Number 2245: Supermind and Dan fulfill their plan

Here is the second/concluding part of the Professor Supermind and Son story I began a couple of days ago. If you want to read part 1 before part 2, go back a couple of days to Pappy’s Number 2243.

We have seen Professor Supermind’s television (“Televisoscope”) and him zapping his son with electricity to charge his super powers, but in this episode we see his invisible rocketship. It makes Wonder Woman’s propeller-driven invisible plane look antique.

Despite the clunkiness of the story (America invaded? What else is new?) the artwork is top notch. Grand Comics Database does not credit the artist, but it appears the artist’s inspiration was Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon. I have said before that were it not for those popular Sunday features, Flash Gordon and Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant, to serve for inspiration and swipes, early comic books would have had a much different look.

From Popular Comics #66 (1941):

Number 2243: Supermind and Son: Undersea invasion

Despite the cumbersome name for the feature, “Professor Supermind and Son” is interesting in its filial relationship. Father and son, Professor Warren and Dan Warren, fight off the invaders of America, working in tandem by using a magic see-all television and an electrical charge to give Dan a jolt of super powers. In today’s story, they are able to detect and fight off a planned invasion by tunnel from the Azores to America.

I have a link below to a 2013 Pappy’s posting with the first two episodes from Popular Comics #’s 60 and 61 (1941).

No artist and writer credited by the Grand Comics Database. The story is from Dell’s Popular Comics #65 (1941). It has a cliffhanger ending, and I’ll leave you with my own cliffhanger: Will Pappy show the next episode? STAY TUNED!

Two of the earliest episodes of Supermind and Son. Just click on the thumbnail.

Number 1486: Another limb of the Superman family tree: Professor Supermind and Son

It’s widely believed that Philip Wylie’s 1931 novel, Gladiator, is the trunk of Superman’s family tree. In Gladiator Hugo Danner is raised by his father to be a super human, just as Superman is sent to Earth with superpowers by his father. So Professor Supermind and Son, who appeared in Dellְ’s Popular Comics, appear to be a branch of the same tree.

Professor Warren (no first name) and Dan Warren are the father-son team. Dan does some very Superman-like things with his powers, while Professor Warren exhibits an almost omniscient power to oversee events through his magical television. Like super vision it can apparently see everything, everywhere. The strip lasted 12 episodes in 1941 and ’42. I’ve mentioned before that Dell had its own set of superheroes, but dropped them long before superheroes stopped selling for other publishers. In the case of Professor Supermind and Son, I wonder if DC’s lawyers gave Dell Comics notice that they considered the strip to be infringing on Superman. There might be no evidence of such a contact, but the possibility, considering the litigious nature of the folks protecting Superman from imitators, is strong . That is, of course, without admitting Philip Wylie’s role in the whole genre.*

Artist on the first story, from Popular Comics #60, is Maurice Kashuba, and there is no artist listed for the second story, from Popular #61.

Thanks to Pappy’s Golden Age friend, Daniel, for pointing out that the original posting was out of sequence. I have corrected the error.

*According to reports, Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel said that Superman owed nothing to Gladiator, but author Wylie believed his novel was the inspiration.