*Miscellaneous 1940-1959: A cult newspaper strip in the 1940’s, Sparky Watts is all but forgotten today, but this everyman super-hero – who preferred fighting crime and having bizarre adventures in a comfy cardigan-and-slacks ensemble, rather than the traditional tights – is one of the more imaginative creations of the 1940’s. Written and drawn by Boody Rogers, Sparky’s newspaper strip adventures ran in Columbia Comics’ Big Shot anthology since 1941, and he was launched in his own four-issue series in 1942. After an hiatus for that pesky WWII – during which Rogers was on active service – Rogers returned to draw all-new segments for Big Shot and for a further six issues of Sparky’s own series, during which things got really weird! Rogers is best remembered for the outré “female Li’l Abner on acid” strip, Babe, but Sparky’s adventures into wacky realms were just as distracting and endearing. We have issues #1 & #2 (the premier issue cover-featuring Hitler and Mussolini), and #4-7 of Sparky’s ten-issue solo run. Mild-mannered and bespectacled, yet irresistible to the ladies, Sparky shrinks into microscopic realms, revives the dead, ventures into space, and everywhere finds shapely ladies who’re warm for his form! (Even if their shapes are sometimes a little bit unusual…)