One must always take note of what super-hero costumes were made of in the age before spandex. In this case, the Sub-Mariner is sporting wool trunks.
(Marvel Mystery Comics 004, 1940)
Category: notes
-
NOTES: APRIL 2023
One must always take note of what super-hero costumes were made of in the age before spandex. In this case, the Sub-Mariner is sporting wool trunks.
(Marvel Mystery Comics 004, 1940)
-
NOTES – MARCH 2023
New Powers:
An injured Hawkman is tended to by birds and learns to speak their language. (Flash Comics v1 023, 1941)
Just some of my favourite alien designs ever: the Kriglo AKA Martian Spider-Men (Flash Comics v1 024, 1941)
Super Hero Costume Party:
Hawkman attends a costume party with Shiera Sanders as Hawkgirl. Though not the first time she wore the costume, this does mark the start of the two as a crime-fighting duo ongoing, no matter what stinky ol’ Hawkman says. (Flash Comics v1 024, 1941)
Rick Raleigh might have intended to attend this party as the Red Bee in that classic cheeky move, but ended up getting mixed up in a murder and attending as a different guy dressed as the Red Bee. (Hit Comics 014, 1941)
Really enjoy the selection of creature that inhabit the inner earth in the year 50029 CE: Mud Men, Rock Men, hot ladies, and down at the very bottom: guys with beards. (Hit Comics 003, 1940)
Quality comics with another entry for the list of increasingly unhinged patriotic heroes: Don Glory, the xenophobic jingoist former boxer (Hit Comics 008, 1941)
-
NOTES – MARCH 2023
New Powers:
An injured Hawkman is tended to by birds and learns to speak their language. (Flash Comics v1 023, 1941)
Just some of my favourite alien designs ever: the Kriglo AKA Martian Spider-Men (Flash Comics v1 024, 1941)
Super Hero Costume Party:
Hawkman attends a costume party with Shiera Sanders as Hawkgirl. Though not the first time she wore the costume, this does mark the start of the two as a crime-fighting duo ongoing, no matter what stinky ol’ Hawkman says. (Flash Comics v1 024, 1941)
Rick Raleigh might have intended to attend this party as the Red Bee in that classic cheeky move, but ended up getting mixed up in a murder and attending as a different guy dressed as the Red Bee. (Hit Comics 014, 1941)
Really enjoy the selection of creature that inhabit the inner earth in the year 50029 CE: Mud Men, Rock Men, hot ladies, and down at the very bottom: guys with beards. (Hit Comics 003, 1940)
Quality comics with another entry for the list of increasingly unhinged patriotic heroes: Don Glory, the xenophobic jingoist former boxer (Hit Comics 008, 1941)
-
NOTES – FEBRUARY 2023
The Whip is an okay character aside from the brownface bit but one thing I absolutely love about him is that although he does a credible job at the Ineffectual Secret Identity act he also just travels from town to town with an enormous black horse.
(Flash Comics v1 005, 1940)
Names:
This old dude shares his name with Kurt Busiek’s Astro City character Samaritan! The tally of comics characters named Asa Martin stands at 2! (Flash Comics v1 010, 1940)
Same issue’s Hawkman story features a (bad) guy named John Denver!
I’m usually pretty good at catching allusions and so forth in these old comics but I have no idea why Joe Magee = “always bungling something” (Flash Comics v1 015, 1941)
Places: It’s a bit hard to make out but the flash on this armoured car seems to place Seguro in “New Texirona” rather than New Mexico, which might just be the most egregious example of 40s comics writers avoiding real place names that I’ve ever encountered. (Flash Comics v1 016, 1941)
This is how I order in restaurants, too. (Flash Comics v1 017, 1941)
Number of references to “the Third Degree” aka the cops torturing someone as a positive thing this month: 3
-
NOTES: JANUARY 2023
Names:
Bulldog Teeters. (Feature Comics 044, 1941)
Zero the Ghost Detective getting straight-up punched by a ghost. (Feature Comics 051, 1941)
Dates: Johnny Thunder born 7th July, 1917 (Flash Comics v1 001, 1940)
Calling Cards:
He only ever used ’em a couple of times but the Flash had metal lightning bolt dart calling cards.Costumes:
Absolutely the best Hawkman costume variant is the brief period in which he wore a big hat in the shape of a sassy hawk’s head (Flash Comics v1 003, 1940) -
NOTES: DECEMBER 2022
(Detective Comics v1 058, 1941)
Comic book character of the year Claudia Carol, folks.
Names: (Doc Savage Comics v1 003, 1941)
Bit of nominative determinism going on. The protagonist of this piece is Brad Marshall:
Marshal Brad Marshall:
Crook name of Bat Crawley (Feature Comics 040, 1941)
I’m only mostly certain, but I think that “Fasdick” here might be subbing in for “fascist”. The government in question does bear all the hallmarks of being a stand-in for one of the Axis powers, but it’s a wild stretch, even so. (Feature Comics 040, 1941)
-
NOTES: NOVEMBER 2022
Costumes: I don’t really feel like doing a whole entry for the Spider. Maybe someday. For now I just want to point out one detail of his costume:
Little spiders on his boots!
Heroes Going to Costume Parties as Themselves:
Batman! And he wins Most Original Costume! (Batman Comics v1 001, 1940)
Speaking of awards and such, after Batman and Robin save an unnamed small town somewhere in America from a cabal of crooks they are honoured with a statue:
(Detective Comics v1 043, 1940)
-
NOTES: OCTOBER 2022
The Clock flatlines himself in order to solve a murder by speaking to the victim in the afterlife. (Crack Comics 010, 1941)
Decoration:
Jaspar Crow’s got a monogrammed wastecan! (Crack Comics 016, 1941)
Dr Foster’s got a monogrammed lampshade! (Crack Comics 017, 1941)
Names: Tor the Magic Master encounters a counterfeiter with the unlikely name Phrogg Zaarn.
One of the victims of Clock foe the Werewolf is named A.B. Ceedee.
-
NOTES: OCTOBER 2022
The Clock flatlines himself in order to solve a murder by speaking to the victim in the afterlife. (Crack Comics 010, 1941)
Decoration:
Jaspar Crow’s got a monogrammed wastecan! (Crack Comics 016, 1941)
Dr Foster’s got a monogrammed lampshade! (Crack Comics 017, 1941)
Names: Tor the Magic Master encounters a counterfeiter with the unlikely name Phrogg Zaarn.
One of the victims of Clock foe the Werewolf is named A.B. Ceedee.
