Number 2440: Tom Mix and a hearty breakfast

Ralston-Purina made animal food, and also made breakfast cereal. Both the animal food division and the breakfast cereal division have been sold a few times, and I’m not really interested in all that. I am interested in Ralston-Purina’s affiliation with Western movie star Tom Mix. A radio show based on Mix was sponsored by Ralston-Purina, and in 1940 they produced a comic book version of Mix. For two box tops from Ralston Purina cereal a fan could get the comic book in the mail! That’s worth buying a couple of boxes of cereal, I guess. The first issue came out in 1940, and I have the whole issue here.

It looks like some thought (and hard work) went into it. It is a top-notch comic book for 1940. The artwork, by Fred Meagher (pronounced “Mar”) for the Tom Mix stories is excellent. It looks like the issue may have been produced with help from Charles Biro (Daredevil, Boy Comics, Crime Does Not Pay, et al.) Biro signed one of the stories. There are also a couple of racial caricatures of a type sadly common 80 years ago, so be aware.

Tom Mix Comics had nine issues, then three more as Tom Mix Commandos Comics, switching to a wartime theme. The partnership with Tom Mix ended there, although Tom Mix had nothing to do with it, as he was deceased. He died in 1940 on an Arizona road when he crashed his 1937 Cord. The Tom Mix business continued without Tom Mix. Other actors had been portraying Mix on the radio show. The posthumous heroics of Tom Mix continued with a series of stories in a couple of Fawcett’s anthology comics, Master Comics and Western Heroes, as well as his own title for 61 issues, from 1948 until Fawcett ended its comic book line in 1953.

Number 837

Straight Arrow

Straight Arrow was a radio program which lasted a short time, shorter than the comic book which licensed the character. I explained some of it in Pappy's #437, where I posted another Straight Arrow story. Fred Meagher was the artist, a solid pro with a flair for Western material. A few years earlier he had done Ralston Purina Company giveaway comics starring Tom Mix. When I read about them in an article years ago (by Ron Goulart?) I also found out that Meagher's name was pronounced Mar.

This is the first story from Straight Arrow #1, published by ME, written by Gardner Fox and drawn by Meagher.

This is dedicated to Mike Britt, Straight Arrow fan. Fifty years ago Mike's fanzine, Squatront #2*, was the first fanzine I ever saw, and is the direct ancestor of this blog. Thanks, Mike.

*(Mike's Squatront was not the Jerry Weist Squa Tront, which came later.)

Number 437


Straight Arrow and the bloody bridge


Straight Arrow started in 1949 as a radio show sponsored by Nabisco. As the 1996 article I linked to explains, the comic book version, written by Gardner Fox and drawn by Fred Meagher for ME Comics, lasted five years longer than the show.

Like most people with only a rudimentary knowledge of the character I thought Straight Arrow was a white man disguised as an Indian until I read the article, which explains it was the other way around.

Fred Meagher had drawn Tom Mix in a series of comic book premiums for Ralston. He was a fine cartoonist, with a solid drawing style and a talent for Westerns. This story is from Straight Arrow #21, January 1953. Meagher, who was born in 1912, died in 1976.