Number 2584: The Clock strikes midnight

The Clock, created by George Brenner, is known as the first masked hero in comic books.  The Clock was yet another rich person who put on a mask, and went out to take on criminals. The pulp magazine heroes were the inspiration, and they were what the Clock was striving to be. Pulp magazines had a lot of text, and undoubtedly daunting for children to read. The Clock was a bridge between pulps and comics. He appeared first in Funny Picture Stories in 1936.

Clock creator George Brenner went to work for Everett “Busy” Arnold. Brenner created other characters, including my favorite, Bozo the Robot. Arnold made Brenner editor of the Quality Comics line, but he was fired in 1949. (Some say it was because of drinking, although some dispute that. So, another mystery from the Golden Age.)

In this story we have an element I call a dumb idea that for some reason works. The Clock sends the villain a business card that says he will strike at midnight, and he does. Despite being warned, the bad guy gets the Clock in his house. Only in the comics.

I like a couple of things. One, when a henchman says about the District Attorney, “He has a ‘way’ with gals...ha-ha...if ya get what I mean.” Maybe the kids reading this comic in 1940 didn’t know what he means, but I get it. And in the very last panel the Clock, as Brian O'Brien, tells his friend and helper, Pug, that because he knows the Clock’s secret identity he can tell no one, even if it should mean death. Pug agrees. In my opinion, asking someone to die for you is really asking a lot, if ya get what I mean.

From Crack Comics #1 (1940):

 

Number 1077


The Clock strikes!


Happy day after Christmas. I trust you had a nice one. I did. Today I'm being lazy, hanging around the house, my Christmas feast a pleasant memory, and the spirits imbibed now fading (the thumping in my brain is almost gone), my bloodshot eye looks to the wall behind my monitor. There is my vintage 1960 GE wall clock, and like me, still ticking. Let's hope for one more year of taking it one second at a time.

It reminds me of the stories I'm presenting on this Monday morning: the Clock by George E. Brenner. The Clock, as told in this article in Don Markstein's Toonopedia, is one of the oldest comic book heroes. He appeared in comics in 1936, before there was a real comic book industry. Here he is, early in his career, cover-featured on Detective Picture Stories #5, from 1937.

The two stories I'm showing today are two of the Clock's appearances in Crack Comics. They share some things in common: Brenner's static page layouts (common in comic books at the time), and despite being only nine issues apart, they use similar villains, gang leaders wearing hoods (common in pulp fiction, movie serials and at Ku Klux Klan rallies), and corrupt politicians (too common, even today).

George Brenner became editor of Quality Comics, which published Crack Comics, and the Clock stopped ticking in 1944.

From Crack Comics #1, 1940:







From Crack Comics #9, 1941:

Number 239


"Can I choose waterboarding instead?"


I read that the Clock is considered the first masked character to appear in comic books. There were costumed and disguised characters in the pulps; the Shadow and Zorro spring to mind, but apparently before the Clock there weren't any characters in comic books who wore masks.

Well, how 'bout that for trivia?

I can't say a lot about the Clock's mask, though, since it is just a piece of black cloth with an odd little flounce at the bottom. It doesn't look like it would inspire terror in any criminals.

This story is from Feature Comics #26, November 1939. The drawing, by Clock creator George Brenner, is 1930s-styled comic book artwork: static figures, strict eight panel pages. The story is straightforward: The Clock is being framed and he goes right at the villain. The coloring, as in a lot of old comics from the Quality Comics line, is primary, and leads to interesting color choices, like a bright red car with yellow fenders. The colorist, obviously blinded by his or her colors, has completely screwed up the coloring in the last three panels, where Captain Kane and Fingers Holts switch colors, and then Captain Kane's suit changes again in the last panel to bright green.

There's one bit that struck me when the Clock threatens Fingers to make him confess. He tells him he's starved a rat, and what if he puts the rat on Fingers' belly under a metal bowl, and then heats the bowl? The rat can't chew the bowl to get out, so what does he chew? Bwooowaaahahahaa. Don't show this to the CIA. They might drop waterboarding in favor of this tasty torture.