Understanding Comics and the Phantom Magician

I am starting to work on a Masters program in Library Science. Which of course means taking some basic level classes, explaining terms we use every day without giving much thought to, putting into words things we already think we know. Such as what constitutes information, knowledge, language, etc.

One of the books we're reading excepts from is Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics which does much the same thing. Deceptively simple, explaining stuff that we think we already know but never really gave much thought about.  Whimsical and really gets across the roles of writing, art, language and touching how we interact with information and art and the processes of absorbing as well as creating works. He touches on various subjects such as how most human minds are wired, in recognizing faces and patterns in almost everything.

A basic concept that the class and the book is getting across is that an information object (such as a book, paper, painting, even words themselves) is not the same as information itself. They are simply the representation of the real thing or idea behind it.

What was interesting was that a few days before reading the assignment, I was reading at comicbookplus.com Famous Funnies #32, 1937 by Eastern Publishing, specifically "The Adventures of Patsy". Famous Funnies is a reprint anthology, so the strips are a bit earlier than the book. In this, we see the appearance of the Phantom Magician, dated to 1935. Some consider PM the first original comics superhero, some Mandrake the Magician (1934), depending on the criteria and how you parse the definition of "superhero" and for that matter, "comics". Personally, if you'd consider either of those, I'd say that Hugo Hercules (1902) and The Handyman from Timbuctoo (which I don't have a date for but it's roughly as early). Regardless of the "comic superhero" debate, it's interesting to see that here in the early days of cartooning, the Phantom Magician touches on a similar concept!

Comics and DC's Golden Age

 Comic Strips: With Comi-Con, it appears a few of the strips over the last couple of weeks wanted to get in on the act. Gotta love "Fox Trot" for embracing the various ages. Where else are you going to run the gamut of Hit Girl to the Jay Garrick Flash? Even DC Comics doesn't want to do that. OK, the "Get Fuzzy" comic has nothing to do with superheroes. Sometimes a pun is its own reward.

Herogoggles: Speaking of Golden-Age DC, over at my golden-age superheroes/supervillains website, I have added pages devoted to DC's heroes and villains of the Golden-Age.. As my brother pointed out, I basically am admitting the project will NEVER be completed because there's no real way for me to read all of DC's comics of the Golden-Age. I don't have the money to buy them and that limits me to the ones they are willing to reprint. And, most of the reprint books like the Archives are devoted to characters, rarely the whole comics. Luckily with the All-Star Archives, they included the Hop Harrigan text stories for example since that wasn't part of the JSA. Marvel's output was a bit smaller with titles and characters having much smaller runs once you look past the big three of Captain America, Human Torch, and Namor. So, it's a bit easier for them to devote a hardback to Mystic Comics for example. It does mean, that certain stories tend to get reprinted a half dozen times. Such as their recent "Marvel Firsts" devoted to the Golden-Age. I was tempted, but I already had half the book in other volumes!

In putting together the lists of characters that I wanted to cover from various sources, I started also looking at the copyrights of a few of the early titles. It was interesting to discover that "New York World's Fair Comics" was not renewed. In addition to having a few Superman, Batman stories in public domain, it's also the first appearance of the Wesley Dodd Sandman! It also occurred to me that some of the public domain comics might actually be availabe. And, a few of them are, over at comics.org! Of course, the quality of the scans vary wildly. Which is sad, since stories with characters like "Wing Brady" and "Barry O'Neil" look like they'd be fun to read. The latter especially has wonderfully dense and detailed artwork, heads above much of what was being published at the time or even years later. You'd have to look at Milton Caniff, Hal Foster, or Alex Raymond for comparable work. However, this makes the strip pretty much a strain on the eyes and unreadable when it comes to low resolution or microfiche reproduction. Barry O'Neil's ongoing war with the Yellow Peril menace Fang Gow continued from the public domain comics over to Detective Comics.

What's enjoyable is to see all of the Siegel and Shuster strips: Radio Patrol, Dr. Occult, Henri Duval, etc. The artwork is open and expressive. Plus, the duo really exploded the limits of the medium, they exploited the visual sides of the medium. The heroes were men of physical action, the menaces larger than life. It's a shame there are a few holes, but how great to see Dr. Occult in action. Henri Duval was a musketeer hero whose storyline just sort of ends to be replaced by an adaptation of The Three Musketeers itself.  The duo must have liked the name as they used it again for a villain to face Dr. Occult.

