Number 2418: The dark side of Captain Video

Captain Video and his ranger pal known only as Ranger take their rocketship to the moon, tracking a flying saucer which has left radiation on Earth. On the moon the intrepid earthmen meet little green men from the flying saucers.

Back here in the real world, on January 3, 2019 the Chinese landed a Chang’e spacecraft on the far side (commonly called the "dark side") of the moon. You can read about it in an article from Cosmos magazine online. There are no little green men, or none the Chinese have revealed yet to the rest of the world.

Art by George Evans and Martin Thall. From Captain Video #5 (1951).

Number 1818: Mr Murder

I suspect, not having read every pulp magazine and comic book ever published (although some days it feels like it), that the plot device of a rich person being threatened with murder by some demented villain for the purposes of extortion must have been common. It just doesn’t ring with originality. One of the most famous from the genre is the Joker’s introduction in Batman, when the Joker pulled off “the grinning death.” Mr Murder doesn’t go that far in this Bulletman episode, but the plot seems inspired by that, and probably numberless other stories before Batman.

Here’s a hint: when a story is only 8 or 9 pages long, every new, non-series character should be suspected of being the alter ego of the disguised, slouch-hatted villain. Not trying to spoil the story for you...I’m just sayin'.

The Grand Comics Database gives Charles Sultan credit for the artwork. The story is from Fawcett’s Master Comics #15 (1941):

Come back tomorrow, when I bring back the Thanksgiving Turkey Awards for the most oddball story I have read all year.

Number 1808: Captain Marvel Jr in a fog

Freddy Freeman, the “crippled” newsboy who is also Captain Marvel Jr, is innocently peddling his papers when he spots some odd-looking fellows. He yells the magic word, becomes Junior and grabs one of them, only to exclaim, “He feels just like a mass of fog!” Freddy’s super powers must give him extraordinary ability of touch. I have been in a lot of fogs and have never been able to feel it except as water droplets. I don’t have a magic word, so I’ll give Junior’s tactile powers the benefit of the doubt.

The whimsical script gave artist Bud Thompson a chance to do a little experimenting with the look of the fog men. I find it a fun mix of cartoon exaggeration and Thompson’s more straight superhero-cartoon style of the era.

From Captain Marvel Jr #83 (1950).