In May of 1947 question number 13. on the Freshman English exam at Brooklyn Preparatory School was:
TRUE OR FALSE Nov schmoz ka pop
All of us who were faithful fans of SMOKEY STOVER in the Sunday Journal-American knew the correct answer.
Thanks and warm affection from us to you for the happiness you have brought into our lives. Our eight-year-old daughter has made your books required daily reading for the past couple of years since fat men from space came into her thentofore innocent life.
It was Smokey Stover? Not Popeye? I'm sure you're right--but whence comes my mental image of a short, white-bearded little character holding a sign, which I recall in a more Popeyeish style, not a Stoverish one? Whoever drew him, he was an ancestor or Mr. Natural, and Norb, (not to mention some of the muzhiks in Alexander Nevsky).
