "How come my last name is the same as my first name! I have the laziest parents ever! If Hoverboy was here, he would avenge them!"

This week in 1974: Hoverboy begins a record 73 day span without any legal action taken against him. From October 17th to December 29th absolutely no one launches a Hoverboy lawsuit over anything. Anything at all. Not copyright infringement. Character defamation. Malfeasance. Personal injury. Causing a child to kill himself. Poisoning or eye piercing from Hoverboy toys. Libel. Looking back, C. L. Nutt longingly referred to this period as "The Happy Time."

This week in 1976: A rare cell of animation from the movie Hoverboy Destroys Christmas surfaces at an auction of the family estate of Hoverboy writer "Ugly" Ned Haynes. The cell fetches a then record amount of $9.45. This would almost double the previous amount paid for a Hoverboy cartoon cell. And within a year, Hoverboy animation cells had broken through the psychologically important $10.00 mark and soared to a high of $11.85, tax included!

This week in 1977: A plane crash kills most of the members of beloved southern flavored rock band, Lynyrd Skynyrd. When the wreckage was found, a reprinted copy of HOVERBOY'S AIR FUNNIES #6 was discovered in the cockpit. The magazine is legendary amongst pilots for its connection to Chuck Yeager, and a copy is often kept in cockpits as a good luck charm, but in this case, black box recorders tell us the pilot was working on the puzzle pages in the back of the magazine when the crash occurred.

HOVERBOY'S FREAK OUT FUNNIES #1
1971

This lost treasure from 1971 is considered one of the most collectible Hoverboy comics of that decade. With Freak Out Funnies, Bob Stark attempted to jump on another cultural bandwagon to mixed results. Although the issue printed more than a quarter of a million copies, almost all of them were either stolen from head shops or accidentally torn up to make rolling papers by the cashiers. Since very few of them actually sold for cash, the entire project was considered a failure. To this day, less than a dozen copies of this issue remain intact. The stories include a twelve page illustrated poem about Hoverboy setting chickens free from oppressive farms, a nine page tale of Hoverboy having sex with everyone at a meeting of blind feminists who think he's Burt Reynolds wearing a cooking pot on his head, and an epic twenty seven page "satire" of the Viet Nam war, in which Hoverboy dreams he's killed every negotiator at the Paris Peace Talks in a drunken rage.

Although the cover promises that America should "Get Stoned", it turns out to be an article about the correct way to throw rocks at hippies. Unfortunate for all concerned.

WEEK OF OCTOBER 6

This week in 1942: Lars Gurbon is signed to direct HOVERBOY VS THE IMMIGRANTS. It's the director's first assignment since the ill-fated 1939 serial WARLORDS OF NEPTUNE, in which most of the principal cast was killed in the shooting of the cliffhanger for episode 10, "Perilous Plummet". Obsessed with realism, Lars had placed the cast in a life size mockup of a Neptunian Destructo Cruiser, which was suspended over the lip of Laurel Canyon and set to be dropped 50 feet to simulate the zero gravity of space. Though the rig was built to support the 800 pound set, the young, inexperienced,mostly Mexican crew did not take into account the weight of it's cast, including 320 pound "Pork Pie" Shultz. Many thought it was the end of Gurbon's career in Hollywood, but Vengeance Pictures producer Bixby Roberts liked Lars. Hey, "Those German's have moxy! They took on the world, fer Chrissakes!" We'll talk more about the Warlords of Neptune Tragedy another time, but the good news at the time was that Vengeance Pictures continued making Hoverboy films. The bad news was the Mexican crew spent a to tal of 72 years in jail.

This week in 1956: the spinoff to the popular series MORE FUN HOVERBOY STORIES hits the comic shelves. Unfortunately the title, LESS FUN HOVERBOY STORIES, was supposed to infer that these were full of danger and terror. Instead, they were just, well, LESS FUN. The series is almost immediately canceled. LESS FUN artist Dwight O'Connel said in an interview shortly before his death, "I don't know what they were thinking! The entire book was filled with stories of Hoverboy painting Pepper's house or baking cookies! How do you make a villain out of a paint Salesman. Or a cookie chef. F***ing Morons!" LESS FUN writer Lazlo Novak felt the stories were a nice break from the traditional comic book foes, "I mean, anyone from another planet has super powers. But a baker with a nuclear oven! A tailor with an atomic needle! That hits people close to home."

