DUGAN
Real Name: Dugan
Identity/Class: Humanoid ghost (1950s
era)
Occupation: Adventurer, student (primary
school level)
Group Membership: Ghost Gang
Affiliations: Alice, Annie, Miss
Ghostly, Genie in a bottle (loose), Gobby Goblin, Goldplate,
Homer Ghost,
Invisible Irwin, Joe
the
Genii (loose), Mr. Jones & his Circus
(Whizzo, others), Little John, "Martian"
monocycle
pair (Ooog,
one other), Melvin,
Dr. A. Nutt (loose), Robin Hood, Snappy (ghost dog), Stringbean, Suzy, Zelda the
Witch
Enemies: Bank Robber Brown
and his two thugs,
Black
Witch, Blackbeard and his
pirate gang (Baldy, Dudley, Horace, Hawkeye, Orville), Bongo
Brothers,
Butch Billy, Dan
[DeCarlo],
Doctor
Doom,
Herman, Gorilla Grogan, Stan
[Lee],
Mad
Scientist, "Martian"
bipedal
pair, Monstro,
Redbeard and his pirate gang, Robert the Robber (loose), Sheriff of
Nottingham,
Sherman, Tony Toughguy, White-Sheet
Willie
Known Relatives: Father, mother (names
unrevealed)
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Ghost Town, USA
First Appearance: Homer, the Happy Ghost
I#1/1
(March, 1955)
Powers/Abilities: As a ghost, Dugan is all white in color and weighs nothing. He can go intangible at will and he casts no shadow in full sunlight. He can easily levitate and is able to fly into the air, even to the upper atmosphere. He also has limited ability to morph his body with concentration, including twisting his face to appear scary, but he mostly uses this ability to appear burly; however, he has demonstrated more strength than other junior ghosts, ripping phone books in half and doing 100 push-ups. He does not need to breathe (or can go for long periods without air), but still needs food for sustenance. He is affected by temperature, but generally appears to have enhanced durability. Dugan is a primary school student and is dismissive of fairy tales, despite his supernatural nature and surroundings. As a ghost of Ghost Town, he naturally induces fear once humans realize he is a ghost. He has an aggressive and antagonistic attitude to others, and often behaves likes a bully with punches, but quickly backs down to opposition of greater size and/or strength. He wears a signature tall bowler hat.
Height: 3'2"
(by approximation)
Weight: 0 lbs.
Eyes: Black
Hair: None
History:
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#1/1 (fb) - BTS) - The
belligerent young bully Dugan and his parents lived in
Ghost Town (populated
by ghosts and not far from a human city).
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#1/1) - In the 1950s, Homer Ghost, his parents and his ghost dog Snappy moved into Ghost Town. Dugan immediately declared himself the toughest and challenged the newcomer to a fight, but was scared off by little Snappy's snarls. Homer quickly made friends with ghosts Invisible Irwin and Melvin plus Zelda the Witch, and later Dugan too.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#1/3) - Homer and Dugan came across Zelda, weeping that the mischievous Gobby Goblin had stolen her flying broomstick. Homer had Snappy trace Gobby's scent and they pursued Gobby to the city. Homer and Dugan duped the crowd at Radio City Hall that Gobby was a celebrity so that they crowded the thief, allowing the ghosts to retrieve the broom and return it to Zelda.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#1/7) - Dugan duped the easily confused Melvin out of a dime so he could get an ice cream.
(Homer,
the Happy Ghost I#1/10) -
Homer and Irwin
secretly watched Dugan tell someone he was tougher than him. This
scared
Homer and Irwin away, not realizing Dugan was talking to a mirror!
Dugan later kissed goodnight a picture of himself before going to sleep.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#1/11) -
Homer made a
snow-sled
with a sail attached for fun, but Dugan gruffly challenged him to a
race with his own snow-sled. However, Dugan cheated by cutting Homer's
sails, so Homer used
Melvin for a sail. Frustrated, Dugan cut a hole in the ice to trap
Homer, but Homer snagged a fish that rocketed his sled
over the ice across
the finish line just ahead of the angry Dugan, who cried foul.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#2/2) - Homer and Dugan
watched
Zelda mix a concoction in her cauldron, thinking it was a spell, only
to discover it was
vegetable soup! Dugan blamed Homer for feeling foolish about it.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#2/4) - Dugan shoved aside
other ghosts while walking, astonishing Homer and Irwin, who feared
him.
The two later saw him scolded by his mother for biting his nails.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#2/8) - Seeing the
muddle-headed Melvin with a camera, Dugan ordered Melvin take a photo
of him. But confusion reigned as Melvin misunderstood Dugan's
instructions. Dugan grew increasingly frustrated until Melvin admitted
he had no film in the camera and so punched him.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#2/10) - Zelda caused a small ruckus among the gang when she found a treasure map, but Gobby grabbed it and streaked ahead selfishly. Zelda, Dugan and their young friends pursued Gobby, scaring city folk, and all ended up at the U.S. Mint at Fort Knox. They left the gold behind and on the journey home on Zelda's broomstick, they agreed that being an American was the greatest treasure!
