Number 2297: Angel flying too close to the ground

Although his status was as a filler superhero, and never a star, going back to Marvel Comics #1 (1939), the Angel was featured in several Timely Comics of the 1940s. The character was created by Paul Gustavson, who went on to Quality Comics, and is considered one of the better comic book artists of that early period. At first the Angel had no secret identity, and nothing to identify why he was in such a gaudy costume.

From Don Markstein's Toonopedia:

“[The Angel] did have a secret identity, private detective Tom Halloway. A text page written by Ray Gill (who also has credits at Lev Gleason, Novelty Press and elsewhere) in Marvel Mystery Comics (as Marvel Comics had been re-titled with its second issue) #20 (June, 1941) gave his background. Halloway's mother had died in childbirth and his father, a prison warden, had raised him in the prison, isolated from outside human contact except for the experts the warden brought in to teach the boy everything there was to know — successfully, it appears, as his range of knowledge sometimes seems to have rivaled that of The Junior Woodchucks' Guide Book.”

I chose this particular story because it is more gruesome than usual (reflecting the kind of mood I am in as I write this). A man has a rare disease, needs constant blood supplies to keep him alive, so when the hospitals can’t help him anymore he kills people and takes their blood. (I have a question about blood types, which the story does not address.) In one panel we have a scene which would have been right at home a decade later in Dr Fredric Wertham’s Seduction of the Innocent. Human corpses on meat hooks in a slaughter house! Yow.

From Marvel Mystery Comics #30 (1942). No writer or artist is listed by the Grand Comics Database.

Number 2283: Fighting Females Week: Miss America

We begin a theme week: Fighting Females Week, three stories of women who can serve up a punch, and I don’t mean the kind of punch one sips at a garden party.

First up, Miss America, who was a character created by Otto Binder, appearing in Marvel Mystery Comics. Here is what Don Markstein’s Toonopedia has to say about her: “She was originally Madeline Joyce, beautiful teenage ward of radio tycoon James Bennet. Even before getting super-powered, she was passionately devoted to the cause of justice, and didn't mind an occasional fistfight to achieve it — and she wished she had a man's strength, so she could achieve more. In Marvel Mystery #49 (November, 1943), she and Bennet visited a Professor Lawson, whose experiments with electricity Bennet was underwriting. Lawson claimed to have gained awesome power when lightning struck a strange contraption he had built. That night, during a thunderstorm, Madeline tried to duplicate his feat. Lawson found her unconscious and, unable to face Bennet, destroyed the device and himself with it. But Madeline recovered quickly, as powerful as she'd hoped, and soon embarked on her career as a scourge of evildoers.”

This Miss America episode is from Marvel Mystery Comics #54 (1944), credited to writer Otto Binder, and Charles Nicholas with a ? as artist.

Number 2239: Der Zub-Mariner himszelf!

In my opinion Bill Everett was one of the top artists of the earliest days of comic books. His drawings were excellent, full of action. He fully understood the advantages of the format, where he could tell a story.

This is one of his early adventures of his creation, Sub-Mariner, from 1941. Everett also had a sense of humor; not gut-busting laugh-out-loud funny, but a bit more subtle. The panel where he buys fuel at a filling station for his homemade jeep — "Five gallons of alcohol and five of water!” — makes for some light humor as well as verisimilitude. Anybody who drives a car from Salt Lake to Oregon would need to stop for a refill, and it is likely they would need to use the restroom. We assume that bit of business is between panels.

I caught something Everett missed in the story. On page 6 Sub-Mariner is tied up, but the ropes have disappeared by the next panel, even though the caption says he is “securely bound.” They don’t reappear on the next page, either. Everett’s editor must have been taking a nap when Everett turned in the artwork for this story from Marvel Mystery Comics #23 (1941):

Number 2208: Here she is...Miss America!

Besides being the name of a beauty pageant, Miss America was a superheroine for Timely Comics in the 1940s. You can read her origin story by clicking on the link below. This Miss America was created by Otto Binder and Al Gabriele. As drawn, she was a cute young woman, and I assume meant to bring female readers to Marvel Mystery Comics, where she first appeared.

You can read more about Miss America in Don Markstein’s Toonopedia.

Since I have nothing better to do than sit around and think of stuff like this, at the time Otto Binder was writing scripts for Fawcett Publications, turning out a steady stream of stories about Captain Marvel and the rest of the cast of that comics universe. I have always wondered if, when going from publisher to publisher to turn in scripts, someone would give Otto a nudge and ask about the competition. Perhaps Otto thought of the wartime poster, “Loose Lips Sink Ships!” But then, people are apt to gossip in work settings, and I think it would be at least one way to keep up with what the other guys were doing. Call it an early and primitive form of hacking to steal trade secrets.

Written by Otto Binder, drawn by Charles Nicholas. From Marvel Mystery Comics #54 (1944).

The origin of Miss America. Just click on the thumbnail.

Number 1981: Here comes the Sun Girl!

Sun Girl was one of a handful of female superdoers that Timely/Marvel Comics published after World War II. As mentioned in Don Markstein’s Toonopedia, Sun Girl’s powers were ill-defined, even though she had a three-issue run of her own title, and appearances in that publisher’s flagship title, Marvel Mystery Comics.

In this episode, from Marvel Mystery Comics #89 (1948), some odd-looking phantoms appear on the streets of New York, and Sun Girl is drafted to go after them. They have already cost one man his life, but plucky as she is, she goes into their dimension after them.

The Grand Comics Database lists Mike Sekowsky and Carl Burgos as artists. With this issue Marvel Mystery had just a couple of issues left to go before cancellation. The core group, Human Torch, Captain America and Sub-Mariner were still appearing in the title, but the comic book that had launched the publication company that later became Atlas Comics and then Marvel Comics, was gone before the 1950s began.

Number 1863: Origin of Human Torch retold, 1948

Marvel’s Fantasy Masterpieces #9 (1967) reprinted the origin of the Human Torch from Marvel Comics #1 (1939):

Over the years there have been several more reprints of Marvel Comics #1, which is one of the keystones of any major comic book collection. I give Marvel credit for making an attempt to show fans in the sixties what the previous generation saw in those early days of comic book history.

Looking in the Grand Comics Database I don’t see any reprints listed for the version of the Human Torch origin I am showing today. It appeared in 1948 in Marvel Mystery Comics #92. Despite what it says at the bottom of the last panel, the promised stories of the early days of the Torch didn’t happen because the book was canceled. The Torch, Sub-Mariner and Captain America had a later revival in the fifties, which was short-lived.

Neither Atlas Tales or GCD list credits for this story.