Number 2492: The god of violent death

Zeni is the god of violent death. (As if human beings aren’t up to par when it comes to war and death.) A story from Forbidden Worlds, “The Deity of Death,” explains it, and how a former soldier suddenly, and inadvertently, becomes an acolyte of the stone god on the island of Ilomar.

Many of the stories from the ACG supernatural comics use a loving couple to prove that love can survive the most dire and dangerous events. The story puts a twist to that ending. [SPOILER ALERT: I always love this! It is yet another story (I have shown a few over the years), where a guy is able to get hold of a nuclear bomb, in this case getting a plane by socking the lone guard of a bomber at a “secret island.” [END OF SPOILER]

A major plus for me in choosing the story is the artwork of Edmond Good, a former artist from the Canadian comic book industry. Good came to the U.S. when those comic book companies went out of business after World War II. Edmond Good was well named: he was a very good artist. If anything, his work in this story  reminds me of another comic artist, Kurt Schaffenberger. Both Good and Schaffenberger were great at inking.

From Forbidden Worlds #21 (1953):

 

Number 1946: Phantom Detective: Master of disguise

Considering how long the Phantom Detective appeared in pulp magazines (20 years, 1933-1953), and Ned Pines, the publisher of the Thrilling pulps, had a line of comic books (Nedor/Better/Standard), you would think the Phantom would have had a career in comics as well. But, no. He was featured as a backup feature in Thrilling Comics for 17 episodes, and a one-shot appearance in America’s Best Comics. I haven’t read an explanation as to why he wasn’t a crossover star. Maybe his pulp appeal didn’t work in comic books. The Phantom Detective went about mostly disguised as someone else, unless you count the images of him wearing a domino mask. That probably wouldn’t qualify as a disguise. The Phantom was yet another rich guy using deductive skills to fight crime, a la Sherlock Holmes.

The Grand Comics Database doesn’t guess at a writer, but the artist is Edmond Good, an American born artist who moved to Canada at age 10, then back to America in 1943. He had a career bouncing around various publishers, then went into other art endeavors, including including art director at Tupperware. Good died in 1991 at age 81. There is an interesting 2013 article on Good at the Comic Book Daily site, including a scan of original art Good did for a 1942 Canadian issue of Weird Tales, and other examples of his art.

Edmond Good was the first artist on the long-running Tomahawk feature for DC. Here is the first story, from Star-Spangled Comics #69 (1947):

Number 1880: The secret of the old tower

“The Old Tower’s Secret.” from Adventures Into the Unknown #2 (1949) gives the appearance of a triangle love story. Older husband, younger wife and younger man. And the husband lets the two go off together for the day. When he thinks the worst has transpired with the young people, events are set in motion that will haunt them (literally) a hundred years later. Things are not as we were led to believe.

Frank Belknap Long, who had a long career as a writer and was a contemporary and friend of H.P. Lovecraft, wrote the story, as well as the other contents of the first two issues of Adventures Into the Unknown. Edmond Good, a Canadian artist who came to the United States after World War II, contributed several stories to ACG and editor Richard E. Hughes over the years. Good, a member of the art colony in Woodstock, New York, was also the first artist for DC’s Tomahawk.

In this posting from 2011, after a mystical tale by Ogden Whitney, a space story by Edmond Good. Just click on the thumbnail.

Number 1661: Dagar, the Euro-Arab Desert Hawk

Dagar, Desert Hawk, the character of the 1940s, is not the same as Dagar the Invincible, the Gold Key barbarian hero of the '70s. We try not to confuse.

In Don Markstein’s Toonopedia this is what is said of the Dagar we are showing today:

“. . . Dagar, subtitled ‘Desert Hawk’, was a hero in an exotic land, who flourished for a couple of years at Fox Comics, starting in 1947. He was sort of a white sheik, a man of European extraction living as a wealthy and powerful (but, of course, adventurous) arab [sic]. He had his share of stereotyped characteristics, of course; but unlike stereotyped arabs in more recent fiction, was a good guy.”

That being said, there are a couple of Americans thrown in. Chuck Day and his sister, Wendi, are friends with an “Arab” girl, Ayesha,* whose scant costume would surely be banned by the Taliban. Ayesha gets mixed up with a phony pharaoh, Dagar is called in to rescue Ayesha from said pharaoh.

The story appeared in Dagar, Desert Hawk #15 (1948), the second issue. The artist is Edmond Good, whose work I have shown before. Later adventures of Dagar were taken over by none other than Jack Kamen, but Dagar had a short run, and by the end of the 1940s the Desert Hawk was covered over by the shifting sands of time.

*Friend and commenter, Daniel, would be the first to point out that Ayesha shares her name with the immortal character of H. Rider Haggard’s novel, She.

More Edmond Good goodies. Just click on the thumbnails.

Number 1155: Star Spangled Tomahawk

 

There isn't a lot of information available online about artist Edmond Good. He was born in 1910 (no death date listed; is he still alive at age 102?) Worked in Canadian comic books during WWII, then came to the U.S. to work on the comic strip, Scorchy Smith, and then comic books. He was the first artist on "Tomahawk," which began in Star Spangled Comics in 1947.

Tomahawk's first appearance was shown in Pappy's #985. Good worked for Fox, doing Dagar, Desert Hawk, and also at ACG in the 1960s, doing supernatural stories for editor Richard E. Hughes. He had a very pleasing style, which once identified, becomes immediately apparent when spotted.

In the answer to a question in Adventures Into the Unknown, Hughes further identified Good as a member of the Woodstock, N.Y. art colony.

 Joe Samachson wrote this tale, the second-ever Tomahawk story, in Star Spangled Comics #70 (1947):