He was editor of the American Comics Group through the company's entire existence from 1943 to 1967, and wrote most of that publisher's stories from 1957 to 1967 under a variety of pseudonyms.
His best-known character is Herbie Popnecker, created under the pseudonym Shane O'Shea,[1] with artist Ogden Whitney.
[8] Through Syndicated Features Corp., Hughes and artist Dave Gabrielson created the superhero the Black Terror in Standard's Exciting Comics #9 (May 1941).
[10] By the following year Hughes was editing comics for Standard[7] and living with his wife at 120 West 183rd Street in The Bronx, New York City.
[15] His final job appears to have been for Gimbel's department store, composing response letters to customer complaints.
With the aid of his super-empowering lollipops, Herbie punches out Sonny Liston, confronts Fidel Castro and gets sent on a secret mission by U Thant.
Hughes took a while to perfect his stories’ tone of deadpan absurdity, but Whitney’s slightly stiff, matter-of-fact artwork improves the gags by understating them.