The Barker

The Original Barker (Quality Comics)

The Barker was the delightful creation of Joe Millard and Jack Cole (signed), a feature that followed a colorful group of circus performers across the country. Cole drew only the first two adventures, in National Comics #42–43, and then it was taken over by Klaus Nordling, who continued to build the momentum that led to a solo series in 1945. Cole’s brief involvement is probably the reason why editor Gill Fox claimed that Klaus Nordling created “The Barker.” Most of this band of freaks weren’t truly “super-powered,” but the series had the same sense of continuity, oddity, and camaraderie as strips like “Death Patrol,” “Blackhawk,” and “Plastic Man.”

In each tale Clarence “Carnie” Calahan (a circus barker, his first name revealed in National #48) and his friends traveled to a new city, where they performed their specialty acts. When first introduced, they were looking for work and staying at Liz Flannery’s Boarding House for Show People, in Big City, Pennsylvania (a link to Cole, who was from that state). There the silver-tongued fortune teller Professor Zell intercepted a telegram to Carnie from Colonel Lane of the Mammoth Circus. Lane had invited Carnie to participate in his sideshow. As Zell attempted to sneak out, he was caught by Carnie and his pal, Major Midge (a little person). Lena the fat lady and Tiny Tim the strongman rounded out his crew. Carnie’s troupe headed out after Zell to Waynetown, where they wrested the contract from Zell and set up shop in Lane’s circus. The show there also included a “rubber man” performer called Elasto. (National #42)

Most of the Barker’s adventures concerned freaks, shysters or both in one, who tried to scam the circus out of money. In the next town, the Colonel met his rival, Cappy Kane. Kane had learned about a new freak, the four-armed Clarence Twiddle, who was an accomplished pickpocket. The two of them set out to undermine Lane’s circus, robbing patrons and implicating the Mammoth Circus. After Carnie exposed them, Lane offered Twiddle an alternative to jail: work for Carnie as “Spudo the Spider Man.” (Spudo was the only supporting character to be awarded his own spin-off feature, beginning in The Barker #1.) This story also featured the first appearance of Madam Shali, the snake charmer. (#43)

Carnie’s sideshow usually featured this core group of characters, but many other honest performers were introduced along the way, including Peaches, the bearded lady, and the Thin Man (#44); Bombo the human cannonball (#49); the fortune teller, Madame Futura, and a bona fide “Big Foot,” the Missing Link (later called Jo-Jo), who was barely kept in check by Shali’s snakes. (#51) The Wills Brothers, Ken, Ben and Len, were acrobats terrorized by the dreaded Hawk, an oddity who wore a beaked mask and clawed boots. The Hawk was actually the magician, Rabello, who sought to consolidate performers under his own empire. (#55) In swamp country, Carnie met the Cajun Coco Leboc, the Crocodile Man, who made a convincing suit from animal skins but proved more profitable as a crocodile wrangler. (#62) Bert the Whirlwind was a motorcycle stunt man. (Barker #5) The poor Witch of Whistler Hollow found herself kidnapped and impersonated. After that, Col. Lane wanted nothing to do with witches. (#9)

Usually though, the freaks on show were less than honest. Most came and went in a parade of crooked astrologers, contortionists, cannibals, and men dressed in weird suits. Benny the Beep framed the Colonel for theft. (National #44) Scramolo the escape artist was only out to scam the circus’s bankroll. (#53) A phony magician posed as the hillbilly Sorcerer Si of Yukville. (#57) A trio of talking animals (bear, seal and fox ) were made to “speak” via miniature transmitters affixed by their trainer, Duff. He commanded the animals to attack and kill. (#58) King Looey, the exiled monarch of Numforia, swindled ladies into believing they were destined to be his queen. (#65) And men fought over Salamo, a belly dancer planted in the circus by her husband, the sultan Ali Ben Riff Raff. (#67)

In National #46, Samson Smith, took Tiny Tim’s place as the new strongman, even though Tiny continued to appear in plainclothes as more of a towering rodeo trickster. Lane pit Samson against Kane’s own strongman, the Mighty Moose. (#47) In issue #55, Tiny was once again the sole strongman. He was also challenged by Percy the Powerful, a 90-pound weakling who took special pills every twelve hours for his tremendous strength. Percy’s pills were stolen by a mad professor who fed them to the animals. In order to bring order to the circus, Carnie downed a mouthful of the pills, which enabled him to speed around the circus and clean up the mess! In the end, they decided to destroy the pills, lest the market become saturated with strongmen. (#69)

The Barker Series (1945)

A year after this feature’s debut, The Barker #1 was published. The solo book featured the same cast and ongoing coterie of menaces. That first issue focused on Bobo the evil clown, who killed one of the acrobats (named “Jack” in this story, but drawn the same as the Wills Brothers in National #55). Also, Lydia the elephant rider was caught stealing, and Lily Ryan, the bareback horseback rider, fell and was replaced by the equestrienne/temptress, Nona de Garonne. Nona attempted to fleece the circus with her hypnotic kisses. (The Barker #1) Lily wasn’t so pure either. She later murdered Tallulah the tattooed lady. (#5) 

