Number 2300: The Fox from Montana

The Montana mentioned in the title of this, my 2300th posting for this blog, is artist Bob Montana. He is best known for being the artist who gave the original look to Archie and his gang back in 1942. Before he became linked to Archie (comic books and a long-running newspaper comic strip), he drew more regular comic book fare for various publishers. That includes this episode of the Fox from Blue-Ribbon Comics #18 (1941).

Montana could draw superhero action as well as the more passive Archie teenage poses. He could also draw the sort of thing that caused the hue and cry of those who thought comic books unfit for young minds. The splash panel for this tale is a good example. In Archie comics being “stabbed in the back” was not shown as literal, as it is here.

Number 2157: The Fox goes to a nightclub

The Fox is another costumed hero who has no super powers. He is Paul Patton, a newspaper photographer with a hidden camera hidden in his chest emblem. The first body cam?

MLJ, who published Blue Ribbon Comics #8 (1940), where this story appeared, cut back its roster of costumed and super heroes over time, and became Archie Comics. While this episode of the Fox seems relatively tame, early MLJ had a reputation for rowdiness.

The Fox was gone after the last issue of Blue Ribbon (#22, 1942), not to be seen until the mid-sixties, when Archie Comics resurrected their MLJ heroes.

Artist Irwin Hasen, who went on to draw Green Lantern for DC and in the fifties drew “Dondi,” a popular newspaper strip, was another of those early comic book journeymen. He died in 2015 at age 96.

Number 1993: Who is..the Fox?

The Fox was an athletic costumed character without super powers. Unless you count having a cool costume containing a hidden camera for taking newspaper pictures of bad guys and evildoers. He was invented by writer Joe Blair and artist Irwin Hasen for Blue-Ribbon Comics, an MLJ anthology comic. The Fox, undoubtedly because of that cool costume, has been revived a few times.

Irwin Hasen went from comic books to the long-running newspaper comic strip, Dondi. Hasen died in 2015 at age 96.

This story, which comes from MLJ’s Blue-Ribbon Comics #9 (1941) is the Fox’s fifth appearance. After a time in the forties MLJ superheroes gave way to the inevitable, and were replaced by the teenage antics of Archie and his pals and gals.