This week in 1985: a man claiming to be Bob Stark appears, 7 years after his death. The man claims he faked his own murder/suicide to escape his hectic and labored life of wealth for that of a common man. Little media attention follows, but hoards of creditors descend on him, demanding millions of dollars in loans, interest, and back taxes. Very quickly the man abandons his story, and reveals his true identity as that of Ted Waterson of Newark NJ; but so laboriously had he planned for his deception that he spends 6 months in a Federal prison for tax evasion before he can prove he is not Bob Stark. Interestingly, several of Starks family members made things much worse by claiming that Waterson was indeed the Stark family patriarch. Though Waterson was taller, blonde, and in his thirties, the Stark family liked him, much more so than they ever like the real Bob Stark. Apparently, some of the Stark children, still traumatized over the Hoverboy Curse were desperate for a father figure.

HOVERBOY #8
Spring 1940

During the early days of Hoverboy, before America had entered World War II, Hoverboy had a decidedly anti-science theme to many of his stories, even though his flying belt and bucket devices were often called "wonders of the science age" in other issues.

Notes left behind by Nutt and Stark tell us that this was due to the publisher's belief in an untapped Amish and Mennonite comic reading market, which never materialized. Inside this tale are numerous references to how science is a sin against God and America, and Hoverboy himself is often called "Brother Jedediah, the Hovering One"

On the cover, Hoverboy assists a couple of philosophy majors, Dick and Jane, as they destroy Dr. Astroberg's dangerous machine, the Gravitas Electro-Gelder, a machine that instantly sterilizes the entire male population of the Earth. The evil doctor gloats that he will rule the world, as he is wearing special undergarments made from "Neutrolite" that will protect him, and make him ultimately desirable to more than a billion women. An interesting story, designed to appeal to all teenagers.

You'll note the cover claims that the guest stars for the issue include "Noble Brits" and "Foreign Types". And it does. The foreign types are all villains, while the noble Brits are simple peasants, whom Hoverboy makes fun of for "talking queer".

WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 29

On October 1st, 1938: The fifth of the original pulp stories of "The Hover-Boy" is published in Fictional Science Adventures #29. Titled "Hovering Over a Stronger Europe", the short story is decidedly more pro Nazi than any of the other Hover-Boy entries in the series. The plot consists of nothing more than Hover-Boy gently floating over pre-war Europe in a tour of its towns and cities, while citizens call up to him about wishing for strong leadership that only an Aryan can provide.

Coincidence or not, the same day in 1938 that this issue of Fictional Science Adventures hit the stands in New York, Hitler annexed the Sudetenland.

On October 2, 1970: Hoverboy Artist "Jazzy" Jack Gibson (real name Jacob Weinstein) dies, in what the New York Daily News described as "a mercy killing by his neighbours." To Hoverboy fans, Jazzy Jack was known as the artist for Bell Publishing's "Hoverboy and the Bucket Brigade", but for most of his career Jack specialized in Cowboy heroes such as "The Trigger Twins", "The Rawhide Kid", and "The Tuscaloosa Gentleman". Historians will likely remember him best for writing and illustrating all twenty eight years worth of the "Ranger Rabbi" series, making it comicdom's second longest running Western-themed comic book with an Orthodox Jewish lead character.

On September 30, 1974: The eleventh "HOVERBOY BIRTHDAY ISSUE" is published on yet a seventh different date of the year, further muddying up Hoverboy's official birthday. Like all Hoverboy Birthday specials, a completely new origin for Hoverboy is given, this time attributing the Bucket Boy's power of flight to a "magic sweater" knitted by an aunt, who turns out to be a witch. Of special note, Hoverboy wears his original helmet all through this issue, finally demonstrating why the round opening in the bucket was always called the "cake hole".

