Peterkin Pottle

Peterkin Pottle is a life guard, a early American hunter, and an all around great hero. Peterkin Pottle is a high imaginative little boy.

In real life Peterkin goes to a school where he has to sit in back of the class for being stupid. He is consetly teased by the other kids, except for the lovely Patty.

Peterkin Pottle is one of the earliest original creations of John Stanley. He started appering in 1949 and issues #32 to #38 of Raggedy Ann and Andy star Pottle on the cover.

Peterkin Pottle gave John Stanley a chance to show off his dark humor and really start to play with one of his favorite themes, social alienation.

From Raggedy Ann and Andy #33 you can read this Peterkin Pottle story on The John Stanley website.

Below is the story from Raggedy Ann and Andy #38.

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The Comet

Jack Cole is remembered for his creation of Plastic Man, but the stretchy superhero wasn't his first super powered savior.

Scientist John Dickering discovers a gas 50 times lighter than hydrogen. By injecting this gas into his blood he gains he the ability jump high into the air, achieving near flight. After his experiments continue he finds that by crossing his eyes he can focus beams to desegregate whatever is in his path. Knowing what this could do in the wrong hands, John destroys the formula and picks up a costume to become The Comet.

Meet John Dickering, The Comet!

The Comet ran trough Pep Comics #17, but Jack Cole was only the writer as far as #5. Before Cole left he had John meet reporter Thelma Gordon, who remained his girlfriend till the end of his series.
Shortly before he meets Thelma, he is hypnotized into stealing and killing a police officer, becoming a fugitive. Thelma believes he is innocence and falls in love with him. For a while the two work together, by #17 she is asking him to turn himself in so they can live normally.

Read the story arc "Pencils of Doom" from Pep Comics #11 and #12 here.

In #17 John's brother Bob is introduced and soon would become another big player in Pep Comics.

For More Information...
The Comet - Don Markstein's Toonopedia
The Comet (International Superhero)
Dangerous Origins, part 2
The Mighty Crusaders (The Comet was a member when revived later in comics)
Be sure to check the tags for more on The Comet.

Lil' Eightball

Three "Lil EightBall" cartoons were produced and distributed through Universal Pictures in 1939. Black Like Me: The History Of Black Comic Book Heroes Through The Ages Part One 1900-1968 by Dart Adams makes mention of one of the Lil Eight Ball cartoons and give a short background on the character with pictures. "A-Haunting We Will Go" provides more screen shots for the last of the cartoons with a light background.

Dell took the short-lived, animated character from 1939 and dropped him into the pages of New Funnies. Lil' EightBall is a black boy growing up in the rural south. It has all the racist stereotypes one might expect with that setting.

From New Funnies #106 (Dec 1945)
page 01 // page 02 // page 03 //page 04//page 05 //page 06 // page 07//

More information...

Lil' Eightball (Big Cartoons Database)
Der Captain give his thoughts on Lil Eightball after seeing "A-Hunting We Will Go"
Here is the story of Lil Eight Ball B-17G-35-DL 42-107215 from the 709th Bomb Squadron which featured the character as it's nose art.
I am not sure who owns it now, but New Funnies is not in the Public Domain. It is safe to say Lil Eightball will never be re-printed, but you can still find the cartoons running around and unadvertised episodes on Walter Lantz's Cartoons DVDs.

Betty Bates, Lady at Law

Staring in Hit Comics #4, Betty Bates finds danger everywhere she turns. Sometimes she jumps into trouble, sometimes it grabs her and runs. Either way "Betty Bates, Lady at Law" was one of the better back-up in Hit Comics, outlasting it's cover stars: Neon the Unknown, The Red Bee, Kid Eternity, and Hercules.

Betty Bates, Lady at Law (later called Attorney at Law, then just Betty Bates) has no side kick or repeating cast for most of her run. As Hit Comics began to cut some of its length, only becoming five or six stories and issue, Betty picks up Larry. Larry is a Police reporter who clearly has a crush on Betty, the new District Attorney.

Larry is often used as comic relief, but never falls to being the consent funny man or the annoying side kick. He backs Betty up in her out of office adventures, but he never has to save her. The strip is not degraded by the additions of a side kick like many other strips have been.

Betty was created by the name she is usually credited to, "Stanley Charlot." Stanley Charlot, a pen named used only on Hit Comics, is credited to Bob Powell by The Grand Comics Database (Hit Comics) and Lambiek Comiclopedia (Comic creator: Bob Powell). Some Hit Comic readers give credit to Al Bryant, who later did all the art for the strip. Artists Nick Cardy also worked on the title before Al Bryant came in, but is never credited with writing it. Alice Kirkpatrick is credited with the art on some of the last issues.

