DC’s Silver-Age Super-Pets: Krypto & Streaky

 

This post is for my good friend, Paul O’Connor from Longbox Graveyard.  Each year, Paul hosts the zaniest March Madness around.  This year, he is hosting a Super-Animal Showdown.  The first round went live today.  The contestants are: 

1 Krypto – One of the two stars of this post

2 Rocket Raccoon – one of The Guardians of the Galaxy. Surprised he’s not top seed.

3 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Heroes in a half shell

4 Howard The Duck – Marvel’s 1st movie star

5 Gorilla Grodd – Soon to appear in an episode of The Flash

6 Ace The Bat Hound – Batman’s canine

7 Devil Dinosaur & Moon Boy – Jack Kirby’s giant red dinosaur and his pal

8 Comet – Supergirl’s super horse

9 Streaky – the other star of this post

10 Mister Mind – One of the most famous villains of the Golden Age

11 Lockjaw – Is he a dog, is he an Inhuman, or is he both?

12 Beppo – Don’t like dogs, cats, or horse.  How about a super monkey?

13 Throg – Walt Simonson’s Frog of Thunder.

14 Proty – Gave his life in exchange for Lightning Lad’s

15 Detective Chimp – Looks like a Chimpanzee, acts like Sherlock Holmes

16 Zabu – Ka-Zar’s saber tooth tiger companion

17 G’nort – Member of the Green Lantern Corps.  Who let him join?

18 Captain Carrot – Head of the Zoo Crew

19 The Spectacular Spider-Ham – Porcine star of Spider-Verse

20 Cosmo – Space dog and Rocket Raccoon’s arch-rival!

21 Storm – The giant seahorse Aquaman is often seen riding

22 Lockheed – Kitty Pride’s dragon. Travel-size for your convenience. If he was his real size, your cow here would die of fright

23 Topo – Aquaman’s favorite Octopus

24 Redwing – The Falcon’s Falcon

25 Monsiuer Mallah – I think that’s French for Gorilla, but I’m not sure because I left my brain in a jar

26 Titano – Superman’s answer to King Kong

27 Prince Tuftan – Kamandi’s tiger friend

28 Ch’p – Another member of the Green Lantern Corp. Who left this yellow tractor-trailer parked here?

29 Hoppy the Marvel Bunny – Another star of the Golden Age.  Part of the Captain Marvel family of super-heroes 

30 Doctor Canus – Kamandi’s dog-man companion

31 Tawky Tawny – Another star of the Golden Age. Captain Marvel’s tiger friend.

32 Max – The Punisher’s dog and a gift to Dean Compton (the Punisher’s #1 fan). You call that surgery?

Paul suggested I write a post featuring some of these characters.  For those of you who are here for the first time, Between the Pages is a pop culture CAKE BLOG.  So what Paul was really asking was if I had pictures of cakes featuring these characters.

I laughed at the suggestion and told Paul him that I’d only featured Rocket Raccoon and The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the past.  So Imagine my surprise when I did some searching and and found some cool cakes featuring the #1 seed, Krypto the Superdog. 

As you can see from the cover gallery above, Krypto was Superboy’s pet.  You can read his first appearance from Adventure Comics # 210 on the wonderful blog Days of Adventure.  Before the planet Krypton blew up, Jor-El was testing rockets to send Kryptonians to other planets.  Before sending any people, they sent test animals.  One of this was baby Kal-El’s (i.e. Superman) puppy Krytpo.  Krytpo’s rocket was hit by an asteroid so it arrived much later than the rocket containing Kal-El.

 

Here are the key panels from the origin:

 

 

 

Superboy wasn’t the only super-hero with a secret identity.  Krypto also had one.  His secret identity is Skip.  Unfortunately, I can’t find any pictures of Skip and I’m not sure how many issues he appeared in.  Here is Wikipedia explanation for Skip.  Before reading it, let’s be clear. I will not pay for the aspirin you’ll need after reading the next paragraph.

When not accompanying Superboy/Superman, Krypto spent much of his time romping through space; while on Earth, however, he stayed with the Kent family, posing as their pet dog, “Skip”. In that identity, his guardians applied a brown dye patch on his back for a disguise which Krypto could burn off with his heat vision when he went into costume; later, the Kents devised a pullcord-activated dye applicator and other methods which Krypto could use to switch to “Skip” and back without assistance

I started this post with a cover gallery featuring Krypto.  My favorite of these covers is Superboy 92 with Lex Luthor and Destructo.

 

For this one issue, Destructo was Krypto’s Arch-Enemy! When I was telling Paul about Destructo, he wanted to know if Destructo was bald like Lex Luthor.  Can’t you just see Desctructo glaring at Krypto and saying “You made me bald!”.  If you don’t get the joke, count yourself lucky. 

Rumor has it that Chuck Norris’ dog was also named Destructo in the cartoon and comic book series Chuck Norris Karate Kommandos.

 

 

Krypto was so popular that he was even part of TWO super hero teams. 

One was called The Legion of Super-Pets.   This cover features 5 contestants from Super-Animal Showdown – Comet, Streaky, Kryto, Beppo, and Proty.  Pay particular attention to Streaky, he is the other of this post.

