Comic 358 - Too Expensive For Her Pocket Money
11th Oct 2018, 12:00 AM
in The Antique Shop
Average Rating: 5 (4 votes) Rate this comic
Author Notes:
But this vinyl record was of course not produced by him.
It's instead an adaption* of the TV show by the eponymous entertainer who was partly the inspiration for the current Captain Happy's persona.
*It's an adaption insofar that they re-edited the TV show's sound track (dialogues and stuff) into something like an audio play.
(Captain Happy - every incarnation - by ProfEtheric)
As for Dora mentioning the original CH's distinct voice - I imagine it sounding like the one of the voice actor Tommi Piper. (Who is most famous for being the German voice of ALF!)
User comments:
(BTW, did you catch the "bonus" AB reference in panel six? ;-) )
Brian Morningstar should better go to his archive and check out if everything is where it should be... ;-)
(On the other hand though, rather than being originals, it's more probable that this reels are simply the copies that every cinema got in the age before digital projectors were introduced...)
And Mr Salesman should better have a good reason for not wanting pictures taken in his shop, because his likeability is dropping by the minute here...
(Also that Beatles cover, that is just so cute.)
Oh, the salesman has a good reason for not allowing pictures... But I am afraid that this reason is rather detrimental for his likability too... ;-)
(And finally someone spotted the Beatles cover! :-D )
And since the Captain Happies and their history are wholly the brainchild of Prof. Etheric anyway, only he could tell you where the inspiration for these characters originally came from.
(My only contribution to the "Captain Happy lore" is that there are vinyl records as merchandize. And that the original one sounded like the German-dubbed ALF...)
Huh. Consider me absolutely surprised...
But like I said, you would have to ask Prof. in order to know if his Captain Happy in fact based upon that one, or if this is just a coincidence.
(BTW, when I first read the tidbit dropped in Valkyries about the kids TV show, my own first association wandered to a certain popular show that didn't start until 1969 - and the result were these two fan art pieces. :-D )
Sadly I didn't find much info about the original show, and only one tiny image of the television show itself. There might be some more material out there. Was there an earlier show with a Captain Happy? I do not know, but there was a Cadet Happy in Space Patrol, a 1950ies Science Fiction Children show.
A little behind the scenes on the character of Captain Happy:
Years and years ago, I would fill my sketchbooks with character designs, mostly strange superheroes and supervillains. One was a villain with a Jason Voorhees-style hockey mask, suspenders, a smiley face shirt, and a codpiece who wielded a chainsaw. On lark, I named him Captain Happy.
There were further iterations, including a pre-disfigurement and mask version that looked more like a mime, and, years later, a version that looked a lot like the current AB/LIR version, complete with molitov cocktail. That version occurred right around the Occupy movement.
When the time came to introduce him into the AB Canon, I constructed a history that worked in all the versions, minus any superpowers and that would fit into an urban fantasy setting. That's when the gang called the Smileys came into being.
Chip and Micro have gotten the mostly full history of this version. The children's show was active from 1949 to 1951, until the host had a run-in with the House Unamerican Activities Committee...
So, it is a coincidence after all - but no doubt a very strange and interesting one!
The gist is though that the show from the AB-verse and its host were not exactly like those from real life - but of course that doesn't exclude the possibility that Prof. based his version upon them.