Powerhouse Pepper

"Joker Comics" #1 (April 1942).

Publication history

Powerhouse Pepper appeared in six- to eight-page stories in Timely Comics' "Joker Comics" #1-27, 29-31 (April 1942 - May 1947, Fall 1947 - Spring 1948); "Gay Comics" #1, 18-22, 28-29 (March 1944, Fall 1944 - Winter 1945, Aug.-Nov. 1947); "Tessie the Typist" #2, 4, 7-13 (Winter 1944, Fall 1945, Fall 1946 - Dec. 1947); "Rusty" #14 (Aug. 1947); and "Millie the Model" #9 (Dec. 1947), as well as in his own series.

A single issue of that solo title appeared as "Powerhouse Pepper Comics" #1 (Jan. 1943), featuring a slightly different character design than elsewhere. The series then went dormant for five years while the character's adventures were published in the aforementioned titles. It was revived, slightly shortened to "Powerhouse Pepper", for four additional issues (#2-5, Spring - Nov. 1948). Backup features there included the humor characters Goofy Giggles, L'il Louie, Squeeky, and (in issue #2) Wolverton's detective Disk-Eyes the Dick.

Fictional character biography

A bullet-headed boxer in a striped turtleneck, he is, per comics historian Don Markstein

Reprints

Modern-day Powerhouse Pepper reprints include the eight-page story "McClaw the Outlaw", [The title appears on the original comic's title page, not on the story itself, which references sources generally list as "Rawjaw McClaw"] in the hardcover anthology "A Smithsonian Book of Comic-Book Comics" (Smithsonian Institution Press / Harry N. Abrams, 1981). Additional reprints have appeared in New Media Publishing's black-and-white magazine "Golden Age of Comics" #5 (Oct. 1983); publisher Kitchen Sink Press' adult-oriented "Snarf" #13 (Dec. 1989); and Pure Imagination's 1993 all-Wolverton comic-book "Intense!" #1-3 and "The Human Powerhouse" #1.

Footnotes

References

* [http://wolvertoon.com/basilindex.html Monte Wolverton official site: "Comic Book Features by Basil Wolverton 1938-1954 and "Mad" Magazine 1954-1970"]
* [http://www.tcj.com/2_archives/r_Op2Po.html "The Comics Journal" #178 (date n.a.): Review by Larry Rodman of book "Powerhouse Pepper"]
* [http://www.comics.org/ Grand Comics Database]
* [http://www.atlastales.com/ Atlas Tales]