Number 2319: Red Reed in the Americas

Red Reed had a short career in comic books, two issues of Silver Streak Comics. This is the second part of a serial cut short, and the reason I chose it is for the Bill Everett artwork.

Everett is one of my all-time favorite comic artists, and what I am looking at when I read the story are the action-packed panels and Everett’s storytelling abilities. Having looked at what seems to me to have been untold thousands of pages of comic book stories I have come to a conclusion about the golden age: about half of the artist were just not that good, especially to modern readers. That art is more of what I refer to as “serviceable.” It filled pages. It was an anomaly to have talented artists like Everett because most comic books of that time (approximately 1939-42) show a mishmash of artistic abilities.

Everett was born into a financially successful family, but when he started his artistic career he had trouble getting started until he got into comic books. He must’ve liked it, because he went back to it when he was discharged after World War II.

This story is from Silver Streak Comics #21 (1942).

Number 1815: Bob Montana and the boy inventor

Bob Montana, most famous for his work on the Archie newspaper comic strip (at one time carried by 750 newspapers), came up the usual way of many cartoonists of the era, through comic books. He worked for MLJ and also for the Lev Gleason line of comics. Here is an example of his early work in these episodes of Dickie Dean, Boy Inventor. Dickie was a secondary Lev Gleason character, appearing in various titles, drawn by various artists. He was a Tom Swift-inspired character, a genius youngster who came up with important inventions, many of which he donated to the U.S. government.

This story, from the last issue of Silver Streak Comics (#21, 1942), is an example of how good Montana was, even at a young age. Born in 1920, he was 21 or 22 when this was published. I have also included a two-page Dickie Dean strip from the first issue of Crime Does Not Pay, which continued its numbering from Silver Streak at #22. The strip is a patriotic plug for what young readers can do to help the war effort. Montana caricatures himself at the very end, right across from a cartoon of Uncle Sam, drawn with a toothy Archie-like grin.

Number 232


It's not easy being green


Pity the Green Claw. He's green, he's really, really tall, and his breath is so bad he shoots flames out of his mouth. No wonder he's in such a bad mood all the time. If ever a guy needed a woman…

"The Green Claw" is scanned from Lev Gleason's Captain Battle Jr. #2, where it was reprinted from Silver Streak Comics #6. The cover of that 1940 issue of Silver Streak is scanned from my Flashback reprint, published by Alan Light in the mid-1970s.

As far as I know, this is the only time the arch villain from Silver Streak, created by Plastic Man's Jack Cole, ever appeared as the Green Claw. There's no explanation as to why the name and color change, and by the next appearance he was back to being yellow. The Claw was a hideous caricature of an Asian stereotype, the insidious "yellow peril" Fu Manchu-styled villain. Coloring him green was an interesting choice, if not consistent with the rest of the series. It must've confused the readers of the day.

In this breathless tale, Major Tarrant, the (Green) Claw's nemesis, chases him down. The Claw has television, he has a version of GPS, some radar with which to find the major. He also has a power I've never seen before in comics, the power to hypnotize and make someone physically smaller. In this case The Claw sticks Major Tarrant into a tiny box, and gloating, tells him because of the confines of the box, when he begins to grow he'll die. Bahahaha! In Lee Falk's classic comic strip, Mandrake the Magician, Mandrake was able to shrink people with hypnosis, but they only thought they were shrunk. "The Green Claw" is such an absurd and silly story that this bit of hokum-pocus is just one more screwball element to a story you don't want to have to think about too much.

Number 52


Jack Cole and Silver Streak, Part IV


This is the last of the Silver Streak stories published in the one-shot, unnumbered issue of Silver Streak, published in 1946. The story itself was originally published in Silver Streak Comics #7 in 1940.

Previous postings of Jack Cole's Silver Streak were Pappy's Number 6, Pappy's Number 18, and Pappy's Number 36.

In his comic book days Cole was never far from his bigfoot art style of the 1930s. As a matter of fact, I don't think the superhero stuff came easy to him, not as easy as the cartoony stuff, that is. This story has some really weird cartoon characters. The premise of the story is ludicrous, but that was something of a hallmark of early Golden Age comic book stories.

From Silver Streak Cole went on to Plastic Man, Midnight, even The Spirit during Will Eisner's Army service. Cole did some horror and crime stories before wrapping up his comic book career and becoming Playboy's top cartoonist. He then created a syndicated newspaper comic strip, Betsy and Me, before shooting himself to death.

Jack Cole would have had a lot of good years of drawing in him and we are poorer for losing out on so much. The old Silver Streak Comics, with their cartoony art and bizarre stories, were very fun, but came nowhere close to showing the inspiring talent that was routine for Jack Cole just a few short years later.

Number 36


Jack Cole and Silver Streak Part III


This story originally appeared in Silver Streak #6, September 1940, an issue called "scarce" in the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide. The story was reprinted in the unnumbered Silver Streak, a one-shot published in 1946, reprinting the Silver Streak stories from issues 4-7 of the original comics series. That one-shot is the source of the scans of the story.

Prior stories from the one-shot comic are in Pappy's Number 6, and Pappy's Number 18.

This story presents some stereotyped Arabs, with racist overtones. The girl given to the sheikh for marriage is white, while the males are brown. This was a lot more common fictional device in those days before World War II. It was originally published 66 years ago, so I consider it an historical, pop culture look at people from other religions and countries, who were often stereotyped in pulp magazines, novels, movies and even comic strips.

The Englishman is stereotyped also, but he's comic relief, not sinister, like the portrayal of the Arabs.

The Silver Streak episode is signed by "Ralph Johns," one of Cole's pseudonyms; the cover of Silver Streak #6 is signed by Cole using his own name. It doesn't depict Silver Streak, but The Claw, a racist portrayal of an Asian villain based on the then-popular idea of sinister "orientals", a la Fu Manchu.

Number 18

Jack Cole and Silver Streak Part II


In Pappy's Number 6 I presented the first story from the rare Silver Streak "no number" edition from 1946. It reprints stories by cartoonist Jack Cole from issues 4 through 7 of the first run of Silver Streak Comics. Cole later went on to become famous for other things, including Plastic Man, and cartoons for Hugh Hefner's Playboy Magazine.

This particular episode of Silver Streak involves terrorists, who look suspiciously like Ku Klux Klansmen (a lot more prevalent as an object of terror in the 1940s than they are now). These terrorists are in on a plot to change the gold standard of the United States to a silver standard. Yeah, I know…it's a screwball plot, made even screwier by an ending about a businessman trying to corner the market in silverware. This being a comic book the plot is wildly simplistic…or is it? I guess what it reminded me of is businessmen that have been trying to gouge the public since time immemorial. In its own way it is prophetic about a company like Enron, which had the absolute audacity to screw the whole state of California!

The Silver Streak story is slambang action from beginning to end. It's a great example of Jack Cole in the days of his early career.

As always, the files are big, so while downloading you guys with dial-up put on your jogging suits and take a run around the block. "Can't spend all your time indoors reading comic books, y'know," as my mom used to say. "Oh yeah? Why not?" I used to say…but that's another story.