Number 2382: Taking photographs on the radio

Casey Crime Photographer was a radio program on CBS from 1943 to 1955...there was a television show for a short time, and then there were four issues of a comic book published by the 1949 version of Marvel Comics. Fascinated as I am by stories featuring simians, I chose the first story from the first issue. Reading the story’s intro on the splash panel I found this: “Orang-utans — known to science as simia satyrus.” Who says comic books aren’t educational? Someday I could haul that little factoid out to impress folks at a party. If I get invited to a party.

Casey was created by George Harmon Coxe, a mystery writer for many years, in an early '30s issue of Black Mask, the widely respected pulp that taught the world what, besides eggs, “hard-boiled” means.

Art is credited by the Grand Comics Database to Vernon Henkel, an artist who worked in comic books from the very early days of the business.

Number 1857: Yea, though he walks through the Valley of Death...

The Sniper finds himself in the Valley of Death, and despite its biblical connotations, this Valley of Death is full of Japanese soldiers and poison gas.

Dressed in his stylin' Robin Hood attire, armed with his sniper rifle, the Sniper is able to fix what the U.S. Army and Air Force can’t. The story is from Military Comics #28 (1944), and is drawn by Vernon Henkel.

Number 1671: Co-starring Hitler

Having posted several World War II and post-war stories featuring Adolf Hitler as villain, I believe Hitler might be the most represented world figure of the era. Even with Japan and Italy as allies of Nazi Germany, I believe that Hitler stood out as the arch-villain of the day. In Military Comics #21 (1943) there are two stories featuring him. I showed the Blackhawk entry in Pappy’s # 1635.

The Sniper is a second-string sort of hero. In his series he wandered around with his Robin Hood cap and his guns and dispatched enemies of democracy. Well, in the comics we have to suspend disbelief in order to follow the story, don’t we? The yellow cape alone would make him stand out in wartime Germany. I don’t think he could get far.

The feature appeared in Military Comics from issue #5 (1941) to #34 (1944), so he was strictly a wartime hero. This particular episode is drawn by Vernon Henkel, a comics journeyman whose work appeared from the 1930s until sometime in the 1950s when he went with a partner into educational filmstrips and industrial slides.

One of my favorite Hitler stories: Futuro takes Der Fuehrer “below”! Click on the thumbnail.

Number 132


Doctor Of Evil!


No, not Austin Powers' Dr. Evil, but Joseph "Doc" Moran, who dug bullets out of bad guys during the gang period of the 1930s.

This is a story from Crime Does Not Pay #43, January 1946, drawn by Vernon Henkel, a true Golden Age comic book artist, who was there for the duration, from the very beginnings in the 1930s.

As told by Henkel in an interview in the fanzine Alter Ego #48, May 2005, he grew up interested in art and cartooning, and sent Quality Comics publisher, Everett "Busy" Arnold, an original comic book story. He was rewarded with a check and a steady art gig for quite a while. Like most journeymen comic book men of the era Henkel worked for various publishers over the years. He didn't work for Charles Biro for long, but long enough to do some memorable stories, including this lurid 6 2/3 pager about a notorious drunken quack who catered to the bank robber clientele.

As usual, the Crime Does Not Pay story jibes with real life only long enough to establish the story. Although they purported to be true stories, "truth" was fictionalized. For some reason while Dillinger gang member John Hamilton is called by name, the Barker-Karpis gang's name is changed to the "Russ Gobson Gang." Say what? Gobson? I can't imagine the publisher was worried about getting sued, since the only survivor of that gang in 1945, when the story was drawn was Alvin Karpis, then residing in Alcatraz.

In real life Moran was killed by Dock and Freddie Barker because he was blabbing all over town about handling money from a kidnapping by the Barker-Karpis gang. Besides whittling fingerprints off criminals, botching plastic surgery, and operating to get bullets out of desperadoes, Moran was also a money launderer. He came to a bad end, just like it was shown in the comic book. His body has never been found.

Check out the cover to this issue, in a scene inspired by James Cagney's popular gangster movie, Public Enemy.


"I'm a dirty rat and got what was coming to me." Yow! The Code of the Underworld! If I had been old enough to see that on the comic book racks my hands would be sweating and my head would fill with lust and desire to own it.