Doiby Dickles

Created by writer Bill Finger and artist Irwin Hasen and introduced in the Golden Age (first appearance circa 1941), Charles "Doiby" Dickles is a rotund Brooklyn taxi driver who becomes the loyal companion and occasional foil to Alan Scott, the original Green Lantern. His origin in early stories shows him following Green Lantern and, when the hero is believed killed, impersonating Green Lantern to stop criminals; commentators Kurt Mitchell and Roy Thomas describe him as the first of the comic-relief sidekicks that defined All-American Comics' approach in the early 1940s. Later continuity retcons place him sent into space to marry Princess Ramia and elevated to rulership on the alien planet Myrg; in modern-era stories he appears as an elder-hero figure and member of Old Justice and in crossover events such as Sins of Youth / Young Justice tales.

Depicted as a flabby/rotund, middle-aged Brooklyn-born cab driver, Doiby is typically drawn with working-class attire including a derby hat and frequently shown with a cigar—Irwin Hasen cited actor Edward Brophy as the visual model for the derby-and-cigar cab-driver look. He drives a named taxi called "Goitrude" in stories. No supernatural or non-human physical traits are attributed to him; his visual presentation emphasizes period Brooklyn dialect and comic-caricature features consistent with 1940s comics.

Doiby has no superpowers. Sources describe him as a skilled driver and pilot, an effective unarmed combatant who often uses a pipe wrench in fights, and a resourceful, brave, streetwise companion. He functions narratively as loyal support, comic relief, and practical assistance to Green Lantern—taking part in crime-prevention, wartime plots, rescue operations, and episodic adventures. Later stories depict him elevated to consort/king status on Myrg as a continuity retcon, and as an active member of the elder-heroes group Old Justice in nostalgia-era plots.