Spare-Part Kit
    
                             
    Tom Katz was an extraodinarily talented professor and father
    to a skinny-thin son called Kit (yes, that's right, Kit Katz...)
    The duo originally hailed from a little-known country called
    Zoblobnia, but unfortunately they were forced to flee to
    England with their latest invention after a run-in with the
    scheming Zoblobnian authorites....

    

    The first Spare-Part strip in WOW! #1 explains it all. Zoblobnia
    has a feebly pathetic athletic team which has little hope of
    even qualifying for the 1984 Olympics, let alone actually
    winning anything. President Krunchski is beside himself,
    but beside him too is his right-hand Munchski who directs
    his leader to the work of Professor Katz. Katz has created
    big muscled false limbs - spare parts - which can be pulled
    on like gloves and socks to provide super strength and speed
    to the wearer. When he learns of the President's notion for
    using the parts to help his team cheat at the Olympics, the
    Professor and Kit take flight.

    In WOW! #2 we find the British Secret Service have helped
    the Katz relocate to a safe-house in England. Kit then goes
    to school for the first time, and promptly has a run in with
    the school bully Brian Bonkers. Brian's no match for his
    spare parts, though... 
   
    Meanwhile in Zoblobnia, Munchski introduces the President
    to two masters of disguise, the super spys Fruitski and Nutski.
    These two can transform into almost anything at will. They are
    swiftly despatched to the UK to steal the spare-parts
    from Kit and his father...

    A complicated back-story, then, and more complications
    arrived in WOW! #3 where we learn that Professor Katz has
    programmed the spare-parts so that they only work for Kit,
    and the lad can control the parts independently via a radio-
    controlled beany cap - kind of like a skullcap. What's more,
    Fruitski and Nutski really can, and do, change into absolutely
    anything at will like Zoblobnian Terminators - a mightily
    impressive skill, surely of more benefit to Zoblobnia than
    even Kit's pull-on arms and legs...?

   

    According to Kit's creator, artist and writer Graham Exton the
    strip was originally conceived as a far more gruesome creation:
   
   "The editor, Bob Paynter wanted a script about
    super-surgery. There must have been something
    in the news about it. I had a kid with a supply of
    famous people’s body parts. I would have him nip
    behind a curtain, sew on a famous athlete’s legs
    and then do something heroic. It begged the
    question: where the heck did he get the parts,
    and what about the original owners?"

   Graham also tells us about the Zoblobnians:

    "The Russian characters (well, Zoblobnian) were
     inspired by Rocky and Bullwinkle's nemeses, Boris,
     Natasha and Fearless Leader. Oh, and Cadbury's
     chocolate products...."

  And if that sounds "nutty", how about this tidbit:

    "I wrote most of the Kit scripts that were
     published. My mum subbed for me once when
     I was on holiday, and I left the strip when it
     went to a single page, as I couldn't squeeze the
     complicated plots into such a small space.
     I didn't like the way they made the short
     fat spy talk, either. I preferred him as a
     dummy a-la Harpo...'

   You'll find much more chatter from Graham in our Toonhound
   Q&A. As for Kit and the Professor,well they stayed one step
   ahead of the Zoblobnians through the twelve months of WOW!'s
   existence and on into the pages of Whoopee! after
   the merger...