TRULY GONE&FORGOTTEN : TEENY MCSWEENY

This is the best.

Though not a superhero, regular GI Teeny McSweeny seems to boast a wide array of unusual powers. The “Doughboy with a lot of crust,” created and entertainingly drawn by Charles Voight, also never scored a cover appearance, but that didn’t diminish his superhuman feats inside assorted Red Band Comics throughout the company’s brief run.

Although McSweeny’s real power seems to be his indomitable fighting spirit, he’s also up for a few fantastic stunts; he earns KP duty by saluting a superior officer too enthusiastically, popping the buttons off his shirt-front at ballistic speeds. When a Japanese attack descends on him in the midst of peeling potatoes, he makes short work of them by blowing spuds through a stovepipe with mortar-like results. Oh, and he could fly, too – by flapping his arms (although he never tried the stunt with his full complement of equipment, and so plummets out of the air. He makes up for the faux pas by capturing an entire Japanese platoon single-handedly).

Voight – best known for his then-quite popular comic strip Betty – illustrated a number of features for Red Band, including Red Rogue, and the humor features Captain Milksop and Impossible Man. Despite Teeny’s wild likability, though, he never managed to wind up in his own title or, for that matter, becoming a feature player in the company’s lineup, which was clearly a mistake on behalf of the short-lived and reprint-heavy company. From among its roster of underwhelming third-stringers and forgotten heroes like Bogey Man and Sgt.Strong, Teeny McSweeny was a powerhouse with a lot of potential as the star of his own book.