STUPORMAN

Real Name: Marmaduke Snood, Jr.

Identity/Class: Human mutate? (World War II era) (see comments)

Occupation: Superhero

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Alice, Professor Plotz

Enemies: Count Upp, Goopa, Mike Muskrat, the Scuttlers, the Spider

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: "The Man in the Iron Mask without the Mask," "the Man of the Day After To-Morrow"

Base of Operations: An unidentified city, USA

First Appearance: Daring Mystery Comics I#6 (September, 1940)

Powers/Abilities: Stuporman has the ability to fly through the air, but prefers to fly feet forward in order to keep dust out of his eyes; he uses a hand mirror for guidance. He has superhuman strength and his skin is so durable that bullets and cannonballs are instantly deflected without injuring him. He takes frequent naps during his adventures in order to replenish his strength; he is also not above forcing his allies to carry him around to keep from "wasting" his strength. Stuporman has a "super-super unconscious mind" which makes him aware of information before it can be relayed to him, enabling him to skip over expository dialogue and he demonstrates a marvelous knack for inventing fantastic objects at a moment's notice.

Height: 5'11" (by approximation)
Weight: 150 lbs. (by approximation)
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black

History: (Daring Mystery Comics I#6/3 (fb) - BTS) - Stuporman's origin is unrevealed. And let's be honest, do you really want it to be told?

(Daring Mystery Comics I#6/3) - One morning, Marmaduke Snood was eating breakfast in a ritzy cafeteria when he discovered a careless little person had left ice cream on his chair, staining the seat of his pants. Since the stain clashed with his brown suit, he changed into his Stuporman outfit. Using "a few coffee grounds, an apple turnover and secret ray X-69B1/2R," Stuporman created a flying machine to travel to his "sylvan resort," also known as Stuporman Resting Ground No. 28. Stuporman was enjoying one of his frequent naps under a tree when a fire chief approached him asking for help. Stuporman instantly understood what was going on due to his super-super unconscious mind: 82 houses had been burned down that day, including the home of Mike Murphy. Stuporman had the chief carry him to Murphy's house so he could conduct an investigation. Stuporman noticed the glass doorknobs from Murphy's doors weren't among the ruins.

Stuporman pondered the situation in code (just in case crooks were using a thought deducer ray to read his mind) and ascertained Mike Muskrat was the one responsible for the arson. Flying backwards to Muskrat's castle-like base, Stuporman fought Muskrat's guards, catching their bullets mid-air and squeezing them together into a giant bowling ball which he used to knock them down. Tuckered out, he spread out a hammock and took another nap.

Once refreshed, Stuporman happened to see Mike Muskrat's chief scientist "Dr. Krotz" walk by. Recognizing "Krotz" as Professor Plotz, Stuporman hit him in the head, restoring his memory. The grateful Plotz directed Stuporman to where Muskrat was and Stuporman easily defeated Muskrat and his gang, then draped their unconscious bodies over two telephone poles and turned them over to the authorities. The state's governor rewarded Stuporman's heroism by granting him the right to nap on any park bench in the state, accompanied by a sign which read "Silence: Stuporman at Rest." A grateful Stuporman put the sign to work at once.

(Joker Comics I#1/13) - Arising from his bed, Stuporman found a man being beaten by one of the Scuttlers. After driving the Scuttler away, Stuporman learned the beaten man had come from the European nation of Boravia to seek Stuporman's aid, identifying Count Upp as a spy master and leader of the Scuttlers. Stuporman flew to Boravia to help stop Count Upp but while questioning one of the Scuttlers, he was trapped in a block of instantly-forming ice. Carrying him to their lair in an ice truck, the Scuttlers placed the frozen Stuporman inside the domicile of the dreaded Goopa, a large ape-like monster. Stuporman easily outfought the Goopa then broke out of the Scuttlers' dungeon and confronted Count Upp. Stuporman claimed he had come to help the count against Boravia's president and demonstrated how to treat the president by grabbing Count Upp and shaking up upside-down, smacking the count's head against the floor. With the Count unconscious, Stuporman led the Scuttlers to Boravia's capital and showed them Boravia had become a tourist haven for spies, who were now freely welcome to circulate. Realizing all the glamour had gone out of spying, the Scuttlers dissolved their gang. A Boravian official asked Stuporman to claim a reward; he asked for a bed so he could take a nap.

(Comedy Comics I#11/6) - While out for a ride on the back of his friend Alice, a cow, Stuporman noticed some footprints which had been made by a giant. Unwilling to "waste" his energy, Stuporman asked Alice to send him ahead so he could investigate further; Alice obliged by kicking him, hurling him through the air. The giant footprints turned out to be the result of four policemen who were sharing the same pair of shoes. The policemen revealed they were the last members of the Zippy City police force and warned Stuporman that if he went to Zippy City, he should beware the Spider.

Confronting Zippy City's mayor, Stuporman learned the mayor had fired the police force to save money, instead paying $4,000,000 a week to the Spider to keep the villain from murdering people. To find the Spider, Stuporman entered the Orange Beetle bar and issued a friendly greeting to the criminals gathered there. The mob of men tried to attack him but he easily beat them up and used rope to tie all 9,873 of them into one big circle. Breaking through the wall of the barroom into the next room, Stuporman found the six-armed, four-legged villain the Spider waiting for him. The Spider unleashed a flurry of death rays, bullets and cannonball fire at Stuporman but Stuporman easily evaded the blasts and with a syringe of Normalizer Serum, he jabbed the Spider; the Spider's extra limbs dissolved away and he shrunk down into the form of an infant -- the missing Debon heir! For finding the lost child, Stuporman won a $10,000,000,000,000 reward. He gave the money to the mayor of Zippy City so that the police force could be rehired.

Comments: Created by Harry Douglas.

