Number 1625: How green was my hero

We’re having another theme week beginning today. I am calling it Heroes in Green Week, after costumed characters who use “green” in their names.

First up is Green Mask, who wears a green mask. By golly, that’s clever. He teams with “Domino, the Miracle Boy,” who wears a small domino mask. More cleverness!

The story, from Fox’s The Green Mask #9 (1942) is credited to Walter Frame. According to the Grand Comics Database the artist was Arthur Cazeneuve, another journeyman workhorse of the early comics. The GCD says Walter Frame was a pen name of Cazeneuve’s. But I believe that pen name came from the phonetic spelling of the name of the original artist, Walter Frehm.

I got an e-mail from reader, Darci, who let me know the following about the use of the pseudonym, Walter Frame:  “Comment #1 from Jim Van Dore 2015-02-01 --- Jerry Bails says Walter Frame is a Fox byline used for stories by several artists (including Frehm).  He also says Frehm was gone from this feature in
1940.  The blog notes that Frehm had earlier done the feature.”

Thanks, Darci, and thanks to Jim Van Dore.

Shown in February, a Green Mask story from Mystery Men Comics #3. Click on the thumbnail: