Jimmy Jolly

Real Name: Jimmy Jolly

Identity/Class: Magic item user

Occupation: Schoolboy

Affiliations: None known

Enemies: Unknown

Known Relatives: None (see Comments)

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Unknown

First Appearance: Jingles (Amalgamated Press, 1947)

Powers/Abilities: Jimmy Jolly possessed a magic umbrella which allowed him to change reality whenever he said "I wish" so long as he was holding it. It appeared to be sentient, and able to interpret the wishes however it wanted, so long as it obeyed the letter of what was asked.

History: Jimmy Jolly owned an umbrella (his magic brolly) which would alter reality whenever he wished for something. However, the brolly would interpret wishes literally, and apparently with a mischievous sense of humour - for example, when Jimmy wished for someone's house to be shipshape (neat and tidy), the brolly turned it into a house shaped like a ship; when he asked for someone to be a "big, well known conductor" (a successful and famous musical conductor), his target became a massively obese bus conductor who everyone recognised as someone they knew; when he requested that a child could see a school of fish, the brolly created a classroom of fish being lectured by a teacher fish.

Comments: Created by H.E. Pease.

Given the identical surnames and similar magic umbrellas, I've got to assume that Professor Jolly in the earlier Illustrated Chips comic was the inspiration for this character. The brolly's are slightly different - Professor J's has a normal looking handle (as far as I can tell from the limited number of images I've seen of him), while Jimmy's has a duck's head, and have slightly different powers - both alter reality to transform objects or create things out of thin air, but the Professor seems to be able to control exactly what his does by mental command, whereas Jimmy's is operated verbally, reacts to any comment that includes "I wish" including those that weren't meant as actual requests, and seems to quite literally have a mind of its own. And obviously the Professor is an adult while Jimmy is a kid. If you're going to have a humour strip involving a magic umbrella, then Jolly is a good surname to use, rhyming with "brolly" (nothing simple rhymes with umbrella), and suggesting a more jovial tone than alternatives such as Holly, Folly, etc. The change to a child protagonist rather than an adult also makes sense, given the intended readership. So I'd presume there wasn't intended to be any connection between them beyond the basic concept. All that said, I've got to wonder if, in universe, they are either related (father and son?), or if Jimmy is the Professor when he was young (or restored to youth by the brolly).

CLARIFICATIONS: Not to be confused with

Any Additions/Corrections? Please let me know.

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