Sadly, the comics they have seems to run out before getting to Captain Desmo and Nadir. Nadir is a fascinating character. In some ways, he seems to borrow a bit from Chandu, Mandrake, the Shadow... a man brings knowledge gained in the Far East to fight crime. The difference is Nadir reverses the status quo. He's a prince of India! His origin might seem a little familiar, his parents killed when he was a lad he decides to turn his back on his title and devote his life to fighting crime! He masters not only ancient knowledge of the East, he also masters the sciences of the West and now makes his home in New York City!

Then there's the Flying Fox. An aviation hero whose aviator's cap doubles as a fox mask. Sadly, he's not public domain, so the only way to see that character will be buying the original comics or hoping DC makes it available some day. DC would be smart to really gather a lot of this material for posterity and preservation. Even if not making any plans for printing, just making them available digitally for historical purposes. Although a volume of Siegel and Shuster's work would seem to be easily feasible. Most of these were b/w or one color to begin with so reprinting would be cheap enough and you'd imagine there would be some interest in seeing these stories from the creators of their flagship character.

While DC has acknowledged the Crimson Avenger as pre-dating Superman as a masked hero, it's interesting to see Dr. Occult as a brief caped hero with super-powers. Captain Desmo, who like the Flying Fox was an aviation hero whose cowl doubled as a mask, also squeaks by debuting before Superman.  Desmo had some kind of issue, he wore the cowl constantly, even when lounging in his own home. His sidekick asks him about it, but Desmo doesn't get around to sharing that information. The Flying Fox would debut just a few months later.

For a recent birthday, got a few comics related stuff. First, up was Guardians of Being by Eckhart Tolle (great name) and Patrick McDonnell. It's a book using Mutts strips to impart a little zen like wisdom to the reader. This generation's Gospel According to Peanuts or The Tao of Pooh.

I love McDonnells artwork. I would have no problem with him being listed as the best cartoonist working today. His drawings appear almost deceptively simple. A few lines here and there and he all the movement, mood and likeness that is needed. More than any other cartoonist on the newspages captures the sheer emotion and range. When the size of comics has reduced most strips to talking heads, his have running, dancing, nut-throwing, tail-wagging... his characters seem always to be in the midst of life, even if they are just sleeping.

He's an artist that knows his history. Not just comic strip history, a big fan of Charles Schulz and George Herriman. But, his strips also reference classical and pop art with abandon, especially if you're lucky to have a Sunday paper that includes the header, a title panel that is trimmed by many papers, so artists are prone to make the first panel superfluous. McDonnell uses it to parody great works of art only with his characters.

The book has a couple of allusions that sneak up on you. Such as the one panel that is a take on Norman Rockwell's "Freedom From Fear" painting. Another page of birds singing in the trees and a lake as a set of three vertical panels and I'm reminded of classic Asian art with their vertical pieces capturing birds and branches with just a minimal of brush strokes.

McDonnell's work can be found a variety of places. I have a book of his, Me...Jane a children's book about the childhood life of Jane Goodall, the beginnings of her love for nature and her love-hate relationship with the mate of Tarzan. He also currently has a children's book called The Monsters' Maker about three little monsters who set out to create the biggest, baddest monster of all. Only like the other famous monster maker, the end result is not exactly what they expected to find. I even have a classical music cd with his artwork on the cover.

