Number 2385: “This will shake the sauerkraut out of your teeth!”

Captain Midnight had several incarnations: radio show, newspaper comic strip, movie serial, television series (re-branded as “Jet Jackson”) and comic book hero. Dell Comics originally, then Fawcett for 67 issues from 1942 to 1948. He was a popular guy.

I’m not an expert on Captain Midnight, but I like some of the Fawcett comics I’ve read. This story caught my eye because it has a familiar concept. It is about a miniature drone, or radio controlled plane, the flying eye, as they call it, with television camera in it to keep tabs on the enemy. Yes, there was television in 1943, but it was still in development. and as I understand it, that development was shelved during the war at the request of the U.S. government. So Captain Midnight, who built the small robot plane, must have been doing the work on TV himself. The story is also about a group of Nazis led by Herr Hacker. “Hacker”? hmmm, a word known to us 21st century folks, but in this story Herr Hacker actually does hack...with his sword.

The Grand Comics Database has no guesses on either a writer or artist, but I think the artwork was done by the Jack Binder comic art shop; the lettering gives it away to me.

From Captain Midnight #10 (1942):

Number 1845: Captain Midnight: Doom beam and other gimmicks

This story, from Captain Midnight #12, published in 1943, smack-dab in the middle of World War II, is full of gimmicks. Some of them outrageous (a “fluotian tablet” to put out large fires? We need that for the guys battling massive wildfires in the Western U.S. every summer.) At least one gimmick is real, the gliderchute outfit Captain Midnight uses to fly. 

The least realistic is a “doom beam” that Captain Midnight uses to illuminate the enemy’s chest with a clock hand pointing to 12:00. Shades of the Hangman and his superimposed gallows! (See the link below).

The whole premise, evil angel Nazis who trade on the superstitions of ignorant natives, is visually exciting if improbable. There is also stereotyping of the South Americans, with one of them called Taco. For all that I enjoyed the story, which is yet another way of bringing in Nazis...by 1943 creative minds were having problems coming up with more sabotage plots for the enemies of America to use.

The Grand Comics Database gives “?” to all the creative team. To me the art looks like it comes from the Jack Binder shop.

From the very early days of this blog, the Hangman. Just click the thumbnail.

Number 1485: Captain Midnight and the asteroid battle

In the 1940s travel into space in rocket ships was fantasy. It was science fiction, like that “crazy Buck Rogers stuff” from comic strips and comic books.

Some of that Buck Rogers stuff, from a 1951 1/3 page Sunday strip.

Captain Midnight, a comic book published by Fawcett, did resemble that “Buck Rogers stuff,” which is one of the reasons I like it. Rocket ships buzzing around in space, covering great distances with no more apparent concern than Earthly commuters driving from the suburbs to the city, hostile life on every planet, including asteroids (as in this story), and a stalwart hero who can whup on a whole planet full of hostiles, were a staple of such fantasies.

From Captain Midnight #54 (1947). Drawn by Leonard Frank.

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Here is the only other Captain Midnight story I’ve shown so far, a British reprint of another crazy science fiction tale. Just click the thumbnail:

Number 1234: Faux Fawcett

This is number three of four postings this week from Fawcett comics. But these are Fawcett comics not published by Fawcett.

Fawcett licensed their comics for publication in other countries, including the UK. This story comes from an issue of Captain Midnight, #100 to the British, but reprinted from the American Captain Midnight #50 (1947). I like the crisp black line printing, which I prefer to the usual sloppy Fawcett print jobs (see Monday's posting for a couple of good examples).

I know little about the character. I know Captain Midnight was an aviator, a popular radio programme (spelling in honor of our British cousins-in-comics), and later a TV show, with reruns retitled Jet Jackson. According to some things I've read, the comic book version was different than the mainstream version. Someone with more familiarity with the character will probably have to confirm that.

The story is credited to William Woolfolk for the script, and Leonard Frank for the artwork.

When Fawcett folded their comic book line in 1953 — a combination of losing the lawsuit brought by DC for copyright infringement on Superman by Captain Marvel, and too many comic book titles flooding the stands — they sold some of their titles and non-Marvel characters to others. This story is the first issue of Danger and Adventure #22 (1954), actually #1, but continued from This Magazine is Haunted. Charlton, who bought the rights, published an Ibis the Invincible as well as Nyoka the Jungle Girl story in this issue. It was the only Ibis story reprinted by Charlton in this title, which lasted another few issues before being cancelled. I don't know If they continued Ibis somewhere else, or just left him standing with his Ibistick in his hand.

“The Viking Horde” is an old story, reprinted from Whiz Comics #45 (1943), identified by the GCD as being drawn by old-timer Alex Blum, although probably in collaboration with an unknown inker.