(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#1/10) -
Homer and Irwin
secretly watched Dugan tell someone he was tougher than him. This
scared
Homer and Irwin away, not realizing Dugan was talking to a mirror!
HOMER GHOST
Real Name: Homer Ghost
Identity/Class: Humanoid ghost (1950s era) (see
comments)
Occupation: Adventurer, student (primary
school level)
Group Membership: Ghost Gang
Affiliations: Alice, Annie, Dugan, Miss
Ghostly, Genie in a bottle (loose), Gobby Goblin,
Invisible Irwin, Joe the Geni (loose), Mr. Jones & his Circus
(Whizzo, others), Little John, "Martian"
monocycle pair (Ooog,
one
other), Melvin,
Dr. A. Nutt (loose), Robin Hood, Snappy (ghost dog), Stringbean, Zelda
Enemies: Bank Robber Brown and his two thugs, Black Witch, Blackbeard and his pirate gang (Baldy, Dudley, Horace, Hawkeye, Orville), Bongo Brothers, Dangerous Dan, Dan [DeCarlo], Doctor Doom, Herman, Gorilla Grogan, Stan [Lee], Mad Scientist, "Martian" bipedal pair, Monstro, Redbeard and his pirate gang, Robert the Robber (loose), Sheriff of Nottingham, Sherman, Tony Toughguy, White-Sheet Willie
Known Relatives: Momma Ghost (mother), Poppa
Ghost (father), Goldplate (uncle), George
(great-great-great-great-great-great grand-uncle, deceased)
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Ghost Town, USA
First Appearance: Homer the Happy Ghost I#1
(March, 1955)
Powers/Abilities: As a ghost, Homer is
long-lived: at least 800 years old (he claims it took him that long to
learn to walk through walls), although he has no recollection of his
full age. He is all white in color and weighs nothing. He can go
intangible at will; the sensation of items passing through him tickles
him and he usually has to concentrate. He casts no shadow in full
sunlight. He can easily levitate and is
able to fly into the air,
even to the upper atmosphere; with concentration, he beat a propeller
plane traveling at normal speed. He also has limited ability to morph
his body with concentration, including twisting his face to appear
scary or form parachutes; more unusual shapes can take several minutes
to return to normal. He does not need to breathe (or can go for long
periods without air), but still needs food for sustenance. He is
affected by temperature, but generally appears to have enhanced
durability. Despite his age, Homer is a primary school student with
fluctuating grades, and has a fondness for fairy tales. He has a
self-proclaimed large knowledge of spells, charms, goblins, spooks,
hauntings and scaring people. He demonstrates problem-solving
abilities, but is easily distracted. Despite his lower-than-adult
intelligence, he was able to construct a rocket capable of flight. As a
ghost of Ghost Town, he naturally induces fear once humans realize he
is a ghost; however, he is also easily scared. Of note is that he has a
permanent small halo over his head, helping to define his generally
altruistic and helpful nature.
Height: 3'
(by approximation)
Weight: 0 lbs.
Eyes: Black
Hair: White forelock
History:
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#6/10 (fb) - BTS) - Homer's
origins are unrevealed. As a ghost, it took him 800 years to learn to
walk through walls with ease.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#1/1) - In the 1950s, Homer, his parents and Snappy, his ghost dog, moved into an old house in Ghost Town (populated by ghosts and not far from a human city). Homer went out to make friends and first encountered the belligerent bully Dugan, dim-witted Melvin, Invisible Irwin and the scatter-brained witch Zelda.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#1/3) - Homer and Dugan came across Zelda, weeping that Gobby Goblin had stolen her flying broomstick. Homer had Snappy trace Gobby's scent and they pursued Gobby to the city. Homer and Dugan duped the crowd at Radio City Hall that Gobby was a celebrity so that they crowded the thief, allowing the ghosts to retrieve the broom and return it to Zelda.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#1/6) - While walking together, Homer asked Invisible Irwin if his face was dirty, but Irwin replied his eyes were closed. They inadvertently scared an artist.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#1/10) -
Homer and Irwin
secretly watched Dugan tell someone he was tougher than him. This
scared
Homer and Irwin away, not realizing Dugan was talking to a mirror!
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#1/11) - Homer made a snow-sled with a sail attached for fun, but Dugan gruffly challenged him to a race with his own snow-sled. However, Dugan cheated by cutting Homer's sails, so Homer used Melvin for a sail; when Homer and his sled fell into a hole Dugan had cut into the ice, Homer snagged a fish that rocketed his sled underwater, then over the ice across the finish line just ahead of the angry Dugan.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#2/1) - A wandering tramp
encouraged Homer and Irwin to join Mr. Jones and his traveling circus,
but the two ended up causing chaos and scaring the show's animals, so
they left.
When Homer arrived home, his mother surprised him with an invitation to
the
circus!
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#2/2) - Homer and Dugan
watched
Zelda mix a concoction in her cauldron, only to discover it was
vegetable
soup!
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#2/3) - Homer read the fairy
tale Jack and the Beanstalk
underneath a tree, then fell asleep and
dreamed himself in the adventure. He woke to his father yelling at him
to do his homework and was spanked for being late.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#2/4) - Homer and Irwin
watched bully Dugan shove his way past other ghosts, who feared him.
The two later saw him scolded by his mother for biting his nails.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#2/7) - Homer and Snappy the
dog played a game of fetch using an old tin can, but Snappy got tired,
so the dog used a magnet to bring back the can.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#2/10) -
Zelda caused a small
ruckus among the gang when she found a treasure map, but Gobby grabbed
it and streaked ahead selfishly. Homer, Zelda and their young friends
pursued Gobby, scaring city folk, and all ended up at the U.S. Mint at
Fort Knox. They left the gold behind and on the journey home on Zelda's
broomstick, they agreed that being an American was the greatest
treasure!
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#3/1) -
Homer and Snappy enjoyed
fun time at the beach until they encountered Blackbeard and his pirate
gang (Baldy, Dudley, Horace, Hawkeye, Orville) burying a treasure
chest. Thinking Homer belligerent, Blackbeard
ordered the boy walk the plank, but he levitated off the end. Confused,
all the
pirates followed and fell into the sea instead. Homer (somehow) brought
home the small pirate ship and treasure as souvenirs.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#3/3) - Homer and Melvin
entered a department store. Homer tried to impress Melvin by listing
the prices of items until Melvin asked the price of an actual exit sign.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#3/4) - Momma Ghost took an
unwell Homer to Dr. A Nutt, but his ethereal and ghostly form scared
the human doctor and left Dr. Nutt requiring medical attention instead.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#3/7) -
Outside, (offering
nothing) Homer tried unsuccessfully to teach Snappy to beg. He returned
home where his mother offered a cookie to Snappy instead of Homer
because the dog begged cutely.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#3/9) - Homer tried to
impress
Alice by asking tough ghost Dugan if he was looking for a fight; Homer
then told Dugan he'd tell him if one was found!
