Number 2564: The Yellowjacket, bees, and a short history of Charlton comics

The blog TV Tropes, in an undated entry, gives a short history of Charlton, a low budget printer/publisher. Charlton’s printing presses had been used originally to print cereal boxes. Charlton cut corners by using plastic printing plates rather than standard metal plates. It operated on the cheap for its whole existence from 1935 to 1986, when it finally shut its doors (and retired its overworked printing presses.) Wikipedia describes the origin of the business by telling that John Santangelo Jr and Ed Levy met while in prison. Santangelo had been publishing song-lyric magazines, violating copyrights, and was sentenced to a year in prison. Levy was a lawyer, whose crime is not listed. They both had sons named Charles, which created their first company name, T.W.O. Charles Company, later changed to Charlton.

Charlton went into comic books in the '40s, and published Yellowjacket Comics, which featured an unusual hero, Yellowjacket, who could get bees to help him. Note: Yellowjacket was beaten to comic books by Red Bee, from Quality Comics. Also, as has been pointed out, a yellowjacket is not a bee, but a yellowjacket costume was bright yellow, and looked better in comic books printed using plastic printing plates.

From Yellowjacket Comics #5 (1945). Artwork, pencils only, attributed by the Grand Comics Database to Ken Battefield.

Number 1968: Pyroman lights up the Black Boas

The name Pyroman is close enough to pyromaniac that one might assume Pyroman is a villain who commits arson. But Pyroman, a good guy who fights America’s enemies, is yet another comic book survivor of something that would kill the rest of us. In the origin story wrongly convicted Dick Martin survived being electrocuted in the electric chair. He then became a costumed, super-charged superhero.

Pyroman’s superpower is something I would like to have: being able to zap people with electricity. He is a kind of walking stun gun. Very cool. I wouldn’t use the power indiscriminately, of course (“with great power comes great responsibility” and all that rot), but if you are talking too loud on your cell phone or weaving in and out of traffic, or an annoying politician (in other words, being a jerk), then fear the stunning blasts from the fists of Pyropappy!

In this story, from Nedor’s Startling Comics #20 (1943), Pyroman goes up against saboteurs who look a lot like hooded Ku Klux Klan members, and conveniently identify themselves as Nazis with a big swastika on the front of their robes. Oddly, they call themselves the Black Boas. Those tricky Nazis...just full of surprises.

Grand Comics Database says Ken Battefield did the pencil artwork.

Here is another Pyroman story. Just click on the thumbnail:

Number 1923: Thomas Dun, undone

Thomas Dun was a real-life highwayman in England circa the year 1100. He was no Robin Hood. He disguised himself. He robbed, he murdered. His victims piled up.

For the most part Dun’s story, from Crime Must Pay the Penalty #4 (1948), describes Dun's criminal career in much the same fashion as the biographical information I have read online. The main difference is in the manner of Dun’s ultimate fate. History tells us that Dun was executed, without trial, in one of the most hideous ways the human mind can think of. Even a crime comic book dared not show something that gruesome. If you’re up to it, you can read about Dun, including his true demise here. 

The Grand Comics Database gives Ken Battefield credit for the artwork.

Number 1730: The Scarab levitates out of comic books

The Scarab was a superhero who appeared late in the game, in 1945’s Exciting Comics #42 (1945), at a time when superheroes were being replaced by other features in comics. Other superhero mainstays of the Nedor line, Black Terror and Fighting Yank, hung around for a few more years.

This feature in Black Terror #20 (1947) is the Scarab’s last appearance. The Grand Comics Database gives Ken Battefield credit for the pencils. I am lazy today so I am swiping the GCD’s synopsis for the story: “ An old Egyptian tells Peter a story of a strange secret potion of weird power that was buried in the sarcophagus of Pharaoh Am-Re in the year 1445, whose tomb was uncovered by a group of beggars and thieves searching for water. They drank of the potion before their ‘deaths’ and are scheduled to arise again from the dead today!”

As for the teaser panel on top of this page, haven’t you ever wished you could get out of a bad situation by levitating? Actually, I have not, but next time I’m cornered by a black cat I’ll try it.

Number 1592: The one-and-done costumed heroes

“The Case of the Crumpling Skyscrapers” is the one and only appearance of Rocky Ford and Judith Allen, private investigators. At night they take on disguises, he as the Scarlet Nemesis, she as the Black Orchid. The gimmick is they don’t know each other when their masks are on. Duh. Don Markstein’s Toonopedia has this to say about the characters:

“. . . comic book characters can be awfully dense about not recognizing each other if there's a mask in the way . . . But their relationship was never given a chance to develop. The Black Orchid and The Scarlet Nemesis had only one adventure, then disappeared without a trace.”

The article credits George Tuska with the art. Jim Vadeboncoeur Jr credits Ken Battefield and an unknown inker for the job. I am with Jim on this — it is not a Tuska job.

There is another character in this story, an eccentric “retired millionaire,” Jim Crow. Crow wants to knock down all the buildings to make more room for the pigeons. Can it be that there was a writer and an editor in those days who did not recognize the name “Jim Crow” as being the term used for racial segregation in the American South? You can read more about Jim Crow. This story, from All New Short Story Comics #2 (1943) is a curiosity that leaves one puzzled.