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#3/9) - Homer tried to
impress
Alice by asking tough ghost Dugan if he was looking for a fight; Homer
then told Dugan he'd tell him if one was found!
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#3/11) -
Tipped off by Zelda,
Homer, Dugan and Melvin used Zelda's broomstick to investigate a flying
saucer and discovered two lost bipedal "Martians" (the aliens' generic
term for
extraterrestrials). The Martians took them for a quick ride but stole
Zelda's broomstick for its value. Homer angrily phased in and took the
broomstick back; the two groups parted ways.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#4/3) - Homer and Dugan watched as Zelda tried a new magic trick and summoned Joe the Genii, but he was a burly worker unable to perform magic feats himself -- instead he charged by the hour. They couldn't escape him, even flying on Zelda's broomstick, so Homer got him a job as a wrestler.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#4/7) - Seeing Melvin with a
manual lawnmower, Dugan encouraged him to instead get a motorized one
for its ease of use. At the shop, Dugan suggested a high-powered one,
but it took off with Melvin having no control and it caused great
chaos. Eventually Melvin crashed back into the shop. Dugan looked on
sheepishly as Melvin cut grass with scissors as punishment.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#4/10) - Excited by a rodeo
show coming to town starring Tex Yewall, the Ghost Gang (Dugan, Homer,
Irwin, Melvin, Zelda) rushed to the stadium. Dugan soon challenged
Homer to a bucking bronco test to see who could stay on one the longest
and they "borrowed" cowboy hats along the way. But the animals and
crowd were
soon spooked by the playful ghosts, and the stadium emptied, quickly
tagged as haunted. The gang
went home on the back of a tamed bull.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#5/1) - Homer, Dugan and
Melvin heard a fire truck rush past and flew after to investigate. A
series of hijinks and mishaps ensued until the ghosts helped put out
the fire by closing a skylight that the firefighters couldn't reach.
The three were later disappointed to see that they helped save their
school building from burning down.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#5/2) - Homer and Dugan
caught
Melvin practice playing violin outside, but without the violin because
of noise complaints and because he had a piano teacher.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#5/4) - Homer and Dugan
chanced upon Timely Studios shooting a ghost movie. Mistaking them for
actors, the director told them to get real costumes. The costume man
showed them actor Boris Roaris posing dramatically in a sheet, which
Homer
ridiculed. Discovering the two were real ghosts, the studio quickly
abandoned work for another project elsewhere.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#5/9) - Homer tossed around an idea to create a local circus with his friends; Dugan hoped to play the strong man.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#6/1) -
Homer and Dugan found
Melvin wearing a new Davy Crockett-style raccoon-skin hat. Dugan
grabbed it and, after a long chase, ran into a group of Native
Americans. After a tense stand-off and a short fight
with their champion, Homer gave them the "magic" hat in exchange for
directions
home and ensure peace. Afterward, they saw the champion levitating with
the hat.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#6/2) - Slightly amused,
Homer
and Dugan watched as dim-witted Melvin avoided each question the
teacher asked him in the classroom.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#6/5) - Zelda invited Homer
and Dugan to dinner. Greedy Dugan mistakenly downed a bowl of dishwater
while Zelda was in the kitchen. Finding out his mistake, Dugan ran off
ill.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#6/9) - Dugan joined Homer
on
a duck hunt with Snappy leading the way, but the dog just took them to
a butcher's shop selling ducks!
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#7/2) - A small masquerade
party was held in Ghost Town and included the Ghost Gang. Poppa Ghost
awarded Zelda with the best
mask; insulted, she bashed him with the trophy as she wasn't
wearing a mask!
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#7/10) -
Homer, Dugan and
Melvin rushed to see Zelda's latest invention: a story-tale machine,
which brought stories to life. Homer chose Sinbad
the Sailor
and
instantly the storybook Sinbad appeared carried by the giant Roc bird.
Homer caught him in a parachute form when Sinbad fell. Dugan foolishly
thought Sinbad could fly like a ghost. Zelda returned Sinbad to his
ship.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#8/1) - Homer encouraged
Dugan, Irwin, Melvin and Gobby to join him watching a live recording of
game-show "54 Thousand Dollar Question"; they scared the doorman away.