There's no indication of where Stuporman's powers came from but mutate is the most likely explanation.

When I served as head writer of the Marvel Mystery Handbook which featured profiles on characters from Marvel's first year of publishing, I deliberately omitted Stuporman from that publication because I felt humor characters had only the most hazily-defined relationship to the Marvel Universe and were ill-served by the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe format. This profile is my booby prize for all you Stuporman fans.

Speaking of boobies, while I was working for Marvel, I was contacted by Harry Douglas' son, who helped clear up his father's credits, as comics historians hadn't been too clear on who he was. Douglas' best-known creation was the Blue Blaze.

His adventures read "© Comedy Features Syndicate, Inc."

Beginning in Joker Comics I#1, his costume was colored red. Perhaps to preempt any lawsuits?

Thanks to Luke Van Horn for pointing out that Stuporman apparently also had appearances in Martin Goodman's pulp magazines Snap#2-3 & Joker#4. Those are very obscure magazines and it's unclear if the issues merely reprinted Stuporman's comic appearances or if they contained new stories. According to the Grand Comics Database, the Stuporman story in Snap#2 was either all or at least partially made of rescripted panels from Daring Mystery Comics#6. If the pulp magazines can be tracked down and verified, any new appearances will be added to this profile.
    Follow-up (8/9/2020): In Snap #2 (October, 1940), Stuporman's fight with Mike Muskrat in Daring Mystery Comics #6 was retold in a brief 2-page story, created by recycling the earlier story with slightly different dialogue.

Profile by Prime Eternal.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Stuporman should not be confused with:


Alice

Alice was a cow who was friends with Stuporman. One day while taking him for a ride, Stuporman noticed a set of giant footprints. To conserve his energy, Stuporman asked Alice to send him forward so he could investigate who was making the footprints. Alice complied by kicking Stuporman with her back hooves, sending him flying through the air. She could speak some form of cow speech; the only known word in her vocabulary was "gergha" which means "O.K., pal."






--Comedy Comics I#11/6

In Daring Mystery Comics#6, there is a cow with Stuporman
while he's napping at Stuporman Resting Ground No. 28. It's possible
this is Alice, who is named in Comedy Comics I#11.

--Daring Mystery Comics I#6/3

Mike Muskrat

Mike Muskrat was a gangster and arsonist who led a large criminal gang out of a castle-like fortress. After placing "pressure" on Professor Plotz's brain which turned him into the evil scientist Dr. Krotz, Muskrat began burning down homes so he could collect their glass doorknobs and supply them to "Krotz," who was transforming the doorknobs into diamonds. Unfortunately for Muskrat, Stuporman investigated the crimes and after restoring Plotz's memory, he attacked Muskrat and his gang, easily defeating them.











--Daring Mystery Comics I#6/3
Professor Plotz

Professor Plotz was a lecturer at Bale College. At some point, Mike Muskrat put a "pressure" on his brain to make Plotz become evil. In his new identity as Dr. Krotz, Plotz became a faithful lackey to Muskrat, helping him to transform glass doorknobs into diamonds. He also invented a Uniform Sprayer which would transform people's clothing into that of Muskrat's spray; once they found themselves wearing these uniforms, people assumed they were part of Muskrat's workforce and joined his ranks. For his efforts, "Krotz" received $1,000,000,000,000 in pin money and went to spend it at the pinball machine in Gooley's drug store but en route he ran into Stuporman, who instantly recognized him as Professor Plotz. Stuporman punched Plotz in the head, restoring his memory. Grateful, Plotz immediately sent Stuporman to find Mike Muskrat while Plotz released the slaves from Muskrat's dungeons.









--Daring Mystery Comics I#6/3
The Spider

An infant known as the Debon heir, he went missing at some point and his family placed a $10,000,000,000,000 reward for his return. Somehow,  due to "one of those comic strip scientists," he was transformed into the adult criminal mastermind the Spider, an evil four-legged six-armed fiend. Venturing to Zippy City, the Spider extorted $4,000,000 per week from the town mayor, promising he wouldn't commit any murders as long as the amount was paid. Cash-strapped by this scenario, the mayor had to fire his own police department. Stuporman investigated the doings in Zippy City and found him adjacent to the Orange Beetle bar. The Spider unleashed a dizzying array of weapons, a different one in each hand; firing a cannon, death rays and guns at the hero, the villain was unable to harm him as Stuporman dodged the assault. Stuporman then jabbed the Spider with a Normalizer Serum, which restored him to his true form as the Debon heir. Stuporman returned the child to his family, collected the reward, then gave the money to the mayor of Zippy City.

--Comedy Comics I#11/6

"Debon heir" = "debonair". That's it. That's the joke.

images: (without ads, as reprinted in Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Captain America Vol. 4, 2010)
Daring Mystery Comics I#6/3, p1 (Stuporman, main)
Daring Mystery Comics I#6/3, p2, pan1 (unmasked)
Comedy Comics I#11/6, p2, pan3 (red costume)
Comedy Comics I#11/6, p2, pan1 (Alice)
 Daring Mystery Comics I#6/3, p4, pan5 (Muskrat)
Daring Mystery Comics I#6/3, p5, pan5 (Plotz)
Comedy Comics I#11/6, p4, pan7 (Spider)
Comedy Comics I#11/6, p5, pan5 (Spider's true form as the Debon heir)

Appearances:
Daring Mystery Comics I#6/3 (September, 1940) - Harry Douglas (writer, pencils, inks), Joe Simon (editor)
Joker Comics I#1/13 (April, 1942) - Harry Douglas (writer, pencils, inks)
Comedy Comics I#11/6 (August, 1942) - Harry Douglas (writer, pencils, inks), Stan Lee (editor)

First posted: 07/29/2020
Last updated: 08/09/2020

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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