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#3/11) -
Tipped off by Zelda,
Homer, Dugan and Melvin used Zelda's broomstick to investigate a flying
saucer and discovered two lost bipedal "Martians" (the aliens' generic
term for
extraterrestrials). The Martians took them for a quick ride but stole
Zelda's broomstick for its value. Homer angrily phased in and took the
broomstick back; the two groups parted ways.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#4/1) - Homer was left at
home
alone to do his homework when fugitive Dangerous Dan sought to hide
there from police. Shocked by visitor Invisible Irwin and that Homer
was a ghost, Dan soon ran out and gave himself up to police. Later,
Homer tried explaining to his disbelieving parents why his homework had
been interrupted.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#4/2) - Poppa Ghost tried
spanking Homer for being naughty, but couldn't because ghosts can't be
hit, so he tickled his son under his feet instead.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#4/3) - Homer and Dugan
watched as Zelda tried a new magic trick and summoned a geni, but Joe
the Geni was a burly worker unable to perform magic feats himself --
instead he charged by the hour. They couldn't escape him, even flying
on Zelda's broomstick, so Homer came up with an idea and got him a job
as a wrestler.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#4/4) - Momma Ghost was
concerned that Homer was watching too much television. So Poppa Ghost
removed the TV set and Homer stayed seated, watching the wall instead.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#4/5) - While riding
together
on Homer's homebuilt scooter, Melvin told Homer that he tore the pages
out of a new book because he couldn't read and it was easier to carry.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#4/9) -
Homer prompted Snappy
to eat, but he stubbornly refused. Snappy only ate his bowl clean when
Homer's back was turned. Just then, Homer's parents arrived and scolded
him for not feeding the dog as his bowl was empty.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#4/10) - Excited by a rodeo
show coming to town starring Tex Yewall, the Ghost Gang (Homer, Dugan,
Irwin, Melvin, Zelda) rushed to the stadium. Dugan soon challenged
Homer to a bucking bronco test to see who could stay on one the longest
and they "borrowed" cowboy hats along the way. But the animals and
crowd were
soon spooked by the playful ghosts, and the stadium emptied. The gang
went home on the back of a tamed bull.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#5/1) - Homer, Dugan and
Melvin heard a fire truck rush past and flew after to investigate. A
series of hijinks and mishaps ensued until the ghosts helped put out
the fire by closing a skylight that the firefighters couldn't reach.
The three were later disappointed to see that they helped save their
school building from burning down.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#5/2) - Homer and Dugan
caught
Melvin practice playing violin outside, but without the violin because
of noise complaints and because he had a piano teacher.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#5/3) - Snappy evaded
Homer's
efforts to give him a bath, so Homer craftily let him outside where the
rain washed him instead.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#5/4) - Homer and Dugan
chanced upon Timely Studios shooting a ghost movie. Mistaking them for
actors, the director told them to get real costumes. The costume man
showed them actor Boris Roaris posing dramatically in a sheet, which
Homer
ridiculed. Discovering the two were real ghosts, the studio quickly
abandoned work for another project elsewhere.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#5/6) - Homer was doing a
painting of a tree. Homer asked Alice, standing next to the tree, to
keep smiling. She grew tired of this and became mad when she wasn't in
the picture.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#5/7) - Poppa Ghost kept
silencing Homer as he was hunting for his hat. Finally allowed to
speak, Homer told him that Poppa had been sitting on his hat the whole
time!
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#5/8) - Melvin dug a very
deep hole to plant a bush when oil suddenly burst out of the hole.
Passing
by, Irwin and Homer promised to keep watch until Melvin could file a
claim with City Hall. But Homer discovered that Melvin had instead
broken an underground oil pipeline.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#5/9) - Homer tossed around
an
idea to create a local circus with his friends; he would play the
trapeze act, but Zelda had a mishap conjuring a giant.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#5/11) - Homer and Irwin took Zelda bowling, but the witch misunderstood all the rules and they baffled several onlookers.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#6/1) -
Homer and Dugan found
Melvin wearing a new Davy Crockett-style raccoon-skin hat. Dugan
grabbed it and, after a long chase, ran into a group of Native
Americans. Homer had an idea after a tense stand-off and a short fight
with their champion; he gave them the "magic" hat in exchange for
directions
home and ensure peace. Afterward, they saw the champion levitating with
the hat.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#6/2) - Slightly amused,
Homer
and Dugan watched as Melvin avoided each question the teacher asked
dim-witted Melvin in the classroom.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#6/3) - Homer and Zelda
found
Zelda upset because Gobby the Goblin stole her magic book. Homer
confronted Gobby but he refused, using magic against him. Homer devised
a plan to have Invisible Irwin steal the book, but Irwin couldn't see
without his spectacles. In the end, the magic book defended itself by
whacking Gobby and flying back to Zelda.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#6/4) - Walking home from
school, Homer asked Alice on a date, but she was busy each night with a
different date. Only available Saturday yet hopeful, she was fobbed off
by the frustrated Homer.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#6/5) - Zelda invited Homer
and Dugan to dinner. Greedy Dugan mistakenly downed a bowl of dishwater
while Zelda was in the kitchen, then ran off ill.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#6/8) - Frustrated that
Homer
had eaten all the jam, Momma and Poppa Ghost's anger was assuaged when
Homer returned with top grades on his school report card.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#6/9) - Dugan joined Homer
on
a duck hunt with Snappy leading the way, but the dog just took them to
a butcher's shop selling ducks!
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#6/10) - Two hoods, Herman
and
Sherman, saw Homer come out of a cinema through a wall. Seeing an
opportunity, they duped the altruistic Homer into helping them quietly
get inside a bank and raid the vault. Homer realized their motives and
used his ghostly form to scare the thieves be roped up for arrest.
Homer and his parents later heard of it on the radio, but Homer stayed
quiet.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#7/1) - Homer heard the
radio
warn of the villainous White-Sheet Willie, so he went into town to
investigate and found the crook. But police soon arrived and because
both were in white, the police took both before a judge. The white hood
was removed from Willie while Homer's ghostly form could not
be changed, scaring them all. Later at home, Homer kept quiet and his
parents thought he lacked interest in current events.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#7/2) - A small masquerade
party was held in Ghost Town. Poppa Ghost awarded Zelda with the best
mask; insulted, she bashed him with the trophy as she wasn't
wearing a mask!
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#7/3) - After a movie
featuring a dashing army hero, Alice revealed she loved men in
uniforms. So
Homer tried to join the U.S. Army to get a uniform. Mishaps with the
desk sergeant and recruiting captain saw them faint when they learned
Homer was a ghost. Alice was unimpressed when Homer later wore a
doorman's uniform while working at the theater.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#7/4) - Alice was frustrated
with Homer, who was bored at the art gallery with her. He finally found
a piece that he liked, but it turned out to be a mirror reflecting his
visage!
