Sugar and Spike

Sugar and Spike
Cover to Sugar and Spike #1. Art by Sheldon Mayer
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
Schedule	Bimonthly
Format	Standard
Publication date	Apr/May 1956 - Oct/Nov 1971
Number of issues	98
Main character(s)	Sugar Plumm Cecil "Spike" Wilson
Creative team
Writer(s)	Sheldon Mayer
Artist(s)	Sheldon Mayer
Creator(s)	Sheldon Mayer

Sugar and Spike is the name of a comic book series published by DC Comics from 1956 through 1992, and the names of the main protagonists. Sugar and Spike was created, written and drawn by Sheldon Mayer.

1 Publication history
2 Featured characters
3 In other media
4 Collected editions
5 References
6 External links

Publication history

The comic was published in the United States from 1956 through 1971 for 98 issues,^[1] when due to Mayer's failing eyesight that limited his drawing ability, Sugar and Spike ceased to appear.^[2] Later, after cataract surgery restored his eyesight, Mayer returned to writing and drawing Sugar and Spike stories, continuing to do so until his death in 1991; these stories appeared in overseas markets^[2] and only a few have been reprinted in the United States. The American reprints appeared in digest sized comics. In 1992, Sugar and Spike #99 was published as part of the DC Silver Age Classics series;^[3] this featured two previously unpublished stories by Mayer.

Mayer had an agreement with DC that no one else could write Sugar and Spike.^[4] However, they have occasionally made cameo appearances in modern comic books: As theme park characters in Justice League Spectacular; as being baby-sat by Cassie Sandsmark in Wonder Woman #113; and as teenagers on the crowded cover of Legionnaires #43. They have a cameo on the screen of Planet Krypton in Kingdom Come #1. The two made speaking cameo appearances in the first two pages of Batman: The Brave and the Bold #4, but they were not named. They are rescued by the underwater heroine Dolphin in Showcase #100.

Featured characters

The comic featured the misadventures of two toddlers named Sugar Plumm and Cecil "Spike" Wilson, who possessed the ability to communicate (via "baby talk") with each other and to other infants, but not to adults.^[4] It was in many ways similar to the more recent cartoon Rugrats, and shared ideas concerning baby-talk with P. L Travers' Mary Poppins novel; one notable feature was that all babies spoke the same baby-talk "language", allowing Sugar and Spike to speak with not only human infants, but baby animals as well. Another popular recurring feature was paper dolls of the two leads, with outfits based on designs submitted by readers. Mayer used his own children, Merrily and Lanney, as inspiration for the strip.

In addition to the toddlers and their parents, recurring characters included:

Little Arthur, a "big boy" too old for baby-talk. A spoiled brat and bully, Arthur torments Sugar and Spike, but is invariably outwitted by them in the end.
Sugar's Uncle Charley, a bachelor and police officer who is a stereotypical "fun uncle", often playing with the kids and giving them gifts when he comes to visit.
Bernie the Brain, a child genius who, despite being the same age as Sugar and Spike, is an accomplished scientist and inventor who speaks and understands "grown-up talk". When he first encounters Sugar and Spike, he requires a translating device of his own invention to teach him their baby-talk (having already progressed past that stage, intellectually). He enjoys the chance to be a normal kid with Sugar and Spike, while the pair loves playing with Bernie's various inventions. The two often seek out Bernie when they encounter something they don't understand, particularly something involving grown-up behavior. He made a cameo in Crisis on Infinite Earths #8 watching the WGBS news about the Crisis by Clark Kent, he appears to be very concerned about what's going on.

In other media

Sugar and Spike have a cameo in the Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode "The Siege of Starro: Part 1." The characters are pictured on the side of an "S & S Diapers" diaper service truck.

Collected editions

The first ten issues of Sugar and Spike were collected as part of the DC Archive Editions series in 2011.^[5]

References

^ Sugar & Spike at the Grand Comics Database
^ ^a ^b Markstein, Don. "Sheldon Mayer". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on December 3, 2011. http://www.webcitation.org/63e1zyO1w. Retrieved December 3, 2011. "He continued to write and draw Sugar & Spike until 1971, when failing eyesight forced him to abandon cartooning...Mayer's sight was restored a few years later, and he went back to producing new Sugar & Spike stories. But the American comic book market was no longer able to support such a feature, so these were mostly published overseas."
^ DC Silver Age Classics Sugar and Spike #99 (1992) at the Grand Comics Database
^ ^a ^b Markstein, Don. "Sugar and Spike". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on December 13, 2011. http://www.webcitation.org/63ujm8V8s. Retrieved December 13, 2011. "Sugar Plumm and Cecil "Spike" Wilson had to make sense of their environment without assistance from those who already knew their way around it, because everybody but their fellow babies spoke in the incomprehensible gobbledygook of grownups...[Mayer] secured an agreement with DC that he would be the only one ever to write and draw those characters."
^ Mayer, Sheldon (2011). Sugar and Spike Archives Vol. 1. DC Comics. ISBN 1401231128.

External links

Unofficial Sugar and Spike fan site