Tarpe Mills and Miss Fury is a gorgeous hardbound collection of many of the Miss Fury strips. Sadly, it's not from the very beginning, but it does include one day's strip that manages to nicely encapsulate everything you need to know about the character and her status quo.  Even if it didn't, it has a nice foreword that manages to cover many of the recurring characters and themes from the strip. It also provides a nice background to the life of Tarpe Mills. I won't go into it here, go out and buy the book. But, it should be noted that Tarpe Mills was one of the first female comic book creators. Not just an artist but creating, writing and drawing strips for Centaur Comics. She is the artist behind the notable Purple Zombie. It's common knowledge that many of the artists and creators worked in comics with their eyes sighted on working on newspaper strips. She was one of the few that actually achieved that in Miss Fury. Despite running for quite a few years, and predating Wonder Woman to the presses to boot, she'd probably be more forgotten today than she is if not for Timely Comics actually printing some of her newspaper adventures in comic book form way back in the day. After all, comic books, even ones from a half century ago, are a bit more collectible and easier to come across than newspaper strips that died out before man walked on the moon. Busy with other projects, haven't gotten beyond reading the intro to this one yet. The character seems to possibly be having a bit of a revamp. She appeared in the background of one of Marvel's The Twelve issues (think it was the tie-in issue). She is also slated to appear in Dynamite's Masks mini-series alongside various pulp and comicbook heroes, though there has been no art depicting her yet. Would not be surprised if we don't see an announcement in a week or two of Dynamite publishing a mini-series or ongoing with Ms Fury, as they are calling her,
----------------------------------
About the only Marvel NOW title that sounds remotely interesting is a new title featuring Morbius the "living" vampire. I like Morbius, he was the villain in the first Spider-man comic I ever got. A superhero fighting a vampire AND a werewolf!? C'mon, what kid is going to resist that?

Cannot say I'm a fan of the unfinished artwork that they've released. Looks a little cold and the hand of the computer looks to be evident. And, the artwork of him has him looking like Michael Jackson. Creepy for whole 'nother reasons.

The gold standard will always be Gil Kane. Can't get him, but at least get someone that draws action well and knows how to set mood and atmosphere.

CROP and a few comic strips

I try to walk an hour or more several days a week in effort to live a healthier life. Today, it was cold and dreary and I debated whether or not to skip it today (I didn't). This Sunday, I'll be walking for a cause as my wife and I will be walking as part of Greensboro's annual CROP Walk. My first CROP Walk was in 1983 as part of my Eagle project for Scouts. It was ten miles long and in the summer. I then helped my Church organize and be part of Rocky Mount's first CROP Walk, also ten miles. Since then, I've walked in many such walks when I could and sponsored others when I couldn't. I've walked in Rocky Mount, Chapel Hill, and Raleigh. This will be my first year walking in Greensboro's.

At some point, they've gotten shorter, 10 kilometers so more people can get involved from the youngest to the oldest. One of my buddies was doing training for a marathon and he ran his a couple of years ago. I'm not complaining as I'm not sure my feet would let me walk ten miles these days. But, the sad truth is around the world, people walk not because of simple exercise benefits, to enjoy nature or the company of others. They walk because they have to. To get food. To get water because there's no well in their town much less at their home. To get their children or themselves simple check-ups from visiting doctors. We choose to walk because they have to.

Our donations will support life-saving programs around the world.  Join us as we work together to solve this world-wide challenge.

You can be the difference.  Visit my personal page, where you can make a secure online  donation.  Your gift can help save a life!

http://www.churchworldservice.org/site/TR/CropWalks/General?px=1020245&pg=personal&fr_id=15792

Bwa-ha-ha?

I often enjoy the Zits comic, a few times it's even laugh out loud funny. I see a lot of truth in its depictions of teen-age life. I often wonder if the zig-zag pattern that's in almost every strip isn't meant to be a nod to the late great Charles Shulz, reproducing the pattern of Charlie Brown's shirt. This one made me wonder something different. I associate the depiction of laughter as "bwa-ha-ha" pretty much with Giffen and DeMatteis stint on the Justice League, in fact it's often referred to in comic circles as the Bwa-ha-ha League like the JLA it replaced is called Justice League Detroit by its fans and detractors. Are the comic writer and artist fans of that era of the League? Or has the sound-effect actually entered the lexicon of public acceptance for depicting laughter?



Their heads are made out of rubber...
I am not a huge fan of "Rhymes with Orange". It's sometimes funny and I kind of like my comic strip artists showing some kind of talent with actual art and storytelling. But, I have to admit this one had me laugh and going "bouncy bouncy" all the day long.



Bad Pun
Stephen Pastis came to town recently. Unfortunately, not conducive to my schedule but I would have loved to hear him talk. Pearls Before Swine is often a wonderfully irreverent strip, one that even takes pot shots at its own creator. No one is spared Rat's judgment.



