(November 1951)

St. John, 1951 Series
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Volume
1
Price
0.10 USD
Pages
36
Indicia Frequency
bimonthly
On-sale Date
1951
Indicia / Colophon Publisher
St. John Publishing Co.
Brand
StJ
Editing
Marion McDermott (credited) (editor)

Issue Notes

The comic's official title both on the cover and in the indicia is Paul Terry's Mighty Mouse Comics

[Kite Fright!] (Table of Contents)

Mighty Mouse / cover / 1 page (report information)

Pencils
?
Inks
?
Colors
?

Genre
anthropomorphic-funny animals; superhero
Characters
three cats; mouse; Mighty Mouse (image on kite only)
Synopsis
The appearance of a Mighty Mouse kite is enough to set off a panic among cats.
Keywords
cats; intimidation; kite; mouse; panic; seeing-things; wrong impression

A Clothes Call (Table of Contents: 1)

Dinky / comic story / 1 page (report information)

Script
?
Pencils
?
Inks
?
Letters
?

First Line of Dialogue or Text
That gives me an idea for a costume.
Feature Logo
Dinky [Duck] [St. John logo without character]
Genre
anthropomorphic-funny animals
Characters
Dinky Duck; Rudy Rooster; Dotty Duck; two cops
Synopsis
Rudy takes Dinky's costume for tonight's masquerade ball... and is sorry he did.
Keywords
best-laid-plans; costume; masquerade ball; mistaken identity

Indexer Notes

Black and white on inside front cover.

The Wayward Mouse (Table of Contents: 2)

Mighty Mouse / comic story / 6 pages (report information)

Script
?
Pencils
?
Inks
?
Colors
?
Letters
?

First Line of Dialogue or Text
The mailman just brought it!
Feature Logo
Mighty Mouse [St. John Logo without Character]
Genre
anthropomorphic-funny animals; superhero
Characters
Mighty Mouse; three comic-reading little mice; bad little mouse; farmer; cow; crows; truck driver; junkman; junkman's horse; four hungry cats
Synopsis
As three good little mice thrill to the exploits of their hero in "Mighty Mouse Comics", a "bad little mouse" (He MUST be bad, because he wears a derby!) who doesn't believe in Mighty Mouse sets out to make trouble. But even a tough mouse can bite off more trouble than he can chew (...or gnaw).
Reprints
Keywords
comic books; juvenile delinquent; kids-at-mischief; learning one’s lesson; meta humor; one-character-desiring-another-as-a-meal

Indexer Notes

Meta Moment: Mice are reading a copy of Mighty Mouse Comics within a story in Mighty Mouse Comics.

[The Day Mighty Mouse Went Mighty Bad!] (Table of Contents: 3)

Mighty Mouse The Perils of Pearl Pureheart / comic story / 8 pages (report information)

Script
?
Pencils
Jim Tyer
Inks
Jim Tyer
Colors
?
Letters
?

First Line of Dialogue or Text
A blight has hit Terrytown. The people struggle with an unknown source of annoyance.
Feature Logo
Mighty Mouse The Perils of Pearl Pureheart [St. John Logo 1]
Genre
anthropomorphic-funny animals; superhero
Characters
Mighty Mouse; Pearl Pureheart; Oil Can Harry; various citizens of Terrytown; various police of Terrytown
Synopsis
Oil Can Harry frames Mighty Mouse for a series of pranks and misdeeds against the citizens of Terrytown, proving his "guilt" to the exceedingly fickle crowd (that alternately cheers him or wants him hanged with incredibly rapid shifts of mood) using a poorly fashioned Mighty Mouse inflatable balloon. Can Pearl Pureheart turn (and keep) the tide of public opinion firmly "for" our hero?
Reprints
Keywords
balloon doppelganger; comic absurdity; fame-is-fleeting; frame-up; hanging; pranks; rapidly shifting sentiments; wrong impression

Indexer Notes

The Tyer Touch: Oil Can Harry takes great delight in Mighty Mouse's misfortune. CAPTION: "...and Oil Can Harry died laughing." One panel Harry is overcome with laughter, the next he is laid out on the ground holding a flower at his chest! For good measure, Tyer goes to this gag twice.

