[positronic1]

Thank you narfstar, for the upload. This book is a 38-page epic WWII adventure where Sparky Watts tries to end the war by going to Germany and abducting Adolf Hitler. Sparky Watts had a ongoing continuity, and this extended adventure took place between the short episodes printed in BIG SHOT #38 and 39. Boody Rogers was a true Golden Age original, right up there with Basil Wolverton and Bud Sagendorf.

Link to the comment: Sparky Watts 1

[Robb_K]

Thank you narfstar, for the upload. This book is a 38-page epic WWII adventure where Sparky Watts tries to end the war by going to Germany and abducting Adolf Hitler. Sparky Watts had a ongoing continuity, and this extended adventure took place between the short episodes printed in BIG SHOT #38 and 39. Boody Rogers was a true Golden Age original, right up there with Basil Wolverton and Bud Sagendorf.

So, this original Markey Syndicate newspaper strip episode took place between the 1942 newspaper strip episodes which were reprinted in the late 1940s in Columbia's Target Comics #s 38 and 39.  It must have been confusing for readers who weren't reading Target Comics, and hadn't known about Sparky Watts before being attrated by the cover of his new, self-titled comic book.  The Target readers, on the other hand, would likely have noticed the new "Sparky Watts title on the newsstands.

[positronic1]

Well, nothing to do with TARGET COMICS... that was another publisher altogether. The continuity runs from Big Shot Comics #38 (September 1943) to Sparky Watts #1 (which has been attributed as published in 1942, no month, but that might possibly be a mistake) and back to Big Shot #39 (October 1943). The tip-off is in the last panel of the Sparky Watts story in Big Shot 38, where he says "Okay... I'll do it right after I keep a date with a guy named Adolf over in Berlin!" (Which is exactly what Sparky does in SPARKY WATTS #1). The ads on the inside front cover of SW #1 for other Eastern Color & Columbia titles (they shared house advertising space) do seem to be consistent with a date of around June or July of 1942, so it's possible this is another instance where the ongoing continuity of Sparky Watts in BIG SHOT skipped ahead over a year earlier for the book-length story in SPARKY WATTS #1. That must have been confusing to the people following Sparky Watts in BIG SHOT.