Number 1524: Written in hot lead

When DC Comics picked up the license in 1947 for the radio program, Gang Busters, it entered the crime comics fray, presided over by Crime Does Not Pay and its myriad of imitators. DC had a ready-made audience for Gang Busters, which was a perennial popular show and identifiable by comic book readers. This story from issue #1 (1948) is more of the format of a traditional crime comic. Gang Busters later moved into the DC-style of the fifties, especially after the Comics Code was instituted. The title lasted at DC until late 1958.

The story, “Murder Was My Business,” with a traditional career-ending arrival by the killer at the electric chair, is signed by George Roussos.

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Number 1523: No animals were harmed in the making of this comic book

Two stories from ME’s Ghost Rider #8 (1952). The longer story, featuring the Ghost Rider, has a panel where a dog gets killed. This is not to rile up any animal lovers who read this blog, but the dog is not real. Nor is his hunchback owner, nor the villain of the piece, nor the Ghost Rider. And while we’re at it, how can you be sure I’m real?

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For real, more Ghost Rider. Just click on the thumbnail.

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Number 1522: “And now, the Beatles!”

Incredible. It is fifty years ago today, Sunday, February 9, 1964, that my brother and I watched the American television debut of the Beatles. It seems incredible that it has been a half century, because unlike my brother and me the music has never grown old.

To commemorate that occasion I'm showing 20 pages from the Dell Giant, The Beatles, which came out during that giddy initial period of Beatlemania. The Beatles story is somewhat cleaned up (perfect for Joe Sinnott’s drawing), but yeah, yeah, yeah,  it is what we were being told about the group when the Beatles first came to the United States.

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#660 - The latest Tarzan strip

Here is the just concluded reprint of a Tarzan daily strip. Artwork by one of my most favorite Tarzan artists - John Celardo.

This was collected and sent to me by Emile.



Download the story here from Emile's original Link.

Enjoy and express your thanks to Emile.

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Number 1521: Big wheels

Fans of both Airboy Comics and Blackhawk might have been surprised to see two similar contraptions on the covers of each, close together. Blackhawk was out first, cover-dated September 1952, while Airboy Comics followed shortly in an issue dated December 1952.

Blackhawk cover by Reed Crandall

So...is the Airboy wheel a retread? (Yuk, yuk.)

From Airboy Comics Volume 9 Number 11 (1952). Art by Ernest Schroeder.

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