Homer was selected as contestant but his ghostly abilities caused all
the people to flee scared and the studio
shut down as haunted.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#8/3) - Homer invited his
friends Dugan, Melvin and Zelda to meet his rich seafaring Uncle
Goldplate at his
docked yacht and they went for a quick sea trip. But Redbeard and his
fellow pirates attacked, firing cannons. Homer followed his uncle's
strategy to lead the charge, and Dugan and Melvin soon helped by
cutting enemy sails until the pirates surrendered.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#8/9) - Dugan went to a
sport shop to buy dumbbells and was encouraged to read the big manual
on increasing strength. He was stunned when he saw the scrawny man who
wrote the book.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#8/10) - Class teacher Miss
Ghostly left a reluctant Homer in charge as monitor while she stepped
out. The class misbehaved, including the violent Dugan, but only
cleaned up the mess and sat
angelically just before Miss Ghostly returned. Impressed, she made
Homer class monitor for the rest of the term, much to his chagrin.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#9/1) - Homer,
Dugan, Melvin and Zelda went to a baseball game between the Lions and
Eagles
at the local city stadium. Zelda was baffled by the game and caused
many supernatural interruptions on field. Homer encouraged them to all
leave quickly before tensions rose further.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#9/3) - Annie invited many friends (including Dugan) to her birthday party. To save on their allowance money, the boy ghosts each bought her the cheapest present they could find, all of them being backscratchers from the same novelty store.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#9/4) - At the soda shop, Dugan squared off
in a simplistic fighting challenge against a human bully. They went
outside to continue but it was raining, so they went back inside and
continued snarling at each other.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#9/9) - Zelda hinted to
Homer,
Melvin and Dugan that she wanted the special lipstick advertised in
shop signage as a birthday gift, but the boys mistakenly bought the
lipstick signboard for her instead.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#10/1) - Homer took his
shotgun on a jungle expedition to shoot beavers to make his mother a
fur coat. Keen for adventure, his friends joined him, but ran from
various dangers including wild carnivorous animals and cannibals, until
they found a cute beaver. Unable to bring himself to shoot it, Homer
took the leashed beaver home as a pet for his mother instead. His
friends joined the celebration.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#10/4) - Homer and Dugan made mud in the backyard of a beauty store to sell as popular beauty mudpack treatment (which coincidentally Zelda was about to buy).
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#10/9) - A burly ghost
challenged Dugan to knock a literal chip off his shoulder, so Dugan
brought in a giant club and the big bully ran off scared.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#10/10) - Gobby and two of
his
bullying goblin pals decided to kick out all the ghosts from Ghost Town
and claim it as their own. Dugan briefly scared Gobby with a malformed
face. The goblins sent in a home-built robot to wreak
havoc and scared the ghosts. Zelda magically created a more powerful
robot that dismantled the goblins' robot and dumped it before the
goblins.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#11/1) - Homer, Melvin,
Dugan
and Zelda were chatting about the fairytale Jack
and the Giant
Beanstalk when an old man sold Homer magic beans. Dugan mocked
Homer, but the planted beans yielded a rapidly growing beanstalk that
took them up to the giant's kingdom in the cloud,
where the
son proposed to Zelda but wanted to cage the ghosts, briefly catching
Dugan first. They escaped with
Zelda. Homer chopped down the beanstalk, but Zelda looked for the
man with the beans as she was attracted to the young giant's proposal.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#11/2) - Homer and Dugan found Zelda without her broom, which was in for repairs, so they fashioned a pogo stick from an old lawnmower. However, she lost control of the device and caused havoc, so she claimed her old unready and unsteady broom back. Homer and Dugan were unhappy that she rejected their help.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#11/3) - Dugan arrived to
pick Suzy for the formal dance, but she disliked his casual jumper, So
he changed his hat to a top hat, thinking simplistically that was
sufficient to be more formal.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#11/8) - Homer and Dugan
scrambled over a lost quarter on the sidewalk, but lost it to a grate
in the road.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#11/10) - Zelda, Melvin,
Dugan
and Gobby spotted Homer baking a cake at home. Once the gang found out
it was for $100 prize money, they all joined in, but created a huge
mess
for which Homer received a spanking from Momma Ghost. Homer still won
the competition, but they were all stunned that the prize was actually
$100 worth of cake.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#12/1) - Relaxing in the
forest with Zelda, Dugan and Melvin, Homer
chanced upon Robin Hood's bow and arrow, to the amazement of all. Robin
Hood and Little John appeared; Zelda and the ghosts helped the duo
storm the Sheriff of Nottingham's castle, but discovering that Robin's
paramour, Maid Marion, had grown obese waiting, Robin and Little John