Many of the guest stars in the “The Barker” appeared to possess truly superhuman powers. Aside from Spudo, whose four arms were “real,” there was the Copper Man, whose body was half copper, divided down the middle. He found a way to restore himself to fully human. (Barker #2) The Human Dynamo was a former stunt man named Wylie who fashioned a trick costume to make it appear he could generate 50,000 volts of electricity. He was out for revenge against Mammoth’s high diver, Hi Cliff. (#5) In the curious case of Lulu Belle, a dummy who seemingly spoke and walked independently, her ventriloquist, Zargo, was revealed as a swindler using near-invisible wires to control her. (#7) Denoso the Birdman was an exceptionally talented high wire artist who looked as if he could fly. (National #59) Louie, the Human Fly effortlessly scaled buildings until his sticky suction cups were revealed. (#64) Leo the Lion Man shared a bond with Nero, a lion with whom he’d grown up. (#68)

The personal dramas focused on Lena when she became the object of desire for both of the Jealousy Brothers, Skinny and Fatso. Lena’s main concern was losing her gig to the fat man. Col. Lane thought the solution was to hire a skinny woman, Miss Digby, but she only diverted the brothers’ affections. Also, Andor painted his performers Carl and Nita to look like bronze statues while they held challenging poses with their great strength. When a mishap resulted in Carl’s death, Andor dove into poisonous paint, freeing Nita from his extortion. (Barker #6)

Both The Barker and National Comics ended around the same time, in late 1949. The cover of The Barker #15 (Dec. 1949) showed Carnie walking sadly in the rain, as if Nordling knew the book was canceled. Their final act brought them to Gay Bay, where they found their camp on the waterfront. They tried to devise new ways to wow folks with aquatic tricks. Instead they were terrorized by Froggo, the Frog Man, who could stay underwater for 20 minutes. Naturally, Col. Lane thought Froggo was the perfect attraction, but Froggo was bilking the operation for cash. He kidnapped Shali and took her to his secret lair, accessed by underwater entry, followed soon by Carnie and Spudo. In the end, his suit was revealed to contain an air reservoir that helped him breathe underwater. (Barker #15)

The Barker himself had no extraordinary abilities, but some of the freaks in his sideshow did. Many characters, when introduced, only appeared to be super-powered but in the end were revealed as shysters. In one case, he was challenged by Percy the Powerful, a 90-pound weakling who took special pills every twelve hours for his tremendous strength. Percy’s pills were stolen by a mad professor who fed them to the animals. In order to bring order to the circus, Carnie downed a mouthful of the pills, which enabled him to speed around the circus and clean up the mess! In the end, they decided to destroy the pills, lest the market become saturated with strongmen. (National #69)

The most notable exception was the four-armed Clarence Twiddle aka Spudo the Spider Man, who was introduced as an adversary in National #43, but became a prominent supporting character. He was even awarded his own spin-off feature beginning in The Barker #1.

Many of the guest stars in the “The Barker” appeared to possess truly superhuman powers. Aside from Spudo, whose four arms were “real,” there was the Copper Man, whose body was half copper, divided down the middle. He found a way to restore himself to fully human. (Barker #2)

DC's Barker: Kitt Calahan

Created by Mike Carey and John Lucas

The Barker received a little-known homage in 2005 when Mike Carey and John Lucas delivered a four-part backup in Detective Comics #801-804. Many of the cast members were familiar.

The scene opened on Colonel Brand's Traditional Family Carnival, with Kieran "Kitt" Calahan (a new first name for the character), Midge, Painted Rose the tattooed contortionist, and Firestone the strong man. Kitt was about to drown his sorrows over the death of their friend, Mitchell Tomjohn the dog-faced boy, who was found dead that day. The police ruled his death an accident and the circus folk were angered when the local authorities refused to investigate further, so they decided to find justice themselves. (Detective #801)

They investigated on two fronts, breaking into the police morgue, and scouring Tomjohn's trailer. Both yielded clues that pointed towards a would-be Senator, Rowley. (#802) It seems Tomjohn wasn't Mitchell's real name, but Mikhail Tamyanovic; he was a Croatian immigrant whom Rowley had "smuggled" into the country sometime earlier. But just Kitt and his friends were poised to extract more information, Rowley was shot to death from afar. Another shot hit Kitt in the arm. (#803)

With Calahan was out, the circus people looked to their most competent membefor guidance, Lena the fat woman. She realized that there was only one person in the circus capable of making a shot in the rain from a distance. At the same time, Kitt also realized that he was in the care of that killer—the Colonel himself! They extracted a confession from him but Kitt punched him so hard that the Colonel died on the spot. For his friend, Kitt took the fall and confessed to everything, ending in a prison cell. (#804) The cast of this drama was rounded out by the conjoined Twins, and Bones the gnarly headed brute

Notes

Calahan states that ever since the Flying Graysons were killed, carnie's won't pitch their tents in Gotham City. (The Flying Graysons were the family act of Dick Grayson, aka Robin/Nightwing.) He also mentions that Colonel's grandfather (perhaps a nod to the original Colonel Lane?) was with "Cole's" and his parents with Clyde Beatty, a real life animal trainer and showman.