Truly Gone&Forgotten: SOCK JONES

 Sock Jones and crew kibitzing under the sea

Sock Jones
Created by Jim Lawrence and Frank Borth
Appears in Treasure Chest vol 24 No.1 through vol 26 No.5 (Sep 1968 - Feb 1971)

Bring up the topic of Christian comic books in the U.S. and two culprits are inevitably invoked: There’s the rheumy-eyed, manic evangelism of Jack Chick’s notorious tracts, and the eerily wholesome adaptations which make up the Spire Comics catalog (including many unsettling Archie outings and, of course, Hansi, The Girl Who Loved The Swastika). 

I wonder why they call him Zork.

There’s more of a middle ground to be had, however, in a much more traditional type of comic -- Treasure Chest. Also known as Treasure Chest of Fun and Fact (my two favorite things!), the book was made available exclusively -- in bulk -- to American Catholic parochial schools for more than twenty years through the Fifties and Sixties. The action/education anthology boasted a stellar lineup of classic talent, providing an array of content from adventure and humor to school content and games. This formula worked on Treasure Chest’s captive audience of middle-schoolers for a stunning 500+ issues over a 26 year run, yet not even its most popular features move the needle much in terms of modern-day recognition. 

Outside of Reed Crandall’s This Godless Communism -- an often-referenced propaganda serial which ran in alternate issues in 1961 -- most of Treasure Chest’s features have faded into virtual obscurity. Among these are the long-running Chuck White and His Friends, The Champ by former Quality creator Frank Borth (Spider-Widow, Moppo The Marionette), and Treasure Chest’s “Boy Wonder of the Scientific World,” Socrates Jones... 

“Sure, I know, the whiz-kid inventor. You’re expected in Room 507.”

Adolescent big-brain Socrates “Sock” Jones has the run of the sprawling laboratories of Futuronics, a north-eastern research facility which is home to the boy genius’ many inventions. Chief among these are two: the SEA ROVER, a fantastic undersea exploration vessel which provides transport for Sock and his friends on the submarine portions of his adventures -- and then also ZORK, a comical robot sidekick who’s part Swiss Army Knife and comes complete with a hi-tech bowler derby.

Probably a plastic hassle.

Helping him manage these and other experiments is Dr.Griff Godwin, a scientist at Futuronics and associate of Sock’s father Dr.Jeremy Jones (who is incommunicado en route to Mars for much of the series’ run). Rounding out the cast is clever, unflappable Pippa Parker -- Sock’s cousin, who makes every school vacation an excuse to embark on adventure.

Pippa and Griff represent part of the continuity of Treasure Chest’s ideological outlook -- specifically, its storied progressivism. It may not seem much by modern standards, but the title had long portrayed interracial friendships and racial equality in its stories, even as these innocuous topics were verboten among comics’ mainstream publishers. 

As the culture had begun catching up in 1968, Treasure Chest continued to avoid still-present stereotypes -- establishing both Pippa and Griff, for instance, as equal to Sock in courage, determination, and certain types of smarts (Sock *is* a genius, after all, and it is his name on the masthead). It’s a low standard to pass, but many other comics companies at the time had failed to even attempt it.

The comic relief of the strip comes from the aforementioned Zork, of course. The bumbling ‘bot is outfitted for practically any hazardous situation, whether the danger requires dense unbreakable skin, the power of flight, or an unsettling extension of its hose-like proboscis. Ostensibly something like a butler-bot, Zork is setting tables and cooking dinner when he’s not blocking bombs from killing the rest of the team. He’s also reliable for serving a little sass to deserving cranks, which the other heroes seem a little too polite to pull off.

Readers who are introduced to Treasure Chest as a religious comic may find themselves surprised by the lack of religion evident in Sock’s adventures. Treasure Chest ran regular ecclesiastical features in every issue, which freed up its other features to explore their own genres. When mention of faith does occur in Sock’s adventures, it’s organic and relevant to the moment -- Sock prays quietly while struggling with a life-or-death engineering issue, for instance. With potential didacticism dealt with, Sock Jones was free to indulge its intended genre -- which, you might notice, is mystery ...

Aw geez, no.

Beginning in The Deep-Six Mystery, Sock and pals find themselves in all sorts of intrigue and danger in the six-page installments of a protracted run. Written for younger readers, the strip delivered school-age science-hero with a mix of slapstick humor, exotic locations, adventure, occasional comeuppance, and action -- all punctuated by a regularly-scheduled cliffhanger that came along often enough to keep boredom at bay. 

Pictured above: Sock busting his robot’s chops
for having gained sentience.

This first adventure pits Sock and crew against V.I.P.E.R., an ocean-based agency of evil whose acronym unrolls to read Velvet International Piracy and Espionage Ring. “Velvet,” in this situation, is either a promise of smooth silkiness or the result of a company called Velvet International Piracy merging with the Viper Espionage Agency. Whatever the case, the story follows former German U-Boat creeps seeking a lost “million in gold and jewels,” and is filled with the type of boys’ adventure which involves finding clues carved into knick-knacks and having to fight robot octopus-shaped submarines.

The following adventure, The Sunken Satellite Mystery, involves the crew seeking a fallen U.S. satellite in the open ocean amidst rumors of a dangerous sea serpent. This introduces another of Sock’s amazing inventions, the SKYMARINE -- a high-tech dirigible that can also travel undersea, and looks like it’s gone slack-jawed when its command module is loosed.

Other amazing Sock inventions aided their investigations in land, sea and air. Sock also possessed a slim-profiled SOCKOPTER, which is pretty much what it sounds like, and access to the amazing properties of AQUAFLECTION, an ambiguous technology which protected ship and diver against the immense pressures of the deep. 

His most amazing invention came in the form of LUXITE, a material which absorbed light and ejected it out the other side. Its obvious potential for space travel leads to The Time-Dust Mystery, a chapter which both reunites Sock with his long-absent father, and expands the potential of the Sock Jones universe by introducing alien empires and time travel to the mix. 

Ultimately, Sock goes out a little like the Scooby-Doo gang, hunting down a ghost town’s missing treasure while avoiding a mad scientist’s tornado-making machine in The Tornado Treasure Mystery. 

Treasure Chest shutters operations shortly afterward, putting a kibosh on any further mysteries and the entirety of the line’s many long-running features.

Sock Jones and crew uncovering Encyclopedia Brown clues...