ran back to the forest followed by the surprised ghosts.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#12/3) - On a very hot day,
Poppa and Momma Ghost sent Homer to buy an air conditioner. Delivered
and installed the same day, the technician ran off when he found out
the customers were ghosts. But the Ghost family found the aircon unit
was too powerful for them, so it took all three of them to fly it back
to the store and angrily drop it on the salesman.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#12/6) - Dugan mischievously
duped Homer into trying out boxing gloves with him in a fight, but
ended up hospitalizing himself instead.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#12/7) - Homer and Dugan
chided Melvin after he was swindled buying a fake gold brick from a con
artist. But a passing reporter identified it as the missing uranium
brick wanted by an atomic lab with a huge reward. Hoping for the same
returns, Homer, Dugan and Zelda then called out seeking more fake gold
bricks to buy.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#12/10) - Seeing a circus
nearby, Dugan and Homer saw the ringmaster for a job and took on the
new opening for the trapeze act. The duo used their supernatural
levitating abilities to compensate for their lack of trapeze skills,
but the dissatisfied spectators left, thinking them fakes, so the
ringmaster kicked the ghosts out.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#13/1) - Homer showed Zelda,
Melvin, Dugan and Gobby a giant egg he had found. It hatched and
rapidly grew into a brontosaurus-type dinosaur, instantly taking to
Zelda as a mother figure. Unsure what to do with it, they put it in a
horse race, winning because of the chaos it caused. Eventually they
sold it to Ghost Town Amusement Park as part of a roller coaster track.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#13/3) - Dugan and Alice
walked in the self-appointed domain of ruffian Butch Billy, who had
threatened to beat up Dugan if he returned. Alice warned Butch nearing,
so Dugan quickly put on an old man mask to escape recognition, much to
Alice's disappointment.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#13/4) - Dugan and the rest
of the class watched on
amused in class as Melvin unintentionally upset teacher Miss Ghostly
with his responses to her questions about art.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#13/8) -
Outside her house,
Homer and Dugan were duped by Zelda into thinking she had a date that
evening (because she had secretly stolen a male mannequin for her
window).
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#13/9) - Initially frightened when they heard Bank Robber Brown and his two thugs were hiding out in Ghost Town, Homer, Melvin, Dugan and Zelda found bravery when they heard of the reward. Finding the thieves in a "haunted" house, the gang deliberately scared the crooks toward the police, but missed the reward when they were scared by a fluttering sheet.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#14/1) - Discussing
flying saucers, Homer, Dugan, Melvin and Zelda were shocked when two
"Martians" (Ooog plus one other) in a flying saucer (X-13) suddenly
arrived. These Martians' lower parts were monocycles; friendly, they
took the Earthlings to Mars, revealing a society where Martians weren't
afraid of anything--except ghosts. When Ooog found out his guests' true
nature, he quickly returned them to Earth.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#14/5 [coloring page]) -
Zelda
was impressed that Homer was reading ghost stories while Dugan admitted
they scared him.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#14/6) - Homer boasted to
Dugan how Snappy's barking outside made him a good watchdog (but not
inside the house).
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#14/9) - Dugan brawled
fiercely with another ghost boy. Victorious, Dugan demanded the other
call him his "very best friend!"
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#14/10) - While returning
bottles for deposit with Dugan, Homer discovered the Genie in a bottle.
It obeyed his commands, including bringing his friends together and
bringing fun rides, but the Genie demanded a hefty fee for his work, so
Homer slyly made one last request and locked him inside the bottle
again and threw it onto a passing goods train.
(Adventures of Homer Ghost I#1/1) - In the city, Homer, Dugan, Melvin and Zelda heard from roving police that the criminal Tony Toughguy was on the loose. They chanced upon him in disguise and were fooled, but still unwittingly helped in his arrest.
(Adventures of Homer Ghost I#1/4) - Homer, Dugan, Melvin and Zelda supernaturally sneaked into a cinema to watch the movie Moby Dick from atop a chandelier. Inspired, they traveled out to sea to find a real whale and were eaten whole by a real white sperm whale. Through trickery, Homer had the whale return them home, beaching itself. To avoid fishing fines, they decided to briefly adopt the whale as a pet and had to get truckloads of fish food to feed it.
(Adventures of Homer Ghost I#1/5) - Homer warned Dugan from throwing snowballs at passing hats from behind a high fence. But Dugan continued and scored an angry policeman.
(Adventures of Homer Ghost I#1/7) - Dugan challenged Melvin, Homer, Alice, Zelda and Gobby to a race around Ghost Town to determine the fastest. They were surprised to find Homer at the finish line ahead of them until he revealed he chose not to race.
(Adventures of Homer Ghost I#1/10) - Wandering outside, Dugan, Melvin, Gobby and Zelda were surprised to find Homer reading fairy tales and left him alone to continue reading.
