As regular readers of The Spirit sections will know, the only tune that seems to be played anywhere in Central City is "Ev'ry Little Bug".

(A panel from "Poole's Toadstool Facial Cream")

It was during the story "Poole's Toadstool Facial Cream" on 9 June 1946 that the first few lines of the song were uttered, and by the end of 1946 all of the lyrics had appeared.

(Ebony singing the tune)

During 1947, Will Eisner met up with Bill Harr (whom Will had met briefly during the war), and the two worked to publish the song after Harr had composed the melody. The complete song (with sheet music!) appeared in the 27 April 1947 section called, naturally enough, "Ev'ry Li'l Bug"). A couple of months later in the 29 June section called "Wiffenpoof" operatic singer Robert Merrill was depicted singing the tune.

(Robert Merrill shown above singing "Ev'ry Little Bug")

Shortly after the section appeared "Ev'ry Little Bug" was published by the Robbins Music Corporation of New York as sheet music, but unfortunately it did not develop any further...

(The cover to the sheet music - NB this is taken from the 1987 picture disk)

... That is, until 1987 when John Christensen produced a picture disk with five versions of the tune! The record featured art by Eisner and playing guitars on some of the tracks was Bill Mumy (of "Lost In Space" fame). The disk was released by Kitchen Sink but unfortunately at a time when the compact disc was just starting to take off this oddity did not seem to do too well as a couple of years later Kitchen Sink were selling the disk at discounted prices. A short clip from the album should be loading/played at the bottom of this page.

Appearances of the song

9 June 1946 - "Poole's Toadstool Facial Cream"

7 July 1946 - "Dulcet Tone"

13 October 1946 - "The Heart of Rosie Lee"

15 December 1946 - "The Van Gaul Diamonds"

29 December 1946 - "Hubert The Duck"

2 February 1947 - "The Cosmic Answer"

16 March 1947 - "Hoagy the Yogi"

27 April 1947 - "Ev'ry Li'l Bug"

29 June 1947 - "Wiffenpoof"

17 August 1947 - "The Picnic"

27 March 1949 - "The Dummy"

30 April 1950 - "Wanted, Dangerous Job"

(A copy of the music as it appeared in the section dated 27 April 1947)

The wav file below is from the 1987 record released by KSP. You can download this and other clips from the record at the Media page.

<bgsound src="sounds/bug1.wav">