MAD AD MONDAY : THE DUBBLE BUBBLE KIDS

Bazooka Joe is awarded all the accolades for the comic-wrapped block of bubblegum, but as far as I’m aware they were beaten to the punch by the fine folks at the Fleer Corporation by a matter of years.

Fleer was wrapping its Dubble Bubble in comics (with fortunes and such as a bonus) since 1930, and more specifically featured the adventures of Pud, his brother Tim, their sister Sis (naming creativity was at a premium back home, apparently) and their pal Butch.

There were a few other kids, but the aforementioned four made up the cast as they appeared in a series of half-page comic book ads through the 1950s, drawn by Ray Thompson. A pretty typical adventure had the kids solve a problem with gum and then extol its virtues, to wit:

Did I say typical? That was a scene from American Horror Story.

Oddly, Sis was really fixated on the secret flavor of Dubble Bubble. Her coy acknowledgements seem to hide the fact that the secret flavor is “sugar.”

I think she might just be having a fit.

One of the strange qualities of Dubble Bubble was its ability to defy gravity, practically granting the power of flight. I guess it’s a Wonka product. BURP, CHARLIE!

100% not science.

The greatest arc in the multitude of Dubble Bubble gang adventures involved a series of unescorted jouneys to every corner of the earth wherein the group evangelized for the long lasting secret flavor of Dubble Bubble to a bunch of goofy savages and moronic foreigners. Stupid Egyptians and their wonders of the world, here's a bubble!

Again with the sweet secret taste!

And lastly, let’s go out on an innuendo.

What, Pud thinks he's too good for a knothole now?

It is interesting that Pud, a fat kid, was portrayed as the hero of most of these adventures, when in most mediums the fat kid is the goofy sidekick or the goat. Too bad about all the ethnic depictions.

Oh, by the way, here’s my favorite piece of comic trivia, loosely related to the Dubble Bubble bunch: The artist who created the Dubble Bubble Kids' latter-day equivalent, Bazooka Joe and his pals, was Wesley Morse, an artist with dozens of pornographic Tijuana Bibles to his credit. Enjoy that gum!