(Adventures of Homer Ghost I#1/12) - Homer did many chores for Alice to win her over for a date, but it exhausted him to sleep. So she went to the dance with Dugan instead.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#15/1) -
Broke, the Ghost
Gang
(Homer, Dugan, Melvin, Zelda) answered a newspaper ad from a fraternity
to haunt a house as part of an initiation for a new student. They
instead scared witless a new door-to-door salesman for Live
Magazine as
the student never showed, so the ghosts were never paid.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#15/3) -
Dugan and Melvin were surprised to see Homer in winter gear and
enthusiastic about his birthday because he had forgotten there was no
snow!
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#15/7) - Homer called Melvin and Dugan to join him watching Zelda prepare what he thought was a powerful spell, but she was just using new soap to clean her clothes!
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#15/10) - Dugan duped Gobby
into betting he could dig and strike oil. Dugan walked away with his
winning dime, but Gobby was stuck with cleaning up, ordered by the
garage to fill in the hole to cover the oil pipe that Dugan had hit.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#15/11) - Dugan found an old
stove abandoned in a vacant lot. He took it for cookouts with his
friends, but thought he needed coal. Homer, Melvin and Zelda joined him
on an
adventure to find a coal, but caused an explosion in a
coal mine. Despondent, they returned only to find it was an oil stove.
Dugan said he had that fuel, but the others were fed up and left.
(Adventures of Homer Ghost I#2/3) - Mad scientist Doctor Doom fooled Homer, Dugan, Melvin and Zelda into helping him evade police. In his lab, he unveiled his destructive robot Monstro and sought to eliminate them to keep their silence, but realizing their supernatural nature, he fled. The Ghost Gang pursued and Zelda stopped him with a spell.
(Adventures of Homer Ghost I#2/4 [coloring page]) - Homer laughed at the notion that Melvin discovered a dinosaur egg, but it hatched behind him as Dugan, Zelda and Melvin watched in horror.
(Adventures of Homer Ghost I#2/7) - Zelda encouraged Homer, Melvin and Dugan to join her on a rare-egg hunt, but they unwittingly claimed a golf ball, thinking it a prize egg.
(Adventures of Homer Ghost I#2/8) - At an evening dance event, Dugan asked Homer where his date was, but he had unwittingly insulted her and was there alone.
(Adventures of Homer Ghost I#2/10) - To impress Alice, Homer aggressively challenged tough guy Dugan to knock a piece of paper off his shoulder. Dugan did so and Homer told Alice that Dugan did what he instructed.
(Adventures of Homer Ghost I#2/13) - Homer, Melvin and Dugan were upset that the nasty Black Witch had been sent by the Witches' Union to replace Zelda, who was banished. Homer and Dugan rescued her and restored her faith in herself. Zelda outwitted the Black Witch and the gang were happy again.
(Adventures of Homer Ghost I#2/14) - Homer bought a camera, but everyone in the Ghost Gang wanted to be in the photo, therefore no one would take it. Homer returned it for tiddlywinks instead.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#16/1) - The fiendish Mad
Scientist sprinkled his shrinking powder randomly over people,
including Homer, Dugan, Melvin and Zelda. They gave chase with Homer
pretending to be the villain's conscience. Shrunk further, Homer
tickled the fiend until
police arrested him. The
powder's effects wore off after two days.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#16/2) - Gobby Goblin made
large demands to substitute for the absent Dugan before a baseball
match; Homer reluctantly assented until Dugan turned up.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#16/9) - Dugan derided Homer
for using an umbrella in light drizzle, but then saw Homer share it
with Alice. Later, in sunshine, Dugan stood ready with an open umbrella
so he could help a girl.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#16/14) - Relaxing with his
Dugan, Melvin and Zelda, Homer
pondered how good it would be to have a million dollars. Zelda cast a
spell to help out, but it yielded a map to the creepy Dead Man's Cave.
All were scared, but dug at the correct spot until they found the
treasure chest--which was empty. Zelda's spell called only for a chest,
not money. The ghosts left her in the hole they'd dug.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#17/2) - Dugan wooed his
favorite girlfriend Alice with romantic lines of attaining anything for
her, but when she asked him to buy her chewing gum, he stormed off
calling her a gold-digger.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#17/3) - Homer, Dugan,
Alice, Melvin and Zelda went to see a prize boxing fight, but the
opponent for the massive boxer Gorilla Grogan didn't show up. Bully
Dugan backed down, but Homer went forward. Supernatural abilities gave
him the advantage and he knocked out Grogan, winning the $100 prize
money, and they sped home on Zelda's broomstick. Dugan foolishly
critiqued Homer's fighting technique and got pushed off the broom for
causing the trouble.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#17/4) - Zelda bought one
ticket to the cinema, insisting she only needed one seat, as her three
ghost friends (Homer, Dugan, Melvin) levitated in a stack above her.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#17/13) - Homer, Dugan,
Melvin
and Alice made fun of Zelda for reading the "fairytale" Alice
in Wonderland,
so the witch cast a spell that dropped them into a fantasy world where
they were harassed by the Cheshire Cat and chased by various threats
until they escaped back to the real world with Zelda. Trying to
reorient themselves, the ghosts took to reading.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#18/1) - Unhappy with how
they
were being represented in their comic magazine, Homer, the Happy Ghost,
the Ghost Gang (Homer, Dugan, Alice, Melvin, Zelda) traveled to
Brooklyn to confront pretzel-munching Stan and golf-putting Dan. The
gang pushed their way into the office, their supernatural nature
shocking Stan and Dan, who didn't realize that the characters they
wrote and drew were real. Having said their piece, the gang flew out
the upper-story window.
