Number 2478: The last of Black Bull

I am presenting the last story of the Black Bull, secret identity of rich young man Dale Darcy, who appeared in Prize Comics Western issues #71-#85. Black Bull was created, with his first story in #71 and another in issue #77, by Dick Briefer, more in the cartoonish tradition of his Frankenstein stories, seen directly below. Nothing like what was seen later in artwork by John Severin and Will Elder.

 

The origin of Black Bull is straight out of Zorro; a masked hero who keeps up a facade of a wealthy, foppish and indolent son of a rich rancher. I like Black Bull, especially by Severin and Elder, and for good measure, I like Zorro, also. If you’ve got to steal an idea, steal a good one. Zorro creator, Johnston McCulley, was turning out Zorro stories for pulp magazines, like Argosy All-Story, at the same time Edgar Rice Burroughs was writing his Tarzan books. And you know from this blog how many derivative jungle heroes owe their careers to Tarzan. Zorro made his own impact, inspiring other writers.

From Prize Comics Western #85 (1948):

Number 2477: Ditko times 4

In the late '50s and early '60s my friend Ron and I read (and often scoffed at) what we called the monster books from the pre-Marvel monster comics of Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and Don Heck. We thought the big monsters of Jack Kirby were funny. We were kids. I am way past my snarky teen years, and I still think they are fun to read, and the monsters still make me laugh.

Steve Ditko usually contributed at least one 5- page story per issue, which as far as stories go, were fairly lightweight, but wow, that artwork of his. Kirby and Ditko were artists with distinctive, yet different styles. I still admire the artwork of both of those now-deceased gentlemen, and I can't admire one over the other.

The stories are shown in order by issue numbers. They appeared in Tales of Suspense #6, (1959), #13, #15, #18, (1961).

 

Number 2476: Hey Kids! Eat your Wheaties and score a free Captain Marvel comic book!

Wheaties (the “Breakfast of Champions” as the advertising tag-line has said for decades) had a giveaway of free comic books in 1946 . Along with Captain Marvel Adventures, they had Whiz Comics, both from Fawcett, and Flash Comics and Funny Stuff from DC. If I had been a youngster at the time I would have bugged my parents mercilessly to get me Wheaties. The problem is that my dad, Big Pappy, worked in sales for the competition, Quaker Oats Company. Big Pappy frowned on buying anything from business rivals.

Here is a story from the Captain Marvel giveaway, identified by the Grand Comics Database as written by Bill Woolfolk, and drawn by Pete Costanza. There is another personal touch here. Along with the pandemic, this year in my town an earthquake in the spring set off thousands of aftershocks, and some damage to the Pappy abode. The real thing was no fun, but the story from the comic book is amusing. The “keystone rock,” the rock that holds all the other rocks in the world together, is found in an old well by Horace Shakum, and when scoffed at for his discovery, Horace uses it for revenge. He claims, “Just tapping the rock will produce violent earthquakes!” I admit it, earthquakes and aftershocks get me shakin' all over. Give Horace his accolades, and send him far away from that keystone.

Number 2475: Invisible sexy Suzie

The cute and sexy Suzie is ditzy in that dumb blonde cliché used seemingly forever in comedy. Normally Suzie isn’t that dumb, but for various reasons in this story Suzie does not see that she can’t be seen.

“Out of This World” is the lead story of Suzie Comics #49 (actual issue #1, 1945, having taken over for Laugh Comics). It was published and on sale as World War II entered its final year. Suzie was the type of gal that soldiers and sailors thought of when thinking of home; “what we’re fighting for,” as the saying went.

It was drawn by Albert (“Al”) Fagaly, a comic book artist and creator. He created and drew Super Duck for the Suzie publisher, MLJ Comics, which would become the Archie line of comic books. There has always been a tantalizing bit of sex in Archie, and Fagaly could draw a pretty girl. Suzie ends up invisible in quite a bit of the story, but readers can fill in the blank areas with their imaginations.