Friday Fun ABBOTT & COSTELLO "Justin Tyme the World's Best Grocery Clerk in 'Gorilla My Dreams' "

In Japan, manga about people in everyday jobs are quite common...and popular!

Here in America, they're rarely successful, no matter how well-done!

Illustrated (and possibly written) by Charles W Winter (as "C W Winter"), this feature from St John's Abbott & Costello Comics #8 (1949) was Justin Tyme's second, and last, original appearance>
(The story was reprinted later in A&C's run.).
The idea of having to do something silly if you get an incorrect answer on a game show started in radio, and carried over to TV, where it continues to the present day!

Space Heroine Saturdays GALE ALLEN OF THE WOMEN"S SPACE BATTALION/GIRL'S PATROL/GIRL PATROL

Ever see spaceships with...propellers???

Well, here they are, in the premiere appearance of one of the longest-running Space Heroine strips of the Golden Age!

Gale Allen's introductory tale (by currently-unknown creatives) from Fiction House's Planet Comics #4 (1940) sets the series in an unspecified future where interplanetary travel is accomplished by spaceships with wings and propellers!

My impression is that it was conceived as a "day after tomorrow" war strip, but was re-scripted as a futuristic sci-fi series...without modifying the art to match the script!
Oddly, Fiction House's Planet Comics #5 (1940), with art by Bob Powell, revamps the vehicles to look like spaceships, but turns the strip Earthbound, as an alien invasion force with a foothold in Europe and Africa attempts to conquer the rest of Terra...in the year 1990!

You'll also note an alteration in the second tale of the "balance of power" between the sexes, as a suddenly-competent Jeff Allen rescues Gale!
The next story, in Fiction House's Planet Comics #6 (1940), also illustrated by Bob Powell, ignores the fact the aliens still have the female pilots hostage...

With Blaga Daru (temporarily) imprisoned, the series will take yet another turn, as you'll see in a near-future post!

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Spectacular Sisterhood of Superwomen

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Monday Madness DOC SAVAGE COMICS "Polar Treasure"

Our current arctic blast reminded me of the setting of an early Doc Savage novel...

...which was condensed into the shortest comics adaptation of any of the Man of Bronze's "supersagas" (as Phillip  Jose Farmer refers to them) we've ever seen!

Two notes:

1) the flying man on the cover is Ajax the Sun Man, who had his own strip in the book.

(Ajax is not in the Doc Savage tale.)

2) the story may be NSFW due to racial stereotypes common to the 1940s.

The first few issues of the 1940s Doc Savage Comics condensed and adapted Doc pulp novels.

This issue (#3 from 1941) took the 1933 pulp tale "Polar Treasure" and fit it into only eight pages!

Both writer and artist of the adaptation and cover are unknown.

Lester Dent wrote the original novel under the "Kenneth Robeson" house pen-name.

Trivia: both the original and paperback editions of the novel are #4 in their respective series.

Cover by Walter M Baumhaufer

Cover by Lou Feck or James Avati or Frank McCarthy

(After the first novel, "Man of Bronze", Bantam Books reprinted the stories out of original publication order, going with what they felt were the most exciting tales first.)

Bookmark us (if you haven't already) since we have a lot of cool never-reprinted material coming up this year!

Space...Hero??? Saturdays PLANET COMICS Cosmo Corrigan & Norge Benson

With North America currently caught in a deep freeze with major snow storms/blizzards...

...you can stay warm at home and read Fiction House's Planet Comics' two different characters starring in strips set on the frigid world of Pluto!

Unlike most of the deadly-serious features of the period, these strips played both series as sci-fi sitcoms, starring "heroes" who could best be described as "spacegoing slackers", or "galactic party animals"!

You can read the complete run of the first guy, Cosmo Corrigan, HERE, HERE, and HERE.

Yeah, he only lasted three issues.

Cosmo Corrigan was apparently caught in a black hole and immediately replaced (like the very next issue) in Planet Comics by Norge Benson, who encountered a whole different group of Plutonians!

Norge was a somewhat less snarky (though no less humorous) version of the "Earthman on Pluto" concept shown in Cosmo Corrigan., mixing talking alien versions of both Arctic and Antarctic animals with total disregard to anything even remotely resembling exobiology (or continuity)!

But both strips were fun, and that's all that really matters!

Norge Benson managed to survive for twenty issues, all of which you can read by clicking HERE!

Monday Madness TOPS "Anthony Comstock: Fanatical Reformer"

Is it any wonder Republicans are using the work of a puritanical, conservative con-man from the 19th Century...

...to promote and serve their anti-abortion agenda in the 21st Century?

Both Federal and local Republican politicians are currently attempting to use the ancient Comstock Act's19th Century definitions of "obscene material" (which includes birth control printed information and drugs) to prevent them from being provided to pregnant women in 2024!

Written by George Hansen and illustrated by Lee Ames, this feature from Lev Gleason's TOPS #2 (1949) presents itself as a "review" of a biography of Comstock, Anthony Comstock: Roundsman of the Lord (1927)..which praised the man!

However, where the book put Comstock on a pedestal, the comic strip savaged him, taking the material from the tome and presenting it in a historical context.
BTW, you'll note the art here is larger than we usually present.
That's because the periodical it was presented in was tabloid-sized, like Marvel and DC Treasury Editions of the 1970s and 80s and the lettering would be unreadable in our usual 525-pixel wide format.
Editor Charles Biro conceived and produced the mag as an attempt to do an "adult oriented" magazine using the comic book format.
Sadly, it only lasted two issues and either issue is incredibly hard to find!
Happily, Fantagraphics worked with noted writer/artist/historian Michael T Gilbert to produce a superb book reprinting those two issues with an astounding amount of historical material about the periodical...

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TOPS

Complete Collection of Charles Biro's Visionary 1949 Comic Book Series

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Space Hero Saturdays CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT "Asteroid Battle!"

You thought we'd heard the last of evil Jagga the Space Raider?

Really?

Not only is he back, but displaying his chameleon-like ability to change color between the cover and the first page of his new battle with Our Hero...the "Monarch of the Airways" himself...Captain Midnight!

BTW, Jagga doesn't have chameleon-like abilities, though they'd probably come in handy.

The comic's editor didn't coordinate between the cover and interior colorists!

Not surprising, since the cover (by Charley Tomsey) and interior (by Leonard Frank) were likely prepped a couple of months apart.

And note that when the story and cover were reprinted in Australia...

...the Aussie editor had Jabba's coloring (somewhat) corrected!

Now, on with today's adventure...

Artist Leonard Frank and a presently-unknown writer continue the battle with Jagga in this tale from Fawcett's Captain Midnight #54 (1947).

And, yes, he'll be back...though what color he'll be, you'll have to wait and see!

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Captain Midnight Archives

Volume 2

Captain Midnight Saves the World!

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Merry Christmas

Santa Claus' World War II-era attempt at updating his transportation...

...doesn't quite go as planned in this wraparound cover from Dell's Santa Claus Funnies #1 (1942).

Unfortunately, the artist didn't sign it, and the experts at various comic indexing sites have been unable to offer possible illustrators.

Personally, I'm thinking Walt Kelly.

(The snarky reindeer are an obvious giveaway)

Any suggestions?

Merry Christmas to All!