STANLEY STORIES: from Nancy #165, 1959: the evil of Rollo Haveall (in two parts)

Saturday, October 4, 2008

from Nancy #165, 1959: the evil of Rollo Haveall (in two parts)

John Stanley's dislike of the rich is obvious. For every well-intentioned Good Samaritan of wealth in his stories, there are one dozen scheming, malicious, oblivious sociopaths.

Rollo Haveall, the doppleganger for Little Lulu's Wilbur in the Nancy and Sluggo comics, is a nasty creature, even by Stanley's standards.

His wealth dwarfs Wilbur's, many times over. Money, and its constant accessibility, has clearly warped Rollo's worldview. He takes his status for granted, and indulges his whims, with no apparent concern for the harm it may do others around him. As Rollo's father informs him in "Net Profit," our first story today, "MONEY can buy ANYTHING, son!"

Right out of the gate, Rollo is an asshole in "Net Profit." He scorns Nancy's cordiality, and then laughs when she apparently loses her pet fish to her pet cat.

Later, Rollo's "tropical fish collection," which consists of every deadly sea creature, imaginable and un-, threatens the life of a houseguest in the Haveall mansion. Rollo, with the aid of a fellow a-hole (a cynical vacuum cleaner salesman), unleashes a fish flood on his hometown. Nancy wins in the end, but Stanley's brief, vivid portrait of the Haveall family may linger in your thoughts after you've finished this story.

In this story, as well, we see the birth of Stanley's "hard" comedy of the 1960s. His writing is considerably more brassy and aggressive than it ever was in the Little Lulu series.

In our second story, "Substitute Player," Rollo literally plays with Sluggo. It's jaded Rollo's birthday. Despite his meriting an international two minutes' silence to mark his special day, Rollo is bored. Nothing has any meaning for him.

The Havealls hire Sluggo (whom they pick up off the street, like johns selecting a hooker) to be Rollo's playmate. (Rollo's father announces this gift thusly: "Rollo, I bought you something ELSE for your birthday!")

Rollo's sociopathic scheme (which you'll discover in the story) flounders famously. His tribulations (which he seems to enjoy with masochistic relish) temporarily make a "regular guy" out of him.

But Stanley's evildoers are seldom reformed. Rollo returns to wreak socio-economic havoc on his surroundings and fellow peasants again in Stanley's Nancy.

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THE JOHN STANLEY COMICS BIBLIOGRAPHY SERIES

I have compiled a detailed, fully illustrated (in color) story-by-story career bibliography of the comic book and magazine cartoon work of John Stanley, in three decade-specific oversized paperback editions. They're available in book form at Amazon.com.

You can read more about the 1940s volume HERE.

Check out the 1950s edition (the longest of the three books) HERE.

The 1960s volume can be previewed HERE.

Covers of the three books are seen below--and that of THE TAO OF YOW, a lavishly illustrated book of essays on John Stanley's world and his work, including expanded versions of essays first seen on this blog. TAO OF YOW may be perused HERE.

A FERVENT PLEA TO FELLOW BLOGGERS

I would like to suggest that the following grammatical and punctuation errors be avoided by one and all;

1) misuse of the possessive apostrophe-s. It's means "it is," not "its." Appropriate use, e.g.: "It's hot outside today." Wrong usage: "I looked at it's cover."

I see this horrid mistake committed hundreds of times daily on the Internet and elsewhere. If a word ends in an s, chances are someone will ram that apostrophe in there. (e.g., "Today's Special's").

Please, please, PLEASE--unless you intend to convey that a person, place or thing is being discussed, in the present tense, or is in use as a contraction of two words (i.e., "it is, let us, what is"), DO NOT USE THE APOSTROPHE!

2) misuse of the apostrophe in dates. Again: unless it is intended to convey the location or possession of a certain quality, such as "1867's drinking water supplies" or "1978's energy crisis," DO NOT USE THE APOSTROPHE! The same applies to the use of decade-connoting dates. It is the 1950s, or the '50s--NOT the 1950's or the 50's!

3) the two most abused words in the English language are "amazing" and "hilarious." It pains me to see these words used thousands of times a day in print and in conversation.

If everything is amazing and/or hilarious, then NOTHING is amazing and/or hilarious.

There exists a wealth of synonyms--delightful words that convey these two properties. Please, please, please use them in the place of these two horribly over-worked adjectives.

Visit synonym.com for easy access to other words that will help you communicate better and smarter.

4) When in doubt, use Spell Check.

Computer users have a luxury--we can instantly determine if a word we've typed is properly spelled. Any computer's spell checking program will inevitably have bugs, but most of the time it's quite helpful.

There is no good reason (aside from un-caught typos) that Internet writing should have spelling errors. We no longer have to interrupt our work, walk over to the bookshelf, pull out the dictionary, find the word, and return to our task. Right-click on a highlighted word and you'll know if it's correct or not.

The speed of the Internet sometimes inspires sloppiness--in myself and in others. In our excitement to get our writing on-line, it's easy to forget that finely-tuned prose may require a little more time.

It is worth the effort--and it takes little effort anymore--to double-check spelling before you make a post live. I often go over old posts and correct typos or poor writing. I feel it makes a difference, and that it supports my worth as a scholar and critic.

If this plea can prevent the egregious misuse of proper English in the blogosphere, my life will not have been in vain.