Later, the ghosts wondered if Stan and Dan knew how lucky they were to
receive advice from their characters (but the creative duo were being
chased by mental health workers with big nets!).
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#18/4) - Homer, Dugan and
Zelda warned Melvin as he set off alone that a dangerous fugitive named
Robert the Robber was loose. Melvin obliviously led to his capture and
later met his friends for a soda.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#18/5) - A talent scout for
a
ghost movie role had the gang excited, but they dismissed Dugan as he
was too rough and dirty looking, but this was exactly what the scout
was looking for and Dugan got the part.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#18/6) - Homer, Dugan, Alice
and Melvin came to the aid of Zelda, who was being troubled by the
maleficent and power-hungry Black Witch. Homer tricked the Black Witch
and made her reverse her spells, and she was forced to flee.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#18/7) - Ambitious Gobby
Goblin had to bring a ghost prisoner to his secret goblin society and
he almost hypnotized Homer for this, but Zelda came to Homer's aid by
reversing the hypnosis. To teach him a lesson, the Ghost Gang painted
Gobby
white to look like ghost and sent him back to his secret clubhouse to
get in
further trouble.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#19/1) - Homer, Dugan,
Melvin
and Gobby discovered Zelda had secretly created a time machine in the
form of a telephone booth(!). She took them to ancient Rome, but
Dugan's rambunctious behavior brought an immediate death sentence from
the passing Julius Caesar. They escaped only to land in the arena
before fleeing back to the time machine and returning to their own
time. But then Caesar followed them out...!
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#19/2) - Dugan challenged
Homer to see who could fly the highest with Zelda the judge and watched
by Gobby. The two flew beyond the clouds and into the outer atmosphere,
where they encountered the Soviet satellite Noodnik. The Russians fired
missiles at what they thought were Martians on their satellite, so the
ghosts cast it down onto the missile launchers before returning to
their friends, but Zelda and Gobby were listening to radio reports of
Martians knocking out a Soviet satellite. Dugan and Homer regretted
missing the
action on the surface.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#19/6) -
The bullying Dugan
challenged the good-natured Stringbean, but Stringbean suggested
neutral territory instead of Dugan's neighborhood. So Stringbean took
the bully to just outside the police station and Dugan skulked away.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#19/10) - Homer built a
lifelike snowman and Zelda, as a prank, cast a spell that made her
friends and nearby people think it was alive and wreaking havoc.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#20/1) - The Ghost Gang
(Homer, Dugan, Melvin, Zelda) discussed dragons and Dugan asserted they
didn't exist, so Homer suggested that Zelda conjure one up to change
Dugan's mind. But the magical dragon proved too fierce and followed
them into the city until Zelda could magically banish it away. After
all that, Dugan still refused to believe in dragons!
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#20/2) - Lazy Gobby was
jealous
that the Homer, Dugan, Melvin and Zelda had earned money to buy a soda,
but his begging by tapping on the window caused
damage to the soda shop that he had to work to pay off.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#20/3) - Homer and Dugan
invited Melvin to play baseball with them, but Melvin wanted to stay
out of trouble.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#20/7) - Homer and Dugan
played a trick on Melvin while playing hide-and-seek by floating higher
in the air than he was.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#20/10) - Dugan, Homer and
Melvin pitched in to get Zelda a new book of magic spells for her
birthday, but it led to her unintentionally casting a chaotic
pinballing of extreme weather conditions that earned her a fine for
"spooking the weather without permission" from Officer White. Dugan was
hit as punishment because the spell book gift was his idea.
(Homer,
the Happy Ghost I#21/1) - Homer showed his excited friends (Dugan,
Melvin, Stringbean, Gobby, Zelda) his small test rocket he made to go
to the moon. They
helped him make a larger version with a rubber band for propulsion.
They rocketed upward into the atmosphere, thinking they were headed to
the moon, but instead landed in the Grand Canyon, Colorado, where they
mistook a local farmer for a moon-man until he corrected them. The
troop headed home with Homer determined to get to the
moon.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#21/3) - Zelda showed off a
movie camera she received for her birthday and the gang (Homer, Dugan,
Alice, Melvin, Stringbean) wanted to appear in her home movies,
performing awkward and exhausting tasks, until she revealed she hadn't
yet put film in!
