Number 2562: Cat-Man needs 9 pages, not 9 lives

                                                                             

I have shown artwork before by comic book artist, Charles A. Quinlan. Then, as now, there isn’t much of a biography available except that Quinlan was born in 1901, so he was a bit older than many of his fellow artists. He worked in comic books from the early '40s until the '50s, and died a young man in 1953. (A young man by my measure, if not yours.)

I don’t know who wrote this Cat-Man story, but it has what I consider a major “this should never be done” flaw in the story. Cat-Man is featured on the cover, on the splash page, and then is dressed in his Army attire until the last page before being shown in action in his cat suit. So that leaves several pages for the readers who bought the comic book because of Cat-Man to look at the hero, not disguised as Cat-Man, but in an Army uniform.

Since everyone responsible is, to the best of my knowledge, now deceased, my criticism will never be seen by the long-ago editor or publisher, or the artist, but at least I got it off my chest.

From Cat-Man Comics #13 (1942):

 

Number 2329: Comics McCormick underwater

I believe this is the last Comics McCormick story I have to offer. There might be a couple more in some issues of Ed Wheelan’s Fat and Slat (published by EC Comics for four issues in the late 1940s), which I don’t have. Wheelan, long a favorite old-time comic artist of mine, wrote and drew these imaginative and funny stories of a boy’s obsession with comic books.

You can see more by typing Comics McCormick into the search engine for this blog.

Comics McCormick and the Waterman is from Comics’ only appearance in Cat-Man Comics, issue #28 (1945).

Number 2001: Lady Satan no good for the Hood

The Hood seems generic to me. The character appeared in comics in the mid-forties, including Cat-Man Comics, which is where this story appeared. Here he mixes with Lady Satan, who joins a whole string of Lady Satans throughout comic book history, all of them for different companies and in different degrees of ladylike behavior, Satanic or not.

The Hood also joins the company of comic books characters like Black Hood. The Hood also had no super powers; he was an Army major who put on a costume.

This story was drawn by Jack Alderman, an artist I don’t see as fitting in with costumed characters. I see him doing what I thought he did best, crime stories. His dark panels lend themselves more to nefarious deeds of the underworld than heroics. Alderman drew stiff figures, not good for superhero comics. In order to do a hero socking a bad guy panel (last page) Alderman borrowed a Jack Kirby pose. If you don’t usually draw action poses, Jack Kirby is the artist to swipe.

In the story the Hood’s girlfriend is Ray Herman. Ray, or Rae, was a real person, an editor and publisher in one of the most confusing mixes of comic book publishing ever. Due to some sleight of hand of the guy who started the company — or companies — over 70 years ago it is hard to trace the connections between Et-Es-Go, Continental, Holyoke, et al. Rae Herman was involved in them, and she was co-owner of Orbit Publishing, which published Wanted Comics, Toytown, and Westerner, among others. The story also uses the name “Quinlan“ — a nod to Charles M. Quinlan, mostly identified with Cat-Man, which he drew.

Writing credited to Jack Grogan. From Cat-Man Comics #23 (1944):