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#7/5) - Homer tried
unsuccessfully to teach Snappy to bark on command. Homer gave up and
walked off with Alice. (The dog later spoke in English to the reader.)
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#7/9) - Melvin told his
mother
he was going on a hike with Homer but was confused about taking a bus.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#7/10) -
Homer, Dugan and
Melvin rushed to see Zelda's latest invention: a story-tale machine,
which brought stories to life. Homer chose Sinbad the Sailor and
instantly the storybook Sinbad appeared carried by the giant Roc bird.
Homer caught him in a parachute form when Sinbad fell and after
introductions, took him to his ship.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#8/1) - Homer encouraged
Dugan, Irwin, Melvin and Gobby to join him watching a live recording of
game-show "54 Thousand Dollar Question"; they scared the doorman away.
Homer was selected as contestant and told the host of his supernatural
knowledge. The audience and host treated it as comedic until Homer
proved his ghostly abilities, then everyone fled scared and the studio
shut down as haunted.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#8/3) - Homer called his
friends together to meet his rich seafaring Uncle Goldplate at his
docked yacht and they went for a quick sea trip. Bet Redbeard and his
fellow pirates attacked, firing cannons. Homer followed his uncle's
strategy to lead the charge, flying in, dropping cannonballs and
cutting sails until the pirate surrendered. Returning home, Homer
enthusiastically told his parents, but they shrugged it off in
disbelief.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#8/5) - Homer asked Alice on
a
date but dismissed each idea she had. She walked away frustrated so
Homer thought the problem lay with her gender.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#8/8) - Homer encouraged
Zelda
to get a new hat, so she went off shopping in the city.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#8/10) - Class teacher Miss
Ghostly left a reluctant Homer in charge as monitor while she stepped
out. The class misbehaved, but only cleaned up the mess and sat
angelically just before Miss Ghostly returned. Impressed, she made
Home class monitor for the rest of the term, much to his chagrin.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#9/1) - Homer led his
friends
Dugan, Melvin and Zelda to a baseball game between the Lions and Eagles
at the local city stadium. Zelda was baffled by the game and caused
many supernatural interruptions on field. Homer encouraged them to all
leave quickly before tensions rose further.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#9/2) - Homer sought a goodnight kiss at
the gate from
Annie after a date. When she finally gave in with a peck on the cheek,
he walked away, thinking her too easy.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#9/3) -
Annie invited many friends (including
Homer) to her birthday
party. To save on their allowance money, the boy ghosts each bought her
the cheapest present they could find, all of them being backscratchers
from the same novelty store.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#9/8) - Melvin was very
pleased with his bumper book of magic tricks which he showed Homer at
his house. Melvin used Homer's father hat to try out a trick but
instead ruined it, however, Poppa Ghost actually hated the hat and was
happy that it had to go. Poppa Ghost rewarded the two boy ghosts with a
dollar, which they used to buy sodas.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#9/9) - Zelda hinted to
Homer,
Melvin and Dugan that she wanted the special lipstick advertised in
shop signage as a birthday gift, but the boys mistakenly bought the
lipstick signboard for her instead.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#9/10) - Having been given a
mini shotgun for his birthday, Homer went bear hunting and was quickly
joined by Melvin and Zelda. They soon found one and, very scared, they
fled on foot before climbing a tree. The bear followed but fell while
the others levitated. Homer could not bring himself to shoot the
unconscious bear. The bear swiftly recovered and just wanted to be
friends.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#10/1) - Homer took his
shotgun on a jungle expedition to shoot beavers to make his mother a
fur coat. Keen for adventure, his friends joined him, but ran from
various dangers including wild carnivorous animals and cannibals, until
they found a cute beaver. Unable to bring himself to shoot it, Homer
took the leashed beaver home as a pet for his mother instead.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#10/2) - Poppa and Momma
Ghost, joined by Homer, went to the city to buy a car. In the car
showroom, each car salesman fainted in fright when they discovered
their customers were ghosts. This continued with the human cityfolk as
the Ghosts phased through walls, leaving the family puzzled with the
experience.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#10/3) - At the ice cream
parlor, Homer encouraged Alice to have a banana split. When she finally
said yes, she was angry that Homer wasn't paying for it.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#10/4) - Homer and Dugan
made
mud in the backyard of a beauty store to sell as popular beauty mudpack
treatment (which coincidentally Zelda was about to buy).
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#10/10) - Gobby and two of
his
bullying goblin pals decided to kick out all the ghosts from Ghost Town
and claim it as their own. They sent in a home-built robot to wreak
havoc. From Homer's suggestion, Zelda magically created a more powerful
robot that dismantled the goblins' robot and dumped it before the
goblins.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#11/1) - Homer, Melvin,
Dugan
and Zelda were chatting about the fairytale Jack and the Giant
Beanstalk when an old man sold Homer magic beans. Planting them,
the
beanstalk shot up and took them up to the giant's kingdom in the cloud,
where the
son proposed to Zelda but wanted to cage the ghosts. They escaped with
Zelda. Homer chopped down the beanstalk, but Zelda looked for the
man with the beans as she was attracted to the young giant's proposal.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#11/2) - Homer and Dugan
found
Zelda without her broom, which was in for repairs, so they fashioned a
pogo stick from an old lawnmower. However, she lost control of the
device and caused havoc, so she claimed her old unready and unsteady
broom back. Homer and Dugan were unhappy that she rejected their help.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#11/8) - Homer and Dugan
scrambled over a lost quarter on the sidewalk, but lost it to a grate
in the road.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#11/10) - Zelda, Melvin,
Dugan
and Gobby spotted Homer baking a cake at home. Once the gang found out
it was for $100 prize money, they all joined in, creating a huge mess
for which Homer received a spanking from Momma Ghost. Homer still won
the competition, but then discovered the prize was $100 worth of cake.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#12/1) - Relaxing in the
forest with Zelda, Dugan and Melvin, Homer
chanced upon Robin Hood's bow and arrow, to the amazement of all. Robin
Hood and Little John appeared; Zelda and the ghosts helped the duo
storm the Sheriff of Nottingham's castle, but discovering that Robin's
paramour, Maid Marion, had grown obese waiting, Robin and Little John
ran back to the forest followed by the surprised ghosts.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#12/3) - On a very hot day,
Poppa and Momma Ghost sent Homer to buy an air conditioner. Delivered
and installed the same day, the technician ran off when he found out
the customers were ghosts. But the Ghost family found the aircon unit
was too powerful for them, so it took all three of them to fly it back
to the store and angrily drop it on the salesman.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#12/6) - Dugan mischievously
duped Homer into trying out boxing gloves with him in a fight, but
ended up hospitalizing himself instead.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#12/7) - Homer and Dugan
chided Melvin after he was swindled buying a fake gold brick from a con
artist. But a passing reporter identified it as the missing uranium
brick wanted by an atomic lab with a huge reward. Hoping for the same
returns, Homer, Dugan and Zelda then called out seeking more fake gold
bricks to buy.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#12/8) - Alice wanted to spend time with Homer, but he dismissed each idea she had. She walked away frustrated, so Homer thought the problem lay with her gender.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#12/10) - Seeing a circus
nearby, Homer and Dugan saw the ringmaster for a job and took on the
new opening for the trapeze act. The duo used their supernatural
levitating abilities to compensate for their lack of trapeze skills,
but the dissatisfied spectators left, thinking them fakes, so the
ringmaster kicked the ghosts out.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#13/1) - Homer showed Zelda,
Melvin, Dugan and Gobby a giant egg he had found. It hatched and
rapidly grew into a brontosaurus-type dinosaur, instantly taking to
Zelda as a mother figure. Unsure what to do with it, they put it in a
horse race, winning because of the chaos it caused. Eventually they
sold it to Ghost Town Amusement Park as part of a roller coaster track.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#13/2) - Homer walked Snappy
the ghost dog and made a sassy remark to an overbearing couple.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#13/4) - Homer watched on
amused in class as Melvin unintentionally upset teacher Miss Ghostly
with his responses to her questions about art.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#13/6) - Poppa Ghost blamed
Homer's faults on Momma, but took credit for Homer's successes.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#13/8) -
Outside her house,
Homer and Dugan were duped by Zelda into thinking she had a date that
evening because she had stolen a male mannequin for her window.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#13/9) - Initially frightened when they heard Bank Robber Brown and his two thugs were hiding out in Ghost Town, Homer, Melvin, Dugan and Zelda found bravery when they heard of the reward. Finding the thieves in a "haunted" house, the gang deliberately scared the crooks toward the police, but missed the reward when they were scared by a fluttering sheet.
