Number 2291: Kubert’s Zebra

In my experience, the Zebra, a character that went through the war years and even beyond, was usually drawn by Bob Fujitani. This episode is drawn by the young Joe Kubert. I showed a Hawkman story from Flash Comics just a couple of weeks ago. Joe was so young that in retrospect he seems like a child prodigy. As a callow youth, he was mentored by other artists, Mort Meskin for one. He also got credit for coloring some stories for Will Eisner. The kid got around.

Looking back over his career, Kubert hit a high level of professionalism very early on and never faltered. Joe Kubert is gone now, but he has left thousands of beautifully illustrated pages of comic art as his legacy.

As for the Zebra...I understand the striped shirt, but the pair of skin tight swim trunks and bare legs I guarantee would not make it through a winter. I mention it because I don’t remember any blizzards in superhero comics, leaving the characters able to walk around dressed like it’s a warm, sunny day at the beach, and because a large winter storm is knocking on my door as I write this. When I go out in a few hours with shovel in hand to clear sidewalks and driveway, I will be bundled up like an Antarctic explorer, yet still thinking that in the never-never land of comic books the heroes never seem bothered by weather.

From Green Hornet Comics #20 (1944):

Number 1396: An innocent man in prison stripes

In casting about for ideas for a new comic book character someone at Harvey Comics decided a man wrongfully convicted of murder would be a good candidate to join the costumed hero ranks. In 1941 his origin was presented in Pocket Comics #1, and I’m showing it to you thanks to the folks at Heritage Auctions who scanned it. You can see the Zebra was a prisoner framed for murder who escaped two days short of his execution date, and set about to clear his name.

Huh. Well, if we accept that then we can accept that his costume, derived from his prison garb, gave him his name.

My usual source for credits, the Grand Comics Database, has no information on the artist for this story. Later the Zebra was put in the hands of artist Bob Fujitani. The costume was modified (stripes on shirt only), as shown in an April posting, Pappy's #1354.

Number 1354: The homicidal maniac

Looking at this Zebra story from Green Hornet Comics I asked myself, “Superhero or crime comic?” Since the subject of the story is a crazed killer with a female accomplice, it seems more crime comic. I counted the panels (yes, I have been known to do things like that), and found that of 63 panels, the Zebra appears in only seven, including the splash. It fits into my Crime Wave series.

If serial killers looked like Maurice they’d be easier to spot. Maurice’s tongue lolls out and he giggles. He doesn’t care who (or what, check out the bug squash) he kills. It was not untypical for a Zebra story to regularly feature some grotesque villains. With Bob Fujitani's deft drawing in an Eisner-style, the killer is portrayed in all his psychopathic fury.

From Green Hornet Comics #26, 1945:

Number 296

Foley of the Fighting 5th

You won't see a lot of Wild West-type comics on Pappy's cuz Pappy don't like 'em. Most of them, anyway; there are a few I like. Tom Gill's Lone Ranger and Dick Ayers' Ghost Rider spring to mind. I also like some of the DC Western comics, and I'll show you a couple as we ride along the dusty trail. I like this one from All-American Western #104, November 1948, because of the early Joe Kubert art. I like Joe's 1940s art but there are flaws, like the bad figure drawing on the bottom of page 4. John Giunta did the inking.

All-American Western, a continuation of All-American Comics, went for 24 issues, then became All-American Men Of War. In its war incarnation it lasted a lot longer than it did in its Western phase. This "Foley" strip is one of the stories in tear sheet form, cut out of the original comic books by a man who liked certain artists. The vandal would clip those stories and throw the rest of the book away. I got them over 25 years ago, hundreds of pages of loose tear sheets in a big box, and put them together like puzzles. It was probably that task that finally convinced me to wear glasses.

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Karswell, of The Horrors Of It All is posting a Zebra story today. He asked if I had any, and what I have is another of those crumbling stories cut from comics. The pages are much worse than the Foley story. They've disintegrated, as you can see, but the story is understandable…just screwy. John Doyle, the lawyer who is the Zebra, won't show up in any John Grisham novels. Considering how he represents this client I'm surprised he wasn't disbarred. The story, "The Phantom Philtre," was the last Zebra story, is from Green Hornet Comics #30, May-June, 1946, and is drawn by Bob Fujitani.