LUKE DOWD
Real Name: Luke Dowd
Identity/Class: Human mutate (1950s era)
Occupation: Burglar
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: None
Enemies: Sid Marner, Eric Wardell and his cat
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Unidentified city, somewhere in America (possibly New York City)
First Appearance: World of Fantasy#6/1 (March, 1957)
Powers/Abilities: By ingesting "shrinking" herbs, Dowd could proportionally reduce himself (along with his shoes and clothing) to a height of eight inches--at this shrunken size, he was easily able to sneak into homes and businesses to commit a series of burglaries. The size-altering effects of the herbs would only last for one hour, after which he returned to his normal height.
Dowd was also a skilled safe-cracker.
Height: Unrevealed (6'; by approximation); 8"
(after ingesting "shrinking" herbs)
Weight: Unrevealed (180 lbs.; by approximation)
Eyes: Unrevealed
Hair: Blond
History:
(World of Fantasy#6/1 (fb) - BTS) - At some point while he
was in the United States, career criminal Luke Dowd shot and wounded a
man during an armed robbery and got away with a few hundred dollars.
Pursued by police detective Sid Marner, Dowd used the money to make it
to South America on a freighter, where he hid in the jungles of the
Amazon and survived by eating berries and roots. He eventually learned
that the indigenous Jivaro
tribesmen used special herbs "for shrinking bodies" (see
comments), which gave him an idea.
(World of Fantasy#6/1) - Following a battle, Jivaro tribesmen were in the jungle picking some of the herbs, and Dowd hid behind a tree to watch them; after they left, he ate one of the remaining herbs to see if it would work on a living body--in a few seconds, Dowd felt his flesh draw taut, then he grew smaller and smaller until he was the size of a doll. An hour later, after he returned to his normal height, Dowd stuffed his pockets full with the strange herbs, then returned to the U.S. aboard another ship.
After the ship docked, Dowd disembarked and spotted his old "friend" Detective Marner and another police officer following him, so he suddenly dashed into the customs building.
(World of Fantasy#6/1 - BTS) - Inside the customs building, Dowd ingested one of the herbs and shrank, then he hid in his own suitcase.
(World of Fantasy#6/1) - Marner and the cop searched vainly for Dowd for twenty minutes, but gave up after they could find no trace of him. The shrunken Dowd emerged from his suitcase, and forty minutes later, when he returned to full height, he calmly went on his way. He thought to himself that he would make up for all the lost time he spent in the jungle and use the herbs to make himself rich, and if he could outwit a smart detective like Marner, then he could fool anybody.
(World of Fantasy#6/1 - BTS) - Dowd used the herbs to shrink himself and committed a series of untraceable robberies--the plague of mysterious thefts left the police baffled.
(World of Fantasy#6/1) - One night, Dowd was outside the high walls and locked gates of the Cooper mansion; but just a nibble of an herb shrank him down small enough to crawl under the gates, and a window left open just a few inches was an "invitation" for the miniature thief to enter.
(World of Fantasy#6/1 - BTS) - Inside the mansion, the shrunken Dowd stood upon a bookshelf ladder and opened a wall-safe, then got away with $40,000 worth of jewels.
(World of Fantasy#6/1) - The robbery was discovered late the following morning, and it had the puzzled Detective Marner and forensic investigator Miller hunting for clues; when Miller discovered a hand-print no larger than that of an infant's on the safe, Marner requested that he lift the print off and make a routine check for identification at headquarters. Later, Marner learned that the hand-print was identical to a file print of Luke Dowd, except for the tiny size. Marner concluded that the only possibility was that Dowd must have discovered some way of making himself small. With the help of a big jewelry firm owned by Eric Wardell, Marner baited a trap for the miniature burglar, and newspapers helped by publicizing an exhibit of precious jewels at Wardell's store.
As Detective Marner had hoped, Luke Dowd read the paper and did not fail to see the "invitation" for him to try to make off with the exhibited jewels. Although he figured it was probably a trap, Dowd wasn't worried, because the moment the police showed up, he could just swallow a bite of the herb and hide in a desk drawer, or escape through an air vent.
That night at the Wardell Jewelry Store, the shrunken Dowd climbed through a partially-opened window of the darkened building and started taking what gems he could lift; but as he turned to leave, Dowd came face-to-face with a cat! Driven by panic, he managed to make his way into Wardell's office, where he noticed a crack in the wall. The tiny thief crawled into the opening and took refuge inside the inner wall; although the cat couldn't reach Dowd, nor could the shrunken robber get past the beast that waited outside the wall for him.
(World of Fantasy#6/1 - BTS) - At the end of an hour, Dowd returned to his normal size, but his arms were pinned by laths in the wall, so that he was unable to again reach for the herbs in his pockets.
The next morning, the police found the full-sized Luke Dowd trapped inside the wall; the thief was freed from confinement and taken into custody.
Comments: Created by Carl Wessler and Richard Doxsee.
Those "shrinking" herbs in this 4-page story--The Worm's-Eye View--probably had some kind of chemical combination similar to the size-altering Pym Particles.
In regards to the Jivaros using the herbs "for shrinking bodies": This story was published shortly after the Comics Code came into effect, so the writer probably had to tone down any perception of violence and not mention the Jivaro ritual of shrinking heads--I wonder if these Jivaros could be the same tribe who earlier encountered Sam Bonner.
Profile by Ron Fredricks.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Luke Dowd has no known connections to:
Sid Marner has no known connections to:
Eric Wardell's cat has no known connections to:
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A plain-clothes police detective, Marner was familiar with criminal Luke Dowd. When a tiny hand-print found at the scene of a burglary matched a file print of Dowd's, Marner correctly guessed that Dowd had discovered some way to reduce his size. Marner then worked with jewelry store owner Eric Wardell to bait a trap that successfully captured the miniature thief. --World of Fantasy#6/1 |
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Wardell owned a jewelry store, where he kept his pet cat. When the size-reducing burglar Luke Dowd was committing a series of robberies, Wardell assisted the police by allowing them to use his store to bait a trap for the thief. The temporarily shrunken Dowd entered Wardell's store to rob it; but when Dowd ran into the cat, he crawled into a crack in the wall, where he was trapped after he resumed his normal height. --World of Fantasy#6/1 |
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images: (without ads)
World of Fantasy#6/1, p2, pan9 (main image - Luke Dowd)
World of Fantasy#6/1, p4, pan5 (headshot - Luke Dowd)
World of Fantasy#6/1, p2, pan4 (Luke Dowd shrinks to 8 inches; "shrinking" herbs [background])
World of Fantasy#6/1, p4, pan3 (shrunken Luke Dowd climbs inside jewelry store through partially-opened window)
World of Fantasy#6/1, p3, pan6 (Sid Marner at scene of Dowd's robbery; Mrs. Cooper [background])
World of Fantasy#6/1, p3, pan7 (Sid Marner)
World of Fantasy#6/1, p4, pan4 (cat encounters shrunken Luke Dowd)
World of Fantasy#6/1, p4, pan7 (cat; Eric Wardell, Sid Marner [background])
Appearances:
World of Fantasy#6/1 (March, 1957) - Carl Wessler (writer), Richard Doxsee (pencils/inks), Stan Lee (editor)
First posted: 06/25/2025
Last updated: 06/25/2025
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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