The Prankster was an odd little feature, and a feature that I doubt a lot of folks nowadays remember directly. I never read it when it first came out (understandable, since I was three years old at the time - I was a tad precocious but not that much of a freak), but was instead very intrigued by someone else’s remembrances of the character. And I think at least one other comics writer did, too.

The legendary super-fan Fred Hembeck profiled The Prankster in one of his Dateline: @!!?# pages, which was reprinted in a magazine format back in 1980. For those who don’t recall Fred’s work, his work appeared in various fanzines in the late seventies and early eighties and he did some very humorous strips on quirky stories, covers and characters from comics. Jerry Lewis (as the Fearless Tarantula), Fighting American, the original Nemesis, Superman dancing the Krypton Crawl, J’Onn J’Onzz meeting the Human Torch (a personal favorite) and many other unique bits populated one of the more intelligent fan-written strips of all time.

The Prankster was appeared in only one story, the back-up feature to Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt #60, the final issue of that great Charlton Comic. This book was my personal “Holy Grail” for about fifteen years, as I could never find the bloody thing. Thank the gods for eBay. Charlton Comics really was never a true competitor to DC or Marvel in the super-hero arena, but they did have a number of real gems: Steve Ditko’s The Question, Blue Beetle, and Captain Atom, and Pete Morisi’s Thunderbolt. Ironically, they (along with the Peacemaker) were later purchased and integrated into DC Comics. None of them really had the same charm, except for Ross Andru’s brief run as artist on Blue Beetle, but at least they were still out in circulation. An editorial decision stopped them from becoming the actual Watchmen in Alan Moore & Dave Gibbon’s classic limited series, which meant that they will be around for the foreseeable future. Unlike the Prankster.

The world of the Prankster was set in the futuristic Ultrapolis … “a city which may never exist! But if it does, it will be a place ruled by brute force … where love, laughter, music, art, every expression of human dignity can be a crime punishable by death!” Signs bear the bleak slogan “Inefficiency is a crime”. The Prankster’s adventure opens with our hero stopping a public execution of a man convicted of playing music without a permit. I know … a bit over the top, right? Well, it was the sixties, you know. The Prankster was your typical “outsider” hero, fitting with the stereotype of the times.

The tyrant ruling Ultrapolis was named Bane, with Captain Ludovic Wratt as his right-hand stooge/chief of security police. For a Fascist, Wratt was at least seemed to be of his right mind … Bane was madly in love with his computer/robot. So much so, that he refused to have it do any of Wratt’s menial police work, even though doing so would probably allow them to effortlessly capture the Prankster. Bane even made Wratt kiss the robot’s rollers as an apology for the mere suggestion.

The Prankster operated in a manner somewhat similar to The Trickster, a member of the Flash’s Rogues’ Gallery, fighting crime with quirky gadgets. He uses a giant horseshoe magnet to disarm people, travels in a jet powered hot-air balloon, has a hose that sprays laughing gas, and a “magic flute” of indeterminate properties. All these amazing devices were built for the man known as the Prankster by Dr. Hiram Grave, in their hidden laboratory underneath Ultrapolis.

The last time we saw our hero had him encountering a pair of policemen from killing a woman for writing the words “Down with Bane!” on a wall … graffiti that The Prankster himself had done. The police saw through his disguise as an old man and were about to execute him … though we know he’s survive long enough for the next chapter “The Vengeance of a Wratt!” Unfortunately, there was no next issue, as Thunderbolt was cancelled with that issue. We never even learned his real name.

The Prankster read a lot like your average seventies DC Comic, primarily because of the styles of the creators. Dick Giordano was the editor of the title, and the great Jim Aparo handled the art chores. The writer of the story was billed as “Sergius O’Shaughnessy,” a pseudonym for Denny O’Neill, writer of many many classic Batman tales over the decades. There’s a lot of that flavor in the Prankster’s tale, and Jim Aparo was definitely fine-tuning his distinctive style (and it is always a joy to see him handle both pencils and inks).

The story in Thunderbolt #60 was the only official tale of the Prankster. But besides the appearance in Fred Hembeck’s strip, he did make at least one other cameo appearance … in a story that featured pretty much every comic book super-hero ever conceived. In his early, creative days (before he took over behind the scenes at Image Comics), Jim Valentino created one of the greatest super-hero comic satires/pastiches since The Inferior Five: Normalman. Normalman was a non-powered schmuck who was rocketed to the planet Levram, where EVERYONE was had super-powers. He had numerous adventures with heroes such as Captain Everything (who gained a new superpower at every plot twist), Sgt. Fluffy, Nasty Girl, the Legion of Superfluous Heroes, and many many more. One of the highlights of the series were all the cameos in the backgrounds of the panels. AV in 3-D #1 featured Normalman’s second adventure, and had loads of these cameos, all wearing 3-D glasses. The splash panel of the first page had a big picture which had the Prankster vying for the opportunity to help Normalman across the street. Sure, it wasn’t much, but at least it showed that someone else did remember that great little story.

(PETER CANNON … ) THUNDERBOLT #60
November-December 1967

“When Flies the Dragon”
Script by Sergius O’Shaughnessy (Denny O’Neil)
Art by Pat Boyette
Edited by Dick Giordano

"The Prankster”
Script by Sergius O’Shaughnessy (Denny O’Neil)
Art by Jim Aparo
Edited by Dick Giordano


AV IN 3-D #1 (December, 1984) “The Man Called … Normalman” by Jim Valentino; Reprinted in Normalman – The Novel

HEMBECK: THE BEST OF DATELINE: @!!?# (a.k.a. HEMBECK #1; 1980)