Number 2290: Tommy Tomorrow is so yesterday

Tommy Tomorrow lives in a simple world. He can rescue some farmers who bought land on Mercury not knowing it was too hot, making their crops wither and die. Tommy, a Planeteer, helps them by relocating them to “impossible worlds,” planets too difficult for humans. Tommy goes to “the government” for permission to relocate, and zip...he gets it. In Tommy’s simple world it does not take years, including several studies and court battles, to get things done from the government. Tommy even uses extortion on the crook who sold the Mercury land to the farmers in the first place, and gets away with it. He must know somebody really high up in the government.

Tommy had a fairly long career in DC Comics, from appearances in Real Fact Comics after the war ended, to 1962 when he soloed in a series for Showcase. Between those times he appeared in Action Comics until replaced by Supergirl, and then on to World’s Finest Comics until he lost that spot, also. After Showcase Tommy must have retired, perhaps to a plush desk job with the government.

This particular episode is from Action Comics #146 (1950), credited by the GCD to writer Otto Binder, and artists Curt Swan and John Fishschetti.

Number 2174: Alias Mr America

Keeping up with the secret identities of Tex Thomson, who first appeared in Action Comics #1 (1938), takes some research. He was Tex, then he was Mr America (his alter ego in today’s post), and then Americommando. In that last incarnation it was President Franklin Roosevelt who directed him to take training and go kick Axis butt. I am lazy, so if someone else has a better handle on the history, I turn it over to them. Deejay Dutton has an entertaining history of Tex/Mr America/Americommando in Comic Book Bin.

Mr America shows up in a town being threatened by a group wearing purple hoods, led by a gang leader called the Purple. Local farmers are harassed by the Purple for selling wheat to a “a friendly power at war.” That means Great Britain. At the time this was published, 1941, there were groups opposing America joining the war in Europe. Mr Weston, questioned by Mr America, claims to promote “one hundred percent Americanism.” (That kind of statement can be taken many different ways. Beware. Someone else’s idea of what is one hundred percent Americanism can be very different than yours or mine.)

Bernard Baily drew the strip from its start. He began his long career in the thirties, was very active in the forties, both as an artist (with Jerry Siegel he co-created the Spectre, and with Ken Fitch co-created Hourman and Tex Thomson), and with Mac Raboy formed the Barnard Baily studio, a packager of contents for comics. He later went back to DC. He died in 1996.

Number 2156: Congo Bill in the jungle of dinosaurs

Congo Bill was a longtime second banana character for DC. I remember him from the fifties when he palled around with Janu, the Jungle Boy. (Here we go again, with grown men and young boys going on adventures together.) Quoting Wikipedia: “Congo Bill was a long-running DC Comics adventure comic strip, running in various DC Comics titles from 1940 until Action Comics #248 (January 1959), when Congo Bill was transformed into Congorilla (the title of the strip was likewise changed). The Congo Bill strip was a standard adventure strip, often reminiscent of Alex Raymond's Jungle Jim newspaper strip.”

I like gorillas, but I drew the line at Congo Bill becoming a gorilla. Even at the tender age I was in 1959, I knew this was a non-starter of an idea, so I dropped Congo(rilla) Bill from my reading list.

This earlier story, from before Janu the Jungle Boy showed up, is from Action Comics #40. This 1941story has a science fiction slant. No gorillas, but dinosaurs. Fred Ray, who drew it, was one of DC’s top artists, working on Superman covers and later doing a long stretch on Tomahawk. I am not vouching for any dinosaur details being correct in this story, but it is a breezy six-pager. For being a guy who survived for years in the back pages of DC Comics, Congo Bill lasted quite a long time, even if he did end up a gorilla. Someone must have had a sentimental attachment for him.

Number 778

Americommando and the Little One

Americommando was a character in his third incarnation: He had been Tex Thomson from Action Comics #1 to #33; he was Mr. America until #54, and then none other than President Roosevelt sent him to commando school and he became Americommando.

Created and drawn by Bernard Baily, an artist working in comics since their earliest days, and also co-creator of Hourman and Spectre. His villain in these consecutive stories from 1943, Action Comics #57 and #58, is a grotesque character, half Japanese and half Prussian...and wow, you couldn't get much more villainous than that combination in those dark days of World War II. (As always, these racist caricatures can be painful to look at with modern sensibilities, and all I can say is they were created in a different time.)

Americommando didn't last out the war, losing his position in Action by #74 in 1944. Baily went on to be an editor, writer, artist and publisher, and eventually ended up back at DC Comics. He died at age 80 in 1996.

Number 608


Vigilante and the Dummy X 2


Ventriloquist's dummies are a cliché in horror stories. They're weird looking caricatures of humans, and voices come out of their mouths. One of Vigilante's enemies is a guy who looks like a ventriloquist's dummy. How weird is that? I guess it depends on how spooked you are by ventriloquists' dummies.

The Vigilante is Greg Sanders, who is a radio star, a singing cowboy. His partner is Stuff, also known as the Chinatown Kid.

These two stories are from Action Comics. "Blunderbuss Booty" is from Action #75, August 1944, and "The Dummy Art Expert" is from Action #87, August 1945. They're drawn by Mort Meskin, an artist who mentored the young Joe Kubert, and if the story is to be believed, influenced the young Steve Ditko. I like Meskin's use of blacks, which give the stories a deep, shadowy look.

Meskin was a comic book pro for many years until quitting in 1965 to go into advertising. He retired in the '80s and died in 1995. I'd consider him to be a pro's pro...an artist that other artists looked to for inspiration. The scans are from tearsheets I got in the late '70s. They're ragged and brittle around the edges so there are chunks missing here and there.

I have presented some other Vigilante stories, in Pappy's #406, and Pappy's #463.