Crossovers
Sometimes it just seems as if comic strip artists talk with each other before submitting their strips. I remember one day where it seemed half the strips chose to tell golf jokes. Not only that, but two actually told the SAME JOKE! This isn't quite in the same category as only two strips the other week seemed to borrow the same idea. I have to wonder how many people under the age of 30 actually would recognize Harold and the Purple Crayon? Still a great idea and totally works for the Lio strip. 

 

 
 

Funky's Action Comics

 Been enjoying Prince Valiant quite a bit. Tom Yeats is currently the artist. He did some artwork for DC back in the 1980s, but is largely forgotten today sadly. I think principally because he was the artist on Swamp Thing before Alan Moore took over. Pretty much everything from that run is forgotten despite there some being good stories there. I've always liked his work though and he's a good fit here. But, dang me, if that doesn't look a bit like Green Arrow in the back there?

Same day, and in my paper the same page, had this piece of Funky Winkerbean by Tom Batiuk. Admittedly, I've not enjoyed the strip as much since Lisa's death and the jump forward in time. Although, it's interesting in that it has been keeping Funky and Les approximately my age. This isn't the first knock-off of  DC comic characters or covers that have graced his strip. He must be quite a fan, specifically of the 1950s-early 60s comics. Always a treat to see these.

Baby Squirrel - My brother found a baby squirrel in the yard. He's a sucker for animals and over the years while growing up into adulthood, we've had baby squirrels, possums, birds. Our fish tank held not tropical fish, but a brim caught from a nearby pond. He got to be a pretty good size, and I had it somewhat trained. Least as much as you can train a fish. The baby squirrel was pretty much a newborn. Eyes still closed, no hair. So a heating pad, some towels and a shoebox for a home, he took to taking care of it (carefully locked in the study so the cats will not think she's a snack). Really didn't think it would survive a week. Four weeks later, it had just begun opening her eyes. Some friends taking care of it while we were out of town for the day shot a little video of them feeding the little darling. Haven't decided yet what to do with it once she is able to survive on her own. For one thing, I don't think she's going to realize that cats mean "danger".

Gone In a Flash

Prince Valiant ended this past week its stealth Flash Gordon appearance. The man Aleta calls "St. George" has just helped Valiant and company defeat a large golem when he announces his amnesia is gone, he remembers his name and where he's from...

An enjoyable fun romp without over-staying its welcome.

So, it's a bit appropriate also to lift up the life of one man who has done quite a bit for fans of comic strips, cartoons, and comic books. Without his work as editor and historian, it's doubtful I'd be aware of the great art that Dan Barry did on Flash Gordon, would have come to appreciate the wackiness of Krazy Kat, or discovered the world of Barnaby by Johnson Crockett whom I solely knew as the creator of Harold and the Purple Crayon. Never warmed up to Modesty Blaise though.

In the last couple of weeks, there have been quite a few deaths of creators. Don Markstein whose passing was announced March 11th was not a comic creator, but a historian. I first encountered his name when I started regularly reading "Comics Revue" that he edited and co-created with Rick Norwood. When I started reading Revue, it was mainly devoted to story strips but it printed both current and old strips. So, it would run Sy Barry's Phantom, Lieber Spider-man, Teen-age Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Infantino on Batman alongside Dan Barry's Flash Gordon, McDonnell's Modesty Blaise, classic Gasoline Alley, etc. Over time as many of the current adventure strips failed to hang on, it focused more and more on the classic strips. I was overjoyed when they started Roy Crane's Buzz Sawyer strip. More a Cap'n Easy fan myself, but his artwork wows me regardless. Then Russ Manning's lush Tarzan strips. Wow.

The magazine took a hit when Diamond decided to only carry books that earned so much profit margin, causing them to change the way they were published and their pricing structure if they wanted to still be listed. Something to keep in mind when you're talking about the high price of comics, it's not just the publishers that dictate that price, Diamond's actions affected the pricing structure of quite a few independents.

