Humor as a genre has waxed and waned in the comics industry.   For many, many years comics were published that featured famous comedians of the time, most notably Bob Hope and Jerry Lewis.   Of course, most people know comics from the newspaper comic strips which feature all the genres that we’ve talked about, but is mostly dominated by those quick laugh grabbers that over the years became sentimental favorites.

Be it Peanuts in which we see if Charlie Brown will ever get to kick that football or Garfield complaining about Mondays there is something very comforting about the Sunday funnies.   Over the years of newspaper publication the comics have incorporated humor in all stages of the industry, to varying degrees of success.   While many companies only published humor comics, like the ones featuring the Disney stable of characters, other companies sprinkled original comedy in their lineups, and here are some of my favorites from DC.

Sugar Plumm and Cecil “Spike” Wilson are two toddler aged characters that understand each other and their peers, but adults cannot understand them.   Engaging in very quick gags, the two are set upon by one bully, Little Arthur, as their bad guy, but don’t worry, the bully is as dumb as a bag of hammers and the kids win every time.   They are friends with a brainy kid, Bernie the Brain and they have a doting Uncle Charley.   The two cute tykes were written and drawn by Sheldon Meyer from 1956 until his death in 1992.   The kids appear occasionally in cameos throughout the DCU.

When parody comes to super-heroes it is often scathing and hilarious as our next group illustrate.   The Inferior Five are Merryman, in the jester’s collar, Dumb Bunny, see the fur on her tail?, White Feather the archer, the overweight Blimp, and the clutzy Awkwardman.

Merryman acts as the group’s leader and was based loosely upon comedian Woody Allen.   Possessing above average intelligence the insanity of his four cohorts cause him multiple hilarious breakdowns.

Dumb Bunny is very strong, just not so bright, and welcome to our first stereotypical dumb blonde in the DCU.

White Feather is a very competent archer, as long as nothing freaks him out.   It’s too bad that everything freaks him out.

Awkwardman is super strong and super clumsy.   He can live under the water and as such must maintain some skin moisture.

Blimp can fly… at super-slow speeds.

Yeahhhh, lets move on.. shall we?

And sometimes parody means a bit more.   On the surface ‘Mazing Man looks like a completely goofy character and to a point that’s true.   Horatio Sigfried Hunch III is the effusive ‘Mazing Man who possesses no powers, but due to a financial windfall early on in life, Maze as he is known is able to don his outfit and help out in the neighborhood with small tasks.

Maze’s supporting cast consists of those people who wind up caught up in the eccentric Maze’s antics.   Notable for Denton being a dog and his sister K.P. being human, a possible precursor to Family Guy’s Brian?   Discuss.

Maze’s comic was short lived, but his story is very human and heartwarming.   A very true slice of life piece.

There were backup features of a character named Zoot Sputnik and a stock group of characters who appeared in different settings in each back up.

Ambush Bug starts out as an annoying villain for Superman.   The Bug wears a suit which spits out these little mechanical bugs from the antennae and that allows the Bug to teleport to where ever one of his bugs is.   As long as Ambush Bug is conscious and a bug is elsewhere, he can will himself to teleport away.

As Ambush Bug and his creator Keith Giffen kept working through the DCU, Ambush Bug became a meta commentator on the events in comics.   With his zany antics Ambush Bug evolves into a fan favorite and his appearances are enough to send any hero on the page running for cover from his acidic commentary.   Ambush Bug’s powers develop to the point where he can pop in and out of different continuities and is somewhat aware of the fact that he is a comic book character and frequently breaks the fourth wall in order to point his parody comments to the fanboys reading.

Next Up:   We hit the streets with the detectives and spies of the DCU.     Commissioner James Gordon!   Sgt. Harvey Bullock!   Human Target!   Jason Bard!   Jonni Thunder!   Jonny Double!   King Faraday!   Nathanael Dusk!   Nemesis!   Roy Raymond, TV Reporter!   Sarge Steel!