Number 423


The Photo Phantom


The Human Torch and Toro flame on, from Marvel Mystery Comics #83, July 1947.


The postwar period was a tough one for those two hot-heads. They no longer had America's war enemies to give the hotfoot. How do you follow that act? By solving mysteries, apparently. This particular story involves some blackmail and a masked photographer who pulls a few camera tricks. In these days of Photoshop, where no one can trust a photograph, it's hard to remember when a picture was worth a thousand words, or in this case ten thousand dollars.

The Grand Comics Database gives us a couple of names with question marks for credits. They throw out Al Fagaly? and Carl Pfeufer? for artwork chores, so take it for what it's worth. The cover they credit to Al Avison and Syd Shores. It's a pin-up style, not unlike the kind Alex Schomburg was doing in that era when like Torch and Toro, he had to give up wreaking havoc on the Axis powers.

Single Issue Review: Lois Lane #16

Don't you hate it when you accidentally get Kryptonite vision? As I have commented in the past, Lois Lane comics were my secret vice back in the Silver Age. No guy wanted to admit reading them. I not only read them, but I really enjoyed them.

The first story basically writes itself from the splash panel:



Lois sees how useful it is for Jimmy to have his signal watch, so she asks Superman for one. He resists initially, but as its her birthday, he finally relents. But she continually calls him for minor things like a stuck zipper and a dog chasing a cat, and he starts gettting annoyed. Then, when some crooks capture her and threaten her life, she refuses to signal him, infuriating him even more when he finds out. Finally:



Cute little story, art by Kurt Schaffenberger. There's a silly filler from Henry Boltinoff, featuring Varsity Vic, who's been writing to a Hollywood starlet for two years. When asked what she's like, Vic is forced to admit he doesn't know; she's never written him back.

The second story is The Mystery of Skull Island. Perry has gotten Lois and Clark jobs as maid and butler to a Hollywood couple, so they can get the inside scoop on their marriage. But Lois begins to suspect something is wrong when she never sees the bride, and we see that it's true, her husband is hiding something:



But it turns out that the woman had been killed by her lawyer, and the Hollywood actor had covered it up to find out who was the killer.

Comments: Better than average thriller, with excellent art by Schaffenberger again.

The next feature is a little bit on Teen Talk, which appears to have been completely made up. We learn that a hair raid is a crewcut, a fileboner is a hard-working student, and hip-happy means plump. Maybe when Weisinger was a teen, but not in the early 1960s.

The last story is the cover one, and it's a doozy. Superman leaves some objects with Lois, warning her not to touch them. Of course, she does, and gets the Kryptonite vision shown on the cover. He's pretty exasperated:



Wow, very harsh there. Lois takes off for Alaska, where she is worshiped as a goddess for the green rays coming from her eyes. She teaches Eskimo children. Then Jimmy and Clark show up with an antidote. But Lois is unwilling to let the opportunity to test whether Clark is Superman pass. To her (and our surprise):



That's scuzzy enough, but it turns out that Lois has not drunk the antidote yet; when she does, the green rays go away. And we learn the truth:



That's a horrible trick to play on somebody!

#082.Indrajal Comics 36

A version of these two English Phantom IJC were already posted in this blog. These are new contributions by Anonymous.

160-1972-Phantom-The Skull Cave This one is new & better version.

168-1972-Phantom-Where is Diana (Full) This is a complete (all pages) version.

A rare IJC in Hindi.

In fact these all are rare, but this one is very special for me. I never read this one before. After a long search, few days ago found in Hindi only. Many many thanks to Anurag Dixit.

232-1975-Flash-Dhatu ka Mahasagar

This Indrajal Comics is already available online. It's for those friends who missed this better version scanned by AJNAABI. In May 2008, I posted many Ajnaabi's scans. Few days ago he pointed me, I missed it.

V21N31-1984-Bruce Lee- Escapade in Kalahari

All thanks & credits go all three contributors:
Anonymous, Anurag Dixit & Ajnaabi.

New To Me

I've been meaning to pop some more good comics blogs on the sidebar, but I've always felt I should do an introductory post before doing that and so I don't get around to it. Go say hello to:

Gorilla Daze: Appears to be largely focused on the mid-60s to early 1970s, which should fit in well with my readers, although I clearly disagree with his opinion of the Diana Rigg-era Wonder Woman.

