Number 2048: Punched out

Captain Glory was short-lived in Harry “A” Chesler’s Punch Comics. He appeared in issues #1 and #2, then #12, a reprint of #2. Three issues, two stories. It could have something to do with a non-super hero G-Man wearing a domino mask a la the Spirit. J. Edgar Hoover’s usual scowling face would have gotten even more scowly if he’d seen “G-Man” Captain Glory. This story is the reprint from #2 (1942), scanned from issue #12 (1945).

So why show it? Well, because I like the skeleton costumes the bad guys wear. Publishers have known since sales trends were tracked that images of sex and death sell magazines, books, and comics. The cover by Gus Ricca, rendered in a pulp magazine style, is an especially good example of a symbolic death’s head cover

The Grand Comics Database has no artist listed for the story, but it may have been worked on by various hands from the comic art shop Chesler headed. His shop also provided art for other publishers, including Fawcett.

Number 927


Rocketman's two careers


Zip-Jet was a short-lived, two-issue series published by St. John in 1953. Zip-Jet was "Tech" Carson, who had invented the Zip-Jet rocket engine, hence his name. But in his original incarnation he was Rocketman, featured in mid-1940s issues of Punch Comics, a Harry "A" Chesler publication. He wasn't a scientist in those days, but a lawyer named Cal Martin. In the earlier version his partner, Rocketgirl, was his secretary.

The Rocketman stories appeared in the mid-'40s. The Grand Comics Database doesn't know for sure, but attributes the pencil artwork to Al Plastino-with-a-question-mark.

What's interesting to me about the whole thing is that when published by St. John the stories were re-written. I've scanned two versions of the same story: the Rocketman story is from Punch Comics #14, 1946, and the Zip-Jet version from Zip-Jet #1, 1953. You can see the differences for yourself, and maybe you'll agree the newer version is better. It makes more sense to me to have a rocket engine invented by a scientist rather than a lawyer, for instance.

The third story I've scanned is from Zip-Jet #2. I don't have the Rocketman version of the story. To add to the general confusion, "The Fantastic Brain Destroyers" was featured on the cover of Zip-Jet #1, but not published until the next issue.