Monday, March 15, 2021

Number 2504: A little off the back and sides, please

 
 
The Biblical Samson was the genesis (a little Bible joke) of the comic book super hero for Fox Features, and the Eisner and Iger studio used Samson as a character in some of Fox’s comic books. Public Domain Super Heroes says the comic book Samson was created by Will Eisner and Alex Blum, but is “created” the right word? The comic book version, anyway. Samson of the Bible was in the public domain, and now the Samson that Will Eisner and Alex Blum took from the Bible is also public domain.

The Samson of the Old Testament was a deeply flawed person whose great strength came from his long hair. Samson’s hair was cut by Delilah and as the wise man said, “...and that’s when his troubles began.” Fox/Eisner/Blum’s Samson is a descendant of the Bible Samson, and his long hair also gives him muscles. He appeared in Big Three Comics numbers 1-6, Fantastic Comics numbers 1-23, and Samson numbers 1-6. A boy character named David later joined Samson. Was he an updated comic book version of the Biblical David? You know, the David and Goliath David? I don’t know. You tell me.

This story comes from Fantastic Comics #9 (1940). The credit on the splash page, is “By Alex Boon.” The Grand Comics Database credits the artwork to Alex Blum.

This story comes from Fantastic Comics #9 (1940).













 

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2 comments:

  1. Daniel [oeconomist.com]6:14 AM

    I'm always happy to see a story from the early Golden Age.

    That said, these stories are generally not as I imagined them when I was a young pre-teen and teenager, reading about them and looking at reproductions of their covers, but seeing only those stories reproduced from National, Timely, and Quality.

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  2. Rick8:19 AM

    What a disjointed mess. The whole thing plays out as though it was written (and I use the term written loosely) while in some kind of stream of consciousness state. Just jumps from one thing to the next with any resemblance to a coherent plot being barely a thought.


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