I value the tags too much.
Honours:
Captain Nelson Cole gets the President’s Award for catching the dictator Zan. President of the Solar Congress, that is. (Planet Comics 001, 1940)
Category: notes
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NOTES – NOVEMBER 2024
Honours:
Wonder Boy is generically honoured by all of Europe for stopping a Mongol invasion. (National Comics 001, 1940)
Panel Fun:
I don’t normally have enough time or inclination to read the text portions of old comics but I do often enjoy the illustrations accompanying them, especially including this cake man who menaces the Yankee Doodle Boy, whoever he is. (National Comics 006, 1940)
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NOTES – OCTOBER 2024
Cops Shooting at Fleeing Suspects:
The NYPD (or the cops in some other town. but probably the NYPD) attempt to murder the Green Mask and Domino the Miracle Boy because they were wearing masks near a crime and had the audacity to run away. (Green Mask v1 003, 1940)
Vexing Conundrum:
These panels are from a strip called Flyin’ Jenny, the details of which are not important, save for the fact that a character has cheated in an air race and is now travelling incognito only to be given away by her signature piece of jewelry: a little tag with her name on it worn on a chain or string around her thigh. But… is this a thing? Did anyone wear these c. 1940 or is it a weird affectation made up for the strip? It seems to be impossible to hunt up online! (Reg’lar Fellers Heroic Comics 003, 1940)
Golden Age Policing:
Just had to pull these panels as it’s the closest I’ve seen to cops actually torturing someone on-panel in a comic (usually it’s just heavily implied to be good and just and a great idea). (Hyper Mystery Comics 001 1940)
Honours:
Wambi the Jungle Boy is awarded a silver sword for helping to prevent a rebellion/ helping to perpetuate colonial rule in Africa. (Jungle Comics 001, 1940)
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NOTES – SEPTEMBER 2024
Honours:
Yank Wilson gets the Distinguished Service Medal for his efforts in preventing the the nation of Hondu (a Japan analog) from pulling a sneak attack on the US naval bases in Hawaii. I reckon that this is where Yank Wilson stops plausibly being in the near future and becomes a contemporary series – note the 3/4s perspective FDR. (Fantastic Comics 009, 1940)
Samson’s sidekick David: lariat champion of his Boy Scout troop three years running. There’s a reason he gets to run around with a super guy! (Fantastic Comics 010, 1940)
Undersea adventurer Kinks Mason gets an unspecified medal for bravery for rescuing a bunch of folks from the Weed People. (Fight Comics 002, 1940)
Fate of the Missing Link:
Despite the Missing Link conceptually being an intermediate evolutionary stage between apes and humans and thus being something that is by definition no longer extant, the darn things keep showing up. This bunch, a kind of amphibious ape-lizard-caveman, were found by Kinks Mason living at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. (Fight Comics 005, 1940)
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NOTES – JULY 2024
Cops Shooting Fleeing Suspects:
The cops send a “shower of bullets” after the Fantom of the Fair as he swings over the densely-populated New York World’s Fair. (Amazing Adventure Funnies 001, 1940)
Spider Drawn Without Reference:
Tarantula: a perfect black sphere covered in root structures. (Champion Comics 006, 1940)
Memes of Yore: COWARD!:
The “cowardly and superstitious lot” line that Batman is quoted as saying was not a one-off thing but it was in fact a widely-promoted idea of the time, that criminals were inherent cowards (there was also a frequent emphasis on criminals’ gun use being a very cowardly attribute but that fell by the wayside at some point). Crime Does Not Pay was a message hammered into the public consciousness via the Hayes Code and later the Comics Code, and making criminals non-aspirational figures in every way possible was a part of that.
The extrapolation of this into “the more criminal you are the more cowardly you are” in this story is extremely funny, as is the fact that a criminal supposedly meeting his death by electrocution with some stoicism made front page news. Don’t worry, it was the old “escape prison by using a death-simulating drug prior to your execution and then have people on the outside wake you up later” gag. Dr Miracle recaptures Nickie Norton in short order and his actual death was without dignity. (Champ Comics 011, 1940)
Honours:
The Flying Trio receive the Sylvanian Order of the Cross and Palms (Crash Comics Adventures 003, 1940)
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NOTES – JUNE 2024
Memes of Yore – Sheep vs Cows:
It’s not at all surprising that there was conflict between sheep and cattle farmers in the Old West – human tribalism alone might have accounted for that without the sometimes conflicting needs of the two industries coming into play – but the insistence of early Western media that the cattlemen were RIGHT, DAMMIT and those dirty sheep farmers were nothing but a bunch of crooks suitable only for roles as sneaking villains is a bit baffling. (Wonder Comics 001, 1939)
Honours:
Newsreel camerawoman Patty O’Day breaks up a spy ring and gets a personal letter of thanks from FDR! (Wonderworld Comics 005, 1939)
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NOTES – MAY 2024
Cops Shooting:
I’ve been reading old Dick Tracy strips and while tracking all of the times that Tracy fires on a fleeing suspect would be a fool’s errand I would like to note that so far in the 1933 he has been responsible for the shooting deaths of two non-criminals.
Nova Scotia:
Speaking of Dick Tracy and filled with home-town pride: this July 1933 strip and the next week or so take place in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Honours:
Black X declines a medal from the president. (Smash Comics 001, 1939)
Names:
Look kids, it’s Al Lirog, the racketeer! (Speed Comics 003, 1939)
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NOTES – MAY 2024
Cops Shooting:
I’ve been reading old Dick Tracy strips and while tracking all of the times that Tracy fires on a fleeing suspect would be a fool’s errand I would like to note that so far in the 1933 he has been responsible for the shooting deaths of two non-criminals.
Nova Scotia:
Speaking of Dick Tracy and filled with home-town pride: this July 1933 strip and the next week or so take place in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Honours:
Black X declines a medal from the president. (Smash Comics 001, 1939)
Names:
Look kids, it’s Al Lirog, the racketeer! (Speed Comics 003, 1939)
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NOTES – APRIL 2024 PART II
Ran out of tags again.
Cops Shoot:
The cops in whatever city Inferno lives in are trying to kill him because they think he did a robbery and is running away. (Blue Ribbon Comics 018, 1941)
The cops try to kill Captain Flag twice in this issue! This time he’s breaking jail after being arrested for murder, but still. (Blue Ribbon Comics 019, 1941)
Panel Fun:
“Dixie Dugan” Comic, 1932
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NOTES – APRIL 2024 PART II
Ran out of tags again.
Cops Shoot:
The cops in whatever city Inferno lives in are trying to kill him because they think he did a robbery and is running away. (Blue Ribbon Comics 018, 1941)
The cops try to kill Captain Flag twice in this issue! This time he’s breaking jail after being arrested for murder, but still. (Blue Ribbon Comics 019, 1941)
Panel Fun:
“Dixie Dugan” Comic, 1932