Story title: "Scribbly Is In For a Surprise!!!"
Cover Date: October 1936
By: Sheldon Mayer
Hello! I'm finally back from the dead, so let´s get this issue out of the way once and for all. So, you might have noticed that the title is a bit off, so let me explain. This particular story did not have an entry in the order (the DCRO guys must've missed it), so I let them know and they added it. However, we already had done a couple entries ahead, so instead of going back and renumbering the last three or so entries, I'll do the title like this. Now, I could actually fix it, but here's the thing: I want to be consistent, and in a few years, when I'm (hopefully) like two thousand entries into the order, I really don't want to go back and fix the numbers for a thousand entries if a new one gets added around the beginning (which there is actually a precedent for, since Federal Men wasn't "canon" until a few years ago when Steve Carson got a cameo in Detective Comics, by which point the order had a few thousand entries already), so it stays like this, and this is what I'll do if this happens again in the future.
This story starts right after Ving Parker gets "socked" by Scribbly. He's lying on the street (I've never played baseball, but seriously, how much can a baseball hurt? I bet a football to the face hurts a lot more!) and a lot of people come to help him.
This is kind of relatable, when you fall in the street, sometimes people are too eager to help you, and all you want is a few seconds to regain your composure.
Some passing cop recognizes Ving, and he helps him get rid of the people around him, after that, the artist just walks away! So exactly how famous is this guy? I don't doubt he's good, but he's a cartoonist, for crying out loud! And he lives in a mansion and has a butler! Hell, people were buying his newspaper specifically for his cartoons a couple stories back. I think the only thing remotely close to this I've seen in real life is Garfield's creator, Jim Davis.
Sometime later, he's heading home and thinking about Scribbly (as he seems to do a bit too often) and he runs into some of his drawings on some wall.
On the way home, he thinks about Scribbly, and how much it reminds him of himself when he was his age. He thinks it would be pretty cool to take the kid under his wing and be his mentor. It's pretty cool to see all of this! On some of the stories after this one, I remember saying this whole Ving Parker "stalking" Scribbly was pretty creepy from a certain point of view, but this explains it better!
By the time he gets home, he's resolved! He informs Perkins, the butler, that first time tomorrow, they're going little-boy-hunting (huh?)! Meanwhile, Scribbly is sulking at home, thinking he lost his opportunity to meet his hero. Which leads into the next story.
But as the title says, he, indeed, is in for a surprise. And that's the end for now.
Also, if you want to go back to seeing Ving Parker as a creepy guy, here are some actual phrases said by him in this story!
Sorry for copypasting every other thing he said, but it's just too good!
As always, you can read the complete Dell Scribbly era here.
Now, the ratings:
Quality/Enjoyment: 2/5
Once again, there was no actual joke here, and while I did really like the character moment with Ving and the explanation of why he's so obsessed with Scribbly, I don't think it's enough to grant a 3. Look, it's probably because I read this one after the next two, but it feels kind of unnecessary. Every piece of info here was deductible from what happened next, more or less. At least that's how I feel, but I do acknowledge that I'd probably feel different if I had read this at the correct time.
Historical/Cultural/Narrative Significance: 1/5
Man, it's good to be back! As always, thank you for reading, and have a nice rest of your day!
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