Number 2327: Batman down under

I like reprints of American comics from other countries. I assume the Marvel and DC characters are well known around the world because of the movies, but I like seeing the foreign reprints because then I know the readers are sharing what Americans find (or in today’s example from several decades before CGI movies, found) fun and desirable about the comic book versions.

“The Death of Batman” is presented here in its blackline reprint from Australia, 1953. The story is originally from DC’s World’s Finest Comics #58 (1952). The cover (with some text modifications on the marquee) is from Batman #64 (1951). K.G. Murray is the name of the publisher “down under.” I’d tell more about American comics in Australia if it didn’t involve work on my part. Since I’m being lazy perhaps one of my readers will be so kind as to let us know how long Batman appeared in Australian reprints.

The story features figures drawn by Bob Kane, and the rest of the artwork is by Lew Sayre Schwartz, who was Bob Kane’s ghost artist at the time. Inking is by Charles Paris, and the story is by David Vern. The credits are gleaned from the Grand Comics Database’s information on the American  printing of World’s Finest Comics #58.

Number 463


"Shoot me for a kiyoodling coyote..."


Vigilante is radio singin' cowboy Greg Sanders, who moonlights as the bandanna-wearin', two-fisted do-gooder. He's aided by yet another version of Robin, "Stuff," a kid from Chinatown. In this particular silent opus, we have to imagine the squawking sounds from the strings of the villain, the "frustrated concert violinist," Ben Bowe, aka The Fiddler. I guess if ever there was a real excuse to be a criminal, not being able to play Carnegie Hall would have to top the list.

Didn't The Flash also have a foe called The Fiddler? Checking with the Grand Comics Database I see a notation about this episode of Vigilante: "The Fiddler is not the same villain as Flash's." Aha. Two villains with the same name working for the same comic book company? Who's in charge of continuity here?

Whoever wrote this story gave it some pretty snappy dialogue. Vigilante: "Are you hurt, Stuff?" The boy replies, "I'm not feeling kittenish." ...whatever that means, and maybe it meant something in 1943 that is lost to us now, but I think it's funny.

Mort Meskin, as "Mort Morton," and "Charley," Charles Paris, did the art chores on this story from Action Comics #59, April 1943. Meskin created the character with Mort Weisinger, and I've included the origin story from a DC reprint of the early 1970s. Meskin's artwork is dynamic and dramatic, aided by the equally dynamic and dramatic inking of Paris, who worked a lot on the Batman comics over a couple of decades. I believe, except for some occasions, that Meskin was essentially THE Vigilante artist. Vigilante, who also appeared in Leading Comics with the second banana group, Seven Soldiers of Victory, was one of the more popular features in Action Comics for years, and might be the most popular DC character who never earned his own book.

Number 406


Feud on Rimfire Ridge!


Mosey on in and set a spell, podnuh. Got yet another Western--well, West as in West Virginia, anyhow--story to tell ya. This comes from Pappy's box of tear sheets. Someone years ago cut out stories they liked from comic books and threw them in a box. I put them back together. I have four Vigilante stories; this is the oldest, and first to be offered up.

The Vigilante was a long-running feature in Action Comics. I think he was one of the more popular characters who never got his own book. Vigilante was Greg Sanders, a radio singing cowboy who ran with a Chinatown kid named Stuff. When he slipped his kerchief over his face he became the Vigilante.

Mort Meskin, using the name Mort Jr., drew this action-packed 12-pager from Action Comics #57 in 1943, and Charles Paris inked it. The hillbilly kid in the splash panel, who says he's gonna shoot Tom Hatton "daid," learned to pronounce dead by the time this scene shows up on page 9.