Alley Oop - Characters and Story

Characters and Story

• Alley Oop – A time-traveling caveman
• Ooola – Oop's pretty girlfriend
• Foozy – Oop's pal, who talks in rhyme
• Dinny – Oop's pet dinosaur
• King Guzzle – Ruler of Moo
• Queen Umpateedle – Queen of Moo
• The Grand Wizer – Advisor to the king
• Dr. Elbert Wonmug – 20th-century scientist and inventor
• G. Oscar Boom – Rival and partner to Wonmug

The first stories took place in the Stone Age and centered on Alley Oop's dealings with his fellow cavemen in the kingdom of Moo. Oop and his pals had occasional skirmishes with the rival kingdom of Lem, ruled by King Tunk. The names Moo and Lem are references to the fabled lost continents of Mu and Lemuria.

On April 5, 1939, Hamlin introduced a new plot device, which greatly expanded his choice of storylines: a time machine, invented by the 20th-century scientist Dr. Elbert Wonmug, who bore a rather suspicious resemblance to the Grand Wizer. The name Wonmug was a bilingual pun on Albert Einstein; "ein" is German for "one", and a "stein" is a form of drinking mug.

Abducted to the 20th century by an early test of the machine (in the Sunday strip of April 9, 1939), Oop was hardly upset by the incident and apparently did not find modern society to be any different from his own. He then became Dr. Wonmug's man in the field, embarking on expeditions to various periods and places in history, such as Ancient Egypt, the England of Robin Hood and the American Old West. Oop met such historical or mythical figures as Cleopatra, King Arthur and Ulysses in his adventures. In addition to the time machine, other science fiction devices were introduced. Oop once drove an experimental electric-powered race car, and in the 1940s, he traveled to the moon. During his adventures he was often accompanied by his girlfiend Ooola and by the sometimes villainous, sometimes heroic G. Oscar Boom (G.O. Boom), Dr. Wonmug's rival and occasional partner. A new lab assistant, Ava, joined the cast in recent years.