Number 1326: Saboteurs!

Người đăng: Unknown on Thứ Hai, 4 tháng 3, 2013

This is the second entry in our "War is hell on the homefront" week, with war stories published in 1942, America's first full year of World War II.

Sabotage was a big concern during the war,* and counter-espionage would have been less of a problem had Nazi spies and saboteurs been as easy to catch as they are in these stories from Jumbo Comics #41. These are short comic book tales and need quick resolution, so coincidence and confessions extorted by force speed them up.

Lightning, not to be confused with Ace Comics' Lash (né Flash) Lightning, made his final appearance in this story. He had begun his career in Jumbo #14. It helps to get a spy to talk if he can be zapped by electricity shooting from fingertips. Today some zealous interrogator might use a stun-gun or a Taser, but Lightning had the innate ability. No waterboarding necessary for this spy to give up the sinister plans. The story, credited to “Teller Tayles” (groan) is drawn by main Sheena artist Robert H. Webb, according to the Grand Comics Database. ZX-5 was a long-time continuing feature in Jumbo. This particular episode, with its sexy enemy agent, is credited by the GCD to Mort Leav, with a guess that the inking may be by Al Bryant.
















*And what’s changed in 71 years? It’s still a major concern, and billions are spent every year to prevent it.
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Number 1325: War is hell on the homefront

Người đăng: Unknown on Chủ Nhật, 3 tháng 3, 2013


On the heels of our Pappy's Crime Wave week, we have yet another theme week. This one I’ve dubbed “War is hell on the homefront” week, and will feature stories that are set in America during 1942, the first year of direct involvement in World War II by the U.S. Starting us off is the first Supersnipe story, written and drawn by George Marcoux. There’s more about Marcoux in his previous appearance in Pappy's #1208. (In the backward way I do things that earlier posting is the second story of the series, so read this one first, then go to that one.)

As part of our war theme the story has young Koppy McFad, who adopts the secret identity of the costumed hero, Supersnipe, trying to catch black marketeers. The sitcom aspect of the strip makes more sense if you know that sugar, as well as other staples of everyday life in America (meat, gasoline, tires, among others) were rationed, and a buyer needed ration stamps to purchase. This created a booming criminal enterprise, selling stuff without stamps for high prices.

In those war years, also, scrap paper was needed, and kids were encouraged to collect it and turn it in. That meant millions of comic books were sacrificed to wartime paper drives, and the fact that as many survived as did is a wonder in itself. Or it could just be that collecting Dad's newspaper or his shirt cardboard was one thing, but throwing in comic books? Uh-uh. Had I been there I don’t think I could have parted with my comics, and apparently a lot of others felt the same.

























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Lord Of The Jungle - 03

Người đăng: Unknown on Thứ Bảy, 2 tháng 3, 2013

I am presenting the 3rd installment of this new Tarzan.





















Download story here.

Enjoy,

Venkitachalam
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Number 1324: “Go West, young bad man!”

Người đăng: Unknown on Thứ Sáu, 1 tháng 3, 2013

This is the fourth and last posting of our Pappy's Crime Wave week. Today we travel back to the Civil War era, with two stories about William Quantrill and his guerrilla force that sacked Lawrence, Kansas, in 1863.


It was only natural that crime comics would use the Wild West as a source of stories. Comics followed trends. Western movies were very popular at the time. A lot of Western comics were published, with some thinly disguised crime comics set 100 years ago. It wasn't uncommon for different comics to draw upon the same bad men, and multiple stories were done on the most famous outlaws. All “true,” of course (see Monday's post).

Compare these two stories. “Will Quantrill, General of an Army of Murderers” is drawn by Bob Fujitani, from Crime Does Not Pay #64 (1948), and “Quantrill, the Killer’s Killer” is from Fox Publications’ Western True Crime #4 (1949), drawn by Johnny Craig. The latter story goes into some heavy moralizing: Quantrill is so evil the devil is afraid of him, so he wanders as a ghost! It probably seemed like a good idea at the time, but that kind of preachiness is over the top and didn’t fool the anti-comics people.





















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