I’ve never heard of this book, and I used to be a children’s librarian.

by

So here’s a thing that popped up at the shop the other day…a 1982 children’s book called The Superkids and the Singing Dog:


The story involves a group of young friends who enjoy dressing up as their favorite all DC Comics-published superheroes — pictured here rushing into action with their “Batmobile”:


…and their chance encounter with rock star Huckleberry Jam:


…who is looking for his missing dog, Chocolate. …And the kids of course help out, canvassing the neighborhood and getting into hijinks before (SPOILER ALERT) finding the dog and reuniting him with his master.

It’s a cute book, with some nicely-expressive illustration: there’s a good bit in one of the images where, while “Batman” is working on the Batmobile and everyone else is tending to the dog, “Flash” is just running around in circles in the yard.

A quick Googling also seems to show this was the only book with these characters, at least by this author. Of course, I’m just conditioned, I suppose, into thinking everything has to be part of a series, and that there’s nothing wrong with a book like this only being a one-off. But, still, it feels like this is the sort of thing that would have lent itself to a follow-up or two. Ah, well, such are the vagaries of publishing.

Anyway, I was trying to decide what my favorite entirely-out-of-context quite from the book was, and while this one was an early contender:


…I think the winner is clear:

Also, as a reminder…in addition to all the superheroes represented in this story:


…Huck and Chocolate are also property of DC Comics, so keep your fingers crossed, and maybe they’ll get their own “New 52” book soon!

19 thoughts on “I’ve never heard of this book, and I used to be a children’s librarian.”

  1. I think you just discovered Earth-Huckleberry, the only Earth totally untouched by Crisis.

  3. I had this book as a kid and remember it fondly. I was gonna start looking to see if I could find it again for my son.

  5. Hey, so this is about two years before the Assistant Editor’s Month story in IRON MAN which featured a bunch of Avengers-obsessed cosplaying kids re-enacting Demon in a Bottle . . . So I really can’t believe Busiek didn’t bring the two teams in for a cameo in JLA/AVENGERS.

  8. Mike, you’re probably aware of this, but since you didn’t mention it and given your known fondness for the Muppets, illustrator Joe Mathieu is a legend in his own right, mainly for his work on Sesame Street books and stories since 1972, including this classic:
    http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Grover_and_the_Everything_in_the_Whole_Wide_World_Museum

    More DC relevant, he supplied this (and check out the Charles Atlas parody):
    http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/The_Exciting_Adventures_of_Super_Grover

    Finally, in a non-Sesame/Muppet book from 1974, “Busy City,” Mathieu examined the behind the scenes of TV using a “Sesame” taping:
    http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Busy_City

  9. Yeah, yeah…and then satan hits the dog with his car so they can see if it has rabies, but he’s short so he loses his power. I’ve heard this one before.

  10. ““Flash” is just running around in circles in the yard. ”

    Kind of like the “real” Flash. What ELSE is he gonna do when there’s no crime to fight?

  13. Spooky, I was going through some boxes of my old stuff at my dad’s last weekend and pulled this book out!

Comments are closed.