On September 31, 1982: The Native American Heritage Foundation selects Hoverboy's puppet rival, "The Chief" , as one of the Five Most Offensive Native American Stereotypes of the 20th Century, along with "Wahoo", the Cleveland Indians' mascot, "the Tomahawk Chop" performed at Atlanta Braves games, "Tonto", the Lone Ranger's sidekick, and Cher.

"The Chief", seen on "Hoverboy's Gay Cavelcade" (sic) (link) in the mid fifties, spoke only in broken English. His popular catch phrases were "Me no happy", "Where is firewater when Chief need it?", and "Me like beads, take what you want". When Chief was particularly upset he switched to his "peoples' language", which was Latvian, the language of puppeteer Phillip Brown (born Lütjen Laikeve), who drank on the job, and often swore up a blue streak on the air in his "native" tongue.

SOMEWHAT FUN COMICS #4
August of 1937 (VERY rare)

Experts argue about the historical importance of Hoverboy's first appearance in comics (following eight pulp stories and a novella). After all, it would predate Superman, Batman, the Human Torch and Namor as a "costumed super-hero" in comics, were it not for the fact there is no hovering in this story, and Hoverboy does not wear a "costume" technically, just a bucket on his head with holes in it. And far from behaving heroically, Hoverboy spends his adventure mostly beating up African Americans, though he does explain to the readers that it isn't racist to beat up black people, if they're criminals, and therefore bad people for reasons OTHER than their skin color. In fact, just to prove his egalitarian streak, Hoverboy beats up a Jew and an Irishman in a hilarious scene on page twelve, where the lights go out and Hoverboy just can't see WHO he's beating up.

There's also a jarring reference to to the 'Bonus Army' protest of five years earlier when thousands of veterans camped out in Washington D.C. demanding the bonus they had been promised for serving overseas in World War One. The protesters were broken up by Army Troops sent in by President Hoover, and tragically, men and women were killed. In the story here, Hoverboy says, "I'm Hooverboy! Handing out "Bonuses! Come and GET 'em!" Considering the attack on the Bonus Army was a national scandal, a kind of American version of "Tiananmen Square", it's hard to understand why it's used as a reference by the hero.

For a first appearance in the exciting new medium of comics, it's actually not a bad start. The art is crisp and readable, the plot is easy to follow, and the motivations of most of the characters are clear, all rare for a pre-golden age comic. Even the "Toots Spaulding" and "The Mustachioed Man" stories are pretty good.

If it weren't for the bile churning racism on every page, this is a very enjoyable first story.

WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 22

On September 26, 1960: The first televised Presidential debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon. Kennedy appears calm and assured. Nixon, looking swarthy with his heavy stubble, sweats and twitches like an adulterous husband on the Doctor Phil show. Afterwards Nixon says, "John F. Kennedy? Jesus H. Christ! I would have been better if I'd had a bucket on my head so no one could see me, like Hoverboy. Hoverboy wouldn't have put up with that bull crap from that Catholic son-of-a-bitch. If I wasn't a Quaker I'd kick his blue-blood balls!" Nixon said this in the heat of anger right after the debate. But he then repeated it, word for word, two days later when addressing a woman's group in Vermont.

On September 29, 2001: A mint-condition copy of the 60's Hoverboy cartoon Monsters of Nazi Island is found on top of pile of manure behind a Drive-In theatre in Billings, Montana. Alas, the person who found the copy, a local farmer, was more interested in the free manure for his crops. He threw the film aside, spilling the reel out of the canister and took the manure. It was only weeks later, when an antique collector stumbled across the movie, now ruined, that it's value was realized. What a tragedy, because had the farmer realized the importance of the film he tossed aside, he could have sold it to an eager Hoverboy collector like myself for enough money to buy himself another two or three loads of manure. C'est la guerre.

