Number 18

Jack Cole and Silver Streak Part II

In Pappy's Number 6 I presented the first story from the rare Silver Streak "no number" edition from 1946. It reprints stories by cartoonist Jack Cole from issues 4 through 7 of the first run of Silver Streak Comics. Cole later went on to become famous for other things, including Plastic Man, and cartoons for Hugh Hefner's Playboy Magazine.

This particular episode of Silver Streak involves terrorists, who look suspiciously like Ku Klux Klansmen (a lot more prevalent as an object of terror in the 1940s than they are now). These terrorists are in on a plot to change the gold standard of the United States to a silver standard. Yeah, I know…it's a screwball plot, made even screwier by an ending about a businessman trying to corner the market in silverware. This being a comic book the plot is wildly simplistic…or is it? I guess what it reminded me of is businessmen that have been trying to gouge the public since time immemorial. In its own way it is prophetic about a company like Enron, which had the absolute audacity to screw the whole state of California!

The Silver Streak story is slambang action from beginning to end. It's a great example of Jack Cole in the days of his early career.

As always, the files are big, so while downloading you guys with dial-up put on your jogging suits and take a run around the block. "Can't spend all your time indoors reading comic books, y'know," as my mom used to say. "Oh yeah? Why not?" I used to say…but that's another story.