Number 2159: Harvey K. lashes that lightning!

A couple of days ago I was comparing wannabe satirical comic books to Mad, and noted what the imitators lacked was Mad creator Harvey Kurtzman. Today I have a very early example of Kurtzman’s comic book work. I mean wayyyy early; Kurtzman was born in 1924, and this episode of “Lash Lightning” was published in 1942, which made Harvey about 18.

Kurtzman worked for Louis Ferstadt, a WPA artist* who took up drawing comic books in their early days. I have shown some early Kurtzman before, but when I checked it against the Grand Comics Database I saw they had “Harvey Kurtzman ?” for pencil and inking credits. They just aren’t sure. Can I be 100% sure? No, but I am leaning strongly toward Kurtzman being the artist. One, his initials are on the tombstone on the right hand side of the splash panel. It is hard to read, but it is an H.K. The other thing I noticed immediately is a youthful appropriation of Jack Kirby’s style for exaggerated action. Kirby was a master of action poses, and I visualize a young Harvey at a drawing board with copies of open Jack Kirby comic books.

This would have been a great school for Kurtzman, working against deadlines, drawing superheroes in action. He was drafted, served, came home, re-entered the comic book business, and by then had developed his own style.

*WPA — Works Progress Administration

Number 1597: When Flash got the "F" out

This is the final posting from our “Aces Up My Sleeve” theme week, featuring early stories from the Ace Comics line.

This is the issue where Flash Lightning became Lash Lightning. No explanation...it just was.

It is also a story with inconsistencies which seem jarring. Lash drives a car to the Army base. But he can fly and uses that power when he is blocked from entering in his car. Why drive? To show that the road to the base is blocked appears to be the only reason. And the evil Mastermind, who can “project himself anywhere” can project himself on the base, but then climbs into the commanding officer’s window the old-fashioned way.

Despite those weaknesses in the writing, the art is by comics journeyman Jim Mooney, and it is excellent.

From Lightning Comics Vol 2 No.1 (1941):

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The origin story of Flash Lightning from Sure-Fire Comics #1 is here. Just click on the thumbnail:

Number 1296: Werewolf hit by Lightning!

This Lash Lightning story from Ace Comics' Four Favorites #1 (1941) is the fourth and final posting of our Furry Fiends and Foes week. It's been fun going through comic books now over 70 years old to find these energetic tales.

Lightning is powered by — you can guess this from his name — electricity. He got his powers from ancient Egypt and has a sort of Shazam-like mentor in the Old Man of the Pyramids. The blurb in the splash panel explains Lightning. In this particularly hairy tale of a werewolf in the woods coming out to wreak revenge, Lightning battles a supernatural character. Wolf Krimetz hid in the woods after committing manslaughter, and twenty years later goes after some of his former fellow cadets at the military academy where he was bullied. See, kids? Don't bully anyone, because they could come back at you years later. It's been nearly fifty years for me, and I'm still figuring out how to get back at the bully who gave me trouble in school. Maybe I'll go to the old folks home where he now lives and steal his false teeth so he can't eat dinner. Revenge is sweet!

But there was something else about this story. It reminds me of a story by Sid Check I showed a couple of years ago, “The Werewolf's Victims” from an issue of Mystic, where, like this story, the werewolf put captives in a cave. The later story may or may not have been inspired by this. You can see it in Pappy's #945.

The Grand Comics Database credits Mark Schneider? (question mark means they're not sure) with the art. Jim Mooney is often associated with this character, but he usually signed his stories.

Number 596


Lash Lightning, Lightning Girl...and Artist Girl


We had a posting a few months ago in Pappy's #529 from the first issue of Pep Comics that reminds me of this story. They have similar endings. This is from Four Favorites #20, November 1945. What makes it interesting to me is that it's by the artist Nina Albright. There just weren't that many women drawing comic books, not even when a lot of male comic book artists were at war.

All I know about Albright is that she worked on several comic features and then left the field for magazine illustration in the early '50s. There aren't any birth or death dates and I don't know if she's still living.

Many of the female artists like Albright, and I'm thinking right now off the top of my head of Lily Renée and Jill Elgin, really had a way with drawing girls, but even in those sexist times they weren't restricted to "soft" subjects. They were required to draw every kind of action feature, just like the guys, and from what I've seen, they did their work very well.