For reasons that even I don’t entirely understand one of my all-time favorite Golden Age characters has to be Basil Wolverton’s Powerhouse Pepper. Some consider him to be a Popeye knock off and while I can kind of see that, seeing as how both were good hearted, super strong and nearly indestructible comic grotesques, other than that there’s really not all that similar. He had no supporting cast, though at least one pretty girl would show up in a decorative capacity, and though he started his cartoon life as a boxer like the stars of the animated shorts of the era he wandered from one slapstick comic adventure to another doing all sorts of jobs. And while both comic strips and books had their share of comic strongmen the thing that puts Powerhouse Pepper heads and shoulders above all others was of course, Basil Wolverton. If Pepper wasn’t absolutely unique his creator sure was.

Although there have been reprints and collections…

…what I really want to see is a hardcover Marvel Masterworks archive edition; if they can do one for the 50′s jungle characters, they can certainly do one for Powerhouse Pepper.