Thursday, March 27, 2008

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

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Monday, March 24, 2008

"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 (Not proven, do not quote me.)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

Saturday, March 22, 2008

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

The Origin of Blackhawk

[Military+Comics+01+-+06-6.JPG]

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!

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

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

Friday, March 14, 2008

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.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Blackhawk text stories!

From Military Comics #18 "The Giant of the Air" (1st Blackhawk text story)

Military Comics #20 "The Way of Blackhawk"

Military Comics #21 "Fate Fights For Freedom"

Women Outlaws #3 (Nov 1948) Highlight Reel



A Fox Features Syndicate's Women Outlaws was created to take advantage of the popularity of comics featuring bad girls. The book earned a spot in Seduction of the Innocent.

Checkout the full story of "Cowboy Maggie Queen of the Barbary Coast" with run downs and clips from the other stories. Read more...

After eight issues the title continues as My Love Memories #9 (then to Hunted, into Western Outlaws, into two other changes). For more check it out on the Grand Comic-Book Database.