Bill Jourdain is a pioneer comic historian on the internet; I remember going to his Golden Age Batman comic site back in 1998. He also has done the terrific Golden Age Podcasts for several years. His Golden Age Comics blog cannot come more highly recommended.

Dispatches from the Arrowcave covers all things Green Arrow. I've always had a soft spot in my heart for the Emerald Archer. No post there yet about Miss Arrowette?

Being Carter Hall takes on the Hawkman beat. I loved the Silver Age Hawkman, especially the Murphy Anderson years.

Number 422


Two by Stanley


We've got a double dose of John Stanley today. I woke up Monday morning and said, "I've got to see some Walt Kelly and some Stanley this week," so here we are. Check back to Monday's posting for the Kelly.

Sluggo is a character just made for Stanley. He's the kid who makes it by himself, an orphan in a big world. He's also hated by his neighbor, Mr. McOnion. The story is from Tip Top Comics #220, 1959.

I got the Heckle and Jeckle story from Gold Key's Mighty Mouse #172, dated 1980, but it's reprinted from a 1960 comic. I think Stanley got the essence of the characters very well. The panel of the guy in bed with a bugle caught me by surprise. How did Stanley come up with this stuff? Not only in this strip, but over and over again, story by story, comic book by comic book, year after year. What an amazing writer John Stanley was.

Thanksgiving 1990

One of the oddities of the Silver Age is how secular comics often seemed, especially compared to the rest of society. It's even more obvious when you look back at comics in the 1940s, which often featured Christmas scenes; both Action Comics and Batman comics had annual Christmas stories until about 1947. And then... virtually nothing.

Ditto with Thanksgiving, perhaps even more so. It was almost never brought up in the Silver Age, with only a few rare exceptions, one of which was Strange Adventures #132 (September 1961).

I've talked about the splendid Atomic Knights series in the past. It was set in a post-apocalyptic America, after an atomic war had devastated most of the planet. A band of knights (in radiation-proof armor) had banded together to fight injustice and help humanity get back on its feet again. The series appeared every three issues in Strange Adventures and, uniquely for DC at the time, the story progressed a little bit with every appearance.

In Strange Adventures #129, the Atomic Knights had battled ancient Atlantis, which had apparently jumped forward in time due to their own apocalypse (caused by a cobalt bomb). They escaped with some seeds and fruits from that island, which they planted back in Durvale (their headquarters). Fortunately, the seeds grew quickly:



So they were able to have a Thanksgiving meal with several of the other small bands of survivors:



Gardner is distracted by a sudden attack by the Atlanteans (oddly called the Atlantides). They fend off the attack thanks to their armor, which protects them from an odd, mirror-laser contraption that the enemy uses for a weapon. And in the end, Gardner has an answer for Marene's question about peace on earth:



Comments: The story seems to have chopped up for presentation in several issues rather than one, book-length tale (which would include the AK stories in Strange Adventures #129, 132 and 135, all of which featured the villains from Atlantis).

Are there any other Thanksgiving tales you can remember from this era?

 Number 421


Thanksgiving Turkey Awards 2008


Welcome to a special Pappy's for Thanksgiving Day. This is the third annual Pappy's Thanksgiving Turkey Awards presentation. Our first was in 2006, with the classic but stupid "The Flat Man." We followed up the next year with "The Day The World Died", an unusual science fiction story. Unusually dumb, that is.

I make the rules for the Thanksgiving Turkey Awards. That means that my judgment is final, my choice of a winner can be whatever I think fills the bill. This year it means a bizarre Jimmy Olsen story, "The Bride of Jungle Jimmy," from Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #98, December 1966.

What's supposed to be a comedy comes out as is a weird tale of near bestiality, condescending, racist attitudes ("We pay our native extras off with trinkets!" Those ignorant villagers worship a gorilla! Ha ha!"), and even showing "scenes" from King Kong with a brunette Fay Wray. Talk about sacrilege.

The only comedy in the story is the unintentional kind. The panel of Bruna, the love-struck gorilla gal, eating the banana is so obvious you just know what kind of wedding night our furry bride has in mind for her groom.

Artwork on this story is by Pete Costanza, who worked with Captain Marvel artist C. C. Beck on many of the Captain Marvel stories. It's written by Leo Dorfman.

"The Bride of Jungle Jimmy," our 2008 Pappy's Thanksgiving Turkey Awards winner, gets three-and-a-half gobblers.

NOTE: I re-scanned the pages for this story in August, 2012.