For fandom, Don's big contribution was his site Toonopedia. It's scope encompassed comic strips, cartoons and comic book characters of all types and eras. Each article was well researched, giving you insight into the lives of the creators, publishers and context of the times as well as the influence different ones might have had on the larger genre. It was almost always interesting to read, a smorgasbord of information and characters. The only limitation seemed to be whatever struck Markstein's fancy at the time. One week might be an article on Flying Jenny and the next article be Eek! The Cat. The articles were informative but also unabashedly from his own point of view, he let you know how he felt about the art, quality, or viability of a character. I differed in point of view of whether a character like Peacemaker was a hero or not (I'm on the pro side) and he had a stubborness in listing all of the Quality characters as having been bought and owned by DC despite the lack of evidence in that regard.

Apart from enjoyment, Toonopedia was often became the first place I looked to verify a date or some information on a DC or Marvel character and was definitely an influence on me and my site, sometimes imparting leads of some obscure character worth tracking down. It was some time after I had been aware of the site before I made the connection of where I had heard Markstein's name before ie in the pages of "Comics Revue" that I had been getting for some years.

It's sad to think there are no more updates to his site, no little seen or forgotten gem uncovered or maybe new appreciation given to a character or concept otherwise written off. I wish his family well. His presence and love for the media will be missed.

Prince Valiant vs Flash Gordon

One of the benefits of my prepress job at the old paper is being able to read the Sunday funnies again. Little over a month ago a new Prince Valiant arc began. Some things had changed since I last checked in, most notably, his wife Aleta apparently has real magical powers. The new storyline introduces an amnesiac blond giant that Aleta recognizes from some point when she was trapped in a limbo like realm. Meanwhile, I'm thinking I recognize the character only from a different strip. The week's strip reprinted above clinched it for me... it's Flash Gordon! Due to copyright and trademark concerns, I'm sure there's a reason why he's not outright identified, but it makes for a cool cross-over. The story is also quite interesting as Valiant, Gawain and Flash (called St. George after that famous dragonslayer) pursue a gigantic golem terrorizing the countryside. And, it's all done in clean, clear and detailed artwork that should really shame some current comicbook versions of the character, especially considering the strip is printed under far more restrictions (poorer paper-stock, less and inconsistent printing capability which means less color range and less resolution). Go here and you can read about many comics free. Check out the Phantom, Mutts and a few other strips while you're there.

Section Zero: Also under cool comic things that can be found on the web, Karl Kesel and Tom Grummett are relaunching their too-quickly aborted Section Zero comic on the web. A labor of love being done in between paying gigs, right now it's re-releasing the pages from the published comic on  Thursdays a few at a time.  There's also some pages with notes and character sketches. I consider Grummett to be one of the top superhero artists working in comics today. So, I think it's a crime that he has free time to work on something like this. His work schedule should be kept full. Of course, I also think that this book should be on it's hundredth something issue right now.

Black Beetle: Not the DC villain character, this is a pulp fueled character from the mind of Francesco Francavilla who initially got his start serialized over time on his website and available for purchase as an ashcan. Dark Horse has wisely recognized him as an up and coming talent and is publishing a three part Black Beetle story in Dark Horse Presents #11 out April 18th. Get your orders in now!

Some Golden-Age Tales & More

Blogs of Note:
If you want to check out some golden-age action, go to: Nedor-a-Day Nedor is the company that gave the world heroes like the Fighting Yank, Black Terror, and Miss Masque in the comics and the Phantom Detective, Black Bat, and Captain Future in the pulps among many others (and before any correct me, the Phantom Detective did appear in the comics and there was a different character called Captain Future in the comics as well). A little forewarning, while Nedor is also called Better, their stories rarely lived up to that moniker or quite the high quality the Schomburg covers promised.

Bob Fujitani has become a favorite golden-age artist of mine. I don’t know of any characters he created, but he was a highly polished artist whose style seemed to have a natural bent for the macabre and grisly and so he was a natural for illustrating the best Hangman stories as well as working on Catman, Dollman, the Zebra. I’ve long wanted to read a Zebra story and TWO blogs have reprinted a story each and each is done by Fujitani. The art is excellent, but the stories are definitely on the bizarre side with a pair of very memorable villains. They make the Hangman stories seem tame by comparison. They raise the Zebra’s rep as a hero in my regard, just knowing he had those types to have to contend with. Just check logic at the door.
Zebra 1
Zebra 2


The Handyman of Timbuctoo

I keep finding little jewels at Barnacle Press (www.barnaclepress.com). This week it has been an early aviation/adventure strip Flying to Fame from 1928 and The Handy Man from Timbuctoo.

