Back in the 1970′s when superheroes weren’t selling the way way they used to keep the lights on Marvel Comics would publish just about anything. And if it cost almost nothing, so much the better, which is why they published so many titles reprinting the Lee/Kirby monster stories I loved so much (Where Monsters Dwell, Where Creatures Roam, etc.). It’s also how between 1970 and 1973 Marvel came to publish twelve issues of L’il Kids.

It was a compilation of theoretically funny little kid strips collected from forty years of Marvel/Atlas/Timely humor comics, which is how you get material from the 40′s like Pansy (the Internet can tell me nothing about the character but from this strip she appears to have been a big, dumb girl dog thing from a surprisingly Carl Barks looking funny animal type universe) rubbing shoulders with Howard Post’s solidly unexceptional Little Lizzie from the 50′s.

It was pretty anemic stuff the first time around and laying in a drawer for a couple of decades hadn’t improved it much, but the final three issues cover featured new material featuring a brand new character, Calvin. It’s pretty hard to come up with an original take on the well trod territory of kids goofing around and getting into trouble and to be absolutely honest his adventures were pretty much indistinguishable from the reprints except for two things.

1) The stories were drawn in a shaky, uncertain squiggle that clearly was supposed to emulate Charles Schultz’s Peanuts.

2) Calvin has a massive Afro.

That’s right, Calvin was black and if the encircled caricature of the creator that hung near the logo can be depended upon Calvin was written and drawn by Kevin Banks, an African-American.

Unfortunately after those three issues Calvin disappeared without a trace and the internet can tell me nothing about either his creator or how Marvel came to publish the strip in the first place. If anyone knows anything about Calvin or his creator please, let me know.

Tiny Tessie had her own comic, for a single issue,#24, taking over the numbering of Tessie the Typist.