Madam Fatal, first cross-dressing superhero

Madam Fatal began running in Crack Comics #1 (May 1940), a creation of Art Pinajian. Fatal debut six months before DC's cross-dressing Red Tornado in Scribbly. Madam's final appearance was in Crack Comics #22 (March 1942) . Pinajian drew the series until the end.

Madam Fatal was really retired actor Richard Stanton. When his daughter was kidnapped, he set about making a new life for himself as an old woman. His foes now underestimated his speed and strength, and he easily topped them. No one knew of his secret but his pet bird, a parrot named Hamlet.
Stanton does save his daughter, but continues fighting crime as an old woman. Though now, instead living only as her, he swishes between identities.

Fatal shows up once in the modern era as part of the DCU. At the funeral of Wes Dodds, Wildcat (Ted Grant) mentions Madam Fatal's funeral, where no one showed up but he traveling cast of La Cage aux Folles (JSA #1). Stanton is buried in Valhalla Cemetery.

Read the Origin from Crack Comics #1 here! [Link fixed 06/2012]

At someone point Golden Age Comic Book Stories had “The Secret of the Rex” from Crack Comics #8 on the site, but the link no longer works. I've linked to it in hopes it will come back someday.

Gold Nuggets: Madam Fatal...Drag Queen of Justice! looks at some panels from Crack Comics #11

Read her final story at Crack Comics #22. [Dead link - I'll post the story at a later date 06/2012]

For more info on Madam Fatal....
Toonopedia article on Madam Fatal
Madam Fatal Profile on International Hero
Gay League - Madame Fatal

Señorita Rio

Señorita Rio, Rita Farrar or Consuela Maria Ascencion De Las Vegas, was an American secret agent. She disguised herself as a Brazilian entertainer, taking advantage of her Latin background to go in to place other agents could blend in. She was often assigned to root out fascists Central and South America during World War II.

Senorita Rio appeared in #19-71 (1942 to 1951). The only exception is #69 when the comic dropped from 52 pages to 36. She has a lot of big name artist throughout her run: Nick Cardy, Lily Renee, Jack Kamen, and Bob Lubbers. Most notable due to the amount of time she spend on it is Lily Renee, see her interview with TCJ below.

Further info after the comics!
Fight Comics #19 (June 1942) "Swastika Web" [First appearance] Art by Nice Cardy Read it here OR take it page by page - Page 01//  02 // 03  // 04//  05 // 06 // 07 // 08

Fight Comics #47 (Dec. 1946) "Horror's Hacienda" Story by "Morgan Hawkins" (often used pen name, unknown owner); Art by Lily Renee Read it here or see it on comics19-at flicker. (Note that the pages are backwards.) And checkout the rest of Fight Comics #47 on a Highlight Reel.

Oddball Comics has a recap of “The Santo Bello Assignment” from Knockout Adventures #1

Links
Rio Rita (Toonpeida)
Rio Rita Profile (FemForce)
The Comics Journal - Lily Renée - An interview with the interesting woman who did so much of the art for the strip.

The Jester

The Jester never made it on a single cover, but he made it into every issues from Smash Comics #22 (1941) to Smash Comics #85 (1949; Last issue). He was a creation of Paul Gustavson and an unknown writer (possibly Gustavson too).

DC Comics acquired the Jester along with the other Quality Comics characters in 1956, but has sparsely used him. He shows up in All-Star Squadron #31 and #60, mostly as face in the crowd. His only modern appearance was in Starman #46, where, in flashback, he teams up with the first Starman against Icicle, Fiddler, and the Gambler. He gives up being a costumed hero and becomes a normal cop. His final fate is unknown.
There is good info already out there on The Jester, and no need of me repeating it here. After his origin story below, you'll find links to some informative pages on the funnyman hero.

From Smash Comics #22, the first appearance of the Jester...

page 1

page 2 // page 3 // page 4 // page 5

Be sure to check the tags for more of the Jester.

Links

The Jester - Don Markstein's Toonopedia
The Jester (Quality Comics) - Wikipedia
Comic Book DB - The Jester (DC)

Strange Fantasy #9 (Dec 1953) Highlight Reel

Strange Fantasy 9 has an interesting history to check out.

Story One: "Dream of Horror" by unknown people. Read it here.

Story Two: laserpotato posts "Hair Yee-eeee" by Bruce Hamilton and Steve Ditko

Story Three: A text story called "Magic Formula"

Story Four: " Portrait of Doom" by unknown

Story Five: "Mirror of Death" by unknown

"Hopi Magic" by ?

From Wonder Comics #11...

