Reading Room: "COMICS" McCORMICK "Say KA-BANG!"

Say a magic word and become a superhero...

...it was an old trope in comics even during the Golden Age, as shown in this tale that combines several different heroes' shticks into one!

Is it just me or does this story from Holyoke's Terrific Comics #5 (1944) hint that the boy heroes of the Golden Age were less..."heroic" than their adult counterparts?

Written and illustrated by Ed Wheelan, who did over 300 stories during his career from 1938-1949, almost all of them as both writer and artist, it presents a number of typical cartoon stereotypes of the period including the "old maid" schoolteacher and the extremely-caricatured Black kid Ajax Johnson (though, to be fair, Ajax is shown as an equal to the other comic-loving boys in the story).

The main difference between "Comics" McCormick and it's rival series, SuperSnipe, is that "Comics" daydreams about interacting with comic characters, but SuperSnipe actually tries to do heroic deeds like capturing spies or rescuing kittens, but invariably screws up and ends up being grounded (or worse).
Written and illustrated by Ed Wheelan, who did over 300 stories during his career from 1938-1949, almost all of them as both writer and artist, it completes our run of Comics McCormack's adventures in Terrific Comics.
But it's not the final chapter in Comics' saga, as you shall soon see...

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Reading Room: "COMICS" McCORMICK "Inspector Conrad Cosmic"

Each issue our hero encounters characters from a different comic strip/book genre!

This time, he aids a space-going adventurer not unlike Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers.

This story from Holyoke's Terrific Comics #6 (1944) is written and illustrated by Ed Wheelan, who did over 300 stories during his career from 1938-1949, almost all of them as both writer and artist.
Despite the blurb, this was Comics McCormick's final appearance in Terrific Comics, due to the book's cancellation.
His next appearance was a single story in Cat-Man Comics #28, then he joined Ed Wheelan's other strips in Fat & Slat, an EC Comics anthology title dedicated to Whelan's work that lasted only four issues.
(BTW, the story with the robot was published in Fat & Slat #3.)

While Flash and Buck were primarily newspaper comic strip characters, both had comic books that reprinted their newspaper appearances.
In addition, there were numerous space-hero characters created specifically for comics including SpaceHawk,  Rex Dexter, and Rocket Kelly.

The main difference between "Comics" McCormick and it's rival series, SuperSnipe, is that "Comics" daydreams about interacting with comic characters, but SuperSnipe actually tries to do heroic deeds like capturing spies or rescuing kittens, but invariably screws up and ends up being grounded (or worse).
This story from Holyoke's Terrific Comics #6 (1944) is written and illustrated by Ed Wheelan, who did over 300 stories during his career from 1938-1949, almost all of them as both writer and artist.

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Reading Room: "COMICS" McCORMICK "Captain Catapult"

Each issue our hero encounters characters from a different comic strip/book genre!

This time, he aids a super-hero in the Superman / Captain Marvel mold.

The main difference between this strip and it's primary rival, SuperSnipe, is that "Comics" daydreams about interacting with comic characters, but SuperSnipe actually tries to do heroic deeds like capturing spies or rescuing kittens, but invariably screws up and ends up being grounded (or worse).
This story from Holyoke's Terrific Comics #4 (1944) is written and illustrated by Ed Wheelan.
The final blurb mentioning "Suspence" Comics is totally-inaccurate.
While Holyoke did publish Suspense Comics (note the spelling), "Comics" never appeared in that title, only in Terrific Comics.
When Wheelan moved over to EC Comics in 1947 (before they did horror and sci-fi titles), he was given his own book, Fat & Slat, where he carried over several older strips, including "Comics" McCormick.
Fat & Slat only lasted four issues before being retitled Gunfighter and made into a Western comic.
#4 marked "Comics" McCormick's only cover appearance in his too-short existence.
Wheelan did over 300 stories during his career from 1938-1949, almost all of them as both writer and artist.

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Reading Room: "COMICS" McCORMICK "Octopus"

Each issue our hero encounters characters from a different comic genre!

This time, he faces a super-villain who's the lead in his own strip.
(Note: contains some racial stereotypes common to the period and may be NSFW)

In the early days of the Golden Age, most anthology comics had at least one strip with a villain as the lead, the most famous being The Claw who started as the lead in Silver Streak Comics, but was eventually superseded as the cover feature by the original DareDevil.

This story from Terrific Comics #3 (1944) features a villain who shared the same name as a pulp villain who had his own (one issue) title as well as The Spirit's arch-foe who never showed his face.

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Reading Room: "COMICS" McCORMICK "He Daydreams Adventure"

If you're reading this blog, you're probably a fanboy or fangirl...

...so, I'm sure you'll appreciate this guy, who, along with competitor SuperSnipe, was considered the "World's #1 Comic Book Fan"!

This never-reprinted debut tale from Holyoke's Terrific Comics #2 (1944) was written and illustrated by Ed Wheelan, one of the most influential creators of the period who is, sadly, nearly-forgotten today.

There's a basic bio about him HERE, but he's really deserving of as much attention as other greats like Will Eisner and Jack Kirby.

"'Comics' McCormick" ran for the remainder of Terrific Comics' existence, then popped into Cat-Man Comics for an issue, along with several other orphaned Terrific Comics series.

When Holyoke went out of business, Wheelan took the character over to EC Comics where he appeared in all four issues of Fat & Slat, which featured only Wheelan's work, and shares, with Moon Girl, the sad distinction of being one of the few EC Comics series that's never been reprinted!

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