Sugar&Spike - Winter Sunday

The Chronicles of Sheldon Mayer's Sugar & Spike

Winter Sunday
Sugar & Spike #6 [1957]
4 pages
Reprints:  The Sugar And Spike Archives #1 [2011]

Given what I just had to spend the last hour doing, this is an appropriate tale.

Spike is underfoot while his mother tries to clean, so his father takes him outside to help clear the snow.  Anyone who has ever tried to get an infant to "help" in any task knows how that'll go, doubly so when Sugar shows up. Mr. Wilson manages to distract them with some tiny snow-men, which works for a while, but he doesn't consider their infant reaction to the ephemeral nature of snow.

Very cute body language for the kids in this one, as they range from quite proud to confused to happy to angry.  I especially like those panels of Spike imitating his father when they first go outside.

I also get a kick out of the stereotypical 1950s dad pipe that Mr. Wilson smokes, even when shoveling snow.

Characters: Sugar, Spike, Mrs. Wilson, Mr. Wilson
Damage: A bit of a mess at the beginning and end, but nothing permanent


"Just nod your head and look bright!"

Sugar&Spike - A Study in Science Friction

The Chronicles of Sheldon Mayer's Sugar & Spike

A Study in Science Friction
The Best of DC #41 [1983]
8 pages
Reprints: None

Following the 1971 conclusion of SUGAR AND SPIKE's impressive 98 issue run Mayer's main work for a few years was writing for DC's mystery books, including the creation of the Black Orchid and several great stories with Alex Toth. After his recovery from his 1973 eye operations, he also drew some stuff, including some Rudolph the Reindeer stories for DC's tabloid line, and worked on a Bible adaptation. The original Sugar & Spike stories were also published in other languages ("Sal y Pimienta" in Spanish, "Bib et Zette" in French, "Tutuca e Teleco-Teco" in Portuguese, "Bosse och Bettan" in Swedish), and in the early 1980s Mayer began writing and drawing new stories to appear in those publications.  Eventually some of those stories, along with classic reprints, would appear in DC's digest comics, although there are still a lot of stories that have never been published in English.

Most of the new stories that were published appeared in this issue of BEST OF DC. In this one, Spike is confused by his inability, as a little kid, to fit in his mother's big-person shoe, when the rules he learned from Sugar suggest he should be able to (since "little stuff always gozinta big stuff").  Bernie tries in vain to explain the logic to Spike, and then briefly thinks that Sugar understands him (which requires a bit of a strained bit of dialogue) before learning, as always, that life is never easy for an infant genius.

While the new material Mayer did in the 1980s isn't quite as good as the original series, there are a lot of fun stories, and I'd certainly like to see the published material re-published in a larger-than-digest size and the remainder published for the first time in English a few years down the line, after several books of the 1950s and 1960s stories come out.

Characters: Spike, Bernie the Brain, Sugar, Mrs. Wilson
Sugar's treatment of Spike: It's actually Bernie who faces the usual wrath of Sugar, pushed over and stood on


"You may be the infant genius around here, but I know a thing or two myself!"

Sugar&Spike - A Tale of Two Sugars

The Chronicles of Sheldon Mayer's Sugar & Spike

A Tale of Two Sugars
Sugar & Spike #87 [1969]
17 pages
Reprints: None
Dedication: Cindy Davidson (age 12), New York and Ronnie Zowadsky (age ?), Rhode Island

The second half of Mayer's original run on SUGAR AND SPIKE generally featured longer stories and more fanciful adventures.  In this story, the fathers are charged with taking care of the kids for a day, and are unable to outsmart the kids so one of them can sneak off, which the kids interpret as an elaborate hiding game.  So they take the kids to a used car lot, which happens to be targeted for theft by master of disguise Marvin the Midget.  Despite misinterpreting everything going on around them, the kids manage to completely confound Marvin's plans, which leads to Marvin disguising himself as Sugar.

While my preference will always be for the shorter more true-to-life Sugar&Spike stories, there is a lot of great slapstick in these longer stories. This one is pretty good, since it uses the same general theme of many of the earlier stories, the kids misinterpreting adult actions, and turns that concept up to eleven.

Characters:Sugar, Spike, Mr. Plumm, Mr. Wilson, Mrs. Plumm, Mrs. Wilson, Marvin the Midget and his gang, car lot staff and police
Sugar's treatment of Spike: Pushes him over and stands on him


"I haven't had so much fun since we put the eggs inna washing machine!"

Sugar&Spike - The Doggie That Wasn't

The Chronicles of Sheldon Mayer's Sugar & Spike

The Doggie That Wasn't!
Sugar & Spike #48 [1963]
4 pages
Reprints: None
Dedication: Lisa Ray (age 6 months), Vancouver, via her Aunt Rayline

Spike gets agitated when another baby won't let Spike play with his imaginary dog. This time it's Sugar's turn to try to be the reasonable one. That trick never works, so she changes tactics to try to get the other kid to admit there's no dog, and failing that, chases the imaginary dog away to solve the problem. Positively King Solomon in her wisdom. Unfortunately, Solomon didn't have to deal with baby logic, which in this case just creates an imaginary giraffe.

