Number 1095


Jasper Fudd steps up to the plate


Jasper Fudd appeared in issues two and three of Boody Rogers' teenage comic, Dudley. Too bad there were only three issues because I think it's good. Jasper (and no, I don't know if he's related to Elmer Fudd) is a hick who moves to an urban high school, and needs to prove himself. It reminded me of what happened to me in a similar situation (oh lordy, another memoir from Pappy)...my family moved and I joined a fifth grade class which had been in session for a couple of months. I was tested on the baseball field during a phys ed class. I couldn't run, field, catch or play base, but Big Pappy had taught me how to bat, to step into a pitch and hit a long ball. That's what I did. I hit home runs. It was the same story with basketball. Big Pappy taught me to make free throws. I couldn't run, guard, or make a basket while moving, but I could hit free throws. So if there were ever teams that needed a guy to do one thing, and do it well, I would have been perfect. Alas. Fifth grade was the pinnacle of my career as a jock.

You can get the second Jasper story in Craig Yoe's book, Boody, still available from your favorite booksellers. This is the first Jasper Fudd story from Dudley #2, 1950:

Number 1094


Hangman in the future


If the Hangman was an answer on the TV quiz show, Jeopardy, the question would be, "Who was the slain Comet's brother?"

Hangman was Bob Dickering, who took over when his superhero brother John was killed, and like many a vigilante character before him (and after him, too; see Dexter) swore vengeance on murderers. When the Hangman caught his prey, the criminal had the shadow of a noose cast upon him and then met a fitting end to his murderous career.

In this particular science fiction offering of the popular MLJ feature, published in The Black Hood #10, Spring 1944, Hangman goes after the villain by being sent 100 years to the future. It's a future much more enlightened than the world of 1944, one in which the death penalty has been abolished, and you can tell that because the news is on a big billboard.

Bob Fuje (Fujitani), who drew this episode of "Hangman," was one of the best artists to come out of the Golden Age. His work changed over the years from this Will Eisner lookalike to a more illustrative style, and he stayed active until at least the mid-1980s. As far as I know Fujitani, who was born in 1920, is still living at age 91.

Number 1093


The Sorceror's Apprentice


This isn't the "Sorceror's Apprentice" most of us are familiar with from the Walt Disney classic, Fantasia: no Mickey Mouse or brooms carrying water.

The artwork is by someone comic art historians Hames Ware and Jim Vadeboncoeur called "THE Great Unknown." The artwork is very good, but doesn't look familiar to me. If you know who it is please tell us.

From Fairy Tale Parade, Dell Four Color #114, 1946:

Number 1092


H.G. Peter's last Wonder Woman


Harry G. Peter was born in 1880. At age 61 he began drawing Wonder Woman, from her first appearance in Sensation Comics, continuing with the feature far into the 1950s. Wonder Woman #97, cover dated April, 1958, was Peter's last issue. He retired at the end of 1957, and died in 1958.

His last issue is just as screwball as most of the issues he drew. Wonder Woman was much cleaned up from the era before her creator, William Moulton Marston (writing as Charles Moulton) was writing the strip. No kinky and bizarre bondage themes, for example. Well, they dropped kinky and kept bizarre. In this issue Wonder Woman goes hopping through time, encountering a dinosaur mingling with cavemen, a society where numbers stand for thoughts, and a crazy Olympic-style games.

That type of story, which came from editor Robert Kanigher, would be the norm even during the era of artists Ross Andru and Mike Esposito, who took over the book and would draw Wonder Woman for the next several years, based on the familiar depiction created by H. G. Peter

The cover is credited by the Grand Comics Database to Irwin Hasen and Bernard Sachs.