The Little Oop Sunday comics for Jonathan Lemon and Joey Alison Sayers’s Alley Oop have taken on, if not a new story, at least a new premise. Little Oop and Penelope have returned to the 21st century. But Penelope’s newest invention, which let’s just call a transmogrifier, has left them stuck as a cat and a dog, respectively. The Sunday comics have tended to be not so much story-oriented as premise-oriented. No idea how long they’re going to go on having adventures as cat and dog, or as animals generally, before something new comes up.

If I’ve done my job right, this story should catch you up to late March 2026 in Alley Oop. All of my plot recaps, including the one I figure to write around late June 2026, and then several months after that, should be at this link, so please use that knowledge appropriately.

Alley Oop.

5 January – 28 March 2026.

In early January, Our Heroes were back in 1912, trying to solve the disappearance of the SS Gigantic, which had got hit by a meteor and trapped in a wormhole outside of time and space. Lest they stay long enough to be blipped out of existence, Doc Wonmug puts together an ion drive and distracts Alley Oop. It launches the whole ship out of the wormhole, unfortunately, at the far end of the universe with no way back. This seems bad.

Fortunately, a yellow-clad person calling himself Meddler pops in and offers to meddle in their lives but to their advantage. His price: Doc Wonmug answering his challenge. Aboard ship are a hundred of the worst people on Earth, and a hundred of the best. Decide who lives and who dies. When Meddler refuses Wonmug’s first response — a refreshing “everyone lives” — and second — a more 90s-web-comic-edgy “fine, let everyone die” — Our Heroes get 24 hours to figure it out. What Wonmug figures out — and I genuinely do like this — is not to play this stupid game. He reconfigures the ion drive into a pair of multidimensional handcuffs, which work great.

Except. Meddler doesn’t have any reason to help them if he’s held captive. And if he’s let go, why won’t he just be all John de Lancie at them again? Doc Wonmug suggests taking him to Time Court, which hasn’t been mentioned in these parts since … oh, gosh, maybe mid-2020? Hard to say. They work out a deal: they let Meddler go and not tell Time Court about him, he returns the Gigantic where and when it’s supposed to be and never bothers them again. This sounds fine to everyone and they drop it all, including the Gigantic, which falls into the ocean in 1912. The ship’s turned Meddler-yellow, but otherwise, that’s all fine. With a quick warning to the Titanic about the iceberg, Our Heroes are off for home.

The 27th of February, Ooola and Alley Oop arrive in their home, of Moo. And Alley Oop finds that his cave home’s been robbed. The obvious suspect is whoever subletted his cave when he was away, so he charges into the office of SS & Wyccte Rentals, a name that sure seems like it’s punning on something my brain can’t figure out. But through scaring everyone out of the office and checking their files Alley Oop and Ooola learn who was staying in Alley Oop’s cave.

It’s Rog Ragrog, a giant that Ooola used to date. And he’s a big fan of Alley Oop, turns out, really thrilled to meet him. But, he says, he didn’t steal Alley Oop’s stuff. It was, he claims, three members of the Cutie-Patootie Gang. Yes, this makes me think of the Cutie-Pie tortoise altered timelime too, but that was a somewhat different name. We’ll know soon.

Next Week!

Even sooner, though! We’ll know why the story of The Muckmen of Zumaridi River didn’t reach the close I expected last time I discussed Tony DePaul and Mike Manley’s The Phantom (Weekdays). See you then.

Author: Joseph Nebus

I was born 198 years to the day after Johnny Appleseed. The differences between us do not end there. He/him. View all posts by Joseph Nebus