(Millie
the Model I#76/1 (fb) - BTS) - Darryl Forbush produced a Homer the
Happy Ghost cartoon entitled "House Haunting!" (this was likely based
on the in-story comic--see #18/1; also see Comments), which was
advertised on a billboard in Hollywood.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#14/1) - Discussing
flying saucers, Homer, Dugan, Melvin and Zelda were shocked when two
"Martians" (Ooog plus one other) in a flying saucer (X-13) suddenly
arrived. These Martians' lower parts were monocycles; friendly, they
took the Earthlings to Mars, revealing a society where Martians weren't
afraid of anything--except ghosts. When Ooog found out his guests' true
nature, he quickly returned them to Earth.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#14/5 [coloring page]) -
Zelda
was impressed that Homer was reading ghost stories while Dugan admitted
they scared him.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#14/6) - Homer boasted to
people how Snappy's barking made him a good watchdog, but that night,
Snappy slept while a burglar robbed Homer's house.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#14/7) - Poppa Ghost tricked
Homer into doing his homework in front of an unplugged television set
so that the boy ghost couldn't be distracted.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#14/8) - Homer encouraged
Melvin to take up ice skating, but Melvin found it easier without ice
skates.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#14/10) - While returning
bottles for deposit with Dugan, Homer discovered the Genie in a bottle.
It obeyed his commands, including bringing his friends together and
bringing fun rides, but the Genie demanded a hefty fee for his work, so
Homer slyly made one last request and locked him inside the bottle
again, throwing it onto a passing goods train.
(Adventures of Homer Ghost I#1/1) - In the city, Homer, Dugan, Melvin and Zelda heard from roving police that the criminal Tony Toughguy was on the loose. They chanced upon him in disguise and were fooled, but still unwittingly helped in his arrest.
(Adventures of Homer Ghost I#1/2) - Despite his mother's repeated coaxing in the morning, Homer was slow to get moving for the schoolday, but then rushed off before washing his face.
(Adventures of Homer Ghost I#1/3) - Homer found Zelda crying on the street. She revealed she won first prize for best mask at a masquerade ball, but she hadn't worn a mask to the event!
(Adventures of Homer Ghost I#1/4) - Homer, Dugan, Melvin and Zelda supernaturally sneaked into a cinema to watch the movie Moby Dick from atop a chandelier. Inspired, they traveled out to sea to find a real whale and were eaten whole by a real white sperm whale. Through trickery, Homer had the whale return them home, beaching itself. To avoid fishing fines, they decided to briefly adopt the whale as a pet and had to get truckloads of fish food to feed it.
(Adventures of Homer Ghost I#1/5) - Homer warned Dugan from throwing snowballs at passing hats from behind a high fence. But Dugan continued and scored an angry policeman.
(Adventures of Homer Ghost I#1/7) - Dugan challenged Melvin, Homer, Alice, Zelda and Gobby to a race around Ghost Town to determine the fastest. They were surprised to find Homer at the finish line ahead of them until he revealed he chose not to race.
(Adventures of Homer Ghost I#1/8 [coloring page]) - Two boys, Eggbert and Elvis, wandered slightly scared in Ghost Town, not finding anything, while Homer hovered above them out of sight.
(Adventures of Homer Ghost I#1/10) - Dugan, Melvin, Gobby and Zelda were surprised to find Homer reading fairy tales. Homer later fell asleep while reading Sleeping Beauty and dreamed of a sorcerous knight who imprisoned an ugly princess. Cursed by a kiss to marry her, Homer escaped the dream and eschewed fairy tales.
(Adventures of Homer Ghost I#1/12) - Homer was keen to take Alice to a dance night and offered to do chores to win her over. But she tired him out with so many tasks that he fell asleep and she went to the dance with Dugan instead.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#15/1) - Broke, the Ghost
Gang
(Homer, Dugan, Melvin, Zelda) answered a newspaper ad from a fraternity
to haunt a house as part of an initiation for a new student. They
instead scared witless a new door-to-door salesman for Live Magazine as
the student never showed, so the ghosts were never paid.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#15/2 [coloring page]) -
Homer
was lifted away by helium balloons at a fair, leaving Momma Ghost and
the seller wondering where he had gone off to.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#15/3) -
Homer received a sled
for his birthday. He excitedly dressed in thick clothing but reaching
outside, he realized there was no snow!
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#15/4) - Homer succumbed to
Snappy's begging for the last lamb chop from Homer's dinner, but
Snappy just buried it in the garden for later and returned to beg for
more food.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#15/5) - Melvin borrowed the
thickest book from the city library so that he could use it as a step
to
nail a picture on the wall, watched by Homer.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#15/7) - Homer called Melvin
and Dugan to join him watching Zelda prepare what he thought was a
powerful spell, but she was just using new soap to clean her clothes!
