Number 2330: Red Bee, stay away from me

The Red Bee, a character created by Toni Blum and Charles Nicholas for Hit Comics, in a series that ran from issues number 1 through 24. The Red Bee had a power, that of controlling bees. I would like to have that power, at least to keep them away from me, since I am allergic to the sting of those little critters. I appreciate bees for their part in the overall ecosystem of Planet Earth. I just need to keep my distance while they are being busy bees.

The name sounds like it was influenced by the Green Hornet, or the Blue Beetle. And there is a tie-in. Charles Nicholas Wojtkowski,* who is credited with creating the Blue Beetle, also figured into the creation of the Red Bee with Iger Studio scripter, Toni Blum. I am showing it is because I love the cover, a beautiful illustration by Lou Fine of the Red Bee wrestling a swordfish. If you look at my teaser panel above you will see it actually shows a sequence from the story, something Quality Comics didn’t always do, preferring more symbolic and/or generic illustrations for their covers.

This is an early story, from Hit Comics #5 (1940), which is credited to Charles Nicholas Wojtkowski by the Grand Comics Database.

*According to the Wikipedia page, there were three artists who signed the name “Charles Nicholas” working for the Iger Studio. Jack Kirby, Charles Cuidera, and Charles Wojtkowski. The latter went on to Charlton Comics where he worked, still under the name Charles Nicholas, in tandem with inker Vince Alascia.

Number 1813: “The Pen is...” nearly as mighty as the policewoman

Both Sally O’Neil, Policewoman, and Pen Miller, cartoonist-detective, debuted in National Comics #1. They were both back-up features, yet both lasted much longer than the lead feature for National, Uncle Sam, who didn’t last through the end of World War II.

Sally is smart, Sally is beautiful, Sally is tenacious, Sally can handle a gun, Sally can handle men. Now that is a great character. According to the website, Public Domain Superheroes, Sally was created by Frank Kearn, Toni Blum, and Chuck Mazoujian.

Pen Miller is a successful cartoonist who lives in a penthouse with a man servant. As Don Markstein remarked on his Toonopedia web page, Pen was the “cartoonist’s ideal self-image.” Indeed. Since cartooning for a living is a full-time job, one would think Pen would not have time to do a successful comic strip and still solve murder mysteries. But that would be part of the “ideal,” or at least a stereotype among non-cartoonists that all cartoonists do is sit around, knock out a few funny pictures, then haul in the big bucks.

Pen also has a name that leads to my speculation that it may be a private dirty joke. The second caption of the story says “‘Pen’ is busy . . .” The letterer must be careful of letter-spacing in a sentence like that. The talented Klaus Nordling, who also did Lady Luck, is the artist.

These are their first stories, from National Comics #1 (1940).

Number 714

Daze of future past

I love stories from years ago that when written told of a distant future, now in our real life past. That describes this Stuart Taylor story from Jumbo Comics #89, published in 1946.

Alex Blum does the artwork for this story. It was probably written by his daughter, Toni, writer for the Iger shop, supplier of material to Fiction House. We get their impression of the faraway future world of 1975, where Adolf Hitler, who is still alive, is again planning world domination. And how does Stuart Taylor know this? Because some dumb Nazi drops the original plans for world domination out the window and Stuart finds them!

I love the clothing styles of "1975." Hitler in short pants and sports coat. How chic.

In the real world we know that Hitler didn't survive until 1975, but if he had he would have been 86. Many people live to that age and beyond. But the Hitler in this story looks much like he did in his prime.

Thanks to Marble River for the scans.

If you haven't had enough Hitler, we have two more Hitler stories coming up on April 16.