Number 2592: The thrilling Bill Everett draws the thrilling action for the thrilling Amazing Man

In the early days of comic fandom (early 1960s) a man* had a letter published in a fanzine with an article telling why Amazing Man was so amazing. Amazing Man (or John Aman, taking a test by some Tibetans who had raised him) could fight a cobra with his hands tied behind his back, and he could survive knives being thrown into his body. The writer of the letter called those events "thrilling." 

It took me a couple of decades before I was able to see the origin story of Amazing Man, and I guess those panels are thrilling. (I was impressionable in those days.)

Bill Everett, who created, wrote and drew this origin story, moved on after a while. Centaur, the publisher of Amazing Man, went out of business, and Everett went on to other comic book character, including Sub-Mariner. 

Everett died young, but in his time he was a “thrilling” good artist, just as that long ago comics fan claimed.

*The letter writer's name I don't remember. It was a long, very long time ago.

From Amazing Man Comics #5 (actual issue #1, 1939):

Number 2581: Sub-Mariner and the Amphibious Elmer

Today a fun 7-page story from the 1954 issue of Sub-Mariner #35, drawn by Sub-Mariner creator, Bill Everett. The story adds an homage to The Creature From the Black Lagoon, a popular movie from that year. (The Creature movie was released March 5, 1954, and the Sub-Mariner comic was probably put on sale in June, 1954). Everett loved weird characters, and he must've been impressed by the design of the movie creature.

“Elmer” is an amphibious man, created by another in the long list of comic book mad scientist-villains, Professor Zunbar. The twist here is Elmer is frightened by water. That takes the underwater monster and dries it out, so to speak.

Number 2539: Venus, pretty...monster, pretty ugly

Venus was a character created in the '40s, drawn by Bill Everett, the creator of Sub-Mariner. Talented Everett also had a way with pretty girls (on paper, at least), and proves it with his stories of Namora and Venus. Venus became the star of a horror comic in the '50s, and this 6-pager, “The Box of Doom,” is from Venus #19 (1952). I also showed it in 2008, but these are new scans.

Biographical information on Everett says that he was a teenage alcoholic, that he had tuberculosis, which is why he spent a lot of time as a young man  in the American Southwest, a destination for many TB patients. At age 55, in 1973, he had a heart attack that killed him. He was a comic artist who can be revered for what he did, and mourned for having a short life.

Number 2535: Origin of the Sub-Mariner

Sub-Mariner, also known as Namor, was born of a white American man, Leonard Mackenzie, and an Atlantean mother, Princess Fen. Fen was sent to spy on the depth-bombing Americans because she was the closest to looking like a white woman (and who was Fen’s mother?) Namor was what we would call today “mixed race.” His mom passed along the ability to breathe underwater (without gills), and for a real super power, keeping his hair sleek and combed while swimming in the ocean. The Sub-Mariner killed a couple of American divers, mistaking them for robots. Namor originally was a sorehead who hated America, but ultimately came around to becoming an ally. 

Bill Everett created Sub-Mariner, one of the more original and popular of the very early super-powered characters of the comics. Sub-Mariner was canceled in the late '40s, only to be revived in the early '50s, also drawn by Everett. The story I am showing today is “The Origin of the Sub-Mariner” from Sub-Mariner #33 (1954). I don’t know if Everett wrote the story.

Number 2449: Never ignore’a Namora

As I announced in my previous posting, Pappy’s Golden Age has gone to a two-a-week schedule, on Monday and Wednesday. And (mostly) there will be not as much to read in one sitting as you have done this past summer. Since 2020 has been the most unusual year many us have lived through, I am doing it mainly because I have opted to stay home and try my damnedest not to get sick. Mrs Pappy has done the same, so I have a live person and a cat to talk to. So far so good. Mrs Pappy is not acting like she wants to kill me...yet. The cat may be currently plotting murder, though.

Our first post under the two-a-week schedule is from Namora #1, a Marvel Comic from 1948. Two of the three stories from the issue are by Bill Everett.

I don’t know if anyone else has noticed one of Namora’s superpowers. It is to come out the water with her hair looking dry and styled.

Namora did not last long in the '40s; after three issues of her own title, and some appearances elsewhere, she disappeared until the '50s revival of Sub-Mariner.

This story has some Asian characters that some may find offensive. I have decided to show it, anyway, with this heads-up on racial caricatures.

Pappy’s Favorites Number 10: It’s a Riot!

News that Mad magazine is being cancelled should not be surprising news, because the magazine business is not as it once was. All I can say is, so long, Mad, it’s been good to know ya.

I believe Mad, which had plenty of imitators, was always the best of the bunch, but there were still some of the imitations I liked, including this comic from Atlas. They threw some of their best artists into their versions of Mad, hoping to cash in. Years ago I showed the contents of a 1956 issue of Riot, with Severin, Maneely and Everett. Just click on the thumbnail.

Number 2349: Sub-Mariner: a couple of laughs in the torture chamber

I love the fifties versions of Sub-Mariner, Captain America and Human Torch. Atlas, formerly Timely, later Marvel, tried to bring their wartime heroes back to fight commies a few years after their publications were cancelled, but didn’t have much luck. It would be another few years before they came back into new popularity.* Sub-Mariner was fortunate enough to be drawn by his creator, Bill Everett. Everett was a busy artist in the fifties, and no matter what the stories are about, I love just about everything he did during that period.

This story appeared originally in Sub-Mariner #34 (1954), and I scanned it from a reprint in Marvel Super-Heroes #14 (1968). I got a big kick out of the sequence on page 3 when Namor is put in the torture chamber and encounters a large, brutish blue man who tells him, “Chee! I allus wanted t’meet d’famous Sub-Mariner! You used t’be my hero when I wuz just a liddle kid, mister!” Everett, who is credited with  the story (as well as drawing and lettering it) by the Grand Comics Database, avoided showing torture scenes with some comedy.

*All those Marvel movies...where is Sub-Mariner? Has he appeared in one and I missed it?