The Legion of Super-Heroes was a team of teenage superheroes from the future.  Superboy and Supergirl were both Legionnaires and traveled to the future regularly to share adventures with the Legion.  If you’re not familiar with the Legion of Super-Heroes, check out the amazing Legion of Super-Bloggers.  It is my favorite Legion of Super-Heroes blog. 

The Legion of Super-Pets consisted of Krypto, Streaky, Beppo (the monkey), and Comet (the horse) having their own adventures in the future just like Superboy, and Supergirl did with the Legion.  After teaming up and saving the day, it was the founding members of the Legion of Super-Heroes who gave this groups of super-pets their name.

 

 

 

While researching the Legion of Super-Pets, I learned something I didn’t know.  Comet, the Super-Horse, is famous for being Supergirl’s super-powered horse.

Krypto was created to be Superboy’s dog. Streaky was created to be Supergirl’s cat.  So I assumed Comet was created to be Supergirl’s horse.  I was wrong.  Comet’s very first appearance was Adventure Comics 293, the first appearance of the Legion of Super-Pets.  Comet wasn’t created for Supergirl, he was created because Jerry Siegel felt that a dog, cat, and monkey didn’t make a good enough super-team.  So Comet was created to make the Legion of Super-Pets a fab foursome instead of a terrible trio.

 

 

The first appearance of both The Legion of Super-Pets and Comet the Superhorse.

Remember, I said that Krypto was a member of two super-teams? If you thought the Legion of Super-Pets was odd, wait until you behold the Space Canine Patrol Agents. 

They were a team of alien dogs each with a unique super-power who team-up to defeat villains.  Their battle cry and sacred oath, with which they began all meetings, was:

Big dog, big dog, bow, wow, wow!

We’ll stop evil, now, now, now!

 

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, but the pictures that follow may be worth a trip to Arkham Asylum.

 

The Space Canine Patrol Agents are introduced.

 

Maybe the single strangest comic book panel ever.  Krypto using Clark Kent’s glasses to disguise himself. Of course, that’ll work! If you notice, Krypto isn’t just wearing glasses, he is now also wearing a SCPA collar.

 

The Space Canine Patrol Agents introduce themselves.

 

Paw Pooch in action.

Years later, Krypto would star in his own cartoon series – Krypto The Superdog.  Here’s the opening theme to that series. 

 

 

In this cartoon, Krypto was a member of the Dog Star Patrol, a tribute to the Space Canine Patrol Agents.  Streaky and Ace the Bat Hound were also in this series.

On to the cakes!

 

This cool Krypto The Superdog cake was made by Simply Natural Cakes.  The Krypto Cake Topper is terrific!

 

This super Krypto 6th Birthday Cake was made by Pretty Witty Cakes member Dana.

 

Marle Green made this cool Krypto Cake.

 Since Superboy had a dog (and a monkey). It was only natural that Supergirl had a cat (and a horse).

 

 

 

 

 

 

My favorite cover featuring Krypto and Streaky is this gorgeous cover to Supergirl 37 drawn by Darwyn Cooke.

To make sure, I had my facts correct on Streaky, I checked with Supergirl expert Anj.  Anj writes the amazing Supergirl blog – Supergirl Comic Box Commentary.  If you have any interest in Supergirl you should follow Anj on Twitter and visit the blog.

 

Streaky the supercat in action!

Unlike Krypto, Streaky is a normal house cat.  Since Green Kryptonite is deadly to Superman and Supergirl, Supergirl was doing experiments on Green Kryptonite to neutralize it.  Her experiment failed.  But unknown to Supergirl, it created a new form of Kryptonite – X-Kryptonite.  Streaky, Supergirl’s cat, was exposed to X-Kryptonite and gained superpowers.  X-Kryptonite’s effect on Streaky was only temporary.  The effects would wear off and Streaky would go back to being a normal house cat.

 

From Action Comics 262, the very first appearance of Streaky.

 

Streaky is exposed to X-Kryptonite for the first time.

 

Streaky explains his origin.

Somehow the piece of X-Kryptonite ended up in the middle of a ball of yarn.  When Streaky played with that yarn, he would gain superpowers.

 

Here’s Streaky with that ball of yarn.

In Action Comics 287, Supergirl is summoned to the future by The Legion of Super-Heroes.  While there, she meets Streaky’s descendant Whizzy.

 

Whizzy the Supercat

 

Darkseid vs. Streaky by Franco Aureliani.

This awesome sketch comes from the personal collection of Ben Herman.  Ben runs the great blog – In My Not So Humble Opinion.  Ben has a collection Streaky sketches which can be seen here.  If you’re a fan Jack Kirby’s Fourth World or The Forever People, Ben has an amazing collection of Beautiful Dreamer sketches which can be found here.

Back to the cakes.

 

 

Cake Lovers made this cool 4th birthday cake.  It features the animated version of both Krypto, the Superdog and Streaky, the Supercat!

Hope you’ve enjoyed our look at Krypto and Streaky.  Remember, Longbox Graveyard’s Super-Animal Showdown begins today. Vote early and often.