The Handy Man seems to be a bit of a do-gooder, setting right minor wrongs and such. He also seems to suffer from hypertrichosis, a condition that causes a person to grow excessive hair over their bodies looking like someone from a Lon Chaney, Jr. movie. In addition to his distinctive look, he carries a mace. Accompanying him is his incredible tiger. The tiger doesn’t talk, but his tame demeanor along with acting both human and catlike as the situations demand echoes his descendants Tawky Tawny and Hobbes.

Comics of the Week:

DC Universe #0: Interesting, in the narrator's memory of events, there's a panel of the Crisis that was from the symbolic cover of the final issue but the scene never actually happens in the book. As far as the supposed return of Barry Allen, I’d laugh out loud if the character proved to be some other character such as Johnny Quick. The book leads you to believe it’s Barry, but it’s not like he’s actually shown on panel. Otherwise, the book is just a set up for various story arcs and crossover storylines. Most of it’s kind of confusing if you don’t follow the individual books such as the Green Lantern pages. The Perez Superman-Legion seems like the best bet for an enjoyable story.

Green Lama #1 (from AC Comics): Give the writer props, he's striving to tell a more intellectual story full of allegory, nature of reality and a host of minor characters (AC’s Fem Force and Captain Paragon as well as golden-age heroes like the crossbow wielding Swift Arrow, Golden Lad, and Atoman). It just does exceed his grasp technically and most of the art is not up to the vast scope of the task either. There is a nice essay in the back about the inspirations fueling the book. Overall, the book has a very personal and raw feeling to it, as it tries to reach for the stars. Maybe if the first issue had been stretched out over two issues, trying not to cram so much, exposition, characters, plots, and concepts into just a single issue and instead allowed it to breathe somewhat and tighten the focus on just a few. It gets across the appreciation the writer has for the character and that feeling of potential that exists in so many characters from the golden-age, that almost anything was possible for them. I wanted to read more Green Lama when I was done and it made me wish I had picked up that Green Lama Archives which I ultimately passed on while I was in the store.

Hercules #1: One of the few times the previews got me to check out a
book, it's not just Hercules but a few of the Argonauts as well including
one of my favorite minor Greek heroes, Meleager. It’s interesting to see Iolaus and Autolycus, both characters on the Kevin Sorbo Hercules tv series. The artwork is just too dark, and as the cover is also, I’m lead to believe it’s somewhere at the separation stage, taking the colored artwork and converting it into files for printing. While Steranko does use a lot of dark colors, his stuff still generally prints better than the cover here. One writing quibble, when Hercules is introducing his group, the proper way to do it is in order they are standing, That way both the people he’s talking to as well as the readers actually know who’s who. If it wasn’t for Atalanta being the sole woman in the group and her name not matching where she was standing, I’d have the characters all mixed up.

JSA Classified: Starring Wildcat! While this issue concludes the current storyline, the next issue also stars Wildcat? The solo character stories are nice, and I love Wildcat but with the title name, I was hoping for some tales from the past actually starring the JSA or maybe some team-ups of different members from different incarnations of the teams.Really tired of the bandage wraps on Wildcat's hands. The great thing about his costume is the streamlined simplicity of it.

Challengers of the Unknown Showcase #2: It's the post Kirby stuff. Still looks great and it's hard to beat the price. I had waffled between the Green Lama Archives and this, but considering this book is ALL Challengers and the Archives aren’t even half Green Lama (and I’d read and/or owned several of those that are there already), I decided to go for the much cheaper Showcase. Look forward to reading those stories over time.

Those (not so) Esciting Previews:

Last Blog entry I talked about how previews are used and and not used online. Mainly that it just seems to be several pages taken out of the book without giving any thought if they actually do the job of enticing a would be reader. Instead of taking some random pages building the book up as something that’s a must read and exciting, often they seem to be pages of talking. Showing that the exciting looking previews of Captain Britain and MI 13 was probably more by accident than design, we have ones from The Avengers where not a single superhero appears in costume and in fact it’s mostly of people just sitting around.

