Harry Doolin

Flash Harry Doolin was a supporting character in the Glory Bee comic strip; the older brother of Sally Doolin and nephew to Aunt Sheila. A vaguely manic quarterback at Everdale High, he was the occasional boyfriend of Carrie Madison in Passion Romance Tales and close friend to Dexter Eldington in ''Holy Dooley! Comics''. In common with the rest of his family, Harry had bright red hair and was somewhat impulsive by nature.

Patterned after MLJ's Archie Andrews, Harry was often in trouble with his teachers for low grades and frequently berated by Aunt Sheila for his bumbling, oaf-like behavior. Although he viewed Glory and Sally as minor annoyances, he often went to extreme lengths to keep them out of trouble, knowing that the consequences were certain to rebound onto him.

According to a number of flashback scenes, Harry Doolin first moved to Everdale with his family in January 1941. Once settled into his new home, he soon made the acquaintance of the local residents, including a precocious five year old going by the name of Glory Bee. Although the two got along well for a time, Harry soon tired of her attention-seeking antics and began to regard her as a "scheming little brat". His intuitions were verified when Glory began leading his little sister Sally down the garden path, constantly landing them both in serious trouble. Rather unfairly, Harry was often blamed for their misconduct, resulting in his being "clobbered" by Aunt Sheila and other interested parties.

Five years down the road, Harry had become a typically rambunctious teenager, scoring touchdowns for the Everdale Tigers and cutting an impressive figure with the local girls down at Furshlugginer's Soda Fountain. His closest friends included homecoming queen Carrie Madison and resident genius Dexter Eldington, along with a small menagerie of the usual suspects. Despite his almost legendary quarterback status, Harry's existence was far from perfect; his teachers regarded him as a dim-witted clown and his Aunt had gradually transformed into a full-blown shrew. Worst of all, ten year old Glory has developed a fledgling crush on the older boy, demonstrating her affections by making his life an abject misery at every turn.

By the time Harry turned sixteen, he had accrued an undeserved reputation as a shiftless trouble-maker, largely due to Glory's shenanigans. Regarded as a juvenile delinquent by the local Police Department, he was constantly upbraided by Sergeant O'Hoolie and the "League of Flatfoots", occasionally frog-marched off to jail when one of Glory's pranks went awry. Most of his teachers would have liked to see him expelled, if not actually dangling at the end of a rope.

A few years later, Harry managed to clean up his act, enrolling at Chamberlain University on a football scholarship. Majoring in Physical Education, he proved a surprising devoted student, scoring straight A's and impressing his supervisors with his amiable personality and diligent attitude. Maintaining his long-running friendships with Carrie and Dexter, he was still referred to as "Flash Harry" by the crowd down at Fershlugginer's, though few recalled the brash, rambunctious teenager who'd earned that particular cognomen. Even Sergeant O'Hoolie admitted that Harry had come a long way despite his "criminal" background.

Finally graduating university towards the end of the decade, Harry was offered a teaching position in Fish Haven, Alaska. Nothing else being available at the time, he jumped at the opportunity (though some sources report that he ended up coaching football in Chicago). Bidding farewell to the "Everdale Gang", packed his bags and walked quietly out of their lives forever. Looking back in retrospect, Flash Harry Doolin was fondly remembered by all - though probably none more so than his former nemesis, Glory Bee.

Faux Publishing History
"Flash Harry Doolin" debuted in the back pages of ''Holy Dooley! Comics issue one (Jan-Feb 1941), cast in the mold of MLJ's Archie''. The strip was only a mild success until the introduction of Glory Bee in issue five, after which sales began to soar. Despite playing second fiddle to a wise-cracking ten year old, Harry remained an integral member of the ensemble until 1954, even making a few guest appearances in Passion Romance Comics with sometime girlfriend Daisy Miller.

Holy Dooley! went into hiatus for several months during the Comics Code controversy before resuming in 1956. Retitled Glory Bee Adventures, the strip combined children's humor with teen romance in an attempt to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. Harry returned with the rest of the cast, having graduated Everdale High School to attend Chamberlain University. Here, he was regularly partnered with fellow alumni Carrie Madison and Dexter Eldington.

It was around this time, however, that Harry and his family started to slip into obscurity. As the sixties approached, Landmark started cutting back on its teen humor titles, leaving "Flash Harry" out in the cold. When the company eventually relaunched its superhero line in 1961, Glory, Kitty and Carrie were all revived as supporting characters, but Harry, Sally and Aunt Sheila all faded into comic book limbo. By the time Carrie Madison folded in 1973, the entire Doolin Family was little more than a footnote in comics history.