On September 28, 2003: Elia Kazan, the award-winning film and theatre director, film and theatrical producer, screenwriter, novelist and cofounder of the influential Actors Studio in New York, dies. While Kazan was three time Oscar winner, a five-time Tony Award winner, a four-time Golden Globes winner, he never won a Super Bowl Ring, NBA pennant or a World Series, so he is not well known to most Americans. In the late eighties Kazan was interested in producing a stage play about Hoverboy. He thought that the character might strike a chord with popular imagination in much the same way as Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera had a few years earlier. "I love the idea of a man, and we don't see his face, and we wonder, why? Why?" But the next day when Kazan sobered up, he abandoned the idea. Since then several stage productions featuring Hoverboy have been written and produced by Charlie Nutt's granddaughter, Olivia.

"TANKY" three inch HOVERBOY FIGURE

Plastic, tin, and some soft stuff around the gun that could be ANYTHING.

Tanky Toys 1977.

With their catchy motto, "If it's tiny, it might be a Tanky", Tanky Toys was one of the eight largest distributors of "toys in an opaque plastic bubble", that would be found in "gum and nut" vending machine locations across North America throughout the later twentieth century. For the few years they were popular teenage boys would tease each other in gym class shower by saying, "Oh, you've got a tiny Tanky." Whatever pleasure these toys brought, the damage to young men's self esteem was far greater.

This (probably unlicensed) Hoverboy three inch figure was available for 25 cents, and a spin of lady luck, as there was no way of predicting which toy would come out of the Tanky machine once it had your quarter. You could just as easily get a Mexican wrestler "Santo" toy, a "Gator" Mcklusky action figure (from the Burt Reynolds classic, "Gator"), comedic actor Harvey Korman (reading a book for some reason), an unidentifiable "Charlie's Angel", (most think it's Kate Jackson), and a three inch figure of the baby Jesus, disturbingly enough, being crucified-- all in the "Tanky" line up in of opaque toys that year.

As was common in the "toys in an opaque plastic bubble" industry, this Tanky Hoverboy was not a new toy, but a re-purposing of their once popular "Kent State R.O.T.C. Combat Patrol Dolls", with a modified helmet, and repainted in Hoverboy colors after Viet Nam fell to the Commies. Tanky re-used the same molds and weaponry over the years for "Sammy SWAT Team", "Survivalist Steve" and more recently in their "Heinrich, the Overbearing Homeland Security Officer"

HOVERBOY #83
"THE JUNGLE IS A JUNGLE"
August 1978

With the CBS Batman/Tarzan Adventures Hour a Saturday Morning hit in 1977, and with the popular Marvel Comics Tarzan series drawn by Silver Age master John Buscema, and with Richard (Rocky Horror) O'Brien's hip Tarzan musical "T-ZEE" playing on Broadway, and with the blockbuster film from England, "Carry On Up The Jungle" burning up the box office, and with nothing on television worth watching, the late Seventies were clearly in the middle of a Tarzan revival, and Vigilance Comics wasn't going to be left behind.

Starting with issue #83, Hoverboy transformed into a barely hidden imitation of the Jungle King. The story opens with Hoverboy on his way to Alaska. His plane encounters an Atlantic Typhoon and crashes. The impact gives Hoverboy the power to understand animal languages in the jungle he has crashed into. Soon The Boy Who Hovers helps his new friends defeat the evil Gorilla Overlord, and in celebration our hero bends aluminum from the plane's wreckage to turn his animal allies into Hover-Chimp, Hover-Tiger, and Hover-Elephant. It's a fun story if you can overlook that a Hoverboy wouldn't need a plane, Typhoons are actually a Pacific Ocean phenomenon, the Congo is nowhere near Alaska, and kangaroos are Australian, not African. The Hoverboy-Tarzan trend lasted until #84 ( the next issue), when a massive lawsuit from Edgar Rice Burroughs' family lawyer found its way to the deliberately hard-to-locate offices of Vigilance Comics.

This issue pictured to the right was plaintiff's exhibit #1. The actual Tarzan logo on the cover made the case a foregone conclusion. Judge Rontarius J. Lewis decided it in eight minutes. Vigilance Comics immediately filed a motion for a mistrial, stating that the judge never stopped giggling once throughout the entire eight minutes, which their lawyer claimed was legally insulting to their defense. That motion was also laughed out of court.