Betty Bates sometimes has alight, funny story, and sometimes a darker of crime. Below you will find a light one.

From Hit Comics #12 "One Hamburger with Trouble!" Art by Al Bryant

Click here to read and be sure to come back for more Betty Bates!

Klaus Nordling and Lt. Drake of the U.S. Naval Intelligence

Writer and artist Klaus Nordling, famous for his work on Lady Luck, started his career in 1939. His first work is Baron Munchausen, a Sunday strip comic. Soon he was working with Fox Comics on "Spark Stevens" and "Lt. Drake of the U.S. Naval Intelligence."

F. Klaus, who singed the first panel of the comic below, is really Nordling. He did do the pencil work here, if not the writing. The writer is is marked as unknown by the Grand Comics Database, but Nordling did the writing on a number of strips.Now to see some early work! Here is Mystery Men #12 (July 1940)"The Stuffed Fish Smugglers"

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More more infomation on Klaus Nordling:

Klaus Nordling (Artist Profile)

Nordling, Klaus (Who's Who Bio; A few of his pen names, and a list of known works)

The Mouthpiece

"A newly elected district attorney, Young Bill Perkins, draws the ridicule of older officials because of his alert action methods. When out after first-hand evidence, Bill wears a mask and to the evasive figures beyond the law he brings terror and grim respect--to them he is...The Mouthpiece!"

The above is from Mouthpiece's first story, and it is the only introduction creator Fred Guardineer ever gives. Mouthpiece is yet another 1940s, blue suited lawyer tired of the red tape. He stands out from look a likes The Sprit and Midnight because he is played complete straight. His comics are darker, more violent, and generally not as good.

Mouthpeice only lasted until Police Comics #13. In modern times, he has shown up as part of the DC Universe in Dr. Mid-Nite #1. Not as a crime fighter, but as a law advisor to Dr. Mid-Nite who lost his family to AIDS.

From Police Comics #1 (August 1941), here is his first story.
Page 1//page 2//page 3//page 4//page 5//page 6

For more infomation...
Mouthpiece (Wikipedia)

Check the Tags for more Mouthpiece!

Blaze Barton and The World of the Future

In 50017 A.D. the Earth is spiraling towards the sun. Professor Solis and his daughter Betty (Avis by #3) create a great, heat-proof city for the best and brightest. The rest of the humans dies, and in their place the creatures from the center of the Earth have crawled out to live.

Blaze Barton (dropping "and The World of the Future" after issues #1) ran for 13 issues of Hit Comics. Information of the creator is unknown, but artist for the first story was Henry Kiefer. Blaze goes though a lot of artist and a lot of gal pals.

You're set to read Blaze Barton now. That's all you really need know.

Hit Comics #1 "Doomsday and Afterwards" Writer Unknown; Pencils Henry Kiefer

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More Information...

Unused Quality Comics Characters

Earth X Timeline

Stories By Famous Authors Illustrated

Stories By Famous Authors illustrated was a 1950s, 13 issues series of adaptations from literature. Stories were usually 32 pages with two or three text stories at the end of the issue. Issues #1 through #5 were reprints of Fast Fiction with different covers, put out a year earlier. Stories By Famous Authors has some great history (and covers) on it's front page,

"This series was first produced by Seaboard Publishing as Fast Fiction and provided competition for the more well known series, Classics Illustrated. The series used some of the same artists as that series, including the well known and very well regarded Henry Carl Keifer. Clearly Albert Kanter, the Father of the Classics Illustrated series wasn’t impressed to have another publisher muscling in on his idea and was also angered that Keifer was also churning out some of the Seaboard stories - Hamlet and She refer - and so Kanter bought the upstart in 1951...In fact, if you own The Red Badge of Courage, number 98 in the Classics Illustrated series, then you have what was planned to be number 14 in the series from Stories by Famous Authors and was purchased by Gilberton at the same time as the purchase of the publishing rights for the 13 issued. That is why The Red Badge is only 32 pages long..."

Famous Authors Illustrated #1 The Scarlet Pimpernel

Famous Authors Illustrated #2 Captain Blood

Famous Authors Illustrated #3 She, art by Vincent Napoli

Famous Authors Illustrated #4 The 39 Steps

Famous Authors Illustrated #5 Beau Geste adaptation by Dick Davis; art by Henry C. Kiefer.

