Bazooka Joe facts for kids
Bazooka Joe is a fun comic strip character. You could find his adventures on tiny comics inside each piece of Bazooka bubble gum. He's easy to spot because he always wears a black eyepatch. This unique look made him one of the most famous American advertising characters of the 1900s. He was known all over the world and was one of the few characters connected to a candy.
However, sales of Bazooka bubble gum started to go down. So, in November 2012, Bazooka Candy Brands announced a change. They decided to stop putting the comic strip in their gum wrappers. Instead, the new wrappers would have brain teasers, instructions, and special codes. These codes could be used to unlock online videos and video games. The company did say that Bazooka Joe and his friends would still appear on the new packaging sometimes.
Meet Bazooka Joe and His Friends
Bazooka Joe doesn't go on adventures alone! He has a cool group of friends who join him in all sorts of funny situations. These characters were inspired by old comic strips about groups of kids.
Here are some of the main characters:
- Pesty: This is Joe's younger brother. He used to be called Orville. Pesty wears a 1950s cowboy sombrero hat.
- Mort: Mort is a tall, thin boy. He always wears his red turtleneck sweater pulled up over his mouth.
- Hungry Herman: He's Joe's pal who loves to eat. Herman is a bit tubby.
- Jane: Jane is Joe's girlfriend.
- Tuffy: Tuffy is a smart, streetwise character. He wears a sailor hat.
- Walkie Talkie: This is a neighborhood dog. He's a mutt, which means he's a mix of different dog breeds.
The comics usually had gentle, kid-friendly jokes. They also often included small ads for fun, kitschy items. You could get these items by sending in comics and a small amount of money. From the very beginning in 1954, the bottom of each comic had a "fortune." These were like the messages you find in a fortune cookie, and sometimes they were quite funny!
How Bazooka Joe Was Created
Around 1952 to 1954, two people named Woody Gelman and Ben Solomon worked at Topps. They were in charge of creating new products. They asked a cartoonist named Wesley Morse to draw Bazooka Joe and his Gang. The character's name, Bazooka Joe, was actually chosen after a contest where people sent in their ideas. Wesley Morse was the first artist to draw the Bazooka Joe comics.
Drew Friedman, a cartoonist and writer, shared some interesting facts. He wrote that Woody Gelman and Ben Solomon also created Popsicle Pete. This character appeared in ads for Popsicle ice pops for many years. The president of the Topps Company, Arthur Shorin, noticed Popsicle Pete. He hired Gelman and Solomon to work for Topps full-time. Gelman became an editor and writer, and Solomon became the art director. Gelman later led the new product development team. There, he helped create the Bazooka Joe mini-comics and many other successful trading cards and products.
The way Bazooka Joe looked changed over time. This happens with many advertising characters that are around for a long time. By the 1990s, Joe had a more modern style. For example, he started wearing low-slung, baggy jeans.
From 1967 to 1990, a cartoonist named Jay Lynch was the main writer for the Bazooka Joe comics.
Bazooka Joe comics were also made for sale in other countries. They were translated into different languages. For example, the Canadian version had text in both English and French at the same time!
