Number 1574: Stuntman doubles down

The origin of Simon and Kirby’s post WWII hero, Stuntman, was presented in Stuntman #1, published in 1946, and as the blog Kirby Museum explains, “. . . Stuntman and Boy Explorers [another S and K title for Harvey Comics] were caught in a post-war comic book glut. With the end of paper rationing, publishers and printers went wild and an over abundance of comic books hit the newsstands.” Stuntman stories showed up in a couple more issues of the title, and then some inventory was released in Green Hornet Comics, but Stuntman himself was done.

The comic has one of those Prince and the Pauper plots, where two people who have never met are so alike they can pass for one another. I have always found this sort of thing even more unbelievable than grown men putting on costumes and masks to fight villains, unless they are identical twins separated at birth. It is because of my “comic book mind,” as Mrs. Pappy calls it. I can suspend disbelief when superheroes do their superheroics, while rejecting other plot devices in comic book stories I consider impossible in real life. In addition, Don Daring, when meeting his lookalike, acrobatic Fred Drake, proclaims, “I’m Don Daring the movie star and amateur detective!” Yeah, Don...sur-r-r-r-r-re you are. Only in this case it turns out to be true.

The dwarf character “Ian Spine” is repulsive. Simon and Kirby, like many other producers of popular culture years ago, used real-life physical defects to create a cruel stereotype of a character who is invariably ugly and abnormal.

I love the classic faux book cover. I also like the header on page one, “Save this first issue of STUNTMAN comics...it will be a valuable souvenir someday...” “Someday” is here, and yes it is valuable.

Number 1564: Two Alarming Tales by Kirby

Two stories from Alarming Tales #2 (1958) make up my 40th posting for Jack Kirby. I could do a lot more, too...that guy made up the history of comic art for decades and examples are all over the place. I chose these today for sentimental reasons. I liked them when I bought this issue off the spinner rack in 1958, and was taken — as always — by the power of Kirby’s art. “The Fireballs” is credited to Kirby and George Roussos, and “I Want To Be a Man” has a tentative credit for Kirby inking his own pencils.

Both stories are credited to scripts by Kirby, but it seems to me someone else edited them or rewrote them to remove the exclamation points Kirby liked. He usually used two (!!) and if he had something special to emphasize, he used three (!!!) As an aside, I believe sentences are just fine ending in a period, and exclamation points should be used sparingly! Never use two!! or three!!!

“I Want To Be a Man” I took from the Heritage Auctions website, and once again, thanks to those fine folks for doing these great scans. In 2004 the story sold for a bargain price, $1,897.50, but was resold the next year for $4,600.00. I would guess it’s worth much more now. It’s not only very well drawn, but it has a poignant ending, which I sniffled over as an 11-year-old, and I find it still affecting all these years later.

(Note the name of the character, Ed Snowden. I kid you not.)

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Kirby stories from Alarming Tales #1 here. Just click on the thumbnail:

Number 1505: Gypped while talking to the dead!

Do you believe in mediums? Do you believe you can communicate with dead loved ones through a third party? Then you could be easy prey for swindlers.* All you have to do is read this cautionary tale from Joe Simon and Jack Kirby from Headline Comics #27 (1947) to see tricks of the phony spiritualist trade to separate you from your all-too-real cash.

For some reason, Jack and Joe liked stories featuring women who had learned hard lessons in life. In this tale the woman tells her story from prison, where she is serving a stretch for ripping off the gullible.

*I guess to minimize the risk of offending “real” mediums, the author tells us right at the start, “A great many spiritualists in this country are on the level...”

This is a chance for me to plug the book, Simon and Kirby Library Crime, published in 2011. It is still available. Ask your local comic book retailer to get it for you, or order it from an online retailer like Amazon.com. The story I have posted today does not appear in the book.

Number 1489: Stuntman stunted

After the war Joe Simon and Jack Kirby came up with the character, Stuntman, for Harvey Comics. The problem with introducing a masked crimefighter/superhero at the time was that the fad for those characters had peaked, and many of them introduced before and during World War II simply disappeared. As did Stuntman, who had a short career.

This story, made to hype the Stuntman comic (see the ad that precedes the story), appeared in All-New Comics #13 (1946). The advertised Stuntman #3 did not make it to newsstands, but a “stunted” edition of 24 pages, printed in black line, was mailed to subscribers.

I give Jack and Joe credit for trying. Up until the late fifties they periodically introduced superheroes, including Fighting American, the Fly, and a revival of the Shield, only to find they all had shortened careers. After that, especially for Jack in the sixties, the rest is history.