Pearl Pureheart saves Mighty Mouse from hanging at the last moment, by presenting the Mighty Mouse balloon as proof of his innocence. She addresses the hangman: "Unhand him, you old goat! The Mighty Mouse that you saw was a fake!" ...And, sure enough, the hangman character is "an old (anthropomorphic) goat"!

Bear Prepared (Table of Contents: 4)

Terry Bears / comic story / 1 page (report information)

Script
?
Pencils
?
Inks
?
Colors
?
Letters
?

First Line of Dialogue or Text
-- And, in case of emergency, all good scouts should be prepared.
Feature Logo
Terry Bears [St. John logo with characters]
Genre
anthropomorphic-funny animals
Characters
Terry Bears; Papa; Mama
Synopsis
The boys practice their scouting first aid techniques on poor Papa!
Reprints
Keywords
best of intentions; first aid

The Hot Spell (Table of Contents: 5)

Mighty Mouse / comic story / 7 pages (report information)

Script
?
Pencils
Jim Tyer
Inks
Jim Tyer
Colors
?
Letters
?

First Line of Dialogue or Text
Let's go up on top of the mountain! The berries are bigger up there!
Feature Logo
Mighty Mouse [St. John Logo without Character]
Genre
anthropomorphic-funny animals; superhero
Characters
Mighty Mouse; two berry-picking boys; volunteer fire department; army of volcano men; citizens of Terrytown
Synopsis
Mighty Mouse turns back an invasion of red-hot volcano men.
Reprints
Keywords
comic absurdity; fire; invasion; lake; volcano; volcano men

Indexer Notes

The Tyer Touch: Jim Tyer gives us a band of hapless volunteer firefighters, who turn and run at the first sight of the volcano men. They head for a boat, that they sail to the middle of the lake - AND STOP, remaining becalmed and inactive as the volcano men begin to boil the lake. "What's delaying Mighty Mouse? This water is getting warmer and warmer!"

They despondently await a fate that they could easily have walked (or sailed, or swam) away from while the lake was merely warming ("All is lost! The water is BEGINNING TO BOIL!"), instead wishing for ice cream sodas, and preparing a gigantic, outsized "Last Will and Testament" from within their motionless boat. Tyer's drawings of these characters as gooney and very tightly pressed together (as if they were one) complements the absurdity.

ERROR OR ON-PURPOSE GAG?: Two consecutive panels of the fight between Mighty Mouse and the volcano men offer the captions "A LEFT to a blazing jaw" and "A RIGHT to a fiery solar plexus", but Tyer draws Mighty Mouse hitting the volcano men with the SAME fist (his left). With Tyer, it could be either an error... or a purposeful gag.

Cracker Jack! Yum-Yum! (Table of Contents: 6) (Expand) /

Cracker Jack / advertisement / 0.5 page (report information)

Statement of Ownership, Management and Circulation (Table of Contents: 7)

statement of ownership / 0.5 page (report information)

Script
Archer St. John (signed) (publisher)
Letters
typeset

Keywords
government reporting; regulations; Statement of Ownership-reprint

Indexer Notes

Statement of Ownership for October 1, 1951. No circulation figures appear as part of this report. Lower half of page.

This entire page, consisting of the Cracker Jack ad above and this specific Statement of Ownership (for "Paul Terry's Mighty Mouse Comics", October 1, 1951), is reprinted in its entirety in Mighty Mouse Album (St. John, 1952 Series) #1 (October 1952) - in the exact configuration and position that the page appears in this issue. Likely just part of the wholesale reprinting of Paul Terry's Mighty Mouse Comics #29 into Mighty Mouse Album #1. https://www.comics.org/issue/1141004/

This could be the only time a Statement of Ownership was reprinted in a subsequent issue of a completely different title.

[The Loaded Cabbage] (Table of Contents: 8)

Farmer Gray / comic story / 1 page (report information)

Script
?
Pencils
?
Inks
?
Colors
?
Letters
?

