The 2 sons of George Ozone were known as The Neki Hokey Boys, due their habit of repeating this nonsense phrase. It was later adapted to being their names (as apparently they did not have given names), with Neki being the dark-haired one, and Hokey being the blond-haired one.
It is unclear which of Ozone's 4 wives was the boys' mother (although it was almost certainly not Cinn Ozone), or under what circumstances she left their lives.
Students of Mumbles[]
The Neki Hokey boys were raised in an experimental way by their eccentric millionaire father. George Ozone believed that a lack of discipline and traditional child-rearing would promote creativity and inventiveness in his sons, and they were given very little in the way of guidance and supervision. As a result, the boys were extremely rambunctious, disrespectful to authority, and difficult to control.
Later, the boys were assigned a tutor in the form of the fugitive Mumbles, whom the authorities had presumed dead at the time. Mumbles' teaching was limited to music instruction (with a focus on calypso) and diction, and as a result the boys (and their pet parrot) learned Mumbles' sloppy speech habits.
Meeting Dick Tracy[]
One night Mumbles left the boys unsupervised in their father's boat house, and the boys set the building on fire. They were rescued by Dick Tracy and the police, and taken into protective custody. They were resistant to any attempt to impose order on their lives, and rejected the food they were given. Additionally, they ripped the sleeves and pant legs off of all of the clothes they were given. Tracy, unwilling to tolerate the boys' rowdy behavior, disciplined them with corporal punishment, which proved effective.
Their father arrived to claim them, and they were returned to his home in the city. Soon after, George Ozone was the victim of a murder plot by Mumbles and Ozone's most recent ex-wife Cinn. The boys were once again taken into the custody of the authorities after they revealed their connection to Mumbles.
It was discovered that Ozone had hidden a large cache of money and other valuables that he intended for the his sons to enjoy as a tax-free inheritance upon his death. He had a map to this hidden treasure tattooed on the insoles of his sons' feet, intending that they should only be able to recover it if they were working together. The boys were visited in a juvenile home by a disguised Mumbles, who photographed the map. After this, Mumbles posed no threat to the boys.
The Neki Hokey boys presumably received their inheritance, following the appropriate IRS deductions. The Ozone brothers later claimed that their father had left behind a hidden fortune that was never found, according to the second criminal known as the Ace of Spades.
Notes[]
- Although their story unfolded over the summer of 1955, the Neki Hokey boys (and their parrot) appeared in the Sunday Christmas strip of that year. It was here that they were identified by their separate names.
- A later Rogues' Gallery feature revealed that the boys had grown up to become nightclub performers.
- It is unclear which of the boys is older, or if they are fraternal twins.
- There has been some speculation that the Neki Hokey Boys and their nonsense phrase inspired the song "Niki Hoeky" written by Jim Ford and Pat & Lolly Vegas (of the band Redbone) and later performed by artists including P.J. Proby, Aretha Franklin, Bobbie Gentry, and Burton Cummings.