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#15/11) - Dugan found an old
stove abandoned in a vacant lot. He took it for cookouts with his
friends, but thought he needed coal. Homer, Melvin and Zelda joined him
on an
adventure to find a coal, but caused an explosion in a
coal mine. Despondent, they returned only to find it was an oil stove.
Dugan said he had that fuel, but the others were fed up and left.
(Adventures of Homer Ghost I#2/1) - Homer brought home his school report card with low grades to his parents, but coupled it with a book promoting the lenient disciplining of children.
(Adventures of Homer Ghost I#2/2) - Seeing Snappy the ghost dog sleeping in the rain prompted Homer to build him a kennel, but the next day, Snappy slept outside it anyway!
(Adventures of Homer Ghost I#2/3) - Mad scientist Doctor Doom fooled Homer, Dugan, Melvin and Zelda into helping him evade police. In his lab, he unveiled his destructive robot Monstro and sought to eliminate them to keep their silence, but realizing their supernatural nature, he fled. The Ghost Gang pursued and Zelda stopped him with a spell.
(Adventures of Homer Ghost I#2/4 [coloring page]) - Homer laughed at the notion that Melvin discovered a dinosaur egg, but it hatched behind him.
(Adventures of Homer Ghost I#2/6) - Homer, Melvin and Gobby saw Zelda furiously stirring her cauldron, only to discover she was cleaning her petticoat!
(Adventures of Homer Ghost I#2/7) - Zelda encouraged Homer, Melvin and Dugan to join her on a rare-egg hunt, but they unwittingly claimed a golf ball, thinking it a prize egg.
(Adventures of Homer Ghost I#2/8) - Homer picked up Alice for a dance night, but criticized her new hat that she had specially bought to impress him. He went sad, alone and bruised to the dance instead.
(Adventures of Homer Ghost I#2/10) - To impress Alice, Homer aggressively challenged tough guy Dugan to knock a piece of paper off his shoulder. Dugan did so and Homer told Alice that Dugan did what he instructed.
(Adventures of Homer Ghost I#2/13) - Homer, Melvin and Dugan were upset that the nasty Black Witch had been sent by the Witches' Union to replace Zelda, who was banished. Homer and Dugan rescued her and restored her faith in herself. Zelda outwitted the Black Witch and the gang were happy again.
(Adventures of Homer Ghost I#2/14) - Homer bought a camera, but everyone in the Ghost Gang wanted to be in the photo, therefore no one would take it. Homer returned it for tiddlywinks instead.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#16/1) - The fiendish Mad
Scientist sprinkled his shrinking powder randomly over people,
including Homer, Dugan, Melvin and Zelda. They gave chase with Homer
pretending to be the villain's conscience, but instead the scientist
shrunk him further with more powder so that Homer was ant-sized. Homer
tickled the fiend until
police arrested him. Homer evaded homework for two days until the
powder's effects wore off.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#16/2) - Gobby Goblin made
large demands to substitute for the absent Dugan before a baseball
match; Homer reluctantly assented until Dugan turned up.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#16/4) - Poppa Ghost ordered
Homer to clean up his room, but Homer just kept shifting his mess to
different parts of the house. Poppa finally acceded and returned the
mess to Homer's room while Homer was out playing.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#16/5) - Homer had great
difficulty with archery but, seeing Scrappy, warned the dog to go
somewhere safe. So Scrappy stood by the bullseye target!
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#16/7 [coloring page]) -
Homer
and Gobby pushed Melvin to wear an Elvis-type wig to compete in an
amateur music night for the prize money.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#16/9) - Dugan derided Homer
for using an umbrella in light drizzle, but then saw Homer share it
with Alice. Later, in sunshine, Dugan stood ready with an open umbrella
so he could help a girl.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#16/10) -
Homer was happy with
his camera on a sunny day, taking great photos, but became saddened
when he realized he had no film in the camera.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#16/12) - Homer was
impressed
that Zelda won first prize cup in a beauty contest until she revealed
there hadn't been any other contestants.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#16/14) - Relaxing, Homer
pondered how good it would be to have a million dollars. Zelda cast a
spell to help out, but it yielded a map to the creepy Dead Man's Cave.
All were scared, but dug at the correct spot until they found the
treasure chest--which was empty. Zelda's spell called only for a chest,
not money. The ghosts left her in the hole they'd dug.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#17/1) - Despite Poppa
Ghost's
insistence, Homer refused to wash his hands before dinner as he was
going to use knife and fork.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#17/3) - Homer and his
friends
(Alice, Dugan, Melvin, Zelda) went to see a prize fight, but the
opponent for the massive boxer Gorilla Grogan didn't show up. Bully
Dugan backed down, but Homer went forward. Supernatural abilities gave
him the advantage and he knocked out Grogan, winning the $100 prize
money, and they sped home on Zelda's broomstick.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#17/4) - Zelda bought one
ticket to the cinema, insisting she only needed one seat, as her three
ghost friends (Homer, Dugan, Melvin) levitated in a stack above her.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#17/5 [coloring page]) - A
plane pilot who flew advertising banners lamented that Homer, having
taken up the same role but flying by himself, had put him out of
business (however, the editorial box indicated that Homer would quickly
get bored with that).
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#17/7) - Homer invited Alice
to paint the town red later. She thought it meant a date, but Homer
meant it literally, appearing later in overalls, brush and a paint pot.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#17/13) - Homer, Dugan,
Melvin
and Alice made fun of Zelda for reading the "fairytale" Alice in Wonderland,
so the witch cast a spell that dropped them into a fantasy world where
they were harassed by the Cheshire Cat and chased by various threats
until they escaped back to the real world with Zelda. Trying to
reorient themselves, the ghosts took to reading.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#18/1) - Unhappy with how
they
were being represented in their magazine, Homer, the Happy Ghost,
the Ghost Gang (Homer, Alice, Dugan, Melvin, Zelda) traveled to
Brooklyn to confront pretzel-munching Stan and golf-putting Dan. The
gang pushed their way into the office, their supernatural nature
shocking Stan and Dan, who didn't realize that the characters they
wrote and drew were real. Having said their piece, the gang flew out
the upper-story window.
Later, the ghosts wondered if Stan and Dan knew how lucky they were to
receive advice from their characters (but the creative duo were being
chased by mental health workers with big nets!).