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#21/5) - Dugan saw Alice
walking with Stringbean. Jealous, he performed feats of strength hoping
for her attention, but she only saw him afterward when he was
exhausted, leaving her disappointed and she walked away.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#21/7) - Homer, Dugan and
Gobby were concerned when Mr. Octane left troubled Melvin in charge of
his gas station and garage. The three didn't see the chaos and ensuing
anger Melvin caused, so they were surprised at Melvin's negative
attitude afterward.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#21/9) -
Flying over New York
with his pals, Homer begged Zelda to turn him into a human so he could
experience it. Unsure, Zelda obliged and Homer's friends,
Dugan, Melvin and Gobby, helped where they could. Homer was trapped in
the human condition, frightened of ghosts, feeling cold, unable to go
through walls and with unusable Ghost Town currency. In trouble, Homer
called out for Zelda to return him to ghost form and they returned
home, Zelda emphasizing that one should never try to be something
you're not.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#22/1) - After a
misadventure with a ferocious dinosaur hatched from an egg that Melvin
had found, Homer,
Melvin and Zelda clobbered Dugan when he came to the trio with several
eggs he had found (actually from his mother's cupboard).
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#22/3) - Dugan asked his
date Alice where she would like to go for the evening; she desired the
expensive Ritzy Club. So Dugan left her there and told her to meet him
at Homer's house.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#22/6) - Homer and Dugan
were
shocked to see Zelda badly injured until she revealed she tried flying
without her broomstick.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#22/7) - Homer excitedly
told Dugan that his family had inherited a million dollars (later
discovering it was worthless Confederate money). Dugan wanted back the
dime he'd loaned Homer, but the would-be rich boy dismissed him off.
(Homer, the Happy Ghost I#22/9) - In their clubhouse,
the Ghost Gang (Homer, Dugan, Melvin, Gobby, Zelda) listened to a radio
broadcast warning of dangerous jail escapees, the Bongo brothers, who
soon chose the clubhouse to hide from the police. The ghosts
surreptitiously signaled to police outside, but it was the ghosts'
supernatural nature that had the scared villains run back to the
police. The ghosts hoped for a reward, but instead received a fine for
having a club meeting without a license.
Comments: Created by Stan Lee & Dan DeCarlo.
A tough guy supporting character
named Dugan with a
bowler hat. Who came first: Dum Dum Dugan or the ghost Dugan? The
comical ghost. He
also predates comical tough-guy soldier Devil-Dog Dugan (July, 1956).
He was dubbed "Dugan the Dead End Ghost" in his solo one-page comic strips (see bottom of page for an intro panel).
Gobby the Goblin encounters a ruffian ghost called
Big Butch, but he has a stumpy upturned nose and different hairstyle
compared to Butch Billy (who bullied Dugan), so I'll classify these as
different characters.
Is
Homer Ghost in Earth-616 continuity?
Mike Castle pointed out that because there's a cartoon movie of Homer
Ghost in Millie the Model I#76, the character is therefore not -616 and
should receive his own reality designation. However, other -616
characters have had in-continuity movies made about them, including
Millie the model -- in Millie the Model I#100 (reprinted in Marvel
Milestones), movie producer Darryl DeMille scouts Hanover's models
looking for one to star in his movie "The Life of Millie the Model"
(but ignores the real Millie), while in the next story Chili makes a
nasty comment on Millie's physical appearance compared to how she looks
in her Millie comic magazine (the Millie comic is also seen in "Sherry
the Showgirl" I#2/3). Likewise, Homer Ghost has his own
in-story comic that he reads, so a cartoon movie of Homer sits easily
within -616, given there is source material from comics that people are
familiar with. To reinforce this, Sally in the "My Girl Pearl" comic
passes by both "Homer the Happy Ghost" and "Millie the Model" comics in
a shop. So my view is that Homer Ghost is in Earth-616 until proven
otherwise. Interestingly, both Homer and Pearl separately confront Stan
Lee and Dan DeCarlo in their own comics in a "meta" style story to
complain how they're being portrayed.
Thanks to Grand Comics Database for additional credits information.
This profile was completed 12/31/2025, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 25th anniversary 's celebratory event.
Profile by Grendel Prime.
CLARIFICATIONS
:
Dugan has no known connections to:
Butch Billy was a local ruffian in Ghost Town. He had
a beef with the smaller Dugan and threatened to beat him if he ever saw
Dugan near where he lived. One day, Dugan and his friend Alice
unwittingly walked in the area. Alice warned Dugan that Butch was
approaching, so Dugan quickly puled on an old man mask and successfully
escaped recognition.
