Number 2118: “Hot dawg! Ain’t I nifty?”

 I have seen many examples of stereotypes in old comics, including some really egregiously racist portrayals of African-Americans, and in this story, a “minstrel face.” Caucasian male ZX-5 is the face behind the make-up, in this tale from Jumbo Comics #101 (1947). Artist Jack Kamen used ink lines on the face for shading, and then the colorist added the brown color over the lines. It isn’t as bad as I have seen in other places, where the minstrel make-up is solid black, but it is still insensitive, a relic of its era.

I like when ZX-5 and his platinum blonde partner, Rita, go into their soft-shoe routine. It makes for an amusing two panels at the top of page 4. That ol' devil weed, marijuana, also figures into the story. The artwork shows that Jack Kamen, who later went on to EC Comics, could draw pretty girls, but his action panels always looked stiff to me.

Even after having shown two other ZX-5 stories,in 2008 and 2013, I still knew nothing of the character. I went to Public Domain Superheroes, where I lifted this:

Created by Will Eisner

Origin

Agent ZX-5 was one of the top US spies. He answered to his superior Major Jason, who gave ZX-5 missions around the world fighting the Axis powers during WWII. He would continually come into conflict with foreign spies such as Madame Terror. After the war, he goes on to become a private eye.

He was known for his charm and carried a trick cane with numerous buttons each with a different function such as one for tear gas.

ZX-5 gets a ringing endorsement from his boss in the next to last panel: “For the first time, I like you...you’re actually human!” Not only that, he had staying power. ZX-5 appeared in all 140 issues of Jumbo Comics.

Number 1326: Saboteurs!

This is the second entry in our "War is hell on the homefront" week, with war stories published in 1942, America's first full year of World War II.

Sabotage was a big concern during the war,* and counter-espionage would have been less of a problem had Nazi spies and saboteurs been as easy to catch as they are in these stories from Jumbo Comics #41. These are short comic book tales and need quick resolution, so coincidence and confessions extorted by force speed them up.

Lightning, not to be confused with Ace Comics' Lash (né Flash) Lightning, made his final appearance in this story. He had begun his career in Jumbo #14. It helps to get a spy to talk if he can be zapped by electricity shooting from fingertips. Today some zealous interrogator might use a stun-gun or a Taser, but Lightning had the innate ability. No waterboarding necessary for this spy to give up the sinister plans. The story, credited to “Teller Tayles” (groan) is drawn by main Sheena artist Robert H. Webb, according to the Grand Comics Database. ZX-5 was a long-time continuing feature in Jumbo. This particular episode, with its sexy enemy agent, is credited by the GCD to Mort Leav, with a guess that the inking may be by Al Bryant.

*And what’s changed in 71 years? It’s still a major concern, and billions are spent every year to prevent it.

Number 432


Jack Kamen's ZX-5


Jack Kamen is an artist who started his career drawing strips for Fiction House, specializing in sexy girls. He drew ZX-5 for Jumbo Comics, among other features from his early career. He later moved to EC Comics, then into advertising.

ZX-5 is a former master spy who became a private detective after the war. Apparently it was no secret he was a spy because everyone still called him by his spy name.

Among the Glutton's many bad qualities, he has bad manners, eating while standing and talking. He also wears hideous green suits. He calls ZX-5 "ever the debonair," which is being truthful. ZX-5 is rather natty. It doesn't stop the Glutton from trying to roast ZX-5 over a fire, though.

You can tell the blonde girl is bad because she wears red. In comic books, girls in red were usually gun molls or cheap girls you might find standing under a street lamp enticing innocent men to their moral doom.

I believe it was in Seduction of the Innocent that I read of a depraved comic book reader who collected pictures of girls in red high-heeled shoes. Like there's something wrong with that...?

This story of ZX-5, the Glutton and the hot girl in red appeared in Jumbo Comics #93, from 1946.

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The October 2008 issue of Spirit Magazine (not the Will Eisner Spirit, sorry) had this page on Jack Kamen's famous son, Dean.