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#18/2) - Zelda told Homer
that
she was disappointed that her blind date was female, despite the date's
positive characteristics.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#18/4) - Homer, Dugan and
Zelda warned Melvin as he set off alone that a dangerous fugitive named
Robert the Robber was loose. Melvin obliviously led to his capture and
later met his friends for a soda.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#18/5) - A talent scout for
a
ghost movie role had the gang excited, but they dismissed Dugan as he
was too rough and dirty looking, but this was exactly what the scout
was looking for and Dugan got the part.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#18/6) - Homer, Alice, Dugan
and Melvin came to the aid of Zelda, who was being troubled by the
maleficent and power-hungry Black Witch. Homer tricked the Black Witch
and made her reverse her spells, and she was forced to flee.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#18/7) - Ambitious Gobby
Goblin had to bring a ghost prisoner to his secret goblin society and
he almost hypnotized Homer for this, but Zelda came to Homer's aid by
reversing the hypnosis. To teach him a lesson, the gang painted Gobby
white to look like ghost and sent him back to his secret clubhouse to
get in
further trouble.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#18/10) - Homer bought a
cheap
wishing ring, but all it caused was cascading trouble, so he returned
it to the store. He later broke Melvin's oil lamp when Melvin suggested
pretending it was a genie's lamp.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#18/11) - Homer wore an ugly
mask to scare people, but was frustrated at the complete lack of
success. But when people saw him as a ghost, they ran away frightened!
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#19/1) - Homer, Dugan,
Melvin
and Gobby discovered Zelda had secretly created a time machine in the
form of a telephone booth(!). She took them to ancient Rome, but
Dugan's rambunctious behavior brought an immediate death sentence from
the passing Julius Caesar. They escaped only to land in the arena
before fleeing back to the time machine and returning to their own
time. But then Caesar followed them out...!
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#19/2) - Dugan challenged
Homer to see who could fly the highest with Zelda the judge and watched
by Gobby. The two flew beyond the clouds and into the outer atmosphere,
where they encountered the Soviet satellite Noodnik. The Russians fired
missiles at what they thought were Martians on their satellite, so the
ghosts cast it down onto the missile launchers before returning to
their friends, but Zelda and Gobby were listening to radio reports of
Martians knocking out a Soviet satellite. Homer regretted missing the
action on the surface.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#19/4) - Homer caught Snappy
the dog playing in mud and struggled giving him a bath, but immediately
afterward Snappy just ran back out into the mud.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#19/5) - Alice invited Homer
to watch television together, but they only watched Alice's picks of
romance
and fashion shows. She called Homer selfish when he wanted to
check sport scores.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#19/9) - Momma and Poppa
Ghost
saw happy Homer and imagined his future life where he would eventually
forget them, and told him off for that!
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#19/10) - Homer built a
lifelike snowman and Zelda, as a prank, cast a spell that made her
friends and nearby people think it was alive and wreaking havoc.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#20/1) - The Ghost Gang
(Homer, Dugan, Melvin, Zelda) discussed dragons and Dugan asserted they
didn't exist, so Homer suggested that Zelda conjure one up to change
Dugan's mind. But the magical dragon proved too fierce and followed
them into the city until Zelda could magically banish it away. After
all that, Dugan still refused to believe in dragons!
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#20/2) - Gobby was jealous
that the ghosts had earned money to buy a soda, but his begging caused
damage to the soda shop that he had to work to pay off.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#20/3) - Homer and Dugan
invited Melvin to play baseball with them, but Melvin wanted to stay
out of trouble.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#20/4) - Homer left Snappy
outside as he went into a store to check on comics, but a dog catcher
caught Snappy and took him to the dog pound. Homer gave chase and
ignored the catcher's restrictions for dog permits. The ghostly
abilities of Homer and Snappy as they traversed through walls left the
dogcatcher in a mental mess.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#20/5) - Alice was hopeful
that Homer would ask her to a dance, but Zelda advised her to play hard
to get. After briefly doing so, Homer moved on to find another date.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#20/6) - Poppa Ghost and
Homer
argued over who could watch which television show, so Momma Ghost
resolved it by watching her favorite TV show instead!
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#20/7) - Homer and Dugan
played a trick on Melvin while playing hide and seek by floating higher
in the air than he was.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#20/8) -
Homer saw Zelda
arrive home excitedly with a long box. She told him it was a garage and
Homer realized she only drove a broom!
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#20/10) - Dugan, Homer and
Melvin pitched in to get Zelda a new book of magic spells for her
birthday, but it led to her unintentionally casting a chaotic
pinballing of extreme weather conditions that earned her a fine for
"spooking the weather without permission" from Officer White.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#21/1) - Homer was satisfied
with the first small rocket he made to go to the moon.
His friends (Dugan, Melvin, Stringbean, Gobby, Zelda) were excited and
helped him make a larger version with a rubber band for propulsion.
They rocketed upward into the atmosphere, thinking they were headed to
the moon, but instead landed in the Grand Canyon, Colorado, where they
mistook a local farmer for a moon-man until he corrected them. The
troop headed home with Homer determined to get the rocket ready for
moon
travel.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#21/2) - Homer tricked
Melvin
into an unfair exchange of coinage, but Melvin was using the coins that
had fallen out of Homer's wallet.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#21/3) - Zelda showed off a
movie camera she received for her birthday and the gang (Homer, Alice,
Dugan, Melvin, Stringbean) wanted to appear in her home movies,
performing awkward and exhausting tasks, until she revealed she hadn't
yet put film in!
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#21/6) - Snappy
begged for food while Homer was reading. Homer interrupted his reading,
but the dog walked away, satisfied he'd received attention.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#21/7) - Homer, Dugan and
Gobby were concerned when Mr. Octane left troubled Melvin in charge of
his gas station and garage. The three didn't see the chaos and ensuing
anger Melvin caused, so they were surprised at Melvin's negative
attitude afterward.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#21/9) -
Flying over New York
with his pals, Homer begged Zelda to turn him into a human so he could
experience it. Unsure, Zelda obliged and Homer's friends,
Dugan, Melvin and Gobby, helped where they could. Homer was trapped in
the human condition, frightened of ghosts, feeling cold, unable to go
through walls and with unusable Ghost Town currency. In trouble, Homer
called out for Zelda to return him to ghost form and they returned
home. Homer stated he felt lucky to be a ghost.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#21/10) - Momma Ghost
offered
Homer various dinner options, which he was all happy with, only to
discover she had no ingredients. The only viable option was untasty and
he was scolded.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#22/1) - At the museum,
Homer,
Melvin and Zelda looked at dinosaur bones. Later, while digging for
worms for bait, Melvin found a large dinosaur egg, which immediately
hatched. The brontosaurus-type dinosaur grew rapidly and chased the
trio into the city, causing panic, until Homer lured it out to sea and
onto a deserted island. Once back home, Melvin and Homer became angry
when Dugan appeared with small eggs.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#22/2) - Zelda challenged
the
fastest ghost, the simple-minded Melvin, to a race watched by Homer,
but Zelda fooled Melvin into believing she had outrun him.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#22/4) - Homer dreamt that
Alice was kissing him on the cheek, but woke up to find it was his dog
Snappy licking his face!
