Number 2514: Dr Miracle's miracles

Dr Miracle is described by the folks at Public Domain Super Heroes:

“. . . the Master of Magic (white magic) who used his “miraculous” powers to fight crime and the Axis powers during World War II. His magic powers included telekinesis, the ability to levitate and fly at tremendous speeds, the ability to elongate his own limbs, the ability to transform himself into a flying ball of fire, the ability to walk through solid walls and the ability to cast illusions, often used to disguise himself or others. He was pretty much given any ability as the plot required, but he was not omnipotent. Apparently, he could not stop bullets, so guns were a potential danger to him. He was not omniscient either, but he was a good detective. Also, he was powerless without the amulet that he wore around his neck. This amulet could neutralize the power of amulets of black magic.”

I like the part about “he was pretty much given any ability as the plot required.” On the one hand a character can be boring if he is always doing the same old stuff (Mandrake “gesturing hypnotically”), but on the other hand, a character who can come up with a power to meet every danger can be dull and give the reader that old so what else is new? attitude. In this story we get to see Dr Miracle wrap some criminals in a fiery ring, and my favorite, Dr Miracle floats through a wall like a ghost. (See the teaser panel above.) A cult leader is the villain, and he leaves some documents that prove he is not who he claims to be. Dr Miracle doesn’t need any special powers to catch someone who is dumb enough to leave damning evidence in plain sight.

From Champ Comics #21 (1942). No writer or artist(s) listed by the Grand Comics Database.

 

Number 2163: From Champion to Champ, from Foreign Legionnaire to Human Meteor

Champion Comics made a title change to Champ Comics with issue #11 when, with that issue, Harvey Comics took over. The first ten issues were published by Worth Publishing. The Human Meteor also made a change. He started out as Duke O’Dowd of the Foreign Legion in Champion Comics #6. According to Public Domain Superheroes, he got superpowers when he met “. . . Wah Le, the ancient ruler of a lost city in Tibet.” I wonder how many superheroes got their powers from someone in Tibet? Apparently several.

Besides becoming Human Meteor, Duke became a cab driver, with a young pal named Toby. (Origin in Tibet, friends with young boy. Check those off your superhero qualifications list.) Oh, and he was half-naked. I have never known why some male superheroes showed skin, unless it was beefcake for a potential readership, or, maybe leaving bare skin, adding trunks, boots and a cape was a way of getting out of designing a costume. No one knows who created Duke O’Dowd/Human Meteor, so we’ll likely never know, although Human Meteor does look like an amalgam of some other superheroes of the era. As for his name, I know enough about meteors to know that most of them falling to Earth burn up in the atmosphere, as did the Human Meteor. After Champ Comics #25 (1943) he was seen no more.

From Champ Comics #11 (1940). Grand Comics Database lists no writer or artist for this story.

Number 2003: Human Meteor: a bullet for the boy

Human Meteor was another short-lived superhero of the early forties. He was a cab driver, Duke O’Dowd, who had been given a magic belt by a Tibetan. Duke shed his clothes for his role as Human Meteor, and did his super deeds bare-chested and bare-legged — the better to show his muscles, I guess. Duke had a boy pal, Toby, who had no powers, but who Duke took into battle with him. And Duke had no right to do so...especially when Toby took a bullet from the Nazis when they flew to France to help out a British commando. To compound Duke’s bad judgment, he even lied to Toby’s mom when he and the boy went home, telling her Toby had been injured in a car accident. Apparently lying to a boy’s mom is not a bad thing; the guys are winking at each other in the last panel.

It is probably no wonder Duke and Toby only had two more adventures in Harvey’s Champ Comics before their careers were ended. Perhaps Child Protective Services caught up to Duke O’Dowd.

The nice artwork is identified by Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr, as Arthur Peddy. Lambiek.net tells us while working in the Iger shop Peddy is the artist who drew the first episode of Phantom Lady for Quality Comics. He had a long career in comics. I remember Peddy mainly as an inker for DC Comics in the sixties. He died in 2002.

