Nicholas Viscardi (who later went by Nick Cardy) and Ted Cain are credited with creating the character Samar. Viscardi/Cardy, born in 1920, was just a youngster when he began his comic book career. This story, which appeared in Feature Comics ##32 (1940), is not credited for a writer by the Grand Comics Database, but gives Maurice Gutwirth credit for the artwork.
A sense of smell that allowed such tracking would seem to me a curse. I don't care for much of what I smell as it is! But I also question Samar's competence in interpretting odors. Just how does the smell of a bat-man who drains his victims of blood differ from that of a vampire? and how is it more like that of an ordinary man than is that of a vampire?
ReplyDeleteI've not knowingly seen as primitive a story as this from Feature Comics, which I'm used to associating with much more polished work. But I always greatly appreciate seeing these early golden-age stories, especially when the artists, though struggling to find their ways, were headed in the right general direction.
What does Queen Nevar mean? Samar will become a slave-owner? Or something more? Do some humans become bat-people?
ReplyDeleteThanks!
Egad, Darci...best I can do in answering your questions is "I dunno." I'd prefer not to go back and re-read "Samar." Thanks anyway for your note.
ReplyDelete