Number 2340: The eyes have it

My jaw dropped to my desktop when I saw the cover of Captain Marvel Jr #115 (1952). Good thing I have a beard to cushion the impact. As we have seen before, Fawcett used horror for some of the Marvel Family titles, seeing as how horror comics were the big sellers in that period. The illustration by Bud Thompson is a good example of what Dr Fredric Wertham, M.D. in his 1954 book, Seduction of the Innocent, called the injury to the eye motif. In this era of graphic horror movies this cover does not seem as shocking today as it probably was to readers in 1952. What I can say about it now, decades later, is it is one that Dr Wertham missed.

Graphic eyeball violence notwithstanding, I like the story. “The Thousand Eyed Idol of Doom,” is credited to artist Bud Thompson, and script by William Woolfolk, according to the Grand Comics Database. Oh yeah, and flying eyeballs are the flying saucers!

The most famous of the “injury to the eye” examples, found in SOTI, and the story it came from. Just click on the thumbnail.

Number 2227: Freddy Freeman never sleepwalks!

Captain Marvel Jr says of a narrow escape, “Another second and Freddy Freeman would have been killed! Freddy never walked in his sleep before!” Maybe I haven’t noticed it before (entirely possible), but Captain Marvel Jr is speaking of Freddy in the third person, even though Freddy is the one who hollers “Captain Marvel!” and becomes a teenage superhero. The difference in Freddy/Captain Marvel Jr and Billy/Captain Marvel is that Billy becomes a full-grown man with big muscles, and Captain Marvel Jr looks just like Freddy, but in a blue super suit with cape.*

Maybe he just likes to talk about himself in the third person.

The story, from Master Comics #98 (1948) is well illustrated by Kurt Schaffenberger, and written by Bill Woolfolk.

*And by the way, what does Captain Marvel Jr do with Freddy’s crutch when he transforms?

Number 2178: Captain Marvel Jr's “Multiplicity”

This 1943 Captain Marvel Jr tale reminds me of the 1996 comedy, Multiplicity, starring Michael Keaton, where multiple clones were made of the lead character. The Cap Jr story doesn’t use the word “clone,” but that word was in use in those days. It was taken from Greek in 1903 by plant physiologist Herbert J. Webber to “refer to the technique of of propagating new plants using cuttings, bulbs or buds.” (From NPR.org, and bless the Internet for providing the information.)

In the comic book story the cloning is done with a “cell divider,” a devilish contraption used by Nazi spies. As in the much later Multiplicity, it is mostly magic, since cloning doesn’t work like that. But in the comic book it is used to solve another problem for Cap Jr — that of being identified publicly as newsboy Freddie Freeman. It is like those Superman stories where Superman sends in a robot to fool the people who have figured out his secret identity. The result is the same for Cap Jr. Like Superman, there is chicanery, and Freddie protects his secret.

From Captain Marvel Jr #8 (1943). Artwork by Al Carreno.

Number 1835: Happy New Year from the haunted Captain Marvel Jr

As promised, you see above the new Pappy logo done by Jim Engel, a fantastic cartoonist and long one of my favorites. Thanks again go out to Jim for his generosity.

Now for our regular business:

Happy New Year. Wake yourself up this morning with hopes for a better, brighter future or dismay at a prospect of a grim year of more-of-the-same. And for better or worse, more old comics from Pappy!

In the latter case, let us start out the year with Mac Raboy and Captain Marvel Jr. I showed this story, scanned from my copy of Master Comics #40 (1943), years ago, but recently re-scanned it. At the time of its original showing I opined that the look of the story seemed to back up what I read years ago (maybe in Steranko’s History of the Comics?) that Raboy was in the Navy, and drew comics in his spare time on board ship. He had so little room to draw that he drew the pages the same size as they were printed. If true, he did an excellent job in a difficult environment.

I also asked why there was an obvious paste-over on page 9, panel 3: “Dey say dis place is HANUTED!” Was “haunted” just misspelled, or was it intentional? No one ever offered an opinion. All these years later, as I still have no clue,  it hanutes me, .