Friday, September 20, 2019

Number 2391: The cop and the kid and the Blonde Phantom

Wikipedia says of the Blonde Phantom: “Louise Grant, born in Hoboken, New Jersey, was secretary to private detective Mark Mason. Enamored with her boss and wanting to help him break cases, she surreptitiously donned a black domino mask and a sexy, skintight, slit-leg red evening gown and high heels, and ventured out at night fighting crime. Highly athletic and seemingly trained in martial arts, the Blonde Phantom also carried a .45-caliber pistol. In a distaff echo of Superman and Lois Lane, Mason had a crush on the Blonde Phantom, but not on Louise.”

In this story from Blonde Phantom #17 (1948), our heroine and a cop try to help a kid keep out of trouble. Juvenile delinquency was and is a problem. There have always been juvenile delinquents, but in the postwar world they were focused on, and some prominent adult observers blamed comic books for delinquency. It has been the experience in my lifetime that when young people commit crimes some “experts” look to popular culture for blame.

This story has no author listed by the GCD, but the artwork is credited to Syd Shores ? and Vince Alascia ? Those question marks mean the GCD does not know for certain. Nor do I.









Another Blonde Phantom story. Just click on the thumbnail.


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4 comments:

  1. sayeg2:15 PM

    are two or three artists in this story

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rick3:37 AM

    Blonde Phantom easily wins the prize for most glamorous but completely impractical costume in the history of costumed heroes. The idea of capes was bad enough but a full length gown? How those heroes avoided getting all tangled up in their costumes during a brawl is among the greatest mysteries in comics.

    Obviously Jimmy had to get away from his Uncle Pete (if he was his uncle. I shudder to think what else may have been going on) but where exactly was he going to live?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Pappy9:01 AM

    sayeg, I think the Grand Comics Database got it right by guessing Syd Shores and Vince Alascia.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Pappy9:09 AM

    Rick, the full length gown would be tougher to draw for the artist, also. Skin tight costumes wouldn't have so many clothing folds to draw. Shore might have been picked for the job because he was one of those guys who could draw anything.

    ReplyDelete

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