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Little Boy of Summer #[nn]
[1983] · 0.00 FREE · 16 pages
On sale 1983
Synopsis
Tommy is not taking it well that his mother remarried and eventually he comes to believe that St. Louis Cardinals' baseball player Tom Miller is his father. He leaves his home and travels to Busch Stadium in St. Louis telling the security guard he is meeting his father. The guard calls Miller who decides the see what this was about. After Tom and his wife take him to their home and the next day Tommy meets members of the St. Louis team, Lynda finds his contact information and calls Tommy's family. By then, through the words of Jesus and Tom Miller, Tommy learns to accept his new life.
Notes
This religious giveaway, "Little Boy of Summer" is frequently attributed as being "published" by the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team since their logo and players are used in/on the giveaway. There is no publisher information in this comic book.
However, this comic is not promoting the Cardinals, but Lutheran Schools. According to this St. Louis Post-Dispatch (St. Louis, Missouri), Sunday, June 26, 1983, page 6A, "Irony Marks Filming Here of Episode of TV Series", that this comic book is clearly an adaptation of the television show "This Is Life" episode called "Little Boy of Summer".
The International Lutheran Layman's League sponsored the television episode and certainly had to have sponsored the comic book too as they were the communications arm of the Missouri Synod of the Lutheran Church.
No date on the comic but it is clear that it was released in 1983, the same year as the television episode was broadcast. The comic mentions both the St. Louis Cardinals as baseball's World Champions (as they were in 1982) and pitcher Jim Kaat, whose last season in baseball was 1983. So this comic is from 1983.
The episode was released on videotape and was broadcast all over the world after its original broadcast. The comic was probably created as part of the learning material for the video in helping promote Lutheran schooling.
There are two known back cover versions (probably more). One version has the main character Tommy in a half-page panel talking to the audience about how children can help save people religiously through the teachings of the Lutheran schools and churches. Another one has the half-page panel removed to provide space for information about local Lutheran schools.