History: (Captain Marvel Adventures (Fawcett) #82 (fb)) - Thomas Todd, son of a missionary in India, adopted a tiger cub after his mother was shot, and named the cub Mr. Tawny. People feared that the cub would one day discover his killer instincts, and when a local man was killed by a tiger the young Tawny was blamed, so Todd fled with him into the jungle. They met a brilliant scientist hermit who gave Tawny a serum that altered his vocal cords and gave him human intelligence. Tawny caught the real killer, another tiger, and spoke up in his own defense, showing that the paw-prints by the murder victim match those of the killer tiger.

(Captain Marvel Adventures (Fawcett) #79) - Tawny had a desire to see civilization, and over the hermit’s objections he stowed away on a ship to America and visited Fawcett City. A dock worker spotted him and screamed his head off about a tiger on the loose. Billy Batson was nearby and changed into Captain Marvel. Mr. Tawny tried to explain that he meant no harm, but Marvel who thought he was hearing things because tigers couldn’t talk, laid him out with one punch. Tawny woke up in a zoo, and thought the hermit might have had a point about how rotten civilization was. In a rage he broke his cage bars and fled. He went to a restaurant, but the waiter ran away, as did a tailor at a clothing shop, so Tawny decided to pick out his own natty threads so he’d feel civilized. Captain Marvel confronted him, but finally started listening to Tawny and realized he was no threat. Tawny just wanted to live in the city, and Marvel found him a job as a museum guide. Tawny would later aid Marvel in numerous adventures. Billy Batson reported the story of Mr. Tawky-Tawny on radio WHIZ, and realized he never asked Mr. Tawny how it came to be that he could talk.

(Captain Marvel Adventures (Fawcett) #82) - Billy Batson wanted to interview Tawny about how he came to talk, and Tawny agreed to meet him at his home that night. Billy heard a gunshot and after changing into Captain Marvel went into action. He found engineer Thomas Todd holding a gun and standing over the body of his boss J.C. Garner. Todd said someone shot Todd from the window, tossed the gun inside, and he’d caught it. The police arrived, and arrested Todd, telling Captain Marvel his testimony would send Todd to the electric chair. Billy was still preoccupied when he met Mr. Tawny, who said by amazing coincidence he knew Todd, and had been looking for him in the city. He related the story of how Todd and his missionary father raised him, and how a hermit gave him a serum that endowed him with the power of speech. Tawny wad determined to prove his friend innocent, and after sniffing around outside Todd’s window he followed the scent of the real killer back to his apartment. He was Todd’s co-worker and killed their boss because he wanted the job Todd was getting. Tawny and Todd had a heartfelt reunion.

(Shazam! I #1) - <1953> The mayor of Fawcett City threw a celebration at city hall to honor the Marvel Family, with a number of their friends and fans in attendance, including Tawky Tawny. The wicked Sivana Family chose that moment to strike from Sivana's spaceship, hitting the crowd with a vortex transporter paralyzer ray, drawing them into space, and encasing them in a globe of suspendium, a compound that would put them in suspended animation. Sivana, Junior slapped his dad on the back for a job well done, causing Sivana to lose control of his spaceship and crashing into the suspendium, trapping the villains with their victims. The globe orbited the sun for decades until the heat of the sun began to melt the suspendium, freeing the Marvel Family. They realized the suspendium was being pulled into the sun's orbit, and had to act fast to save the lives of everyone inside the globe. The Sivana Family revived and flew their spaceship to safety while the Marvel Family pushed the globe back to Earth before smashing it, freeing their friends and returning to Fawcett. Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel, Jr. went into space to search for the Sivanas, while Captain Marvel checked out one of Sivana's old mountain hideouts. He found the Sivana Family working on a death projector, which Sivana fired up, hoping it would destroy most of Earth's population, making him ruler of the world. Marvel smashed their machine and took the Sivanas to jail, but they all shared a laugh over how happy they were to be a live and out of suspended animation.

