Number 2547: “There's a Starman, waiting in the sky...”

 

The impetus for showing this Starman story is the David Bowie son, "Starman," which is now an earworm due to a television commercial. I am hoping posting this will make the earworm go away. The story, which is the last Starman story, is from Adventure Comics #102 (1946). Superheroes were being cancelled after the war, because many of them were out of favor with readers. Oh well...Starman was a filler feature anyway. 

Art is credited to Emil Gershwin.

Number 2269: Love is a circus

“Savage Sweetheart” is a three-ring circus of love and hate. Marcia loves Leroy and hates David; David loves Marcia and hates Leroy. Leroy loves gambling and he owes $3000 to some crooks. He pretends to love Marcia. The crooks love that they can manipulate Leroy into having Marcia, who is now owner of the circus after the death of her dad, include some crooked gambling into the circus. Despite beautiful Marcia throwing herself at him, Leroy just pretends to love her so he can carry out his felonious plan.

This torrid tale of the tanbark is drawn by Emil Gershwin, and art-spotter Jim Vadeboncoeur Jr puts a question mark beside the name Celardo as inker. According to some biographical information I read online, Gershwin, who usually didn’t sign his name, was a top illustrator, with rave reviews from Alex Toth. Further reading finds that Gershwin assisted Dan Barry on the Tarzan newspaper comic strip, and later John Celardo took over the feature. Some Tarzan-styled stuff is included in the drama, when David fights a lion. I wondered if Emil Gershwin was related to the famous Gershwin brothers, George and Ira. Emil’s daughter, Nancy, says the famous composers were Emil’s first cousins.

The story appeared in ACG’s Romantic Adventures #7 (1950).

Number 1752: Spy Smasher — hot head!

The Man In the Iron Mask...not the Alexandre Dumas Man In the Iron Mask, but a musician who fails to salute Hitler, and gets a metal helmet locked on his dome for his offense. (Some people, including evil despots, just don’t cut anyone any slack.) Not only does the musician become a metal-head, he is ordered to America to kill...Spy Smasher!

This is one of those goofy stories from three-fourths of a century ago. The story moves right along. But everything that happens in this story, including the Man In the Iron Mask putting an iron mask on Spy Smasher, is totally unbelievable. What else would you expect with a set-up like this story has? Spy Smasher, who shared Whiz Comics with Captain Marvel, has no super powers. I guess it is just good luck — and the Man In the Iron Mask stupidly leaving the room where Spy Smasher is tied up with a flaming torch roasting his head — that gives him the advantage. (Why do villains give their victims a chance to escape? Why do I foolishly ask rhetorical questions?)

If you can’t accept the story, at least you can appreciate the artwork, attributed to Emil Gershwin. From Spy Smasher #4 (1942):

Number 1355: “Spending the days with Bill, and the nights with horror!”

Forbidden Worlds, ACG's companion to Adventures Into the Unknown, ended its run at #34 (1954), the last issue before the Comics Code kicked in. It was replaced for three issues with Young Heroes, a more Code-friendly book, numbers 35-37. But Young Heroes didn't last, and Forbidden Worlds came back with an issue dated about a year after #34, continuing the numbering from #35. Confused? Comic books used to change their names but not their numbering (trying to get around a postal regulation for second-class mailing permits), but sometimes they were caught and had to re-number. That may be what happened with Forbidden Worlds

Okay, that's our comic book history lesson for today. Within the pages of FW #34 are a couple of stories that show a change in direction for ACG’s supernatural titles to fit into the new Code, and a last blast from their pre-Code past. The newer-styled story is “Day of Reckoning!” which is science fiction with art attributed by the Grand Comics Database to Paul Gustavson, and the catchy-titled “My Fanged and Fiendish Darling” is a werewolf story, common in ACG’s titles until the Code. It's drawn by Emil Gershwin.

“Fanged and Fiendish” is very odd. A married woman and single man share a secret; they are both able to sit at home and send their “wolf-beings” into the night to rip and tear innocent passers-by. No credible reason is given for Karen taking up such a lycanthropic lifestyle except that she is “...so lonely that maybe even terror is welcome!” It’s a crazy plot, but that wasn’t uncommon for ACG.

The Grand Comics Database gives Ken Bald credit for the cover.

Number 1292: The murderous child

“Love is for the Living,” from ACG’s Romantic Adventures #5 (1949), isn’t all that original. A drab governess goes to work for a handsome widower with a small child, then has to win the love of both. What struck me when reading the story was that it reminded me of The Bad Seed, the popular novel/play/movie, about a young blonde child who commits murder.

Maxwell Anderson's 1955 play was adapted from the novel by William March, published in 1954. Life magazine covered the play and its young actress, Patty McCormack, in a January, 1955 issue. Here's the first page of the article:

The comic book story appeared about five years before the novel, and I'm not claiming it had any influence on the novelist. It's just an interesting coincidence. Stories about children who murder aren't all that rare. But the drama of the attempted murder does add some depth to an otherwise shopworn romance plot, and it helps that the Romantic Adventures story is well illustrated by Emil Gershwin. Were I to give advice to someone in the same position as governess Celia Parrish I'd tell her even though it looks like she's won the love of the father, I wouldn't turn my back on his daughter.