The decision went against Vigilance to the tune of two million dollars, only $500 of which was ever paid to the Burroughs family. Tens of thousands was lost in lawyers fees, however, which Vigilance was forced to pay by the large men working for the law firm who came to collect it.

This embarrassing episode was another of the many nails driven into the Vigilance Comics coffin in the twilight of its publishing history.

WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 15

This week in 1933 the fourth Li'l Bucketboy cartoon, "BLOWS FOR HOBOS" is released, though it is pulled from theaters almost immediately due to concerns over the title. The film would be re-released weeks later with the less clever title, "HOBOS GET BEATEN WITH A LOT OF FISTS". Although it is an animated short with no live actors, rumours that a stuntman was killed during the making of the cartoon persist, and the unusual interest causes "Hobos" to linger in Depression era cinema houses for several weeks.  

This week in 1959: Nikita Khrushchev becomes first Soviet official to visit the United States. The visit went well until a member of the diplomatic party returned from a stroll through Times Square with a copy of HOVERBOY: COMMIE HOLOCAUST #6. That issue featured a story of Hoverboy battling Khrushchev, whose plan for global domination involved the Soviet president stomping on puppies and hammering them with his shoe. During a visit the next year to the United Nations, Krushchev suddenly interrupts an address he is giving about Africa and European Colonialism, to pull off his shoe and pound it on the dais, screaming that he would never stomp on puppies, he loves puppies, and in fact he has puppies who have ruined many of his own shoes with their chewing and pooping. Translators cannot comprehend the sudden shift from his prepared script, and pretend he is actually referring to Cuba.

This week in 1962: The first issue of the series THE ALL-NEW ADVENTURES OF HOVERBOY debuts from Southern Pride Comics, reprinting stories from their 1960 title, THE SUPER MAN: HOVERBOY, which was shut down by National Periodical Publications (owners of the Superman trademark) after 6 issues. The comic features terrific artwork, but only in the ads for Sea Monkeys and the Army Foot Locker full of soldiers.

This week in 1972: GAY CAVALCADE puppeteer Philip Brown, who performed both Hoverboy and Chief on the 1950's show, died of "unnatural causes" according to the Miami District Coroner's Office. They declined to be more specific due to "issues of state laws on taste".

HOVERBOY #26
"WHEN YOU FISH UPON A STAR "
Early Fall of 1953

Sporting another fantastic cover painting by Nelson Rosetti, this issue sees Hoverboy fighting crime at the Center Town Fishland Aquarium.

When tourists at the aquarium start dying mysteriously, Hoverboy goes undercover as a merman in the "Fishland Singing Cetaceans Show" to solve the mystery.

Though gorgeously illustrated by a now confident Bob Stark, the story is difficult to follow as complication is heaped upon complication. A real mermaid shows up early in the story, illegally selling cigarettes from Mexico without a customs stamp, a harp seal named Daisy turns out to be an FBI agent in disguise, and the dolphin trainer announces he's really an alien from Saturn, bent on world domination. In the end, the mysterious deaths turn out to be the result of poorly refrigerated smelts, sold at the snack bar as crab cakes, accidentally poisoning the diners. When Hoverboy realizes all the startling complications in the case amounted to nothing more than "red herrings", he has a hearty laugh over the body of the snack bar's last victim.

Of note: Directly after this issue goes on sale, Hoverboy Comics attempts an ambitions weekly publication schedule, instead of the bi-monthly schedule it had been on for more

than four years. Within three issues, however, Stark and Nutt are unable to maintain the grueling workload and publish the next seven issues with blank interior pages, calling them "Hoverboy stories YOU can create at home". The regular bi-montly issues, with fully illustrated stories within, resume with No. 36, later that same year.

WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 8

September 8, 1935: Notoriously corrupt Louisiana Governor Huey Long is shot by doctor Carl Austin Weiss in the Capital Building in Baton Rouge Louisiana. In New York. Hoverboy co-creator, C. L. Nutt is overheard joking to colleagues, "If Huey had been wearing a big steel bucket on his head, he just might have survived… HEY! That gives me an idea." His idea is to design and patent a bullet proof hat, "The Bullet Bouncing Bowler" which never takes off. Undaunted, Nutt has other ideas. 