Famous Authors Illustrated #6 Macbeth, adapted by Danna E. Dutch; art by Henry C. Kiefer

Famous Authors Illustrated #7 The Window (text story: The Boy Who Cried Wolf)

Famous Authors Illustrated #8 Hamlet, adapted by Danna E. Dutch; art by Henry C. Kiefer (see it here) (Text stories: The Christophers, The Skeets calls for Skill, and Everyday expressions)

Famous Authors Illustrated #9 Nicholas Nickleby

Famous Authors Illustrated #10 Romeo and Juliet, adapted by Danna E. Dutch; art by Henry C. Kiefer

Famous Authors Illustrated #11 Ben Hur (text stories: The Word of Law, Te Cheating of Hadschi, Escape from War Prison)

Famous Authors Illustrated #12 la Svengali (text stories: William Tell, The First Commandos, The Rajah Takes A Census)

Famous Authors Illustrated #13 Scaramouche

For more info...

Stories By Famous Authors Illustrated (GCBDB)

If you know of any other links, please leave it in the comments!

Patty O'Day and English Eddie

Here is a quick spy story, featuring reoccurring character the suave "English Eddie" (or is it Lord Mike?).

From Wonderworld Comics #4 "The case of English Eddie" by Adolphe Barreaux

Page 01 // Page 02 // Page 03 // Page 04 // Page 05 // Page 06

Patty O'Day

Newsreel reporter Patty O'Day with her camera man/ever loyal bodyguard, Ham, investigates and adventures her way into her stories. Patty first showed up in Wonderworld #3, written and drawn by Adolphe Barreaux.

Patty is fairly athletic, and something of a of an actor. She has been know to dress up in disguise to get information.

(Image to the left from Wonderworld Comics #8 "Action in Switzerland," drawn by Clarie S. Moe.)

Read some Patty O'day here!
Wonderworld #30
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Find out more...
Comic creator: Adolphe Barreaux
Comic creator: Claire S. Moe - signing her work "Vic Todd" (See the story above) and Orville Wells.
See the tags for more Patty Comics!

Crack Comics #10 "Madam Fatal Meets The Jester."

Art and Story by Art Pinajian.

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This comic happens before Smash Comics #22, the first story of the Jester. If it isn't him, that means that there are three Jesters running around. One villain (who sticks to Madam Fatal stories) and two good Jesters (one of which never shows up again). If it is him, he found reason to change his name to Chuck Lane.

Shock SuspenStories

Shock SuspenStories features a mixture of horror, crime, and war stories.

"We've tried to satisfy every one of you readers who have written us insisting that E.C. increase its output! Many of you wanted another science-fiction mag... you horror fans wanted another horror book... and you suspense readers wanted a companion mag to Crime SuspenStories! We decided, therefore, to make this new mag an "E.C. Sampler" ...and to include in it an S-F yard, a horror tale, a Crime SuspenStory, and... for you readers of Frontline Combat and Two-Fisted Tales... a war story! Although there was a wide variance in the types of mags requested, all of you fans seemed to agree on one thing: all of you wanted the stories to have the usual E.C. SHOCK endings! So what could be more natural than to call the magazine SHOCK SUSPENSTORIES?" -- Shock SuspenStories

The war stories don't make it past issue one, but some stories are social issue-based. In fact the comic often tries to teach moral lessons with it's twist endings.

The magazine start in 1952 an ran till 1955, putting out 18 issues in all.

Shock SuspenStories has seen reprints. A black and white collection was put out in the early 1980s. Reprints of all 18 issues were reprinted in the early 1990s. They can still be found running around. Recently, the series has been collected in great full color sets. You'll find links to those below.

If you enjoy shows like Tales From the Crypt, this is a comic for you.

Now for a sneak peek from the individual 90s reprints...

From issues #2 "The Patriots!" by Jack Davis

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Shock SuspenStories #1 "The Rug" by Graham Ingels - [Link Down]

Shock SuspenStories #1 "A Neat Job!" by Jack Kamen - Read it here!

Shock SuspenStories #1 "Yellow" - Read it here

Shock SuspenStories #9 "The October Game" by Jack Kamen - Enjoy it here

Shock SuspenStories #12 "The Monkey" by Joe Orlando -See it here

Shock SuspenStories #15 "Raw Deal" - See it here

Shock SuspenStories #15 "Well Trained" by George Evans. - Read it here

Shock SuspenStories #16 "The Hazing" by Joe Orlando - Read it here (Also see the famous "Are You a Red Dupe?" ad.)

More info....

GCD :: Series - Shock SuspenStories

Shock SuspenStories

The Regular artist/writers...

Comic creator: George Evans

Comic creator: Jack Kamen

Comic creator: Joe Orlando

Comic creator: Wallace Wood (Wally Wood)

Pick it up today!

Gemstone - Shock SuspenStories: Volume One

Shock Suspenstories Vol. 1 : Books from Overstock.com

Ebay is good to check too. Especially if you are only looking for one story, or just want to test them out.

Shock SuspenStories, unlike many EC tittles and comics on the blog, is not in public domain. If you like what you've seen here, be sure to pick it up.