Number 1262: Wally Wood's wild west

Any Wallace Wood fans in 1951 who just so happened to open Western Crime Busters #7 would be treated to a great splash panel with lots of Wood-style sex appeal. The trick would be in getting them to open the book and see the page. Trojan Magazines, which published Western Crime Busters wasn't known as an artists comic book company. The artwork in their titles is serviceable, without the flash and panache that Wood provided to even a tepid script like this episode of “Six-Gun Smith.”

The Grand Comics Database lists Wood as doing both pencils and inks. I see another hand in this strip. It could be the inking is by Wood collaborator Harry Harrison.

Number 1261: “. . . with the speed of protons — America's protector!”

As I promised yesterday, here is a later, better drawn version of Shock Gibson than the crudely done origin from Speed Comics #1.

Bob Fujitani was always one of the slicker illustrators in comics, and worked on a variety of features for several companies. He worked in comics virtually his whole career.

In this story, from Speed Comics #41, published by Harvey Comics in late 1945 with a cover date of January, 1946, World War II still raged several months after it ended in the real world. That was the problem of comics drawn well in advance of their on-sale dates, and even affected some newspaper comic strips, which were drawn many weeks or even months before their publication. The Japanese are still undefeated and still treacherous, even co-opting the Hindu god, “Vishnu,” for their nefarious ends. Just another culture crime by comic book publishers, for whom religious deities not common in the United States were often portrayed in some insulting fashion.

 Vishnu

My apologies to those who may be offended.

In the story Shock Gibson's name is not Charles Gibson, as in the origin story, but Robert Gibson. He has dropped the odd-looking helmet and put on a mask. I don't know why someone didn't put together that Shock Gibson and Corporal Bob Gibson were the same person.

I've also included the Heritage Auction scans of the original art for “The God of Steel.”

Number 1260: The Human Dynamo!

Charles “Shock” Gibson was born in this story from Speed Comics #1 (1939), one of those wildly improbable origins found in superhero comic books. A splash of chemicals, a bolt of lightning, and ZAP! Charles becomes superhero Shock Gibson, the human dynamo.

Shock's colleague, Dr. Blitzer, who witnesses Shock's new abilities, tells him he has “the strength of a thousand men!” Being a clean-cut American scientist of the fair play persuasion, Shock decides to use his powers for good, instead of for bagging chicks (I made up that last part). Anyway, his first adventure, 25 pages worth, moves like the comic book's title promises. Shock chases villains who are in an airplane, bounding his way across America to the Rocky Mountains. There he encounters a mad scientist. The scientist produces some zombies, but such zombies as you and I have not before seen.

I've mentioned before how the standards for comic book artwork changed rapidly from these early days, after the field exploded in popularity in the wake of Superman's success. A few years later Shock joined the military and was fighting the Japanese, and had artwork much elevated from his origin. Tomorrow I'll show you a story where Shock has a different costume (no sharkfin helmet, but an added mask), and the advantage of art by the terrific Bob Fujitani.