Number 1163: The Secret Fate of Adolph Hitler!

I've shown several stories over the past couple of years showing what "really" happened to Hitler. Because his body was recovered near his Berlin bunker by the Russians there was always a suspicion that Hitler had gotten away from the allies, and was still alive somewhere. If he was alive, he might be plotting a comeback. And so it goes. It was a perfect theme for postwar fiction, including comic books.

This particular tale, written by Horace Leonard ("H. L") Gold, was drawn by Curt Swan and inked by Jon Small. I don't know about your sense of fictional revenge, but the ending just doesn't seem either ironic nor punishment enough. Hitler was, after all, someone who enjoyed the sound of his own voice.

Gold did scripting for DC from 1942 to '44, went in the Army, and did some more comic scripting for a few years. He also wrote science fiction and fantasy prose, and is probably best known for founding and editing Galaxy Science Fiction, beginning in 1950 (the year this story was published). Here's a scan of the cover of Galaxy #1, which I picked up in a used bookstore a few years ago.

According to biographical information, Gold, who was born in 1914, suffered later in life from agoraphobia, and became reclusive. He died at age 81 in 1996.

From Strange Adventures #3 (1950):

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I'm debuting a new masthead next Friday, June 1, and here's a preview.

I've adapted the cover of Red Seal Comics #14, published by Harry "A" Chesler in 1945. The hero barging in at just the nick of time, the Black Dwarf, wasn't black, and he wasn't a dwarf. He was Shorty Wilson, an ex-pro football player without super powers who hated crime. He put on the cloak and hat and strapped on a gun.

I looked at hundreds of covers and panels and settled on this one. The cover is reminiscent of great pulp magazine covers with similar themes: sex, bondage, a mad doctor and a hip-shootin' hero! Paul Gattuso, the artist, isn 't a household name, but he was one of the journeymen comic book artists of the era.