Number 2118: “Hot dawg! Ain’t I nifty?”

 I have seen many examples of stereotypes in old comics, including some really egregiously racist portrayals of African-Americans, and in this story, a “minstrel face.” Caucasian male ZX-5 is the face behind the make-up, in this tale from Jumbo Comics #101 (1947). Artist Jack Kamen used ink lines on the face for shading, and then the colorist added the brown color over the lines. It isn’t as bad as I have seen in other places, where the minstrel make-up is solid black, but it is still insensitive, a relic of its era.

I like when ZX-5 and his platinum blonde partner, Rita, go into their soft-shoe routine. It makes for an amusing two panels at the top of page 4. That ol' devil weed, marijuana, also figures into the story. The artwork shows that Jack Kamen, who later went on to EC Comics, could draw pretty girls, but his action panels always looked stiff to me.

Even after having shown two other ZX-5 stories,in 2008 and 2013, I still knew nothing of the character. I went to Public Domain Superheroes, where I lifted this:

Created by Will Eisner

Origin

Agent ZX-5 was one of the top US spies. He answered to his superior Major Jason, who gave ZX-5 missions around the world fighting the Axis powers during WWII. He would continually come into conflict with foreign spies such as Madame Terror. After the war, he goes on to become a private eye.

He was known for his charm and carried a trick cane with numerous buttons each with a different function such as one for tear gas.

ZX-5 gets a ringing endorsement from his boss in the next to last panel: “For the first time, I like you...you’re actually human!” Not only that, he had staying power. ZX-5 appeared in all 140 issues of Jumbo Comics.