Number 2594: That law-breaking district attorney, Mr Scarlet

The Fawcett comics hero, Mr Scarlet, is Brian Butler, a District Attorney. As a DA he can’t put all of the crooks and criminals away, so at night he dresses up in a bright red costume and goes out to kick crook butts. The Public Domain superheroes website calls him a “vigilante,” which, to Brian, is okay. If he goes around the law, well then, why not? He’d probably only get bounced from office if the voters knew. Or maybe not. In the era Mr Scarlet and Pinky appeared the idea of a vigilante wasn’t as shady as it is now.

Mr Scarlet (and Pinky) were around for a few years as secondary characters, never getting their own comic book, unlike several other Fawcett heroes.

What surprised me is that writer France Herron and artist Jack Kirby are given credit for creating Mr Scarlet. I should not be surprised, because I have always felt that Jack Kirby could come up with a superhero at the snap of his fast-drawing fingers. But in my opinion, Mr Scarlet seems mostly from hunger, derived from other superheroes.

From Wow Comics #10 (1943). No writer or artist is credited by the Grand Comics Database.

Number 2031: “You’ll never get me, Diamond Jack!”

Diamond Jack made his final appearance in Wow Comics #1, which appeared toward the end of 1940. Fawcett Publications had canceled another title, Slam Bang Comics, after seven issues (number 7 is dated September, 1940), and Diamond Jack showed up in Wow Comics for one issue. After that Diamond Jack took his magic diamond and disappeared. My suspicion is that comic books of the time that didn’t feature superheroes in costumes probably did not fare as well as comics with more colorful characters. That is why Wow #1 features the costumed Mr Scarlet on its cover.

There were all sorts of magicians in early comics, all patterned after Mandrake. Diamond Jack need only point his magic diamond ring and wow, as the comic book title suggests, he can take care of the mad scientist who is turning men into vulture men for the purposes of taking over the world. What lofty goals these villains have. They don’t want to knock over a grocery store or have a more modest and attainable goal...they aim at taking over the world. No wonder, like the villainous mad scientist, Kruger, they are sent to their doom. And all Diamond Jack had to do was order his magic ring to knock down a dam! No wonder he didn’t show up in comic books anymore. He probably hocked that magic diamond and laid low.

Grand Comics Database lists Gus Ricca with a question mark for both pencil and inking. Gus Ricca has credit for creating Diamond Jack, and looking at Slam Bang Comics #1, where Diamond Jack first appeared, the differences are obvious. I don’t know who drew this final Diamond Jack story.