New Look Crikey! Magazine Out on Thursday

[tony ingram]

My rather lighthearted comment about Inch High - Private Eye came about because I didn't understand, and still don't, the reference to the Nutty Notion about Cpl Fry. Nevertheless, there is no serial in the text story papers about any character who is only one inch tall. There is however, as Kashgar has pointed out, The Strange Case Of Corporal Kite, an absolute giant at one foot tall in comparison with Hanna and Barbera's creation Inch High. It appeared in The Hotspur 1084 (Aug. 17 1957) - 1089 (Sep. 21 1957) and then, again as a text story, in The Victor 116 (May 11 1963) - 121 (Jun. 15 1963). There were some minor modifications to the text but all the heading block pictures, while superficially similar to those in The Hotspur, had been either partially or substantially redrawn. The story is set in a remote outpost in a tropical forest district, and hinges on an offensive remark made by Corporal Kite to a native African witch doctor, who casts a spell on him that lops just over five feet from his height, and then disappears from the area. When Sergeant Burton of the Royal Medical Corps turns up, he takes upon himself the job of persuading the local witch doctors to restore Kite to his correct height. Most of the humour lies in the range of only partial successes achieved by the various 'undergraduates' studying under Chaga, the chief of the society of witch doctors, and the increasing frustration of Sergeant Burton.

Yup, that is indeed the same storyline used for Corporal Fry, some minor details (like the names and the Corporal's height) aside.

[colcool007]

One foot instead of one inch. Well, as most men use that sort of scale when speaking to their beloved, I can perhaps be forgiven...

Thanks to Phoenix and Kashgar, as usual, for being on the ball and correcting my half-formed speculation. I knew that it had been in the Victor, but I was completely unaware that this was a reprint from Hotspur, as I now have some of those issues from the early 100's. I believe that the ending hinged on Cpl Kite being restored to his proper height, only to have his replacement suffer the same fate...

[Phoenix]

I believe that the ending hinged on Cpl Kite being restored to his proper height, only to have his replacement suffer the same fate...

That's right, Colin, only the replacement was barely six inches tall. At that rate, two more replacements insulting a witch doctor and they'd be down to an inch and a half.

Well, as most men use that sort of scale when speaking to their beloved

I take it this is a reference to the saucy seaside postcard showing a man in a urinal looking down and saying, And where shall we go today then, my fine friend?