September 12, 1939: Hoverboy's first official appearance in a comic book, a back up story in "Somewhat Fun Adventures #4", is released this week in the United States, UK, France, New Zealand, Australia and Canada . But since the UK, France, New Zealand, Australia and Canada have just declared war on Germany, that leaves only Americans to enjoy the adventures of the "Boy Who Hovers" without a war to distract them.  

September 12, 1940: Prehistoric cave paintings are discovered in Lascaux France. After seeing photographs of the startlingly complex images, well over ten thousand years old, Bob Stark breaks all the fingers on his right hand in rage. "I can't draw as well as damn CAVEMEN!" he shouts, while slamming a window down on his hand. Within days, forced to meet a looming deadline, he begins to draw with his left hand, and discovers he'd been left handed all along.

September 9, 1956: The final broadcast of the Hoverboy DuPont Network radio show, "Hoverboy AWAY", canceled due to low numbers of listeners. Meanwhile, America's newest media, television, gains a new relevance as Elvis Presley's first national appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show is aired to HUGE ratings. Pat McDonald, the actor who played Hoverboy in the film serials, tells the show biz newspaper Variety, "Hey, I know how Elvis feels. They wouldn't show Presley from the waist down, and they never showed me from the neck up.".

September 8, 1966: Undaunted by previous failures, the ABC Television network airs the first episode of its prime time cartoon show "Hoverboy Flies to Mars" in an attempt to attract a new Science Fiction starved audience. The cartoon is voiced by many of the actors from the old radio series. On NBC that night, Star Trek premieres with "The Man Trap" to rave overnight reviews. Hoverboy is canceled within three weeks.

September 9, 1971: To respond to angry inmate demands for "more showers and more toilet paper" at Attica Prison, multiple copies of Hoverboy's Wacky Hi-jinks magazines are distributed to cell block D in the hopes that they will substitute for bathroom tissue. The ploy does not work, and about 1,000 of the prison's approximately 2,200 prisoners riot and seize control of the prison, taking thirty-three correction officers hostage. The prisoners are seen on TV chanting, "Hell no, this ain't it! Hoverboy comics ain't worth sh*t." The comics, unused by prisoners, are considered very collectible.

September 10, 1977: The "Newer Adventures of Hoverboy" comic strip begins running reprints in South Africa's highest circulation paper, THE DAILY DISPATCH. Editor of the paper, Donald Woods proclaims it "Hoverboy Day" in his editorial column. South African police embrace the character, instantly making him their official mascot. Two days later, when anti-aparthied activist Steven Biko is discovered dead in a Pretorian jail cell after being beaten by guards, Donald Woods cancels the Hoverboy strip, claiming, "Maybe now is not a good time this stuff…as much as I dig the flying kid".

STRANGE ADVENTURES
"NIGHT OF THE COMBIES "
Summer 1955

With the cold war at it’s height, the “Red Menace” began to take center stage as Hoverboy’s primary adversary.

In this story, Stalin’s robot clone uses a book on Voodoo magic stolen from Hitler’s personal library to raise the dead into a unstoppable Socialist army.

Outnumbered by the hundreds, Hoverboy is near certain defeat when he takes the fight to New York’s West 5th Avenue. Bullets can’t stop them, but once their Commie eyes lay sight on American consumables, Stalin’s power is broken and the reign of the Com-bies is over!

The Stalin robo-clone escapes to the moon and isn’t seen again until the story “Green Cheese and Commies” from HOVERBOY: SPACE AMERICAN G.I. in 1962.

WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 1

This week in 1938: Nutt and Stark attempt to sue National Allied Publications for their new character "Superman", claiming that his flying power constitutes a direct plagiarism of Hoverboy's ability to hover. The lawsuit is quickly settled as Harry Donenfeld, publisher of National, points out that Superman only "leaps over tall buildings in a single bound" and cannot fly. Years later, when Superman DOES gain the ability to fly, Nutt and Stark don't notice.   

