Number 2587: Dr Sivana’s vampire

How dumb can people get, anyway? The city fathers have brought to America a castle from Transylvania and rebuilt it as a museum for a park. It is said that at one time a vampire lived in that castle. Ewwww...that is dumb, folks! In this comic book there is a mad scientist and a superhero who is a young boy in “real life.” One should not tempt fate by putting innocent people in a place where a vampire lived. After all, vampires don’t just die, do they? Everybody knows that...don’t they? Maybe not.

This story appeared in The Marvel Family #4 (1946). According to the Grand Comics Database It is credited to C.C. Beck (with a question mark) for pencils, and inking by Pete Costanza. The story is credited to Otto Binder.

 

Number 2362: The Shazambot

This story seems prescient. A robot (invented by the Marvels, along with the faker, Uncle Marvel, as “Shazam Inc”) drives a truck. Recently I have seen more than one news report of driverless trucks being tested on the roads, piloted by artificial intelligence. What was once science fiction, even as whimsical as “The Marvel Family and the Shazam Robot,” is coming true. I don’t know yet how I feel about a robot driving a giant rig behind me on the freeway. I’ll have to wait until it happens for real, and not just in the pages of an old comic book.

Written by Otto Binder (creator of the popular Adam Link robot stories), but with no credits for the artwork. Published in The Marvel Family #5 (1946).

Number 2290: Tommy Tomorrow is so yesterday

Tommy Tomorrow lives in a simple world. He can rescue some farmers who bought land on Mercury not knowing it was too hot, making their crops wither and die. Tommy, a Planeteer, helps them by relocating them to “impossible worlds,” planets too difficult for humans. Tommy goes to “the government” for permission to relocate, and zip...he gets it. In Tommy’s simple world it does not take years, including several studies and court battles, to get things done from the government. Tommy even uses extortion on the crook who sold the Mercury land to the farmers in the first place, and gets away with it. He must know somebody really high up in the government.

Tommy had a fairly long career in DC Comics, from appearances in Real Fact Comics after the war ended, to 1962 when he soloed in a series for Showcase. Between those times he appeared in Action Comics until replaced by Supergirl, and then on to World’s Finest Comics until he lost that spot, also. After Showcase Tommy must have retired, perhaps to a plush desk job with the government.

This particular episode is from Action Comics #146 (1950), credited by the GCD to writer Otto Binder, and artists Curt Swan and John Fishschetti.

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 2262: Rex King in a war zone: Batman mask and private jeep

Tomorrow we have our annual Thanksgiving Turkey Awards presentation, but today’s story led the way for the award until I found the ultimate winner. (Come back tomorrow to see.)

Rex King was a character who kicked around in Street and Smith-published comic books, Super-Magician, Supersnipe, and Red Dragon Comics, for a total of 10 appearances between the three publications. This story comes from Supersnipe Comics #7 (actually issue #2, 1943). Today’s story has Rex traveling in his jeep and getting one-up on the enemy. I think the enemy would see him a mile away with his bright shirt and bare legs. Wouldn’t he look out of place in a combat situation? The story is credited to Jack Binder and Curly Binder. Curly is actually Otto Binder, and maybe he could do something with the situation, explaining why Rex is in disguise but uses his real name. At one point late in his career Rex became Black Fury and then took off his mask. I wonder if someone pointed out that Rex’s mask looked like Batman’s.

Number 2241: Captain Marvel abducted by aliens

Otto Binder wrote over 900 stories for Fawcett Publications featuring Captain Marvel and members of the Marvel Family. He began his long career with the Big Red Cheese in 1941, and “The Sky People” is an early entry in the saga. I can usually spot a story by Binder, especially for Fawcett, by his use of humor. Like most Otto Binder scripts, the story is light. It reads to me as a humorous alien abduction story.

It would be two or three decades before so-called “alien abductions” became part of the overall UFO/Flying Saucer story. Today on cable television and streaming video services there is an entire industry of UFO sightings and conspiracy theories about the government withholding “the truth about UFOs.” Outside of comic books Binder wrote extensively of UFOs, although he used the older term, flying saucers, for the unknown objects in the sky. His book, What We Really Know About Flying Saucers, was published in 1967 at the height of a UFO flap. But “The Sky People,” shown here, was published five years before the sightings by pilot Kenneth Arnold that kicked off the flying saucer mania in the late forties-early fifties. In the story, published in the year America joined World War II, aliens not only abduct everyday American citizens, but also Hitler!

Grand Comics Database has a guess that the artwork is by C.C. Beck. I am not sure, but believe it is more likely a product of C.C. Beck’s studio, drawn by diverse hands. It is from Captain Marvel Adventures #17 (1942).