Jim Mooney RIP

Jim Mooney passed away. A great tribute to the man and his life as well as looking a bit at his history in comics can be read here.
Makes me wish I had known more about him. I especially love the section about his interviewing with Stan Lee from Lee’s perspective.

When he was doing Supergirl and the LSH books for which he is well known and lauded, I wasn’t at an age I could read more than words like “cat”. So, I was exposed to a lot of his work via reprints and reading old comics from various sources. While the artwork was clear and crisp and the stories fun, I was at an age that most artists didn’t really register with me. I couldn’t tell you which of the stories I read was by him or by Curt Swan or any other of DC’s stable of artists at the time. Indeed, about the only work I probably was aware of was Omega the Unknown and that was some time later after that series had come and gone.

My appreciation for Jim’s contributions came a few years ago. AC Comics had been reprinting golden-age comics for awhile and various people on the internet were also getting in on the act. Through them I was gaining a deeper appreciation of artists that I recognized their names as being from the 70’s but turned out to be groundbreaking much earlier. Men like Dick Ayers, Irv Novick, and, of course, Jim Mooney. In one of AC’s reprint books, they focused on Quality Comics and interviewed Mooney. In the book Mooney talks about his work for Fox on the Moth and who was turned into the Lynx after threat of lawsuit from DC, his work on Wildfire, Phantom Lady, and the Spider Widow at Quality.

Now, I’ve seen a Moth story or two as well as the Lynx. Frankly, I don’t see the similarity between it and Batman. Even quality wise, I have to agree with Mooney’s own assessment of his talents as compared to others at that point in time. However, it’s like looking at Novick’s first stories for the Shield and then seeing his later work after being exposed to Simon & Kirby’s hyper-extended kinetic frenzied work and taking all those lessons to heart and applying them to his own work but with a more organic and softer feel. Mooney’s own talent explodes while working for Ace on strips like Magno for SUPER-MYSTERY COMICS and becoming a regular cover artist as well as interior work for them. He made the Magno stories a lot better than they had any right being considering the generic nature of the character. Again, taking a page from Batman, Magno would most often face a killer clown of a villain called the Clown though cannot really say who actually created the villain. The Magno strip would have several artists over time and have a decent run for a character that languishes in almost complete obscurity today. Mooney’s skill grew quickly by leaps and bounds.

Over at Quality, Mooney worked on the Wildfire strip. Wildfire is possibly most notable for NOT being in the All-Star Squadron. Roy Thomas apparently wanted to use her but the powers-that-be thought it might be confusing as a Wildfire was a member of the Legion of Superheroes. Keep in mind that All-Star Squadron as an Earth-2 WWII book already has similar but subtly different versions of Wonder Woman, Batman, Robin, Superman, Hawkman and Hawkgirl as well as very different versions of the Flash and Green Lantern in it. Would Wildfire be all that confusing? So, Roy created a new Firebrand instead. But, one only has to look at his work on Wildfire and see just how far he had come as an artist.

(SNIP) I cut a paragraph that was originally here. Mainly because I have a memory of an interview that Mooney did saying he worked on the Spider Widow and Phantom Lady and he introduced the character, the Raven to the strip. The Raven was originally meant to spin off into his own strip but never happened. The problem? I cannot verify this interview, all the online sources cite someone else as the creator and artist at the time of Phantom Lady, Spider Widow and the Raven. And, I haven't had the time to hunt up the actual comic with the interview all though I'm reasonably certain I've tracked it down to AC's MEN OF MYSTERY #20. Anyone else remember this?

In the late 40’s would have Mooney as one of the ghosts for Sprang working under Kane's byline on Batman, in many ways bringing Mooney’s work almost full circle. Only this time, he does a very passable Dick Sprang and there's no lawsuit.

So, I’ll miss Mooney, not so much because of his work on Supergirl or the Legion (but thank you for Streaky), but because I really enjoyed his work from decades earlier and seeing how his skill and style grew and changed over the years. I find Magno a lot of fun to read. And I enjoyed the Spider Widow and Raven stories quite a bit, whoever did them.

