Number 2313: Dickie Dean and the hallucination lamp

Dickie Dean was a boy genius inspired by the fictional Tom Swift, who was patterned after the real-life Thomas Edison. In this example of Dickie’s inventiveness, he created a lamp that causes hallucinations. No forcing an enemy to ingest a substance to make him see things that weren’t there...Dickie just turned it on by flipping a switch, which in turn turned the enemy on.

Dickie should have warned his buddy, Zip, who has a really bad trip thanks to Dickie’s lamp.

Dickie Dean was created by Jack Cole and first appeared in Silver Streak Comics #7 (1940). Bob Montana also drew Dickie Dean. He did this episode close to the time he drew the first story featuring Archie for Pep Comics. Charles Biro, editor of Silver Streak Comics, had also worked for MLJ, publisher of Pep Comics before the MLJ line began its transition from wild blood-and-thunder superhero adventures to a line devoted to teenage hijinks.

This episode is from Silver Streak Comics #20 (1941), drawn by Bob Montana.

Number 2296: Planet Patrol smash the Toad-Men of Titan

The Planet Patrol, or what we can see of them, consists of a chief, then Captain Ken Keen and his girlfriend, Nirma. You know they are a couple when they show up before the commander looking like they are there for a wedding ceremony. Instead they get sent to Titan to avenge colonists who were inexplicably killed. I love how the commander tells Ken to take what men he needs, and Ken says he’ll just take Nirma, and the chief thinks that is just fine. Despite what I think is breaking whatever protocol they have in Planet Patrol, they don’t even give Nirma a uniform or fatigues. She has to go to another planet wearing a dress and heels.

The Toad-Men of Titan aren’t a very good looking bunch, and are trying to get rid of those settlers from Earth. This story was published in 1940, when it was the prerogative of some humans to go in and take over another country, without much worry about what happened to the indigenous population. The Toad-Men want to fight, but a “kind” Toad-Man wants to work with the Earth people. Big mistake! Humans have a sorry reputation of pushing weaker people aside — often killing them — then taking what they want. So for this story, I have to stand in support of those Toad-Men who are fighting to keep those Earth people away from what is theirs.

No writer or artist is given by Grand Comics Database for this tale of attempted colonization. The printing is in duotone, red and black, which was done in the early days of comic books to save some money. That type of story was soon taken over by comic books being done all in the four-color process. It was originally published in Silver Streak Comics #5 (1940).

Number 2210: Night horrors appearo!

Friar Diablo is a co-conspirator with Baron Doom, trying to find a treasure and also get rid of Captain Battle, and Captain Battle’s son, Captain Battle Jr. We have gone over my opinions of youthful companions of costumed heroes, and I would not be taking my son along to face some sorcery, but at least CB Jr is not one of those “wards” of a superhero, and if his dad wants to take him, well, I guess that is okay with me.

I like Friar Diablo’s magic words, which are just common words with an “o” on the end. For instance, all you would have to know is the everyday word, disappear, then shout “disappearo!” and your enemy would be gone. Very cool; I may try it on someone sometime.

Although they are shown flying, Captain Battle and his son cannot fly on their own. They are using Luceflyers strapped to their backs. Public Domain Superheroes tells us this about Captain Battle: “He had no superpowers but has advanced technology, including the Curvoscope, which allowed him to see anywhere on earth, a Dissolvo Gun which disintegrated matter, a gyroscope-like Luceflyer, and a jetpack.” (Hmm, I’d be interested in something called a Curvoscope, and a Dissolvo Gun sounds very handy.)

At the very end of this adventure Captain Battle tells his son, “This race for treasure isn’t over yet!” but alas, it was. The story appeared in Silver Streak Comics #21 (1942), which was the last issue of that comic. With issue number 22 it continued on as Crime Does Not Pay — where the bad guys didn’t use magic, just tried-and-true guns and knives to get rid of their enemies.

The Grand Comics Database has no guess for a writer, but they credit Jack Binder with the artwork.

Number 2206: Ace Powers and the Panther Men

Ace Powers was one of those early comics heroes who went about fighting crime in his civilian clothes, without having the burden of changing into a costume or maintaining a secret identity. (Although “Ace Powers” sounds fake...maybe he changed it from his real name, something like John Smith.) Ace takes on the Panther Men, who are terrorizing a town. The head of the gang gives his henchmen a hacksaw to cut through their bars at the "Insane Asylum” (we don’t use that title anymore; it conjured up visions of murderous maniacs and other boogeymen who were put away in an asylum for the good of society). What I know of hacksaw blades is they break, so these “insane” guys got lucky, or maybe Panther Man had to keep running to the hardware store to buy more blades, and we were spared the boring details.

The story is drawn by Gaspano “Gus” Ricca, another journeyman professional who came to the comics in the 1930s when joining the Funnies Inc. studio, a comic art service. Ricca’s work is seen quite a bit in the forties and early fifties, although he left the business in 1953 when there was a crash in the industry. I have seen his work associated with Fawcett, drawing Ibis the Invincible, and he did some stunning and morbid covers for Harry “A” Chesler’s Dynamic Comics.

Drew Friedman, portraitist, did this painting of Ricca. In the portrait he is smoking a cigarette. Ricca died in 1956 at age 50. Coincidence?

The story is from Silver Streak Comics #5 (1940).

Here is a story that puts Ricca in an infamous comic art gallery: one of the examples used by Dr Fredric Wertham, M.D., in his book Seduction of the Innocent, to warn parents of the evils of comic books. Just click on the thumbnail.

Number 2138: Montana and Wolverton, comic book/comic strips

Bob Montana had a career drawing the Archie characters for a successful newspaper comic strip. I read it every day in my daily newspaper, and liked it more than the comic books, which were aimed at a younger audience. Before his comic strip work, Montana worked in comic books, both for MLJ (later Archie Comics) and Comic House, where this Dickie Dean, Boy Inventor feature appeared. Montana died young, at age 54, of a heart attack. It was a loss I still feel when I remember reading about his death in 1975.

On the other hand, despite having a national audience in 1948 when he won Al Capp’s Lena the Hyena contest for the Li'l Abner comic strip, Basil Wolverton just never achieved his dream of a daily newspaper feature. In the early days of comic books many of the early artists for that genre worked toward achieving the success of someone like Al Capp. These episodes of Wolverton’s character, Scoop Scuttle, are done in the daily strip format, and were likely prepared originally to sell to a newspaper syndicate. Many are called, but few are chosen, as the cliché goes. It was a tough field to enter, whereas early comic books allowed artists great latitude, and during the height of their early popularity, a lot easier to get a job with them than a newspaper.

Both the Dickie and Scoop episodes I am showing today were published in Silver Streak Comics #20 (1942).

Number 1776: Jack Cole pulls out the stops

I can’t say enough about this Claw vs Daredevil story, from Silver Streak #7 (1941). I can’t say enough, and I’ll try not to say too much (a problem with me, once I get started).

This is a Jack Cole masterpiece of style, which could veer from the placid and bucolic (page 3) to the Seventh Circle of Hell, represented by the depictions of the Claw’s realm on the next two pages. Cole, who was at heart a funny-pictures kind of cartoonist, used that comic exaggeration to great effect, even when it concerned more “serious” subject matter. (I use the word “serious” guardedly...none of this mayhem can be taken seriously.)

Different artists working for the Lev Gleason company drew and wrote the Claw stories for the length of his villainous career within the pages of Silver Streak and later Daredevil Comics. But, in my opinion, none of the artists had the flair for the cartoon-grotesque of such a comic book creation as did Cole. When he applied his considerable creativity to any feature, no one could top him.