Number 956


Blackmail Terror!


Sparkle Plenty, daughter of B.O. Plenty and Gravel Gertie, becomes a child star on a TV show patterned after the real-life Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, then is kidnapped by a pervert ("Come sit on my lap!" "No! I don't set on strangers' laps, dadburn it!"), whose plan is to extort money by hijacking her income.

This is Harvey Comics Library #2, from 1952, a one-shot issue set apart from the usual comic, Dick Tracy Monthly, which Harvey also published. It's clever the way Harvey Comics packaged a well-known strip like Dick Tracy under the provocative title, Blackmail Terror. They did it with Rex Morgan, M.D. in Teenage Dope Slaves, also. I suppose they did it to attract comics buyers used to more lurid comics in the pre-Comics Code era.

Al Avison, who could mimic other cartoonists like Chester Gould, drew the cover, which was offered in 2004 on Heritage Auctions, where I downloaded this scan of the original artwork.

According to the inside front cover, today is Sparkle's 64th birthday. Happy birthday, Sparkle!