Number 2506: Son of a gun! It's the Son of the Skull!

 

Kip Burland’s vocation is police officer. His avocation is dressing up in yellow tights and a black hood, which gives him the name Black Hood. I wondered why he would dress up to do much the same job in his off hours as he was when punching a time clock. I went to Toonopedia, which told me why: “Patrolman Kip Burland assumed the Black Hood role in MLJ's Top-Notch Comics #9 (October, 1940), when he was framed for burglary by a villain called The Skull, and needed a cover to use while proving himself innocent. After clearing his name (which took several issues), he continued to use it because it enabled him to avoid all those entangling legal restrictions imposed on policemen in the pursuit of justice.”

“Avoid all of those entangling legal restrictions” seems to be the reason for the costume in stories of costumed heroes, even if they also are seen (in costume) with their fellow policemen. In those days some police in movies and comics were portrayed as clownish, as in this story.

The Skull framing Kip was the reason for him becoming the Black Hood, then the son of the Skull showed up, and that is what I am posting today.

Art is by Warren King, a name I was not familiar with. He did an excellent job. I did a bit of research and found he went from comics to newspapers. He was the editorial cartoonist for the New York Daily News from 1955-1977.

From MLJ’s Jackpot Comics #6 (1942).

 

Number 1318: Hanging around with the Black Hood

I haven’t shown a Black Hood story in a year-and-a-half, since Pappy's #1003. Go there and then use the links I’ve scattered about for more Black Hoodiness.

This particular tale, with its violent and morbid splash panel, is from Pep Comics #49 (1944). The issue opens up with an Archie story. Until Archie took over MLJ entirely and the superheroes retired it was common to have violent, graphic stuff next to the relatively benign Archie stories of teenage hijinks.

The “House That Crime Built,” using the gimmick of a house narrating, is drawn by Clem Weisbecker and Pen Shumaker.

Number 1094


Hangman in the future


If the Hangman was an answer on the TV quiz show, Jeopardy, the question would be, "Who was the slain Comet's brother?"

Hangman was Bob Dickering, who took over when his superhero brother John was killed, and like many a vigilante character before him (and after him, too; see Dexter) swore vengeance on murderers. When the Hangman caught his prey, the criminal had the shadow of a noose cast upon him and then met a fitting end to his murderous career.

In this particular science fiction offering of the popular MLJ feature, published in The Black Hood #10, Spring 1944, Hangman goes after the villain by being sent 100 years to the future. It's a future much more enlightened than the world of 1944, one in which the death penalty has been abolished, and you can tell that because the news is on a big billboard.

Bob Fuje (Fujitani), who drew this episode of "Hangman," was one of the best artists to come out of the Golden Age. His work changed over the years from this Will Eisner lookalike to a more illustrative style, and he stayed active until at least the mid-1980s. As far as I know Fujitani, who was born in 1920, is still living at age 91.

Number 1003


The Mist is a gas!


Black Hood was out of the superhero stable of MLJ Comics, which after a few years became Archie Comics. "MLJ Leads The Way" was an early slogan, and I'm not sure they led, but they were pretty good followers. Black Hood appears to be patterned after Batman--no super powers, but athletic--and has that square-jawed look that comes right out of the Bob Kane school. Like Batman, Black Hood had some wild adversaries, including the Mist, who could "vaporize his body." In this story Black Hood's savior, the Hermit (see Black Hood's origin in Pappy's #382, and the follow-up story in Pappy's #467), invents a liquid that turns the Mist's gas into a solid. It's a comic book, folks...anything goes.

The story is credited on the splash to Al Camy and Harry Shorten, from Top-Notch Comics #16, 1941:














I showed the very last Golden Age Black Hood story in two parts: part 1 in Pappy's #959 and part 2 in Pappy's #960.

Number 960


Needlenoodle strikes back


This is part 2 of the final issue of Black Hood Comics, #19 from 1946. For part 1 scroll down to yesterday's posting.