(Shazam! I #2) - Billy felt out of place in the new Fawcett City with hippies, new politics, and new slang, so he decided to visit Mr. Tawky Tawny, who got his old job back at the museum. Tawny was walking guests through an exhibit on Mr. Mind's Monster Society of Evil, and the tour ended with a glass case containing the stuffed Mr. Mind, who'd been sentenced to death in the electric chair. The museum began to shake, and Billy transformed into Captain Marvel, holding up the ceiling long enough for Tawny and the patrons to escape before the museum crumbled down. Tawny suspected sabotage, because the last museum inspections showed no safety issues. Marvel examined the wreckage and found that the stuffed "Mr. Mind" was a fake, and it's miniature glasses and voice amplifier were gone. Mr. Mind had faked his death decades ago, and returned to the museum with an army of insects and worms to undermine the museum's foundations and recover his accoutrements. Captain Marvel stopped Mr. Mind from blowing up the west coast with an atomic expanding missile, and took him into custody. Tawny told Billy he hadn't lost any of his old superhero skills, and Billy confided in him that he still felt out of touch, and hoped he could get his old job back at WHIZ.

(Shazam! I #4) - April 1st rolled around, and Billy Batson was depressed because he hadn't celebrated his birthday in decades, and after being gone from Fawcett so long he thought nobody remembered it was his birthday. Billy returned home, where all his friends, including Tawky
Tawny threw him a surprise birthday party.

(Shazam! I #7) - Mr. Tawky Tawny got depressed after he saw a woman walking down the street in a fur coat and realizing she was wearing his Uncle George. Tawny decided to watch Captain Marvel in action to cheer himself up, as the hero'd told him he was set to bust some jewel smugglers at Pier 66. The smugglers were transporting some tigers in a cage for the millionaire Dana Dana, who had his own private zoo, and Tawny got into a conversation with them, learning some interesting things about the smuggling case. The smugglers saw Captain Marvel, and unloaded on him with machineguns, to no effect. They didn't have any jewels on them, so the police chief could only hold them for shooting at Marvel. Marvel discovered that they had a one million dollar check from Dana, and decided to check out his zoo. Tawny was doing his own investigation, and took off his clothes at the zoo so he'd fit in with the other wild animals. Dana saw a tiger roaming the grounds and lassoed Tawny, damaging his vocal cords, and locked him in a cage. As his tiger buddies had informed him, the smuggled gems were being kept in the floor of the animal cages they were importing to Dana. Billy Batson told Dana he wanted to do a story on him for WHIZ, and Dana obliged, showing him around. Billy thought he recognized Tawny in his cage, but Tawny was temporarily unable to speak. Billy hinted that he knew about Dana smuggling jewels, so Dana knocked him out, and bound and gagged him. He covered Billy in catnip oil, and let Tawny loose on him. Tawny's animal instints started to overcome him, but he managed to bite off Billy's gag. Billy changed into Captain Marvel just in time, as Tawny bit his head, and then apologized profusely before telling Marvel where the jewels were hidden. Captain Marvel turned Dana in to the police, and then cheered up Tawky Tawny by going shopping with him for a new, updated wardrobe.

(Shazam! I #11) - Billy Batson, Mary and Freddy attended Sterling Morris’ Christmas Eve party along with all of their friends, including Beautia Sivana, Joan Jameson, the Potters, Sunny Sparkle, Mr. Tawky-Tawny and Uncle Dudley. The Sivana Family groused in their lab about how much they hated Christmas, and Sivana activated his Cosmic Clock, speeding up time so Christmas day would only last 10 minutes. The Marvel Family went into action when they noticed time was speeding up around them, and they saved Santa Claus, who was having trouble controlling his sped up reindeer. Santa told them the Sivana Family were trying to ruin Christmas, so the Marvels flew to the Sivanas’ lab and made short work of them. Combining their strength the Marvels stopped the Cosmic clock and pushed its’ hands backwards so Christmas day could proceed at a normal rate. The Marvels visited the Sivanas in jail, and said they found an appropriate Christmas present, the first the Sivanas had ever gotten, for the family that proclaimed themselves the rightful rulers of the universe. The present turned out to be a book entitled The Universe, and the Marvels returned to Morris’ party to celebrate the holiday with their friends.

Comments: Created by Otto Binder & C.C. Beck