Number 2335: Purple Tigress and the Flasher

Purple Tigress wears yellow, with a purple cape. She has tiger stripes. Okay, say I. The purple cape makes her Purple Tigress. Then I read about Purple Tigress in Public Domain Super Heroes. She only appeared in two comic books: Fox’s Jo-Jo Comics #7A, from 1947, where I got today’s post, and All Good Comics, no number, a one-shot Fox giant comic from 1944, three years earlier. The 1947 story may have been in inventory for a couple of years before being worked into the issue of Jo-Jo.

No writer is listed for Purple Tigress, but the Grand Comics Database credits A.C. Hollingsworth with the artwork. From Jo-Jo Comics #7A (1947).*

*Go to Pappy’s Number 2273 to read why Jo-Jo had two issue #7's.

Number 2298: Rulah and the Ice Beast

Now here is something we don’t often see...if ever. A beautiful barefoot girl in a skimpy two-piece outfit on snow skis. Rulah comes up against a bad man with a weather machine. It looks like an old boiler on wheels, but it can make snow in the jungle.

It is winter as I write this. I live in a place where snow and cold can make life miserable. I commiserate with Rulah’s problems, except going out in the cold without proper warm clothing would put her in danger of frostbite. For not being used to the cold, Rulah is able to maintain her cool (ho-ho), and solve the problem. What else would one expect a jungle goddess to do?

“The Ice Beast” is from Fox’s Zoot Comics #10 (1947). Story and art by the Iger Studio.

Number 2265: Killing is a bad career choice

Si Reddy and Arnie Walsh are a couple of old-time gangsters who are in the business of murdering people for money. Their reputations would spread by word of mouth.  Murder for hire might be lucrative enough, but doesn’t include health or dental insurance. There's no pension plan; none that I know of, anyway. A killer could make out pretty well until it was time to cut and run. In this case Si and Arnie don’t get a chance to enjoy their retirement or old age. For a killer, premature death is an occupational hazard.

“Trigger-Men by Trade” appeared in Fox Comics’ March of Crime* #7 (actually #1, 1950). No writer is listed, but the artist is Wallace Wood. Grand Comics Database gives him total credit, and he may have done it himself, but I think the odds are that another artist or two helped him out. It seems most, if not all, of Wood’s jobs for Fox have something in common: the splash page is usually the best artwork in the story. Early Wood collaborator Harry Harrison explained the team’s dealing with the art director at Fox in an interview in Graphic Story Magazine in 1970: “We would slide in this ten-page pile of crap with a real good splash page for the first page on top. He would look at only the top page and count the other nine, flipping through them real fast. Nobody really cared about the quality. No one looked at these books; no one read the things very carefully.”

Also, Fox was a slow-payer, if he paid at all. He soon went bankrupt and Star Comics, run by L.B. Cole, picked up his inventory. Over the next couple of years Star reprinted many stories originally published by Fox, the self-proclaimed “King of the Comics.” This story does not have a GCD record of being reprinted.

*March of Crime was a play on words, in this case the newsreel series, The March of Time, shown in movie theaters from 1935 to 1951, and heard on radio from 1935-1945. Time, Inc., publisher of both Time and Life magazines, might have taken a dim view of a garish crime comic book using a variation on their title, which may be why the comic book only lasted three issues

Number 2209: “Dam the rotten luck!” Murder morals in a crime comic

Joseph Federal is a very bad man. He strangles women for money. In “Joseph Medley Lady Killer,” from Murder Incorporated #3 (1948), he curses his luck after killing a young woman: “She wasn’t lying I know! That money is nowhere in this room. Dam the rotten luck!” Yes, the word “damn” was deliberately misspelled.

The story was reprinted four years later in Shock Detective Cases #20,* and “dam” was replaced by a standard comic book “#*@*”, using symbols to replace cursing. Showing murder wasn’t forbidden...just some mild swearing.

 Original printing, 1948

Censored, 1952.

The original version was published by Fox, and came from the height of the crime comics boom in 1948. It was the sort of thing that got parents, teachers, and guardians of public morals in a dither. I don’t think Dr Wertham ever saw this, because if he had he could have easily used several panels in his book, Seduction of the Innocent, to show how brutal crime comics could be. Sexy, too. L.B. Cole, editor of Shock Detective Cases, in a couple of panels had the dresses extended to appear more modest. This is the world of editorial decision-making: what an editor thinks goes too far, and how to fix it.

Artwork, signed by Carter, is actually by Rudy Palais. Palais, who died in 2004, was an early comic book artist who had work in various genres, including crime and horror. His artwork for Harvey’s horror comics line is known for the sweat drops flying off characters’ faces, although his style is so distinctive I don’t need sweat drops to identify it

Number 2140: Young-old-young Rex Dexter

Rex Dexter takes quite a trip in this tale from Fox’s Mystery Men #5 (1939): he becomes old, then regains his youth. The story is another from the vivid imaginings of writer-artist Dick Briefer. Briefer was later known for his series of Frankenstein tales, spread over the decades of the forties and early fifties.

Today’s story is educational. We learn how name of Rex Dexter’s girlfriend and interplanetary traveling companion, Cynde, is pronounced.

A few years ago I showed the origin of Rex Dexter. You can read it by going to the link below.

The origin(s) of Rex Dexter. Just click on the thumbnail.