Number 2575: “...and a parrot called Snoopy”

Twilight was a short-lived character, and as a guess perhaps Twilight failed because of his costume. Furry and brown. It’s unusual, but also not colorful enough for super hero fans of the era.

How many characters of the early war years were in the armed services, and when the enemy struck the home front, dropped their uniforms for a (usually) colorful, masked character? Twilight, in that way, is not very original, but his parrot, named “Snoopy,” is colorful, at least.

Artist John Cassone did his usual superb job on the drawing. From Clue Comics #3 (1943).

Number 2532: Doll Man’s girlfriend...she's a hit!

John Cassone drew for several publishers, and in my opinion was one of the better artists of the period, so I would like to know more about this skilled artist. Cassone signed the first page of this Doll Man story in tiny letters, but spelled it Casson. If anyone knows more about John Cassone please let me know.

Looking for information on Cassone made me almost neglect the story. On first reading, from Doll Man Quarterly #3 (1942), it has a panel with his girlfriend getting punched in the jaw and rendered unconscious by Doll Man. It may be too late to apologize for showing it in this blog, but I'll do it anyway: I'm sorry. It is an example of changing times. For some reason when this was published, 80 years ago, it was considered all right for the hero to hit a woman.The woman he was in love with, no less. It is brazen to show it in a comic book ostensibly for kids, and one has to wonder what the editor, writer and artist thought about the subject. If they thought at all, that is.

Number 2310: Little man in a big world, big man in the comics

It was once my opinion of Doll Man, who could shrink yet retain the strength of a grown man, that boys may have been reluctant to buy a comic book with the word “Doll” in the title. Doll Man was the star of Feature Comics for a long time, and shared the mark of success with other Quality Comics heroes, like Plastic Man, by gaining his own title. Wartime paper rationing caused the title Doll Man Quarterly to be suspended in 1943, but Quality revived Doll Man’s comic book in 1946. He continued appearing on newsstands until 1953. I assume from Doll Man’s track record that boys were not deterred from buying a comic book with the word “Doll.” So much for assumptions.

This is the first story from the first issue of Doll Man Quarterly (1941). Grand Comics Database lists the artist as John Cassone with a ? to indicate they are not sure.

Doll Man was created by Will Eisner. Here is the origin story, plus a get-small horror story, and a link to the origin of Doll Girl. Just click on the thumbnail.

Number 2248: Hero and the Porcupine

Twilight is another character from the moldering archives of old comic books. He appeared in Hillman’s Clue Comics #’s 1-5, 7-9, and then like a lot of masked crimefighters, was gone. I can't say I like his costume; the color is what I’ve heard described as “sh-t-brindle brown.” In this story he is up against a character called The Porcupine, which may be one of the more unusual villains I have seen. And yes, Porkie (as Twilight calls him in one panel), shoots quills.

Twilight is credited by Public Domain Super Heroes and Grand Comics Database as being created and drawn by John Cassone. Comic art spotter extraordinaire Jim Vadeboncoeur Jr also claims in a note with the online scans that Reed Crandall worked with Cassone on the story. I see figures that look like Crandall’s...and I know Cassone and Crandall both worked for early Quality Comics. The only biographical information I can find on Cassone is in an obituary published online that gives his birth year as 1923, and his death in 2008, making him 85 when he died. He would have been about 20 when this story, and his stories of the sexy Black Angel, were published in Air Fighters Comics, also published by Hillman. You can find a link to a Black Angel story below.

There is also a talking parrot who goes around with Twilight. Talking animals weren’t common, like the underage boys who were sidekicks of superheroes, but I have also seen some other non-human sidekicks.

From Clue Comics Vol. 1 No. 2 (1943).

Here is a story by John Cassone of the Black Angel. It is from Air Fighters Comics #3. Just click on the thumbnail.

Number 1799: Black Angel...Black Widow...?

Nazis get the tables turned on them in Yugoslavia. They think they are spreading cholera germs, but they are actually spreading ipecac powder* which makes a person vomit. When the Nazis get sick they think that cholera has turned against them. My first of two favorite lines from this story, “Ohh...do something! Der Fuehrer vill have a tantrum!”

My second favorite line comes from our slinky heroine, Black Angel. While friendlies are pouring ipecac into food bins she says: “How I’d love to drop enough ground glass in with it to make a first-class stomach-ache!” Vengeful, isn’t she? I would not have ever bet against Black Angel. And I wonder what happened to her after the war. Did she get married? I'd worry if she was still thinking about ground glass. Used against a husband, she'd be renamed the Black Widow.

Drawn by John Cassone, from Air Fighters Comics #12 (1943):

*Ipecac syrup was once commonly kept in medicine chests. Purging was one way to fix a tummyache. I don’t remember my mother using it on me, but maybe I have mercifully forgotten.