Li'l Kids #3 (2024 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

Li'l Kids was an anthology series from Marvel that ran for a dozen issues sporadically from 1970-1973. Like many of Marvel's horror anthology books from the same time period, Li'l Kids was made up primarily of reprinted material from Marvel's days as Atlas Comics. The focus was humor stories starring children.

According to Grand Comic Database, all of the stories in this issue were previously printed in the pages of Li'l Willie Comics #20 (July, 1949) and Little Lizzie #5 (April, 1950). While records of talents used during the Golden Age of comics were incomplete at best, GCD can confirm that Horace Elmo penciled and inked the opening Li'l Willie farce and that David Gantz worked double duty on both of the Little Lizzie yarns. 

Stories in this issue include:

• Li'l Willie and his best friend George scam a way to visit the circus without a ticket.
• Little Lizzie tries to cure her hiccups.
• A young girl helps two fighting tots both get to view a baseball game.
• Lizzie then has to do her chores before going out to play with her friends.

The only original material of this issue is the cover. If the characters look like they belong in Riverdale instead on the cover of a Marvel mag, that's because it was penciled by Archie Comics veteran Stan Goldberg. Signing his work as Stan G., Goldberg was assisted by John Verpoorten. The cowboy themed scene was lettered by Morrie Kuramoto.

Starting with issue #10, Li'l Kids began to include a brand-new feature; the cover-starring Calvin. An African-American boy of about 10, Calvin's off-beat adventures were written and illustrated by Kevin Banks. Calvin nor any of the reprinted moppets that graced the pages of Li'l Kids seem to have made further appearances in Marvel works after the series was cancelled with issue #12.

Completing this review completes Task #42 (A Comedy) of the 2024 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.