Burp the Twerp (the Super Son of a Gun) was a man to watch out for … when last seen, he even had the great Plastic Man shaking in his boots!

Well, kinda anyway. Burp the Twerp was a one-page humor feature that ran in several Quality Comics publications in the forties, including Blackhawk and Police Comics. His shtick was that he had every power of every super-hero…but unfortunately he was a considerable klutz and things didn't quite go the right way for him most of the time.

The strip was "signed" by Ralph Johns, but this was just a pseudonym for the legendary Jack Cole, creator of Firebrand, Midnight, Woozy Winks and, of course, Plastic Man. Burp premiered in the second issue of Police Comics, coinciding with the second adventures of Plastic Man, Midnight, Firebrand and several other popular Quality features.

Naturally for a humor strip, there wasn't a whole lot of continuity to be concerned with. The strips that I have read are all fairly funny, in a Basil Wolverton-Powerhouse Pepper way. I think the one episode of any real note is the page in Police Comics #23 (December, 1943), in which Jack Cole's star, Plastic Man, makes a brief cameo appearance (see below).

These two black and white page reproductions were scanned from the wonderful book, Focus on Jack Cole, written by comics' writer and historian Ron Goulart. Please click on the pictures to view a larger image of the page.

After the demise of Quality Comics, I believe Burp the Twerp made only one more appearance. DC Comics' Secret Origins #30 (Volume 2), featured the secret origin of Plastic Man. Roy Thomas, Stephen DeStefano and Paul Fricke. Thomas and DeStefano put Burp the Twerp in the background, and had the little guy meet Woozy Winks and Plas at the end of the story. After Burp left, Plas told Woozy who it was, and warned "If you ever get him mad at us, he'll come back and take over, and then we're all out of business!"

Well, that hasn't exactly happened yet. But there are still those of us who are waiting …