Great little story, demonstrating one of the common dynamics of the series, Spike being the more naive, gullible and imaginative one, and Sugar being the realist who finds herself with the job, if not the right temperament, of his protector.

Characters: Sugar, Spike, unnamed small baby
Property damage: Spike's suspenders
Sugar's treatment of Spike: overall protective, in her own way, but she does drag him around by said suspenders until they snap

"There's only one way to end this nonsense!"

Sugar&Spike - Sugar and Spike Tackle Halloween

The Chronicles of Sheldon Mayer's Sugar & Spike

Sugar and Spike Tackle Halloween
Sugar & Spike #31 [1960]
6 pages
Reprints: None
Dedication: Jean Meyer, Minnesota

Through the magic of non-continuity, Sugar and Spike got to experience events like Halloween and Christmas for the first time a half-dozen times or more. Mayer came up with some great variations on the themes every year.

In this year, the parents obviously decided the kids were too young for Halloween, and put them to bed early. Of course, they can't sleep with all the commotion, so they sneak out to see what's happening (I should add a "bad parenting" section to these write-ups). Understandably excited at witnessing candy being given away, they decide to get in on the action, but run afoul of a rather mean neighbour who didn't buy any candy for the kids. He gets his after Sugar and Spike disguise themselves in a pair of longjohns.

Characters: Sugar, Spike, unnamed 12-year-old trick-or-treaters, unnamed neighbours, Mrs. Plumm, Mrs. Wilson
Property damage: the neighbour took a flip on a banana peel

"This is the greatest game since 'Sneeze-the-Pablum'!"
"--And more profitable, too!"

Sugar&Spike - Better Late Than Never!

The Chronicles of Sheldon Mayer's Sugar & Spike

Better Late Than Never!
Sugar & Spike #54 [1964]
1 page
Reprints: None

Ah, poor old "No-Feets", long suffering pet fish who manages to narrowly avoid catastrophe at the hands of Sugar and Spike time and time again. You'd think parents with such active kids around would think twice about having a fish in a glass bowl precariously balanced on top of a pole.

I guess he belongs to the Plumms, based on this story, but I'm not sure if that's consistent. I think he shows up wherever it's most convenient for the joke of the moment.

Anyway, a nice little story in just six panels. I especially liked the attention paid to the face of No-Feets, going from suspicious to resigned to scowling.

Characters: Sugar, Spike, No-Feets, Mrs. Plumm (hands only)
Property Damage: No-Feets came out unscathed, but that toothpaste tube is a goner

"I must say, your mother is broadminded! Mine frowns on this sort of thing!"

Sugar&Spike - Trip to the Zoo

The Chronicles of Sheldon Mayer's Sugar & Spike

Trip to the Zoo
Sugar & Spike #8 [1957]
6 pages
Reprints:  The Sugar And Spike Archives #1 [2011]
Dedication: Mr. and Mrs. Rube Grossman (age 21 plus), New York

Rube Grossman was one of the other prolific artists on DC's humour books of the era, among other things drawing Mayer's other creation, the Three Mouseketeers, after Mayer went on S&S full-time. He's possibly best known as the artist of the annual RUDOLPH specials DC would publish (which Mayer would take over for the tabloid books in the 1970s).

To see if the kids are ready for the zoo, Sugar's dad shows them a film that his pal Rube Grossman made. The kids seem uninterested at first, fighting and talking. Then they start laughing when the camel comes on. We also get an appearance by Rube hisownself, standing next to the camel, eating a hot-dog, imitating the camel chewing its cud.

The next day at the zoo, the kids aren't very interested. In one scene, they figure out that the grown-ups will be disappointed if they don't act excited, so they both give a half-hearted "Wheeee". You have to see this panel to believe it. It perfectly captures the faces I've seen on infants when you try to get them interested in a new toy more exciting to you than to them (they're usually happy to play with the wrapping paper). Anyway, they fool around at the zoo for awhile, uninterested in the animals, but suddenly start crying when they leave. Sugar's dad can't understand. Talking amongst themselves, the kids reveal that the only thing they wanted to see was the funny man with the hot-dog.

I absolutely adore this story, one of my favourites of the whole series. Mayer captured the body language and facial quirks of kids so well in it, and the theme of the contrast between what adults think kids are interested in and what they're really interested in was fertile ground for the series. And a cameo by a fellow cartoonist tops it off.

Characters: Sugar, Spike, Mr. Plumm, Mrs. Plumm, Rube Grossman (film)
Property Damage: minimal, one lost balloon, film and projector are briefly threatened by Sugar's interest
Sugar's treatment of Spike: swings him around by his legs, but he did ask for that by whacking her with a toy elephant. She also pushes him over and sits on him.

"All the interesting toys, with parts to pull off, are always theirs! And don't they hate sharing!"