--Homer, the Happy Ghost I#13/3
images:
(without ads)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#10/9, p1, pan1 (main image)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#21/1, p2, pan7 (smiling without hat)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#1/11. p2, pan1 (in snow-sled)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#10/10, p1, pan4 (scary wobbly shape)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#19/6, p1, pan4 (fists up)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#20/1, p7, pan6 (flying)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#18/1, p1, pan1 (reading Homer comic)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#13/3, p1, pan6 (Butch Billy)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#9/4, p1, pan1 (sitting with sign)
Appearances:
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#1/1, 1/3, 1/7, 1/10-1/11
(March, 1955) - Stan
Lee (writer & editor), Dan DeCarlo (pencils & inks)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#2/2, 2/4, 2/8, 2/10 (May, 1955) - Stan Lee
(writer
& editor), Dan DeCarlo (pencils & inks)
Homer,
the Happy Ghost I#3/9, 3/11 (July, 1955) - Stan Lee
(writer & editor), Dan DeCarlo (pencils & inks)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#4/3, 4/7, 4/10 (September, 1955) - Stan Lee
(writer & editor), Dan DeCarlo (pencils & inks)
Homer,
the Happy Ghost I#5/1-5/2, 5/4, 5/9 (November, 1955) - Stan Lee
(writer & editor), Dan DeCarlo (pencils & inks)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#6/1-6/2, 6/5, 6/9 (January, 1956) - Stan Lee
(writer & editor), Dan DeCarlo (pencils & inks)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#7/2, 7/10 (March, 1956) - Stan Lee (writer
& editor), Dan DeCarlo (pencils & inks)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#8/1, 8/3, 8/9, 8/10 (May, 1956) - Stan
Lee
(writer & editor), Dan DeCarlo (pencils & inks)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#9/1, 9/3-9/4, 9/9 (July, 1956) - Stan Lee
(writer & editor), Dan DeCarlo (pencils & inks)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#10/1, 10/4, 10/9-10/10 (September, 1956) -
Stan Lee
(writer & editor), Dan DeCarlo (pencils & inks)
Homer,
the Happy Ghost I#11/1-11/3, 11/8, 11/10 (November, 1956) - Stan Lee
(writer & editor), Dan DeCarlo (pencils & inks)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#12/1, 12/3, 12/6-12/7, 12/10 (January,
1957) - Stan Lee (writer & editor), Dan DeCarlo (pencils & inks)
Homer,
the Happy Ghost I#13/1, 13/3-13/4, 13/8-13/9 (March, 1957) - Stan
Lee (writer & editor), Dan DeCarlo (pencils & inks)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#14/1, 14/5-14/6, 14/9-14/10 (May, 1957) - Stan
Lee
(writer & editor), Dan DeCarlo (pencils & inks)
Adventures of Homer Ghost I#1/1, 1/4-1/5, 1/7, 1/10, 1/12 (June, 1957)
-
Stan Lee
(writer & editor), Tony DiPreta (pencils & inks)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#15/1, 15/3, 15/7, 15/10-15/11 (August, 1957) -
Stan
Lee
(writer & editor), Dan DeCarlo (pencils & inks)
Adventures of Homer Ghost I#2/3-2/4, 2/10, 2/13-2/14 (August, 1957)
-
Stan Lee (writer
& editor), Tony DiPreta (pencils & inks)
Adventures of Homer Ghost I#2/7 (August, 1957) - Stan Lee (writer
& editor), Dan DeCarlo (pencils & inks)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#16/1-16/2, 16/9,
16/14 (November, 1957) - Stan Lee (writer & editor), Dan DeCarlo
(pencils & inks)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#17/2-17/4, 17/13 (January, 1958) -
Stan Lee (writer & editor), Tony DiPreta (pencils & inks)
Homer,
the Happy Ghost I#18/1, 18/4-18/7 (March, 1958) -
Stan
Lee (writer & editor), Dan DeCarlo (pencils & inks)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#19/1-19/2, 19/6, 19/10 (May, 1958) -
Stan Lee (writer & editor), Dan DeCarlo (pencils & inks)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#20/1, 20/3, 20/10 (July, 1958) -
Stan
Lee (writer & editor), Dan DeCarlo (pencils & inks)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#20/2, 20/7 (July, 1958) - Stan Lee
(writer
& editor), Tony DiPreta (pencils & inks)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#21/1, 21/3, 21/5, 21/7, 21/9 (September,
1958) - Stan Lee (writer & editor), Dan DeCarlo (pencils & inks)
Homer, the Happy Ghost I#22/1, 22/3, 22/6-22/7, 22/9 (November, 1958) -
Stan Lee (writer & editor), Dan DeCarlo (pencils & inks)
First posted: 09/22/2026
Last updated:
12/31/2025
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™
and © 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
If you like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com.
Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix!