Number 673


Whiz Wilson and his Futuroscope


Lightning Comics, a continuation of Ace's Sure-Fire Comics, was a typical anthology comic of the year 1940. It had a superhero, a cowboy, a magician, and Whiz Wilson, a science fiction hero in the Flash Gordon mold. Whiz had what he called a Futuroscope, a really handy device that could move him around in time and space. I'd like one of those, myself. I wonder if anyone has one for sale on eBay...

Anyway, the Grand Comics Database doesn't have any information on Whiz Wilson, but the art in this episode from Lightning Comics #4, is derivative of Alex Raymond, just like a couple of dozen other comic book features. I really don't know how the earliest comics could have existed without Raymond and Hal Foster's Prince Valiant to swipe from.

Just how tied to Flash Gordon was Whiz Wilson? This is the lead sentence from another episode, as quoted by the GCD: "One day Whiz Wilson sets the dials of his Futuroscope to take him to the planet Mongo, in the year 2300..." Mongo. That's where Flash, Flash's girl Dale Arden, Doc Zarkoff and Ming the Merciless hung out.

This particular adventure has Whiz mixing it up with some post-apocalyptic stone age types in South America.

Number 672


Airboy and Valkyrie


This story has been reprinted a few times and for good reason. It's sexy. Valkyrie proclaims as she shoots at Airboy, "Here's a taste of some hot German lead!" Airboy gets both the hot lead and the hot German.

Valkyrie, as drawn by Fred Kida and Bill Quackenbush in her 1943 introductory opus from Air Fighters Volume 2 Number 2, is a Nazi-trained fighter, the cream of "German girlhood." But she realizes the error of her ways. Maybe the sight of a bare-chested Airboy had something to do with that. Speaking of bare-chested, braless Valkyrie looks pretty good in her open blouse. I'm sure the attraction went both ways as shown by the action between the two in the crowded cockpit of Airboy's plane, Birdie.

Number 671


Pussycat, damsel in disguise


It's time to bid adieu to our dear little Pussycat, who has graced Pappy's now for five episodes. (You can see them by typing the word Pussycat in the search engine box at the top left, or go to the link on the bottom and click on the name. You can also click on Bill Ward and see the other sexy stories I've run by this incredible good girl artist.)

This is the sixth and final Bill Ward story from the Pussycat one-shot, black and white magazine published in 1968.

I've also included a Torchy story from the 1992 Torchy Summer Fun Special, published by Innovation. When you're through ogling Torchy, let your eyes wander to the evil scientist, who is a dead ringer for Captain Marvel's Dr. Sivana. Also, I can't swear to it, but the goggle-eyed guy yelling "You're telling us!" looks to be an homage to Al Feldstein.

Number 670

2 x 4T


I've mentioned before that John Forte is one of the comic book men who helped carry the industry through it's most productive era of the 1940s and '50s, and then on into the '60s.

In the mid-to-late 1950s Forte drew supernatural stories for ACG (Adventures Into the Unknown, Forbidden Worlds, et al). He went from there to DC, where he did the series, "Tales Of the Bizarro World" for Adventure Comics, with scripts by Jerry Siegel. That series was replaced by "The Legion Of Super Heroes," also drawn by Forte. Sadly, John Forte died at a young age in 1965.

These are two pre-Comics Code stories: "Never Call a Ghost" is from Trojan's Beware #2, and "Hire a Hoodlum" is from Atlas Comics' Justice #40. Just a few years before his stint with Bizarro, Forte was covering the horror and crime genres like the comics journeyman he was. Prior postings featuring Forte's work are in Pappy's #256, Pappy's #268, and Pappy's #510.

Number 669


The fat kids


In old comics the fat jokes flew fast and furious. There were fat characters: Tubby, Porky Pig, Fatman the Human Flying Saucer, Herbie, and of course Little Lotta. Lotta was a glutton, and shows it in this story from Little Dot #9. Someone came up with a character who had one characteristic, eating, and based solely on that made a string of stories and comic books that lasted for years.

The Lotta story is from Little Dot #9, from original art found on Heritage Auctions. The other story, which I've thrown in to give this posting some weight (yuk yuk) is "Chub" from Dennis the Menace #6. It's written and drawn by the team of Fred Toole and Al Wiseman, and is pretty much in the Lotta mode. I don't remember seeing Chub much. They probably couldn't milk (lowfat, I hope) the subject much more.

Nowadays with childhood obesity a sensitive health issue I can't imagine anyone doing stories like these, so enjoy the non-PC forbidden thrills of past fatty humor. While you're reading I'll do some sit-ups so my stomach doesn't enter the room a couple of minutes before the rest of me.