 | Timmy the Timid GhostOriginal Medium: Comic books Published by: Charlton Comics First Appeared: 1956 Creator: Al Fago image: © Charlton Comics. |
Casper the Friendly Ghost wasn't the hottest cartoon property of the 1950s, but he was big enough to rate a few knock-offs and coattail-riders. The American Comics Group had Spencer Spook, Marvel Comics had Homer the Happy Ghost … and Charlton had this wimpy little guy, Timmy the Timid Ghost.
Timmy's first manifestation was in Charlton's Timmy the Timid Ghost #3, February, 1956. (The first two issues were probably titled Win A Prize, but Charlton's often confusing publishing practices aren't well documented for this period.) The character was created by Al Fago, best known in the industry at the time for Frisky Fables, which he'd produced for a succession of publishers in the late 1940s. Fago (not to be confused with his brother Vince, who at that time was continuing Harrison Cady's work on Peter Rabbit) also created, wrote and drew another 1950s Charlton title, Atomic Mouse.
Fago's comics were generally well designed, open and readable, with few superfluous lines lines to mar the effect. His style of humor successfully appealed to very young readers. Timmy the Timid Ghost sold in respectable numbers for several years.
But whereas Casper's friendliness was endearing (tho it could be cloying), Timmy's cowardice was often more annoying than amusing. The character was fairly successful, at least by Charlton's standards, but not what you'd call a breakout hit. The series ended with #44 (October, 1964). It was resurrected two years later, and this time ran until 1971.
Timmy was last seen in the mid-1980s, when Charlton, then on its last legs, was issuing cheap reprints of a wide variety of its old series, in a desperate attempt to stay afloat. Nowadays, with the company's assets scattered far and wide, it's hard to know who even owns the character.
— DDM