From Champ Comics #23 (1942):

Number 1819: Hitler, the god of evil

Today is Thanksgiving Day, the American holiday where we are thankful for mass quantities of food. It is the time when I issue my self-proclaimed Turkey Awards. After skipping this event in 2014, the tradition is revived, at least for this year. I have found a story I believe qualifies as the most oddball story I have encountered this year.

Dr Miracle, yet another of the glut of early comic book magicians based on Mandrake, has a Ouija board that acts like an iPad. It has a screen that reaches to Hitler’s home in Berchtesgaden, and at that very moment he witnesses — coincidence of coincidences! — the takeover of Hitler by “the Egyptian Satan,” Set, who wants to ensure all the war dead will be his slaves in the afterworld. Whew. I found it hard to even synopsize that much. The rest of this crazy story is up to you.

For all of those outrageous qualities, even during a time of war and the demonizing of the enemy’s leader, this story earns three turkeys.

Alex Blum is credited by the Grand Comics Database with the artwork. The story is from Champ Comics #24 (1942), published by Harvey Comics.

To see the past winners of the Thanksgiving Turkey Award go to this entry from 2013. It will guide you to past winners going back to 2006. Just click on the thumbnail.

Number 1560: The Miracle Zombies

Alex Blum, born in 1889, was nearly 50 when he began his comic book career in the late 1930s. Blum was a portrait painter during the Great Depression. That career “evaporated,” as described in his Wikipedia biography. To struggling artists of that time the comic book business must’ve looked pretty good.  Good even with low page rates and oftentimes sweatshop conditions: rooms full of artists and drawing boards cranking out reams of pages for a burgeoning industry. Blum was a true journeyman artist. He lasted in comics for several years. I most closely associate him with Classics Illustrated, where I first saw his name.

(Blum was also the father of Eisner-Iger writer Toni Blum, with whom Eisner had a relationship at one time as recounted in fictional form in The Dreamery.)

This story, drawn by Blum, is yet another magician character, Dr. Miracle. Every anthology comic had to have at least one imitation Mandrake, wand-waving or finger-wiggling, casting magic spells against evil. Dr. Miracle can even conjure up the “White Forces of Good,” which sounds racist, and in context of the teaser panel at the head of this post I believe it is.

The main reason I’m showing the story is because it has zombies. I like zombies, even in magic stories. From Champ Comics #23 (1942):

Number 1474: The old timer

Edgar “Ed” Wheelan is one of my favorite old-time cartoonists, and I’ve featured his funny artwork and stories several times.

Wheelan had a successful comic strip, “Minute Movies,” which appeared in newspapers during the twenties and thirties. When he went into the comic books he even revived the title for his feature in Flash Comics, one of which I’m showing here.

It’s not within the scope of this blog to feature newspaper comic strips, although I do present their comic book reprints. But I’d like to at least bring attention to Ed Wheelan’s newspaper work, which was sadly neglected after the strip ended in 1935.

There have been some attempts to reprint “Minute Movies,” including this 1977 trade paperback by Hyperion Press:

And this squarebound 40 page “graphic novel” from Malibu Graphics in 1990 doesn’t use the name “Minute Movies” on the covers, but it is a reprint of a 1934 continuity from the comic strip.

These are hard to find nowadays, but if you’re interested they are worth having.

One of the best examples of the the strip was printed in the late Woody Gelman’s Nostalgia Comics, #’s 2 and 3, in 1972. Hairy Green Eyeball posted it in his blog in 2009, and you can find the links beneath the two stories I’m showing today. “Padlock Homes” is from a series in Harvey’s Champ Comics, and is from issue #19 (1942). The “Minute Movies” episode of Jack and the Beanstalk is from Flash Comics #38 (1943).

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Parts one and two of the 1933 continuity, “Serpents of the City,” from Nostalgia Comics. Click on the pictures.






Some comics work by Wheelan featured here last January: