You want I should bop you with this here lollipop?
Describe Herbie here.Describe smeschribe.
Herbie Popnecker is a short, ugly, potbellied teen with a really bad fashion sense and an unhealthy addiction to lollipops, despised by his miserly father and babied by his mom. But unknown to them, he's also a superhero with extraordinary strength (as in, Superman-level strong), indestructible, capable of flight, a master of hypnotism and disguise, a world-famous celebrity and every woman's dream. He is armed with an apparently unlimited reserve of magical lollipops that allow him to do basically whatever he wants or needs. As a comedic hero from the Golden Age of comics, he cannot be defeated and his enemies are mostly ineffectual buffoons and/or public domain characters.
So, how's that for a resume?
As a comic book character, Herbie first appeared in the story "Herbie's Quiet Saturday Afternoon", published in Forbidden Worlds #73 by American Comics Group. The deadpan absurdist humor was well-received by readers, and a new "Herbie" story eventually appeared in issue #94. Readers kept asking for more Herbie stories, and soon he was appearing in every other issue, with his name prominently featured on the cover. By May 1964, ACG launched a dedicated title called Herbie, and it ran for twenty-three issues until American Comics Group closed shop.
Herbie is also often known as "The Fat Fury", a nickname he first acquired in Forbidden Worlds #116. He uses it as his superhero monicker in Herbie #8, though he has more adventures out of costume than in it.
In 1992, Dark Horse Comics attempted to revitalize Herbie with a 12-issue limited series; the first issue featured a new Herbie story by John Byrne, while issue #2 reprinted three stories from the original series, colored by James Brown. Though Dark Horse stopped the series after that, Herbie continued to make sporadic appearances, including Flaming Carrot Comics #31 and a series of reprints.
Not to be confused with Disney's sentient Volkswagen or the Fantastic Four's robot buddy.
Herbie Popnecker's stories contain examples of the following tropes:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Tinklepuss the cavewoman and Hepzibah Higgins. Also, Herbie seems to think of all women like this a bit, but he particularly despises fat or ugly ones.
- Abusive Parents: Herbie's father derides him constantly, calling him "a little fat nothing" and similar niceties. Herbie, being an obedient (if passive) son, takes it in stride.
- Acrofatic: Herbie is awfully fast for one so bulky.
- The Beastmaster: Herbie can get animals to do his bidding simply by asking them.
- Big Fun: Subverted. While Herbie is not evil by any means, he's not a very fun guy to be around, either: he's terse, languid to the point of complete apathy, and spends all of his free time lazing in a hammock or easy chair. When faced with a threat, he will likely either resort to immediate violence, or stare it down with mild indifference.
- Bizarre and Improbable Ballistics: In one story, several gangsters try to shoot Herbie, only to have their bullets swerve to avoid him out of fear.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Herbie will occasionally address the reader to introduce his latest story.
- Celibate Hero: Herbie has no interest in any of the women he meets.
- Character Catchphrase: "You want I should bop you with this here lollipop?"
- Compound-Interest Time Travel Gambit: Done in one story, where Herbie helps his father leverage a $2.02 debt from the seventeenth century into a $6 million windfall in the present day.
- Disproportionate Retribution: When an alien invader destroys Herbie's lollipop, he retaliates by disintegrating the aliens and their flying saucer.
- Distaff Counterpart: Tinklepuss the cavewoman is essentially a gender-swapped Herbie in a loincloth. She has a pterodactyl for a pet and is Herbie's equal in strength.
- The Dreaded: Troublemakers of all kinds will often panic at the mere sight of Herbie; this includes (but is not limited to) wild animals, witches, monsters, dragons, alien beasts, and angry comets. Herbie's reputation is so widespread that even antagonists from the past and the future are terrified of him.
- Dreary Half-Lidded Eyes: Herbie has droopy half-closed eyes, giving him an expression of perpetual sleepiness.
- Dull Surprise: Played for laughs. Herbie's face rarely ever changes to indicate that he's perceiving things in front of him, let alone has opinions on them, and his dialogue is written to suggest the flattest monotone imaginable.
- Flying Brick: Part of the Fat Fury's power set.
- Formerly Fat: One story reveals Herbie's father used to look just like him. He had himself literally "stretched" out to gain his new appearance.
- Generation Xerox:
- Herbie looks identical to his grandpa, powers and all; it's later revealed that his father also looked like that in his teens, but somehow grew up to be a normal-looking man.
- Another story has Herbie travel back in time to Plymouth Rock, where he meets his great-great-great-grandfather Myles Standish, who looks like Herbie with a beard and mustache.
- Get-Rich-Quick Scheme: Herbie's dad is prone for jumping into crazy plans to make money. Examples include selling hypnotic bowling balls, making hot-air balloons, and opening a roadside museum.
- The Guards Must Be Crazy: In "Don't Mess Around with the Fat Fury!", American soldiers guarding various military installations repeatedly fail to notice anything suspicious about a Chinese spy — who wears a propeller belt, has large buck teeth, bright yellow skin, and two heads.
- Hates My Secret Identity: Herbie's father sings the praises of The Fat Fury, and wishes his son would be just as noteworthy instead of a "little fat nothing".
- Hypocrite: Herbie is not fond of fat people or people with glasses.
- Hypnotic Eyes: Herbie's gaze has several different effects, depending on the person: as a bare minimum, it makes almost everyone uncomfortable or scared. If Herbie so desires, he can literally hypnotize others using a lollipop as a pendulum.
- Improbable Weapon User: Herbie uses lollipops to bop whatever nuisance he faces.
