So Walt Kelly wrote high adventure to advertise bread?

 The Adventures of Peter Wheat was a sword and sorcery comic book about a tiny prince living among talking animals, created by Walt Kelly of Pogo fame as a promotion for a bakery.

Wow. That sentence has so much to unpack. In fact, while I didn’t find it a bad read at all, the story of The Adventures of Peter Wheat is more interesting than the comic itself.

Peter Wheat was a home-delivery bakery service, like the milk man only for baked goods. From what I can tell, the comics were a free giveaway item for services that sold Peter Wheat products.

Possibly because it wasn’t published by a regular comic book publisher, details about the series seem all over the place. It seems there was also Peter Wheat News, which included mini stories about Peter and his world. Some sources say that the series lasted 35 issues. Others say 66 but that Walt Kelly only wrote and drew the first 35.

I found out about the series because the first sixteen issues were part of Humble Bundle I picked up. Looking into it, the entire series has been reprinted by Hermes Press. What is impressive about that is older articles that I read felt that some issues were lost media and gone forever.

When I actually sat down to read the volumes, it did not feel like the Walt Kelly of Pogo Possum. What I often forget is that Kelly got his start at Walt Disney, both as an animator and working on Disney comic books. I think Peter Wheat reflects his Disney work more than his Pogo work.

While it has twee elements that feel like they escaped from Dot and Tot of Merryland (a book that scarred me so badly it is my default for twee), the Adventures of Peter Wheat is very much an adventure comic. Peter is the inch-tall prince of a kingdom of talking animals by a wheat field and must fend off various threats, particularly the Hornet Kingdom. (Dragonel, queen of the hornets and daughter of the Grand Wizard would totally be Peter’s love interest if he wasn’t a little kid)

For me, no character defined the dichotomy better than Sammy Sweet. He lives in the land of Sugar Bun, uses the wheat from the wheat field to make treats, and leads his bakers into battle with a sword.

Two things that really struck me were that there is a lot of continuity in the stories, including multi-issues stories and that there is no reference to the actual Peter Wheat bakery. You know, this business the whole thing is an ad for. When Spider-Man was promoting Hostess, he was throwing twinkies at Doctor Octopus. Not Peter Wheat. Just swords and talking animals.

Honestly, if I didn’t already know and if there wasn’t an ad at the end, I’d never have realized it was a promotional comic. 

The Adventures of Peter Wheat is well written but not earth shaking. But the fact that it exists at all is kind of cool.