LITTLE IODINE

This issue of LITTLE IODINE (Vol. 1, No. 9, Dec-Jan 1952, published by Dell and copyright 1951 King Features Syndicate, Inc.) is credited to Jimmy Hatlo. I saw it in an antique store. It was stuffed in an oversized Ziploc bag.

The vervy inking style, the "big foot" style first popularized in the teens and 1920s, is full on display here. The form is well worth studying -- but the plot is very silly. It has some cuckoo coincidences and misunderstandings, but it chugs right along, with Little Iodine trying to do the right thing and her greedy Dad at first mocking her and then becoming a creature consumed with greed.

Even in the first sequence, which is all expositional Iodine/Dad dialogue, look at the different angles. Everything is in motion. And, when doors are slammed, Iodine doesn't stand there: she coils back, her mouth agape in shock. When Dad suspects a fortune is to be made, he doesn't just stand there. He charges up the stairs, with a little puff of smoke, zoom lines and sweat beading off of him (page 7, panel 1).