Number 2594: That law-breaking district attorney, Mr Scarlet

The Fawcett comics hero, Mr Scarlet, is Brian Butler, a District Attorney. As a DA he can’t put all of the crooks and criminals away, so at night he dresses up in a bright red costume and goes out to kick crook butts. The Public Domain superheroes website calls him a “vigilante,” which, to Brian, is okay. If he goes around the law, well then, why not? He’d probably only get bounced from office if the voters knew. Or maybe not. In the era Mr Scarlet and Pinky appeared the idea of a vigilante wasn’t as shady as it is now.

Mr Scarlet (and Pinky) were around for a few years as secondary characters, never getting their own comic book, unlike several other Fawcett heroes.

What surprised me is that writer France Herron and artist Jack Kirby are given credit for creating Mr Scarlet. I should not be surprised, because I have always felt that Jack Kirby could come up with a superhero at the snap of his fast-drawing fingers. But in my opinion, Mr Scarlet seems mostly from hunger, derived from other superheroes.

From Wow Comics #10 (1943). No writer or artist is credited by the Grand Comics Database.

Number 2587: Dr Sivana’s vampire

How dumb can people get, anyway? The city fathers have brought to America a castle from Transylvania and rebuilt it as a museum for a park. It is said that at one time a vampire lived in that castle. Ewwww...that is dumb, folks! In this comic book there is a mad scientist and a superhero who is a young boy in “real life.” One should not tempt fate by putting innocent people in a place where a vampire lived. After all, vampires don’t just die, do they? Everybody knows that...don’t they? Maybe not.

This story appeared in The Marvel Family #4 (1946). According to the Grand Comics Database It is credited to C.C. Beck (with a question mark) for pencils, and inking by Pete Costanza. The story is credited to Otto Binder.

 

Number 2476: Hey Kids! Eat your Wheaties and score a free Captain Marvel comic book!

Wheaties (the “Breakfast of Champions” as the advertising tag-line has said for decades) had a giveaway of free comic books in 1946 . Along with Captain Marvel Adventures, they had Whiz Comics, both from Fawcett, and Flash Comics and Funny Stuff from DC. If I had been a youngster at the time I would have bugged my parents mercilessly to get me Wheaties. The problem is that my dad, Big Pappy, worked in sales for the competition, Quaker Oats Company. Big Pappy frowned on buying anything from business rivals.

Here is a story from the Captain Marvel giveaway, identified by the Grand Comics Database as written by Bill Woolfolk, and drawn by Pete Costanza. There is another personal touch here. Along with the pandemic, this year in my town an earthquake in the spring set off thousands of aftershocks, and some damage to the Pappy abode. The real thing was no fun, but the story from the comic book is amusing. The “keystone rock,” the rock that holds all the other rocks in the world together, is found in an old well by Horace Shakum, and when scoffed at for his discovery, Horace uses it for revenge. He claims, “Just tapping the rock will produce violent earthquakes!” I admit it, earthquakes and aftershocks get me shakin' all over. Give Horace his accolades, and send him far away from that keystone.

Number 2448: The Man from Planet X

Pappy readers: this will be the last of my Sunday posts. On Monday, September 7, 2020, I will begin posting each week on Monday and Wednesday. As in the past, I will go back to shorter stories for this blog. 

Now on with our regular business:

Fawcett made a one-shot movie comic out of The Man from Planet X. I looked up information on the 1951 movie, and here are a couple of quotes from review by an IMDb contributor, jayraskin1:

“The fact that it was shot in six days on a budget of $43,000 makes it more amazing. Compare that to The Thing From Another World ($1.6 million) or The Day The Earth Stood Still ($1.2 million). While none of the technical aspects come near those two movies, the movie does have an interesting style and look that foreshadows the 1953 classic Invaders From Mars and even has elements from Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

“What really carries the film is Edgar Ulmer's energetic direction. Ulmer (Black Cat, The Strange Woman and Detour) always keeps the viewer on their toes, inserting off-beat and unexpected material in nearly every scene.”

The review’s author ends it by stating, “It is a must for film history buffs and others will find it engagingly silly.”

Although they made the “engagingly silly” movie in six days, I am sure it took a lot longer to complete the comic book version. In 2012 I showed the UK version of the same comic, which was printed sans color. You can see it by going to the link below and you can read who the artists were said to be.

In 2012 I showed the black and white UK version of the Fawcett comic. Just click on the thumbnail.