Captain Tootsie

Captain Tootsie is one of the more interesting  superheroes of the Golden Age of Comics.  Debuting in 1943,  he sold Tootsie Rolls, those brown sugar-corn syrup concoctions, which gave him the "quick energy" to save the day.  His half-page adventures appeared in hundreds of comics, from Action Comics and Captain Marvel to A Date with Judy:

Captain Tootsie Battles Monster Man!
Captain Tootsie Tames a Tornado!
Captain Tootsie Traps Killer Bear with Invisible Light!
Captain Tootsie and the Return of Dr. Narsty!

Sometimes his adventures were a bit less urgent:

Captain Tootsie Saves School Party!
Captain Tootsie at the Winter Carnival!

 Here he saves the world from Dr. Narsty, who has stolen a kid's toy cannon (it takes an evil genius to do that?).

Captain Tootsie was drawn as a very muscular blond in a red shirt, yellow belt, and blue pants, which didn't look anything like the familiar brown-and-white tootsie roll.







I don't have the next frame in this sequence, so I'm wondering myself what Captain Tootsie intends to do next.

His most frequent sidekick was Rollo ("roll-o", get it?), a miniature version of himself with blond hair, a red shirt, and pecs.

Sometimes he also hung out with Fisty, a petite black-haired boy wearing a suit; and Fatso, who had curly orange hair and wasn't very fat by today's standards.




Two issues of a full length comic were published by Toby Press in 1950, with no tootsie rolls in the actual story.

#1: Captain Tootsie and his Secret Legion (Rollo, Fisty, and Fatso) go to Venus, where they initiate a slave revolt and overthrow the evil Nagara.

#2: They investigate "The Stone that Lives" and "The Victory Vibrator."

I'm interested in knowing more about that Victory Vibrator.

His last appearance was in an ad in 1953 ("Try these delicious Tootsie Pops!").

Forgotten for 60 years, Captain Tootsie was revived for a story in Savage Dragon #199 (2014), along with such other forgotten 1940s superheroes as Lash Lighting, Rex Dexter, and Captain Freedom.


But it's not just his corporate job and his crazy adventures that draws my interest.

Tootsie is a girl's name.

It's derived from "tootsie-wootsie,"  a childish term for "foot."

Leo Hirschfeld, who invented Tootsie Rolls in 1896, named them after his daughter Clara, nicknamed Tootsie.

The creators weren't required to name their superhero after a girl.  Lots of product mascots have a different name from their products.

 "I'll toot for Tootsie" sounds decidedly feminine.

And doesn't the secret hand-signal look rather dainty?

When you add his oral fetish....