Number 1826: Satan is a lady two ladies

It isn’t hard to see that the writers who created both Madam Satan and Lady Satan thought of women as devilish. In the case of Madam Satan, she is married to the Prince of Darkness himself, and Lady Satan is a “master (sic) of black magic," which has connotations of Satanism.

Ah, but they make good characters, even if both of these Satanic females were not the stars of the comics in which they appeared. Both were short-lived. Madam Satan, appeared in a handful of stories for MLJ during its pre-Archie years as a publisher with a line-up of characters sure to displease parents, teachers and the censorious types looking at them. The Lady Satan shown here is actually the second of two characters with that name, the first having fought the Nazis in France, this Lady Satan fighting supernatural menaces in the post war era. This lady also had a short-lived comic book career, appearing in comics published by Harry "A" Chesler.

These two episodes of Madam Satan were published in Pep Comics #18 and #19 (1941), with artwork credited by the GCD to Harry Lucey. The werewolf story starring Lady Satan appeared in Red Seal Comics #17 (1946), The artist isn’t identified. Lady Satan had her mask whited out when the story was rewritten and published as “The Werewolf Howls” for St. John Publishing’s  Weird Horrors #1 in 1952.

Number 1825: Sherry, Sherry baby!

Atlas Comics of the fifties did not hurt for artists who could render pretty girls. Al Hartley was one of them, and Sherry the Showgirl is an excuse to show pretty girls in cute, sexy costumes. Up to the point of issue #5 (1957), from which I am showing two short stories and a color-it-yourself page, Dan DeCarlo, also known for his pretty girls, had done the artwork (sorry, I don’t have any of the DeCarlo issues to show you).

At some point Hartley got religion. The latter part of his career was spent writing and drawing Spire Christian Comics, including comics for which he got permission to use the copyrighted characters from Archie, another series on which he worked.

Henry Allan “Al” Hartley died in 2003.

Number 1824: Dr Synthe has the Midas touch

Do you remember when I showed the first Dr Synthe story a few months ago (Pappy’s #1741)? At the end of that story he is asked to make gold, and in this story he does! He even sells $10,000,000 of it to the U.S. Government! What a pal!

Dr Synthe takes his powers from space itself, where he can gather particles of celestial matter and form objects, including body parts (see the aforementioned first story). For people needing organ transplants he would be a handy guy to have around, but then, as now, no individual lives mattered as much as gold. With it Dr Synthe and his friends can buy their own apartment building. What a fantasy that must have been for New York apartment dwellers of the time.

As usual, all that glitters, etc... Making gold just brings down more troubles, in this case a foreign power trying to kidnap him. In this episode Dr Synthe shows another power of his, the ability to grow tall, like the villain, the Claw, and another superhero of the era, Phantasmo. I scanned an entire book of black line Phantasmo reprints in 2012. Just check the link below.

This story is from Stars and Stripes Comics #4 (1941).

As promised, here is Phantasmo:

Number 1823: The Spirit, nose-biter!

The Spirit is not the cleancut, Marquis of Queensberry Rules fighter he is often presented to be. In fact, he can get down and dirty when his opponents are down and dirty, as evidenced by his tactics during a fight with  “Alex the Bloody” on page 7. Despite the non-action splash panel, there are fisticuffs a'plenty in this particular episode, which I have scanned from Police Comics #34 (1944).

The story is from the Spirit Sunday Comic Book Supplement, originally published August 3, 1941, before Will Eisner entered the U.S. Army. The coloring on the reprint is credited by the Grand Comics Database to Joe Kubert.

Number 1822: The Outlaw Frazetta

Frank Frazetta did this Western crime story for Outlaws #9 (1949). The artwork is not up to the standards he achieved later, yet is interesting as much for what is wrong as what is right. I am looking at the hat on Boone Marlow in the splash panel, which is perched awkwardly on his head. I am also aware of what a prairie looks like (as in “Prairie Jinx,” the story’s title), and yet the drawings in this story are set in the mountains. Maybe Frazetta, being a Brooklyn boy, didn’t have first-hand knowledge of the difference.

Boone, the bad man, is a psychopath who has allegiance to no one, including his own brothers. He also doesn’t know his right from his left, which is probably why he is a “jinx.” He is bad luck for the rest of the gang. Dumb people will do that to others engaged in a criminal enterprise.

Born in 1928, Frazetta was about 20 or 21 when he drew it. As we all know, he got much better over his distinguished career.