Little Lulu the Spider Spins Again
| Tubby Tomkins | |
|---|---|
 embrace of Dell Comics' 4 Color #461, featuring Marge's Tubby by John Stanley | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Dell Comics |
| Created past | Marjorie Henderson Buell, John Stanley |
| Voiced by | Arnold Stang |
| In-story information | |
| Full name | Thomas "Tubby" Tompkins |
| Squad affiliations | The Fellers |
| Notable aliases | "The Spider" |
Tubby Tompkins, by and large referred to equally Tubby, is a comic book character created by Marjorie Henderson Buell. The character Thomas "Tubby" Tompkins start appeared in the Piffling Lulu comic console in The Sat Evening Post and went on to appear alongside Lulu in comic books, advertising, and blithe cartoons, besides every bit in his own solo comic book series beginning in 1952.
Both preternaturally hungry and egotistical, Tubby'southward overriding monomania and blissful lack of cocky-sensation propel him through an countless series of near-disasters and minor epics of suburban chance. Although he is best known equally Piffling Lulu'due south sometimes-boyfriend and comic foil, Tubby is also Lulu's nemesis, acting every bit the antagonist in many of her adventures. Tubby is the leader of The Fellers, a gang of neighbourhood boys with a strict "No Girls Allowed" policy in their clubhouse, and it is in this function that he most often runs afoul of Lulu and her genius.
Graphic symbol development [edit]
Marge began introducing male school friends for Little Lulu in her panel for the Postal service as early as 1937. These unidentified boys (the strip was in pantomime, with no captions or word balloons) were oftentimes dressed alike, in typical schoolboy fashions of the period, with curt pants, large collar with bow tie, accommodate jacket, and tiny crewman cap. Gradually, a more portly version of these boys began to announced, somewhen condign a "regular" in the feature, unremarkably equally a suitor or playmate to Lulu. Marge referred to this character as "Joe" simply it wasn't until the grapheme was adapted into blithe class in a series of short films produced for Paramount that something of his personality began to emerge and the new name of Tubby was get-go used.[i] Tubby makes silent appearances in two Lulu shorts from 1944, "It's Nifty to Exist Thrifty" (released Baronial eighteen, 1944), in which he appears licking a lollipop and wearing a blue shirt, and "Lulu's Altogether Political party" (released December ane, 1944), where he appears as a party guest wearing a black shirt. However, in the next twelvemonth'due south "Beau Ties" (released Apr, 20, 1945), Tubby takes center stage equally "Fatso", former beau of Lulu, who discovers him ii-timing her with Gloria (known in this cartoon as "Fifi") at the malt store. The cowardly Fatso, voiced by pop character actor Arnold Stang, is and then tormented by Lulu as punishment for his infidelity. The graphic symbol next appears in "Bored of Education" (released March 1, 1946), at last named "Tubby" but dressed every bit a series of historical figures imagined by Lulu in a daydream. Information technology is at this betoken that the basic Tubby template finally emerges, if only in proper noun and costume.
At the mid-bespeak of the film series (and with the Post gig concluded in 1944), and several merchandised Lulu books to her credit, Marge turned to licensing the Lulu concept to comic books, inking a deal with Dell Comics to publish a series of effort-out issues beginning in 1945. The characters of Lulu and Tubby appear together for the first time in this format in Dell Comics' Four Color #74 in a story titled "The Costume Party" and written and fatigued past cartoonist John Stanley. Stanley had created several "proto-Tubby" characters earlier in his career with Dell [2] and began applying some of these traits to Marge's fatty school chum. The Tubby and Lulu of this first comic book story are both anarchic in character merely that would alter as Stanley gradually evolves both: Lulu becomes the voice of logic and Tubby comes to embody a sort of anarchic force of nature, impervious to societal critique or censure.[3] The success of these four one-shots lead to a long-running Piddling Lulu series beginning in 1948, and eventually to a solo series for Tubby (Marge'south Tubby), beginning with another series of one-shot try-outs in 1952 and running in diverse formats until 1964.
John Stanley's Tubby [edit]
Considering Tubby was picayune more than a simple stereotype when his comic book adventures began, John Stanley was able to utilise him every bit a vehicle to explore a variety of themes and put his own stamp on the character. In this sense, Tubby is a relative rarity in the world of licensed American children'southward comics, akin to the Uncle Scrooge stories by Carl Barks. Nether Stanley'south guidance, through hundreds of stories, Tubby eventually reveals a reliable group of mostly anti-social personality traits that come to propel the narratives of his adventures. The comics critic Bill Schelly has proposed a six-point guide to Tubby'due south complex motivations and drives.[4] Co-ordinate to Schelly, Tubby:
*Always seeks status, asserting (and assuming) his primacy, and claims to sympathise everything. That his concepts have footling or no connection to reality never occurs to him.
- Is enlightened of social niceties but is so self-involved that he has trivial or no consideration for them when he is going afterwards what he wants. Yet, when others don't take his feelings into account, Tubby whines.
