Comic Strip Review: Alley Oop and the Million-Dollar Nugget by V.T. Hamlin
Alley Oop is a caveman living in the primitive kingdom of Moo in Earth’s prehistoric Bone Age. He rides a tame dinosaur named Dinny, has an off-and-on relationship with sweetheart Ooola, and alternately clashes with and helps out King Guzzle (“Guz”) and the other inhabitants of his tribal lands. Or at least that was the status quo established in 1932 when the strip was first published. In 1939, with the premise getting a bit stale, a Twentieth Century scientist, Elbert Wonmug, invented a time machine, bringing Alley Oop and Ooola to “the present day.”
After some initial fish out of water antics, Alley Oop adjusted enough to the new world that he was able to become Dr. Wonmug’s field agent, sometimes working with Ooola, to investigate various time periods and historical anomalies. An early opponent was G. Oscar Boom, a rival of Dr. Wonmug’s who eventually became friendlier and even a part of the team (without ever being punished for any of his past crimes, something that would not be resolved for decades.)
This volume covers the daily strips from 1959, and while the title plotline does indeed happen, the central issue isn’t even hinted at on the cover.
The team is in Italy, investigating an anomalous humanoid skeleton from ten million years ago. Dr. Wonmug, stung by Alley’s teasing about his love life and boasting that the scientist can’t do without him as a field agent, decides to go back himself. Wonmug is soon regretting this rash decision, as he is rather elderly and ill-suited to wilderness travel.
But he does find a surprise, an odd-looking fellow name Oxy Twenty Four. who claims to be a moon man. His spacecraft crashed on Earth, and he’s the only survivor he knows of. (It’s implied that the remains that were found were of another crewmember who died shortly after the crash.) Intrigued, Dr. Wonmug brings the alien to the present.
Alley Oop is initially skeptical of Oxy’s claims. He’s been to the moon–twice–and there were no people there. But it’s noted that Oxy comes from ten million years ago, and there might have been life on the moon then. Oxy is notably blase about the possibility that his entire civilization has vanished. This is one of the first signs that he’s not a good person.
But this is obscured by Oxy’s fully understandable resentment of his treatment at the hands of the Earthlings. Italy’s government will not let him stay, and America’s government won’t let him in as a refugee. Oscar Boom comes up with the dodge of importing Oxy Twenty Four as an exotic animal, which Alley Oop finds amusing (he doesn’t get along with Oxy) and the alien finds humiliating.
Wonmug and Boom are hoping to pick Oxy’s brain for advanced alien knowledge, but it’s not clear just how much he actually knows about the science of his people. Oop gets tired of Oxy’s antics and heads home to Moo.
Turns out King Guz has been abducted, presumed dead, Alley Oop rescues him from pterodactyl riders just in time as the women of Moo are demanding to be allowed to vote on who the next ruler should be.
Oxy observes Alley Oop reuniting with Ooola on the time viewer, and gets the hots for her. He tries to use the time machine to travel to Moo, but fumbles and accidentally sends himself into limbo, while Alley and Ooola are transported to the Colorado Territory in 1859. Finding a conveniently abandoned pioneer wagon, the pair join the local gold rush.
Alley Oop accidentally makes it look like he’s bulletproof and he gets a reputation as outlaw Mabacak, “the man bullets cannot kill.” The pair head into the mountains, where Alley tries his hand at mining, soon locating the gold nugget of the title. Ooola locates gambler Jack East, who Alley owes money from a previous adventure. (Financing one of those trips to the moon!) Once convinced the nugget is real, Jack agrees to help them transport it to the nearest place with a bank rich enough to cash it in.
Oxy Twenty Four is retrieved from limbo (the time machine can’t send you into “the future” but it tried to do this to Oxy.) But before the scientists can bring our heroes back to the present with the nugget, a tornado blasts the wagon, and the nugget and Jack East vanish. (They’d be followed up later.) Alley and Ooola come to the present.
Oxy starts trying to woo Ooola, which she finds amusing, but Alley Oop doesn’t. To defend himself, Oxy finally buckles down and uses some technological know-how to create a robot that can be piloted like a mecha or guided by remote control. This is a pain for Alley until he figures out how to outsmart the mechanical menace.
Realizing that Oxy is never going to be helpful, G.O. Boom helps Alley Oop send the moon man back approximately ten million years. He thinks.
Upset, Dr. Wonmug shuts down his laboratory. Before everything is mothballed, Alley Oop and Ooola are sent back to Moo. In their absence, the kingdom has been invaded and taken over by the rival kingdom of Lem. The intrepid pair come up with a plan to oust the invaders. Which is great, but as it happens, Oxy wasn’t sent back to his own time, but the same time as Moo, and he’s the new brains behind the throne of Lem, with a distinct grudge against Alley!
The following year, the Hollywood Argyles would cut a musical track inspired by the comic strip, also titled “Alley Oop.”
The art is excellent, the cover image here is a poor quality scan, I’m afraid.
One thing I noticed is that almost all of the characters are extremely touchy, with a large part of the drama being driven by someone getting angry at another person, often for relatively trivial matters. This is one of the reasons it takes so long to establish that Oxy Twenty Four is a bad guy; he’s not acting that much differently from everyone else.
King Guz is especially given to becoming ungrateful the moment his throne is secure again. “I’m tired of national heroes soundin’ off about th’ debts their country owes ’em.” Sound familiar, veterans?
Lack of historical accuracy can’t be considered a fault in a comic strip that starts off with humans and dinosaurs living together. The rules of funny and drama apply instead, and this comic strip does well with them.
Content note: Mostly non-lethal violence, some slapstick. Lem’s culture practices slavery on prisoners of war. Moo’s culture is sexist (and Alley has only turned the volume down some). Several characters smoke cigars. Middle schoolers on up should be able to handle this.
Like some other beloved comic strips, Alley Oop still runs in papers in a kind of zombie form.
While the strip is good, this volume is a little unsatisfying. No one seems to learn anything or have any character development, and plotlines are cut off for the next development rather than concluded. You might want to start from the beginning instead, or at least the point where time travel is introduced. Recommended to adventure strip fans.