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#22/5) - Homer stalled doing
a
window-washing task set by his parents by citing a bit more reading,
but he was just waiting for rain to prevent him going outside.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#22/6) - Homer and Dugan
were
shocked to see Zelda badly injured until she revealed she tried flying
without her broomstick.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#22/7) - Momma and Poppa
Ghost
were told their great-great-great-great-great grand-uncle
George had passed away, leaving them $1 million. They feigned grief,
but soon Homer joined them in buying extravagant items on credit. The
lawyer returned the next day, revealing that the inheritance was
worthless
Confederate money.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#22/9) - In their clubhouse,
the gang (Homer, Dugan, Melvin, Gobby, Zelda) listened to a radio
broadcast warning of dangerous jail escapees, the Bongo brothers, who
soon chose the clubhouse to hide from the police. The ghosts
surreptitiously signaled to police outside, but it was the ghosts'
supernatural nature that had the scared villains run back to the
police. The ghosts hoped for a reward, but instead received a fine for
having a club meeting without a license.
Comments: Created by Stan Lee and Dan DeCarlo.
Homer, the Happy Ghost certainly looks
(deliberately?) similar to Casper
the Friendly Ghost, the latter beginning as cartoon in 1945, then
comics in 1952. Homer was followed a year later by Charlton's Timmy the Timid Ghost
in March, 1956. Maybe comedic ghost comics were sufficiently vogue in
the late 1950s to generate such competition?
Homer, the Happy Ghost was one the last to
fall when Atlas Comics axed titles. Maybe it's time for a return
somewhere?
Adventures of Homer Ghost I#1/3 (June, 1957) shows Zelda upset at coming 1st at a masquerade ball when she hadn't worn a mask. Maybe she was recalling the time in Homer, the Happy Ghost I#7/2 (March, 1956) when it happened at a small party hosted by Poppa Ghost, but Homer didn't indicate it related to that.
Homer and his gang meet a "Martian" pair, both with big heads, just different means of mobility (2 legs vs. 1 wheel) at different times, the first is #3/11 (July, 1955), then later in #14/1 (May, 1957). Did the gang forget? Are they the same Martians? Or recycled jokes (there certainly seem to be a few of those)? The 2nd Martian pair arrived in a flying saucer labeled X-13, a designation that would be used a few years later for a monstrous robot in Strange Tales I#93 (June, 1962).
In the "meta" story in #18/1, where the Ghost Gang
meet their comic book ("Homer the Happy Ghost") storytellers, the
surnames of Stan and Dan aren't revealed
in-story, but given the real-life creators are Stan Lee and Dan
DeCarlo, it's clear who they're meant to be.
Zelda's time machine modeled as a telephone booth in
#19/1
(May, 1958) predates Dr. Who's time-traveling phone booth (1st
broadcast in November, 1963). Zelda's time machine seemed a little
bigger on the inside too (like Dr. Who's), as Caesar was able to hide
in there without the Ghost Gang seeing him (presumably Zelda returned
Caesar to his own time afterward).
I'm not sure there's a biological connection between Homer and his parents (probably, given Melvin said the stork brought ghosts and humans into the world (euphemism for being born to a mother) in #15/1), or even if they are ghosts in the traditional sense (being a human boy was a unique experience indicates that Homer had never been human). It may be that they are as-yet undocumented long-lived life-forms that just have the characteristics of ghosts and have adopted that identity, but have long since forgotten why or when that happened. At any rate, Ghost seemed a common surname for, um, ghosts in this book.
A bunch of stories were reprinted by Marvel with slightly modified covers in a 4-issue series in 1969, as well as a 28-issue reprint run by Australian publisher Horwitz (ca. 1956) with new and modified covers.
Given the long life of Homer, I've kept the profile
in the chronological order that the stories appear.
A "Homer the Happy Ghost" comic (masthead seen only) is also seen in the Simple Sally story in "My Girl Pearl" I#6/8 (Sept 1957), along with "Millie the Model" (looks like I#80 (Aug 1957)), "A Date With Millie" (looks like #6 (June 1957)) and "Sherry the Showgirl" (looks like #2 (Sept 1956)) comics, in a comedy story by Homer Ghost's creators Stan Lee & Dan DeCarlo. Similarly, a cartoon movie billboard was shown of "Homer the Happy Ghost" in "Millie the Model" I#76/1 (March 1957) in a story also penned by Stan Lee and Dan DeCarlo. Thanks to Mike Castle for noting the Millie the Model appearance.
Is Homer Ghost in
Earth-616 continuity?
Mike Castle pointed out that because there's a cartoon movie of Homer
Ghost in Millie the Model I#76, the character is therefore not -616 and
should receive his own reality designation. However, other -616
characters have had in-continuity movies made about them, including
Millie the model -- in Millie the Model I#100 (reprinted in Marvel
Milestones), movie producer Darryl DeMille scouts Hanover's models
looking for one to star in his movie "The Life of Millie the Model"
(but ignores the real Millie), while in the next story Chili makes a
nasty comment on Millie's physical appearance compared to how she looks
in her Millie comic magazine (the Millie comic is also seen in "Sherry
the Showgirl" I#2/3). Likewise, Homer Ghost has his own
in-story comic that he reads, so a cartoon movie of Homer sits easily
within -616, given there is source material from comics that people are
familiar with. To reinforce this, Sally in the "My Girl Pearl" comic
passes by both "Homer the Happy Ghost" and "Millie the Model" comics in
a shop. So my view is that Homer Ghost is in Earth-616 until proven
otherwise. Interestingly, both Homer and Pearl separately confront Stan
Lee and Dan DeCarlo in their own comics in a "meta" style story to
complain how they're being portrayed in their comics.
Thanks to Grand
Comics Database for additional credits information.
Profile by Grendel Prime.
CLARIFICATIONS
:
Homer Ghost has no known connections to:
Bank Robber Brown and his two dopey thugs (names unrevealed) were hiding out in Ghost Town. Homer, Melvin, Dugan and Zelda sought to secure the reward for the thieves' capture. Finding the thieves in a "haunted" house, the gang deliberately scared the crooks toward the police.
--Homer, the Happy Ghost I#13/9
The Bongo brothers were a pair of dangerous jail escapees, who, still dressed in prison clothes, chose the Ghost Gang's clubhouse to hide from the police search party. The ghosts surreptitiously signaled to police outside, but it was the ghosts' supernatural nature that had the scared villains run back to the police.
--Homer, the Happy Ghost I#22/9
The armed fugitive Dangerous Dan sought to hide from police in Homer's house in Ghost Town, where Homer was home alone doing homework. Shocked by visitor Invisible Irwin and that Homer was actually a ghost, Dan soon ran out and gave himself up to police nearby.
