Number 2422: The Spider Widow meets the Spider Man

The Spider Widow “has the ability to control black widow spiders,” (Public Domain Super Heroes) a power I would pass up if offered. I have nothing against spiders; they have their place in the ecosystem, but as long as they aren’t climbing my walls I am fine. Despite an aversion to real life spiders, I chose this particular story because of the giant “spider” in the splash panel. The story is drawn by Frank Borth, an unsung artist of the Golden Age and beyond.

The Spider Widow, who wears a green witch mask, works with a costumed character called the Raven. There was also a Raven in Ace Periodicals comics, including Lightning Comics, around the same time. Neither Raven lasted very long in the comics. In this story the Spider Widow goes up against creepy Spider Man, who is obviously not today’s Spider-Man.

After returning from the war artist/creator Borth worked on a comic strip, then was a mainstay for years in Treasure Chest, a comic book for Catholic school kids. Like other artists who worked in Quality Comics before and during the war, Borth was inspired to do his best work by working with hot-shots like Reed Crandall, Lou Fine, Will Eisner, et al. An interview with Frank Borth from 2006 is included at the Catholic University website.

From Feature Comics #66 (1943):

TO READERS OF PAPPY’S GOLDEN AGE COMICS BLOGZINE:
It is December, and I have all of the stories and postings for this month in the Blogger queue. I want everything to work like it is supposed to, because after my final posting of this month, December 30, I will retire from Pappy’s. After 13 1/2 years it is time to go out while I still have the energy to do something else.

I don’t want to retire without thanking all of you for visiting this site. Many of you visit every time there is a new posting, three times a week. I deeply appreciate all who have been with Pappy’s since the blog — and you and I — were young. I think you understood what I have been trying to do, and when you have commented, especially in the last couple of years, you have been kind to an old man who spent his days squinting at his computer screen.

With any luck Pappy’s blog archives will be online for a long time. Although I will not be contributing, you and future readers will be able to go through a couple of thousand postings.

Best wishes to you all. Your friend, Pappy

Number 1460: The Phantom Ladies

A week ago I showed a story drawn by Frank Borth, and I included the splash panel for his first Phantom Lady story in Police Comics #17 (1943). I have that story today, and you can see what a superb artist Borth was, one of the top-notch talents at Quality Comics. The story, though, is filler; a bit of fluff.

The Phantom Lady, who is Sandra Knight, has a beau named Don, who doesn’t have a lot to do in that first story. He appears again in our second story from Phantom Lady #22 (1949). I don’t know why Phantom Lady, still Sandra Knight, moved from Quality to Fox Features and got a new costume. I assume the reason no one notices Phantom Lady is Sandra is because in those sexy costumes no one is looking at her face.

Sandra’s boyfriend, Don, is back in “The Case of the Robbing Robot,” with more to do in this story. He gets to dress in drag. The story has some humor to it, and is drawn by Jack Kamen in his pre-EC days.

Number 1456: Are you afraid of clown marionettes?

To answer my own question posed in the headline, yes, I would be afraid if said clown marionette was walking around without being suspended by strings or puppeteer, and especially yes, I would be afraid if I saw said marionette riding my cat.

Moppo the Marionette is by Frank Borth, longtime journeyman comic artist. Later in life Borth did a lot of work in Treasure Chest of Fun and Fact comics, published for Catholic school children, but in his early days he did more typical comic book fare. He did Phantom Lady for five issues of Police Comics, for instance. Here is the splash panel for his first Phantom Lady story.*

Although it says “Introducing Moppo” in the splash panel this is actually Moppo’s one and only appearance, from the last issue of Champ Comics #25 (1943).

*You might be asking yourself why I don’t just show his Phantom Lady and all I can say is, be patient.

Number 346


"...through the sewer like a cannonball!"


Captain Battle came to us, eyepatch and all, by way of Lloyd Jacquet's Funnies, Inc., a shop that provided comic book stories and art, pre-packaged for publishers. Lots of folks were jumping into the field in the time right before World War II, and Lev Gleason used the Funnies, Inc. shop for his books. Captain Battle, the comic book, not the character, had a confusing history: the first series in 1941 had issues #1 and #2, then became Boy Comics with #3. There was a Captain Battle #3 in Winter 1942-43, then #4 and finally #5 in 1943 which reprinted the contents of #1. Number 5 is where I got the scans for this story.

To add to the confusion, there were also two issues of Captain Battle Jr. I guess they figured if it worked for Captain Marvel, it'd work for them.

Frank Borth, who had a long, long career in comics, supplied the artwork, although because of the shop production, could have other artists' hands in it. It's a fairly typical kick-the-Nazis-butts-type story, with our hero triumphing over the bad guys by using good ol' American smarts and ingenuity. I especially like the "Lucetubes" rockets...borrowed from Buck Rogers?

And speaking of borrowing, the scene of the Nazi officers in the nightclub and the singer doing "The Marseillaise" is "borrowed" from the movie, Casablanca.