Who is Hugo Hercules?

It’s been a strange couple of weeks. Stuff I’ve been wanting to comment on, just kinda gotten forgotten or slipped by the wayside. Such as when I reviewed MEN OF MYSTERY back on March 6th. I mentioned that one of the stories concerned a character called Dr. Drew. As I was actually working on the D’s of my golden-age heroes encyclopedia, I made sure to include him. While doing research, I found another couple of stories of the character leading me to a better appreciation of him and the Eisner-style atmosphere of the stories. Then, lo and behold, Don Markstein includes him about the very same time on his Toonopedia site! So, Doctor Drew is getting a bit of exposure these days it seems. And Mr. Markstein and I must travel in some of the same circles in our research.

When I first encountered Toonopedia site a few years back, I thought his name sounded familiar. Yet, it wasn’t until last week that I realized where I had heard it before. He’s the editor of COMICS REVIEW, a magazine I’ve been getting for close to 10 years! For those not in the know, COMICS REVIEW reprints comic strips such as the Phantom, Gasoline Alley, Buzz Sawyer, Ally Oop, Krazy Kat, Modesty Blaise, etc. Sadly, when I first started getting it, it reprinted a bunch of current adventure strips as well as various classic story strips and the odd spattering of classic humor strips. These days, it’s almost all old strips and I would love to be seeing the Phantom dailies since my paper dropped that strip a long time ago.

Yesterday, my brother wanted me to find comic strips that had to do with muscles (something for his student teaching, I didn’t ask). It’s always interesting how sometimes you cannot find what you are looking for but also the esoteric things you find you weren’t looking for.

In this case, it’s a little known strip from 1902 of a fella by the name of Hugo Hercules. Hugo predates not only Superman but also various other incredibly strong characters such as that other more famous Hugo, Hugo Danner of Phillip Wylie’s GLADIATOR (1930) and comic strips’ Mandrake (created in 1924, first saw print in 1934), the Phantom (1936), and the Phantom Magician (1935), as well as the other supermen that pre-dated comics such as Tarzan (1912), John Carter of Mars (1912), the Night Wind (1913). Heck, he even beats out the Scarlet Pimpernel (1903)!

Hugo is a big burly but amiable chap who talks in a blue-collar type slang and seems to wander around looking to aid people with his great strength such as lifting automobiles, a porch as an umbrella, or even wrestling various animals (a horse, elephant and a bear, all of which talk) into submission. His response to his incredible displays of strength that astounds others is invariably “Just as easy.” In one strip and possibly the earliest crossover of its type, a building catches on fire and Hugo rescues several of the inhabitants, four other comic strip characters: Alice and the Duchess of “Alice in Funnyland” and Archie and Boggs from “Archie and Boggs”, all of whom seem aware of their comic strip status. The strip only ran for a few months. Samples of those and all of Hugo’s strip can be found at: http://www.barnaclepress.com/

Hugo is the creation of William H.D. Koerner, a German immigrant who was on staff for the Chicago Tribune. He eventually left to study painting and became an accomplished illustrator/painter for Harper’s Magazine among others. One of his paintings, “A Charge to Keep” was a favorite of George W. Bush. The President’s account of the painting, its name and what it symbolized was very different from the story it was used to actually illustrate and became a source of ridicule among various pundits and critics of the President. Especially as Bush even used the “name” as the title for his memoirs.


While the name Hugo is an interesting similarity with Hugo Danner, it should be noted that Phillip Wylie was only 6 months old when the strip ran. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster wouldn't be born for another decade. Hugo Hercules may very well be a proto-superhero, but he is reminiscent of the American Folk Tale or Tall Tale, though he predates some of those as well. He serves as an illustration in that the idea of a Superman wasn't really all that new, these ideas and archetypes were already part of the American culture from the tall-tales, the dime novels (there had been various "super-villains" for Nick Carter and his kin to face), the dime novels, and even in the comics. Siegel and Shuster had even already paved the way with Dr. Occult, Superman was just applying even more of the Tall Tale mentality and a science fiction veneer as opposed to a magic one.