This week in 1953: The Hoverboy Gay Cavelcade (sic) TV show allegedly films a "Salute to Labor Day" episode. Unfortunately, the producers misunderstood the holiday, and supposedly devoted a show to a previously unseen girl puppet in hard labor giving birth to the Hoverboy puppet. Some of the comments by "Chief" include, "Get that brave out of that papoose, the squaw won't stop howling" and "Can I name him Screaming Bucket?" The scene where the Chief tries to bite trough the puppet's umbilical cord (actually a piece of licorice candy) while shouting "Let me at it! Chief have strong teeth", is usually considered the reason the show was never aired.   

This week in 1968: Hoverboy's "Back to School Coloring Book" is released. No mention of school can be found inside the coloring book, however, as most of the pages contain images of Hoverboy cheering on cops as they beat protesters at the recent Democratic Convention in Chicago. The inclusion of Richard Nixon, Edward Muskie and "the Chicago Eight" on the cover is a bit of a giveaway that children will be seeing nothing of school activities inside.

This week in 1974: Throughout the summer of '74 Melissa Stark, daughter of Bob Stark, had gone missing when on a class trip to Mexico. It became a minor national story during the summer, as Stark gives up working on the Hoverboy comic while searching for her. She shows up in September of that year, claiming to have spent the missing weeks aboard a UFO. When the National Enquirer looks into the story, photos of Melissa sunbathing nude on the beach at Guadalajara during the missing time surface. Stark and his then-wife, Sophie, immediately call a press conference to announce that Melissa was adopted, and they no longer want her.

HOVERBOY PEZ

his Hoverboy Pez Dispenser was made as a tie-in for the late 70's, low budget film, HOVERBOY'S NINJA ADVENTURE, which was, in fact, not really a Hoverboy film at all. Originally, "Ninja Adventures" (or HNA to the fans) was a Hong Kong action picture about a Milkman whose face is so horribly mangled in a brawl with Chinese gangsters, that he wears a metal helmet while wreaking vengeance on the criminal gang that disfigured him. There are no scenes of hovering in the original film, all of which were added for the North American re-release. In the American translation, all the good Chinese characters speak perfect English while the 'Commie' Chinese speak with thick German and Russian accents. Hoverboy's voice was dubbed by the Bucket-Boy's regular Saturday Morning voice, actor Dick Python, (who appeared in porn movies shortly before being cast as Hoverboy, and then again, shortly after his work on this film, under the name Python Dick).

Of note is the fact that under the buckets of this particular Pez Dispenser toy is found the faces of either Steve Guttenberg, Bruce Jenner or (Village People Cowboy singer) Randy Jones. These were supposed to be collectibles for the movie "Can't Stop the Music", but when "Music" tanked at the

box office, the producer of Hoverboy's Ninja Adventure, Zig Felberson, bought up the Pez dispensers for a song, and hired 200 illegal aliens to glue buckets on them. An interesting story about Pez's least known superhero tie-in.

HOVERBOY BI-ANNUAL #2
"KAMRADE BEAR "
October

Issue #2...of what was originally an Annual...but they had trouble keeping up the grueling schedule. There was never another issue after this. Of special note is the missing leg on Kamrade Bear and the missing eye on Santa Boy. Especially odd since no such deformities exist on the characters inside the issue, though the artists for each story was, in fact, missing a body part. Perhaps this strange cover was a shout out the often maimed artists who worked on this series.

Apparently the cover artist for this issue (A guy who went under the pen name "Tico") had a strange habit of doing this thing with the missing limbs and eyes, as a form of political art. It was his symbol for the decay of society and culture in the mid-seventies, after Watergate, Bobby Kennedy and MLK, Viet Nam and the cancellation of Star Trek. Of note, "Tico" was missing his left hand, but not due to the war. He lost it after falling asleep next to a pizza oven when he was twenty three, and he swears his own missing limb had nothing to do with his art featuring so much of that kind of deformity. He eventually left comics when he caught his right hand in an elevator door in 1979, and was dragged to his death...