I suspect, not having read every pulp magazine and comic book ever published (although some days it feels like it), that the plot device of a rich person being threatened with murder by some demented villain for the purposes of extortion must have been common. It just doesn’t ring with originality. One of the most famous from the genre is the Joker’s introduction in
Batman, when the Joker pulled off “the grinning death.” Mr Murder doesn’t go that far in this Bulletman episode, but the plot seems inspired by that, and probably numberless other stories before Batman.
Here’s a hint: when a story is only 8 or 9 pages long, every new, non-series character should be suspected of being the alter ego of the disguised, slouch-hatted villain. Not trying to spoil the story for you...I’m just sayin'.
The Grand Comics Database gives Charles Sultan credit for the artwork. The story is from Fawcett’s
Master Comics #15 (1941):
Come back tomorrow, when I bring back the Thanksgiving Turkey Awards for the most oddball story I have read all year.
6 comments:
Here we go again: "That girl... I'm sure I've seen her before. Hmm, I guess not. Probably just my imagination". Dolt.
I think he has to check his daughter's fingerprints every evening before dinner, just to be sure who the heck she is.
You'll say "yeah, but that's the way it was with comics, back then".
Is it possible that in 1941 readers found it OK and didn't think "How stupid is this!" ?
J D, I not only think it, I am certain of it.
I think that L8Y is 2 old 2 call herself Bullit Girl, she shuld B like Bullit Women or Bullit L8Y. I gess she must B liaring about her age tho, & tha Bullit Girl name is a cover 4 Tha Big Lye LOL #Badasserest
Alicia, if you can be one of Those American Girls, why can't she be Bulletgirl?
Considering that they spend most of their stories calling each other by their weak names in front of every villain they fight, it's amazing that they can even maintain secret identities.
Various of the old-dark-house movies put the villain in a cloak and slouch hat. When Warner brothers spoofed these in The Case of the Stuttering Pig (1937, directed by Frank Tashlin), the villain is the family lawyer, and his disguise entails a slouch hat. Yes, there's some suggestion then that the Bulletman story here was influenced by a Porky Pig cartoon!
Post a Comment