Today, we discover how two terrible stage magicians somehow became regular members of Superman's supporting cast!
This is "You Act Like We Never Have Met," which is a feature about one-time cast members of popular comic book series that have fallen by the wayside in the years since. Some of these are characters who would appear in comics routinely read by hundreds of thousands of people but are now effectively mysteries.
As I have written a few times over the years, the introduction of Hocus and Pocus in 1945 were really part of the very nature of how comic books were designed during the Golden Age. The prevailing design was over-sized comic books packed with tons of stories, with each character getting their own feature. When some characters grew popular enough to get their own ongoing series, though, now suddenly these characters were not only appearing as a feature in a larger anthology, they also had to, in effect, star in their own anthology where EVERY feature was starring that one character. With a set-up like that, it is only natural that comic book creators would often look for any idea that they could come up with for recurring features to fill up some space a bit more easily than having to come up with a novel story idea every issue. That's what led to the introduction of the recurring feature in Superman's ongoing series, Lois Lane, Girl Reporter, where we would follow Lois on some of her assignments. Basically, the pages had to be filled out somehow, ya know?
It also led to some writers trying to come up with other recurring ideas and character that they could revisit on a regular basis. While continuity WAS a thing during the Golden Age, it just wasn't as strict as later years. Continuity, during the Golden Age, meant recurring characters and features more than anything else. Meanwhile, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the creators of Superman, both shared an interest in humor comics. That really wouldn't necessarily connect to Superman stories that often, but when it could, they would do so, and so in 1945, Siegel and Shuster introduced their second most famous creations behind Superman in Hocus and Pocus, in Action Comics #83! Look how confident they were in these new characters! They got the spotlight on the cover of the comic book!
When we met Doc and Flannelhead (also known as Hocus and Pocus, respectively), they, along with their pet rabbit, Merton (stylized as "Moiton" in this comic, as this was the era of people finding it high-larious that characters would speak with thick Brooklyn accents, like Doiby Dickles), are having a really tough go at it trying to find work as stage magicians. Desperate, they jokingly talk about using magic to put some money together and, wouldn't you know it...
That, of course, sets up the gag, Doc thinks that he now has magic powers because whenever he casts a "spell," coincidence leads to the thing that he was trying to have happen, well, you know, HAPPEN...
This being a comic book, their seeming new magical abilities are quickly picked up on by some bad guys who insist that they use their new abilities to commit crimes for them. They agree, under the theory that whatever money they steal, they'll just use their powers to replace. Superman shows up to stop them and Doc uses his powers on Superman and, sure enough, some woman is trying to kill herself and so Superman has to leave! At this point, Jerry Siegel clearly felt that it was getting so ridiculous that he decided he needed to hang a lantern on it all and he does with a clever caption about how, hey, what can they say, this is what happened...
Things are looking bad for Hocus and Pocus when they refuse to do any more crime, but luckily, Merton escapes and when Superman discovers him, he has Merton lead him to his owners and then lets Hocus and Pocus believe that Merton chewed them free...
In the end, the bad guys are defeated and Superman tries to explain that Doc doesn't actually have powers, but instead, they ignore him and decide that they will open up a magical detective agency! The story ends with a note to readers to ask for more Hocus and Pocus stories if they enjoyed this one.
I have no idea if anyone actually did write in asking for more Hocus and Pocus (imagine those letters. "Yeah, this Superman guy is fine, but I love that Brooklyn accent! Give me more Hocus and Pocus!"), but they returned for two more engagements in Action Comics, and both times, they received cover spotlights...
I guess they really thought that Hocus and Pocus had staying power for some reason...
Sadly, this was around the time that Siegel and Shuster tried to recover the copyright for Superman and when they filed that suit, they were fired from their positions at DC (when they went to start a new superhero, their idea was a comedic superhero known as Funnyman. It did not do quite as well as Superman). So Alvin Schwartz wrote the final Hocus and Pocus story of this era, drawn by John Sikela in the lead feature in 1947's Superman #45. In a clever story, Lois Lane is about to be killed in front of Clark Kent and Hocus and Pocus when Doc uses his "magic" to turn Clark Kent into Superman to save Lois...
Clark obviously goes along with the idea, but then he is sort of trapped, as he now has essentially "proven" to Lois that their magic is for real, and so when they then give Lois superpowers, as well, Superman must spend the rest of the story trying to keep them from being exposed, because if THIS isn't real, then them giving Clark powers couldn't be real either, and then that would mean Clark was Superman...
The solution wasn't quite as clever (Superman tricks Lois into wanting to give up her powers because no one will dance with a woman with super-strength. Ooooph).
This was it for Hocus and Pocus during the Golden Age. I might cover their semi-shocking return decades later in the future.
Okay, that's it for this installment of You Act Like We Never Have Met! Feel free to write in to brianc@cbr.com if you have suggestions for future installments!
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