Number 515


The little fat nothing


Herbie returns in another strange and funny adventure, this time from Forbidden Worlds #114, 1963.

I'd call Herbie's dad, Pincus Popnecker, abusive. Other men's sons are perfect, his is a "fat little nothing." Dad is very dissatisfied with his oddball son, and doesn't mind telling him.

Dad and Mom know nothing of Herbie's talents, which include levitation. Herbie talks to animals, knows famous people like the president of the U.S. and his wife (this issue went off sale a couple of months before JFK was assassinated). He can even go to Africa, meet Tarzan, and become god of a tribe. Pretty good for a day's work, pretty good for a little fat nothing.

It's another strange Herbie tale from Richard E. Hughes, writer, using the pen-name Shane O'Shea, and artist Ogden Whitney whose straightforward, almost prosaic drawing style makes it even more hallucinatory.

I've presented three other Herbie stories here, here, and here.