THINBAD

Real Name: Unrevealed

Identity/Class: Alternate reality (Earth-78423) human

Occupation: Secret agent

Group Membership: The secret government agency CHICKEN (Agent 001/2, others)

Affiliations: Howard the Duck, Beverly Switzler, Ruby Valley Discotheque Au Go-Go

Enemies: Ali Blubber, Fatty Thieves (Kyamm, Omar, others), Karina Karima

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: Thinbad the Thailor

Base of Operations: Mobile aboard the Flying Chicken

First Appearance: Howard the Duck Newspaper Strip (June 21st, 1978)

Powers/Abilities: He did not seem to possess any real training as a secret agent but likely possessed a variety of irrelevant skills.

He spoke with a lisp and could not pronounce the letter S which came out as a TH sound when he spoke.

Height: Unrevealed (6'; by approximation)
Weight: Unrevealed (170 lbs.; by approximation)
Eyes: Unrevealed
Hair: Unrevealed, either black or brown

History:
(Howard the Duck Newspaper Strip - June to September, 1978) - Thinbad the Thailor was an agent of CHICKEN who spoke with a lisp. Howard the Duck and Beverly were sent on a mission by CHICKEN, a mysterious American secret spy agency, to find the stolen Tuesday Ruby and sent by the bungling super spy Thinbad to meet them to make sure they were safe. Thinbad greeted Howard and Beverly when they arrived in the Badgag market and being overly excited tripped over a roped tent peg and fell flat on his face. After a brief discussion about their dangerous mission, he warned them about Omar and Kyamm and where the Tuesday Ruby may possibly be in Badgag. Leaving Thinbad behind, Howard and Beverly began searching on their own.

(Howard the Duck Newspaper Strip - June to September, 1978) - Thinbad, doing his own investigation, learned of the Tuesday Ruby's location aboard Ali Blubber's yacht, the S.S Ruby. He met Howard on the docks who was sitting alone without Beverly lamenting about her possible death when Omar and Kyamm were chasing them in a helicopter and shooting at them as they were trying to escape from jumping into a nearby river and tumbling down a waterfall. When Beverly did not appear downstream alongside Howard, he assumed she was killed. Wanting their mission to mean something Howard found the courage to join Thinbad in sneaking aboard the S.S Ruby and stood in line with a group of overweight clients waiting to board the ship as it was also being used as a business called Ali Blubber's Weight Reducing Salon, serving as a fake storefront to hide Blubber's secret base from police scrutiny. Peering through a window, Howard and Thinbad were discovered and fled the boat but were quickly captured by Omar, Kyamm and the Fatty Thieves and taken prisoner aboard Ali Blubber's yacht. They were then locked inside a pair of weight reducing steam chests and questioned as to where the Tuesday Ruby was since it had been recently stolen from his safe and Ali Blubber believed Howard had taken it. Howard refused to divulge any real information and he and Thinbad were left to die in the steam chamber. Thinbad eventually succumbed to the heat and passed out but was rescued by Howard who used his lit cigar to cause the ship's sprinklers to turn on which short circuited their steam chests allowing Howard to free himself and pull Thinbad to safety. Howard and Thinbad seeking a way to escape the yacht, dressed up as harem girls and snuck aboard a waiting truck with others that were recently sold to the Ruby Valley Discotheque au Go-Go. Reaching the disco club, Thinbad and Howard served as backup dancers called the Ruby Peelers and performed alongside the club's headliner, Karina Karima. They soon discovered that Beverly was alive and that she was hypnotized and now wearing the Tuesday Ruby on her belly. Rescuing her, Howard and Thinbad fled the Ruby Valley Discotheque Au Go-Go but were chased by Ali Blubber and his men Omar and Kyamm. Howard primed the explosive ruby and tossed it, causing inconsequential but substantial damage, that incapacitated Ali Blubber and his two minions that trapped them inside some garbage cans that they attempted to use to shield themselves from the blast.

(Howard the Duck Newspaper Strip - June to September, 1978) - Thinbad's current activities and status as an agent of CHICKEN are unrevealed.

Comments: Created by Marv Wolfman and Alan Kupperberg.

Thinbad was a parody of Sinbad, James Bond, and Inspector Clouseau of the Pink Panther movies.

He served no real purpose in the story except for slapstick humor to keep up with the story's Arabian themes. His discovery of Ali Blubber's secret base onboard the S.S Ruby was not due to his expertise in deduction but rather it was common knowledge that Ali Blubber had a business with his name on it in bright neon marquee lights in the Badgag dock district. It was also common knowledge that Omar and Kyamm served as the business' owners.

I doubt that his name was really Thinbad or Sinbad or if he was indeed a sailor! He was more likely some moron randomly chosen by the secret spy agency CHICKEN to act as a field agent since he liked to dress up like someone out of the Arabian Nights stories.

Profile by AvatarWarlord.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Thinbad has no known connections to:


Street Beggar

This was a poor beggar that Howard the Duck and Beverly Switzler met in an alley near the Badgag Market that asked them for alms for the poor. Howard and Beverly gave him a pile of mannequin arms thinking he was asking for arms for the poor. Being the brunt of the joke, he yelled at them calling them bozos.

--Howard the Duck Newspaper Strip (September, 1978)


images: (without ads)
Howard the Duck newspaper Strip (7/19/78), pan2 (Thinbad main image)
Howard the Duck newspaper Strip (7/12/78), pan2 (face)
Howard the Duck newspaper Strip (7/19/78), pan3 (fleeing)
Howard the Duck newspaper Strip (6/21/78), pan3 (stumbles)
Howard the Duck newspaper Strip (8/20/78), pan2 (dressed as a harem girl)
Howard the Duck newspaper Strip (6/24/78), pan1 (beggar)


Appearances:
Howard the Duck Newspaper Strip (June 21st to September 30th, 1978) - Marv Wolfman (writer), Alan Kupperberg (artist)


First Posted: 08/15/2021
Last updated: 08/15/2021

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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