--Homer, the Happy Ghost I#4/1
Goldplate was Homer's rich seafaring ghost uncle. His
large
yacht was the Sea Spook II and was armed with cannons. He visited Ghost
Town, and welcomed Homer and his friends onboard for a quick trip, but
Redbeard and his gang (unaware Goldplate was a ghost) attacked from
their pirate ship. Cannonballs flew, but Goldplate had his nephew lead
the charge, dropping captured cannonballs and cutting sails on
Redbeard's ship. Redbeard soon surrendered and presumably Uncle
Goldplate made good on his promise to claim the reward on Redbeard.
--Homer, the Happy Ghost I#8/3
Gorilla Grogan was a fierce boxer in a prize match
that Homer and the Ghost Gang had come to watch. His opponent had
failed to show, so a prize of $100 was set for anyone who could stay
five
minutes in the ring with him. Bully Dugan thought he could until he saw
Grogan's massive size. Homer bravely went forward in his stead. Aided
initially with a blow from Zelda's flying broom, Homer used his
supernatural ghost
abilities to evade Grogan's blows then knocked out Grogan by cutting
the lights onto his head.
--Homer, the Happy Ghost I#17/3
The criminal Tony Toughguy was on the loose, adopting simple false disguises and muddled excuses to dupe passers by. The Ghost Gang (Homer, Dugan, Melvin, Zelda) chanced upon him in the city and were fooled, but still unwittingly helped in his arrest.
--Adventures of Homer Ghost I#1/1
images:
(without ads)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#10/3, p1, pan1 (main image)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#19, p19 (headshot)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#9, cover (catching baseball)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#27 (Horwitz reprint), cover (levitating beyond
plank)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#3/4, p3, pan7 (weight)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#4/5, p1, pan2 (on home-made scooter)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#6/1, p2, pan1 (flying)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#7/10, p2, pan6 (parachute shaped)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#8/1, p5, pan1-2 (disappearing demo)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#17/3, p2, pan4 (stretched spooky face)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#3/4, p2, pan4 (light through head)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#6, cover (quivering in fear)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#21/1, p1, pan1 (with 1st rocket)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#21/9, p2, pan7 (transformed into boy)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#13/9, p5, pan4 (Bank Robber Brown)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#22/9, p2, pan1 (Bongo Bros)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#4/1, p1, pan5 (Dangerous Dan)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#8/3, p4, pan1 (Uncle Goldplate)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#17/3, p3, pan4 (Gorilla Grogan)
Adventures of Homer Ghost I#1/1, p4, pan3 (Tony Toughguy)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#8, cover (inverted, levitating while watching)
Appearances:
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#1/1, 1/3, 1/6, 1/10-1/11 (March, 1955) - Stan
Lee (writer & editor), Dan DeCarlo (pencils & inks)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#2/1-2/4, 2/7, 2/10 (May, 1955) - Stan Lee
(writer
& editor), Dan DeCarlo (pencils & inks)
Homer,
the Happy Ghost I#3/1, 3/3-3/4, 3/7, 3/9, 3/11 (July, 1955) - Stan Lee
(writer & editor), Dan DeCarlo (pencils & inks)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#4/1-4/5, 4/9-4/10 (September, 1955) - Stan Lee
(writer & editor), Dan DeCarlo (pencils & inks)
Homer,
the Happy Ghost I#5/1-5/4, 5/6-5/9, 5/11 (November, 1955) - Stan Lee
(writer & editor), Dan DeCarlo (pencils & inks)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#6/1-6/5, 6/8-6/10 (January, 1956) - Stan Lee
(writer & editor), Dan DeCarlo (pencils & inks)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#7/1-7/5, 7/10 (March, 1956) - Stan Lee (writer
& editor), Dan DeCarlo (pencils & inks)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#8/1, 8/3, 8/5, 8/8, 8/10 (May, 1956) - Stan
Lee
(writer & editor), Dan DeCarlo (pencils & inks)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#9/1-9/3, 9/8-9/10 (July, 1956) - Stan Lee
(writer & editor), Dan DeCarlo (pencils & inks)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#10/1-10/4, 10/10 (September, 1956) - Stan Lee
(writer & editor), Dan DeCarlo (pencils & inks)
Homer,
the Happy Ghost I#11/1-11/2, 11/8, 11/10 (November, 1956) - Stan Lee
(writer & editor), Dan DeCarlo (pencils & inks)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#12/1, 12/3, 12/6-12/7, 12/8, 12/10 (January,
1957) - Stan Lee (writer & editor), Dan DeCarlo (pencils & inks)
Homer,
the Happy Ghost I#13/1-13/2, 13/4, 13/6, 13/8-13/9 (March, 1957) - Stan
Lee (writer & editor), Dan DeCarlo (pencils & inks)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#14/1, 14/5-14/8, 14/10 (May, 1957) - Stan Lee
(writer & editor), Dan DeCarlo (pencils & inks)
Adventures of Homer Ghost I#1/1-1/5, 1/7-1/8, 1/10, 1/12 (June, 1957) -
Stan Lee
(writer & editor), Tony DiPreta (pencils & inks)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#15/1-15/5, 15/7, 15/11 (August, 1957) - Stan
Lee
(writer & editor), Dan DeCarlo (pencils & inks)
Adventures of Homer Ghost I#2/1-2/4, 2/8-2/12, 2/13-2/14 (August, 1957)
-
Stan Lee (writer
& editor), Tony DiPreta (pencils & inks)
Adventures of Homer Ghost I#2/6-2/7 (August, 1957) - Stan Lee (writer
& editor), Dan DeCarlo (pencils & inks)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#16/1-16/2, 16/4-16/5, 16/7, 16/9-16/10, 16/12,
16/14 (November, 1957) - Stan Lee (writer & editor), Dan DeCarlo
(pencils & inks)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#17/1, 17/3-17/5, 17/7, 17/13 (January, 1958) -
Stan Lee (writer & editor), Tony DiPreta (pencils & inks)
Homer,
the Happy Ghost I#18/1-18/2, 18/4-18/7, 18/10-18/11 (March, 1958) -
Stan
Lee (writer & editor), Dan DeCarlo (pencils & inks)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#19/1-19/2, 19/4-19/5, 19/9-19/10 (May, 1958) -
Stan Lee (writer & editor), Dan DeCarlo (pencils & inks)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#20/1, 20/3-20/4, 20/8, 20/10 (July, 1958) -
Stan
Lee (writer & editor), Dan DeCarlo (pencils & inks)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#20/2, 20/5-20/7 (July, 1958) - Stan Lee
(writer
& editor), Tony DiPreta (pencils & inks)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#21/1-21/3, 21/6-21/7, 21/9-21/10 (September,
1958) - Stan Lee (writer & editor), Dan DeCarlo (pencils & inks)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#22/1-22/2, 22/4-22/7, 22/10 (November, 1958) -
Stan Lee (writer & editor), Dan DeCarlo (pencils & inks)
First posted: 08/06/2020
Last updated:
09/18/2024
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel Copyright info
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