Number 2037: Kid Eternity calls on Plastic Man

I don’t recall any crossovers in Quality Comics, no Plastic Man appearing in Blackhawk or vice versa. If they happened I may have missed them. If anyone knows of any please let me know. Here is the closest thing I know to a crossover from that publisher. It appeared in Hit Comics #32 (1944), when Kid Eternity needed help and called on Plastic Man by shouting out the word “Eternity!”

Plastic Man doesn’t have a lot to do, so crossover might be too strong a word. It is more like a guest appearance. He appears in 6 panels over two pages. When an old lady turns into Merlin the Magician he gives up and zaps back to Police Comics.

I have high regard for the artwork, credited to Alex Kotzky for pencils. No inker known.

Kid Eternity mixes with Amazons. Just click the thumbnail.

Pappy’s Sunday Supplement #9: Mandrake the Magician

Lee Falk created Mandrake the Magician in 1934, which makes Mandrake about 83 years old. He is still wearing evening clothes and a top hat. Tradition is important to Mandrake.

My introduction to the character was with this 1957 newspaper continuity, called “The Penthouse Mystery” in the index of Mandrake dailies and Sundays.* Mom and Dad began a subscription to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper, owned by Hearst, which also owned the King Features Syndicate. I was 10 years old, besotted by comics and in those days non-discriminating. I bought into the mystery of the flying carpet and flying horse.

In 1966, when King Features started their own short-lived comic book line, I bought Mandrake the Magician #1, and recognized the story as a redo of my introduction to Mandrake. They made it more comic bookish; even giving the unnamed thief of the 1957 strip a name, the Toymaker, but the story is essentially the same.

The newspaper strip is credited to Falk, and artist Phil Davis, assisted by his wife, Martha Davis. The comic book version is credited by the Grand Comics Database to Dick Wood for the script, and for the art Werner Roth, inked by André LeBlanc. Don Heck and Mike Peppe are credited for the cover.

*Deepwoods.org

Number 2036: The mild Wild Boy

Wild Boy, created for the short-lived comics line published by Ziff Davis, appears to be something we have seen before: white kid lost in jungle, becomes a grownup bestowed with a royal title (in this case, "prince of the jungle"). Wild Boy, whose name is David, was almost the victim of a murder plot by his uncle. Uncle was looking for an inheritance, and planned to have David killed by henchmen. Although the bad uncle is not mentioned again in Wild Boy #10 (actually #1) (1950), since David was lost in the midst of Africa, Uncle probably went home and made a claim presuming David to be dead. He scored anyway, without committing murder.

Ziff Davis sold Wild Boy, along with some of its other titles, to St. John in 1953, when ZD mostly quit the comic book business. The artwork is credited by the GCD to Paul Hodge, who certainly put a lot into it. Every panel is jam-packed. The painted cover is by Norman Saunders.

There is a boy character who is called a “native,” although he looks white to me. In subsequent stories Keeto, his name, is represented with brown skin but straight hair, looking more East Indian to me than African.

Come back Sunday for a Mandrake the Magician daily continuity and a comic book version of the same story.