First Line of Dialogue or Text
Farmer Gray, may I have a cabbage like you promised me?
Genre
anthropomorphic-funny animals; humor
Characters
Farmer Gray; gopher
Synopsis
Farmer Gray plants a firecracker in a cabbage to rid himself of a gopher.
Reprints
Keywords
best-laid-plans; cabbage; farm setting; firecracker; gopher

Diver Dimwit (Table of Contents: 9)

Heckle and Jeckle / text story / 2 pages (report information)

Script
?
Pencils
?
Inks
?
Colors
?
Letters
typeset

First Line of Dialogue or Text
"I say, old axe-beak, let us be off to the show spots about town!" suggested Jeckle to his magpie pal as they lounged in their living room.
Genre
anthropomorphic-funny animals; humor
Characters
Heckle; Jeckle; Dimwit
Synopsis
With visions of a huge reward, Heckle and Jeckle talk Dimwit into diving to the bottom of Terrytown Bay to search for a rich lady's lost pearl necklace.
Reprints
Keywords
diving; necklace; reward

Back to the Soil (Table of Contents: 10)

Mighty Mouse / comic story / 6 pages (report information)

Script
?
Pencils
?
Inks
?
Colors
?
Letters
?

First Line of Dialogue or Text
High up in the hills overlooking a peaceful valley, lived Mister Brown in his humble cottage.
Feature Logo
Mighty Mouse [St. John Logo without Character]
Genre
anthropomorphic-funny animals; superhero
Characters
Mighty Mouse; Mr. Brown; Mrs. Brown; the Brown's two children; Mr. Flint; Mr. Flint's two thugs; Farmer Tom and family
Synopsis
Mr. Brown is proud of his humble family farm, and refuses to sell when rich man Mr. Flint demands. Flint resorts to arson and kidnapping as methods of persuasion - Mighty Mouse will have none of that.
Reprints
Keywords
arson; developer; farm setting; farmer; heroics; intimidation; kidnapping

Business Is Business (Table of Contents: 11)

Heckle and Jeckle / comic story / 1 page (report information)

Script
?
Pencils
?
Inks
?
Letters
?

First Line of Dialogue or Text
Right this way, Mr. Smith.
Feature Logo
Heckle and Jeckle [St. John Logo with characters]
Genre
anthropomorphic-funny animals; humor
Characters
Heckle; Jeckle; Mr. Smith
Synopsis
Running competing businesses, Heckle and Jeckle, squabble over a customer.
Keywords
business; competition; piano; rivalry; television; working-at-cross-purposes

Indexer Notes

Black and white on inside back cover.

Prizes for You (Table of Contents: 12) (Expand) /

American Specialty Company / advertisement / 1 page (report information)

Editing
Related Scans
Series Information
Table of Contents
  1. 0. [Kite Fright!]
    Mighty Mouse
  2. 1. A Clothes Call
    Dinky
  3. 2. The Wayward Mouse
    Mighty Mouse
  4. 3. [The Day Mighty Mouse Went Mighty Bad!]
    Mighty Mouse The Perils of Pearl Pureheart
  5. 4. Bear Prepared
    Terry Bears
  6. 5. The Hot Spell
    Mighty Mouse
  7. 6. Cracker Jack! Yum-Yum!
    Cracker Jack
  8. 7. Statement of Ownership, Management and Circulation
  9. 8. [The Loaded Cabbage]
    Farmer Gray
  10. 9. Diver Dimwit
    Heckle and Jeckle
  11. 10. Back to the Soil
    Mighty Mouse
  12. 11. Business Is Business
    Heckle and Jeckle
  13. 12. Prizes for You
    American Specialty Company
This issue was modified by, among others
  • Katy Hayhurst
  • Rodney Hinkle
  • Mike Nielsen
  • Roger Reus
  • Mark Rudnitski (R.I.P.)
  • Ramon Schenk
  • Joe Torcivia
  • Jim Van Dore
  • Len Wolinsky