- Aspires to be "what a man is supposed to be" from his kid point of view: a fireman, an Indian fighter, a hunter, detective, mountain climber, etc., pretending stoicism in the face up of danger. Acknowledges no contradicition when he screams "MAWWWW" when he is even slightly hurt or agape.
- Uses "kid logic" to translate the world around him and solve bug.
- Admittedly believes in the superiority of men over women. He has to experience that he always has the upper hand with Lulu, fifty-fifty though it'southward clear she has the upper hand nearly of the time.
- Far from feeling stigmatized for beingness fatty, he feels it entitles him to more than nutrient than others. Food is the nearly of import matter to him, even trumping status.
—Beak Schelly, John Stanley: Giving Life to Piffling Lulu
With a multi-faceted grapheme similar Tubby in the role of protagonist in the Lulu stories, or every bit the hero of his own solo adventures, John Stanley was then free to add together on to and aggrandize the universe of these characters in a world-building exercise, introducing a supporting bandage of characters and a diverseness of stock situations.[5] These basic bounds and situations would then exist used to tell a humorous story with a series of more and more outrageous scenarios, deportment and gags. Near of these bounds are grounded in the reality of Tubby's small town environment, with the very occasional foray into a fantasy or science fiction setting. The generic situations include: 1) Romance (i.e., a romantic triangle involving Tubby and either Gloria, Lulu, or Wilbur); ii) Battle of the sexes (i.e., Tubby and The Fellers have some sort of conflict with Lulu); iii) crime or mystery (i.e., Tubby, equally "The Spider", investigates a purported or imagined crime, invariably suspecting Lulu's father); and 4) Fantasy, science fiction or deus ex machina (i.due east., Tubby has a dream or interacts with aliens).
Supporting characters [edit]
- Lulu Moppet: Tubby's girlfriend and friendly enemy.
- The Spider: Tubby'due south alias. A Sherlock Holmes-ian detective whose arch-enemy is Lulu's begetter.
- The Fellers: Tubby's gang. Tubby is the usual leader of this gang. Their headquarters is a clubhouse hidden in the woods with a prominent "No Girls Allowed" sign.
- The Due west Side Gang: A rival gang of tough kids.
- The Little Men from Mars: Diminutive aliens with amazing scientific powers and telepathy.
- George and Martha Moppet: Lulu's parents. She'southward a slap-up cook. He works with Mr. Tompkins and always is targeted past Tubby'south pursuit equally a detective.
- Jim and Ellie Tompkins: Tubby'southward parents. Tubby refers to them every bit "Maw" and "Paw".
Reprints [edit]
'John Stanley Library: Tubby', by John Stanley with book pattern by Seth (Drawn and Quarterly, 2010) ISBN 9781770460232 (collects issues ix-12 of the Dell Comics serial)
Tubby is also featured prominently in many Piffling Lulu stories, many of which have been reprinted.
Other media [edit]
In improver to the original Paramount Pictures blithe films, Tubby and Lulu have appeared in numerous television series.
References [edit]
- ^ Schelly, Bill (2017). John Stanley: Giving Life to Little Lulu. Fantagraphics Books. p. 48. ISBN978-1606999905.
- ^ Immature, Frank M. (2012). "Looking For "Tub" In All The Wrong Places: Proto-Tubby Stories from Our Gang Comics 15, 1945 and New Funnies 107, 1946". Stanley Stories . Retrieved 5 August 2018.
This archetype'southward mulish determination, blended with rose-colored self-regard, allows him/her to fearlessly step forward into scenarios of potential humiliation, ostracization and belittlement. Blinded by their usually flawed assumption that they're unerringly right, Stanley's Tubbies typically succeed. Not without some emotional scars, but they do win in the end.
- ^ Young, Frank 1000. (2012). "Tootling Tubas, Iodine Indians and Fatal Cookies: Three Stories from the fourth Little Lulu 1-shot comic, 1946: story and art by John Stanley". Stanley Stories . Retrieved 5 August 2018.
Once Stanley figured his master plan out, and assigned the self-deluded, self-justifying persona to Tubby, Lulu becomes a steadfast, feet-on-the-ground assayer of logic and reason. This was Stanley's greatest alteration of the Marge characters, and what makes them so far superior to her gag-drawing iteration.
- ^ Schelly, Bill (2017). John Stanley: Giving Life to Little Lulu. Fantagraphics Books. p. 63. ISBN978-1606999905.
- ^ Clough, Rob (2011). "D&Q Classics, Part 2: Tubby, Volume 1". The Comics Periodical. Fantagraphics Books. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
Past nature, Stanley was a globe-architect; he felt the need to innovate various comic foils, friends and antagonists for his central characters. Function of that, I would guess, was Stanley's way of giving himself raw fabric to work with; it'south his way of coming upwards with the variables for his comics writing formulas.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tubby_Tompkins