- In-Series Nickname: Herbie's parents call each other "dad" and "mom".
- Instant Expert: Herbie can learn a new skill after seeing someone do it. He was able to cast a magic spell after seeing a witch try it on him once.
- Intercontinuity Crossover: Herbie #14 features a crossover between the Fat Fury and American Comics' other costumed superheroes, Nemesis and Magicman.
- Interspecies Romance: Hepzibah Higgins, Herbie's Abhorrent Admirer, ends up marrying a gorilla.
- Invisibility: In his very first story, Herbie rescues a man lost at sea by turning invisible and then walking on air to where he was.
- Ironic Name: "Pincus" is a variation on the Hebrew name Phineas, meaning "an oracle". Pincus Popnecker himself is a clueless moron
who gambles the family's money on business ventures that he always predicts, incorrectly, will be successful, and never seems to understand how his son is the one to bail them out of financial troubles. - Kavorka Man: All the ladies love Herbie Popnecker, though he is mostly unperturbed by their attentions.
- Limited Wardrobe: Aside from his Fat Fury costume, Herbie almost always wears the same ensemble — a white dress shirt, blue slacks, and a short black tie.
- Mad Scientist: Professor Flipdome is a friend of Herbie; his wacky inventions invariably cause problems that Herbie has to take care of.
- My Beloved Smother: Herbie's mom is completely undemanding, enabling his lackadaisical lifestyle to his father's eternal consternation. Herbie himself is indifferent to her smothering and is glad to reap the comforts of her affection.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: Whatever the situation requires, Herbie has a lollipop for it. And even without a lollipop, Herbie is capable of spontaneously exhibiting new powers to save the day.
- Nigh-Invulnerability: Herbie is so resistant to damage that he sometimes doesn't even notice that he's being attacked. This tends to end poorly for any villain who can actually get Herbie's attention...
- Not Quite Flight: When Herbie needs to take to the air, he'll use whatever method suits his whim at the moment. If he doesn't simply fly, he might walk on air, or command birds to carry him. And for interstellar distances, he will typically stroll to his destination.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Herbie keeps his super-abilities a secret from his parents because he is afraid they would not be able to handle it."If parents knew about me, they'd be so proud they'd bust. And who wants busted parents?"
- Parody: Herbie's costumed identity as the Fat Fury is an obvious parody of comic-book superheroes.
- Power-Up Food: Lollipops confer powers to whoever eats, licks, or sucks on them. Somewhat subverted in that Herbie exhibits super-powers even without using lollipops.
- Phrase Catcher: Herbie attracts many comments about his weight, with Dad and many others referring to him as a "little fat nothing" or a "fat water rat" ("and all over red", in the case of the Fat Fury).
- Prefers Going Barefoot: For some reason, Herbie goes barefoot as the Fat Fury.
- Red Baron: Herbie was known as "The Fat Fury" even before he adopted it as a superhero identity.
- Resistant to Magic: In "Herbie and the Spirits," Herbie shrugs off the magic spells of a witch and a creep simply by refusal.Witch: Disappear, confound you! Why won't you disappear?
Herbie: Don't wanna. - Secret Identity: Utterly parodied. Herbie's masquerade as the Fat Fury has him wear long underwear and a toilet plunger on his head, yet the Fat Fury has no powers or abilities that he himself doesn't, and Herbie is already known across all of time and space as a fearsome hero, so dressing up has no point whatsoever. Herbie has a greater-than-equal number of stories where he doesn't become the Fat Fury and still saves the day.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: In "Herbie and the Sneddiger's Salad Oil!", Herbie commands the undead, captures a gang of mobsters, walks across the galaxy, scares off a pack of giant alien beasts, and helps an alien race revitalize their planet just to get a bottle of salad oil for his visiting aunt — who cancelled her trip while he was out.
- The Slacker: Herbie will take action if asked to do so, but given a choice, his favorite activity is to do nothing.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: Herbie can talk to animals, and they often respond in fluent English.
- Stealing the Credit: Herbie's dad does not hesitate to take credit when one of his Zany Schemes succeeds, even if (or especially because) Herbie helped to make it work.
- Super-Speed: Herbie has a rare lethargic version of Super Speed. While he is never shown moving faster than a lazy stride, he can use it to travel across galaxies without effort. This differs from Teleportation as other characters can see him coming (and run away, if they're smart).
- Super-Strength: Herbie is strong enough to punch through a three-inch-thick brick wall without effort, and can tow a half-dozen submarines through the air using only a piece of rope.
- Support Your Parents: Although his father frequently insults him as "a fat nothing," Herbie won't hesitate to secretly help his father out of whatever dilemma he's gotten into.
- Terse Talker: Of the "why say lot word when few word do trick" variety."Spring coming — love in air."
- That Makes Me Feel Angry: Herbie's response to feeling emotion is to say so for the audience's benefit ("made me mad", "mad now"), since his face is more or less incapable of registering it.Herbie: [ears smoking, while staring placidly at the reader] Can't do this to me. Outrage.
- Time Machine: Subverted; when Herbie travels through time, he often flies in his family's grandfather clock. Note that it's an ordinary clock, as Herbie can travel through time without it thanks to his lollipops.
- Title Confusion: The comic is often called "Herbie the Fat Fury" by readers, even though the title is simply "Herbie". While "The Fat Fury" is his nickname and was used in the tagline on some covers, it has never been part of the title. Indeed, Herbie's had far more adventures as himself than as the costumed Fat Fury.
- Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: Satan himself is scared of Herbie.
- Utility Belt: Herbie regularly carries extra lollipops on his belt.
