John Hodgman in comic book form

Over at Again with the Comics, Brian Hughes has been enthusing about a little-known, late-'50s/early-'60s comic-book character named Herbie, later known as the Fat Fury, created by Richard E. Hughes (no relation to Brian, it appears). The humor makes Herbie a little like Plasticman with a weight problem and an abusive home situation.

The sample Mr. Hughes provides is a fairly whacked-out story -- from "giant menacing flowers, to strap-on bee butts, to tiny micro-world duplicates," and all in nine pages.

But more importantly, doesn't Herbie remind you of a young John Hodgman, the humorist who plays the pudgy PC guy in the Apple commercials? As much as it's the glasses, the bad haircut and the rotund shape, it's the deadpan humor and the lack of respect that clinches the similarity.

So it seems we've uncovered an early Hodgman incarnation. A pre-Hodgman Hodgman. An alternative-universe Hodgman.

A John Hodgman with superpowers.

Makes you think.