"Daffy and Deke."

Staring in Smash Comics #41 (March 1943), Gill Fox began a humor strip called "Daffy and Deke." Daffy Dill is a lady wrestler, moved from a small town to find Deke Parsons. Deke is her crooked wrestling manager. He fled to the big city to escape people he owed money. You can check out their first story below.



























































After Gil Fox left to fight in World War II, Bart Tumey took over duties for the title. He continued on the comic till Smash Comics #85 in 1949, the last issue. The writer is listed as Tumey by Comic Book DB for a number of issues after he starts his run, but it is a good bet that he continued to do them the rest of the run too. (Not proven, do not quote me.)

As of Smash Comics #43, the comic was renamed to just be "Daffy." The strip underwent more changes in the coming years. Daffy stayed tall and strong, but slimed down and began to reflect the times more in dress and looks.

In Daffy size jokes are a consent, and many of the plots over the years are about losing weight.

If you're still looking for more Daffy check out Smash Comics - Daffy and Deke on Flicker for the story from #42

Captain Battle

Thanks to and written by strannik01

"After being injured while fighting in World War I, John Battle swore that he would never let another world war happen again. To that end, he set up a mountaintop headquarters filled with weapons and gadgets of his own design. Most notably, he had a "curoscope" (which allowed him to see anywhere on Earth) a super-fast jet pack and a Dissolvo gun that, as one exposition box put it: "a color concentrate, the vibrations of which melt down nerve and bone tissue into a gelatinous mass." Using this and other plot-required episodic gadgets, John Battle fought spies, saboteurs and other enemies of America. When the World War did, in fact, happen in real life, he became a more generic superhero.

He also had the worst secret identity in the history of superhero comics."

Story taken from Captain Battle #5 (1943), Picture Scoop Inc.

Page1.jpg // Page2.jpg //Page3.jpg // Page4.jpg // /Page6.jpg // Page7.jpg // Page8.jpg // Page9.jpg //Page10.jpg

[Links fixed July 04 2011)

For More on Captain Battle....

Captain Battle and Captian Battle Jr's Profile page

Captain Battle on International Hero

Comic Book DB - Captain Battle

Blackhawk: The Man in the Iron Mask

At a time when comics were mostly doing one shots Blackhawk started throwing in multi-part stories.

It starts in Military Comics #3 which introduces “Chop-Chop.” Why they chose this plot to go with that introduction, I will forever wonder.

Part 1

Part 2 (Military Comics #9)
Part 3 (Military Comics #10)

The Origin of Blackhawk

History has proven that whenever liberty is smothered and men lie crushed beneath oppression there always rises a man to defend the helpless…liberate the enslaved and crush the tyrant…such a man is Blackhawk…out of the ruins of Europe and out of the hopeless mass of defeated people he comes, smashing the evil before him...

Read the Origin of Blackhawk here.


*Note: This is not a scan from the reprint.

Blue Beetle #10 Highlight Reel

Looking at Fox's Blue Beetle #10 stories:

"The Case of the Burning Death" Story #1 Writer "Charles Nicholas"; Art by Ramona Patenaude.
"The Monster of the swamp" Story #4 Writer "Charles Nicholas"; Art by Ramona Patenaude.

Ramona Patenaude, a female artist, turned out most of the bondage covers for Fox titles. (Ramona Patenaude is not a house name.) Writer "Charles Nicholas" could be one of three people. This might be Jack Kirby here, I'm not sure.

Check them out here!

Jill Trent, Science Sleuth in Wonder Comics #13

Wonder Comics #13 (August 1947)
Art by Al Camy

Edit: Trying it on Flicker his time. Blogger's cut tags are too hard.

Wonder Comics #13 Jill Trent's Story

X of the Underground

Agent X was a female member of the European underground resistance movement. She worked undercover across the nations to perform acts of sabotage, create a network of people (mostly women) to help subvert the Naiz effort, and free people from Nazi tyranny.

X was created by Vernon Henkel (The Space Legion, Marvel titles during the early 1950s, mostly stuck to art after the 1940s). She had a short run in Military Comics, only appearing in six issues.

Military Comics #8 (March 1942): Introducing X
Military Comics #9 (April 1942): The Berlin Express
Military Comics #10 (June 1942): A Brother's Betrayal
Military Comics #11 (August !942): The Cholera Serum
Military Comics #12 (October 1942): The Gestapo's Costume Ball
Military Comics #13 (November 1942): "There Are More than One Way To Skin A Cat"

You can read #8, #10, and #11 online here.


Check out Military Comics 12 here.