Whenever we visited my relatives in Indiana, I spent the night with my Cousin Buster in the trailer in the dark woods, and we would squeeze into his narrow twin bed, our bodies pressed together, reading Harvey Comics. I read until long after he fell asleep, associating the tales of friendly ghosts and little devils with that warmth and affection.
Two boys together clinging, one the other never leaving....
In high school, I looked back on those moments of perfect happiness, and tried to get my hands on the Harvey Comics I read all those years ago (actually less than 10 years ago, but when you're 16, it seems like an eternity).
So I put an ad in the Rock Island
Argus, and a very cute Augustana student named Clay answered with an offer of five
Little Max comics from 1958-1959 for a dollar each.
I never heard of Little Max, they were from before I was born, and a dollar was four times what a hew comic cost at the Comics Cave. But some of them had the familiar jack-in-the-box logo and tv set icons displaying the stars, so I bought them anyway.
It was a weird type of deja vu, like looking at a photo of your parents before you were born: familiar, yet bizarre, with a story going on that you are not a part of and can't possibly understand.
What are you covering up, Max buddy?
The star, Little Max, looks like Little Audrey in drag: he is drawn in the familiar Harvey style, cherubic-cute, with a big head and gigantic eyes. He doesn't speak, and his thought balloons are full of malapropisms that suggest a learning disorder: "They're both so kindly and generosity!"
His mentor, chum, adopted father, or something is Joe Palooka, a tall, very muscular guy with a weird toothless grin. Max calls him "Dear Joe."
Later research revealed that Joe Palooka was a boxer in a comic strip drawn by Ham Fisher from 1930 through the 1980s. He was so popular that he appeared in twelve movies (played by Stuart Erwin and Joe Kirkwood), a radio series, a tv series, and a lot of merchandise, including lunch boxes, a board game, and a mountain. "Palooka" became slang for a big, dumb guy.
Little Max was a supporting character in the Palooka comic strip, a mute shoe-shine boy who Joe befriended. His comic book series ran for 73 issues, from 1949 to 1961.
Joe has also adopted or is mentoring an unnamed girl. Max calls her "Dear Her."
She may have a speech disorder, saying "Maxth" and "Mith-ter Palooka," but I think girls in the 1940s affected a lisp to appear more childlike.
More after the break
