Number 2557: No man is an island...not even Samar

Besides sharing his name with an island in the Philippines, Samar is another white jungle guy. He appeared in Feature Comics from 1940 to 1942, and shared something with the much more successful character, the Phantom. They were both headquartered in India, which often looks more like Africa. 

Nicholas Viscardi (who later went by Nick Cardy) and Ted Cain are credited with creating the character Samar. Viscardi/Cardy, born in 1920, was just a youngster when he began his comic book career. This story, which appeared in Feature Comics ##32 (1940), is not credited for a writer by the Grand Comics Database, but gives Maurice Gutwirth credit for the artwork. 

 

Number 2221: Dr Frost: a man with hands as cold as ice

A few days ago we had another story of a costumed hero who had no secret identity...or at least none revealed. That holds true for Dr Frost, also, who can shoot ice out of his fingertips due to his “freezing powers.” People know where he lives, also. While Dr Frost is attempting to sit down, relax and read the newspaper to rest those freezing powers, a lady shows up at his door. She is begging him to help her son who is wanted for murder. You’d think he’d do like some people do, hide in the basement or refuse to answer the door, but no; he is a helpful, albeit really, really cold guy.

Maurice Gutwirth signed the story in the upper right corner. Grand Comics Database credits Ben Thompson with pencils and inks. Thompson may have had something to do with it, but Gutwirth is the primary artist. Gutwirth often drew elongated chins, and several panels have characters with the Gutwirth jawline in them. Gutwirth has also been confused with another elongated chin comic artist, Paul Gattuso, and I plead guilty of that, myself.

The story appeared in Prize Comics #24 (1942):

Number 1891: The terrible secret of the 2016 Presidential Election: The Phantom Fiend!

Now we know why the 2016 American election cycle has been so bizarre. At least one of the candidates has been possessed by a demon, the Phantom Fiend. We are warned by this story: The Phantom Fiend has inhabited Senator Phinley, leaving the real Senator Phinley’s consciousness in some old guy, who begs someone to believe he has been kicked out of his own body. The closing caption asks, “Who knows which humans are possessed by Phantom Fiends?” Well, we know at least one, or maybe two, on our television screens every night.

Unfortunately, exorcism won’t work...but voting will. (And having said that, I am not welcoming discussions in the comments on the current American political season, and I will endeavor not to mention it again.)

The story, originally published in Adventures Into the Unknown #44 (1953), is shown here in a black line reprint from an undated Australian comic book, Tales of Torment #1. The story is drawn by Maurice Gutwirth, although the Grand Comics Database hasn’t updated its listing of the artist as Paul Gattuso. There has been confusion over Gutwirth’s work, because it seems similar to the angular faces that Gattuso drew.

The above panel is taken from an Ace horror comic, Baffling Mysteries #24. It is identified by the GCD as Gutwirth. You can see the similarity in the faces