“Yesterday’s” Comic> The Blue Beetle #19

Of all the villains between Fox and Holyoke they could have gone with…WHY THIS JACKASS?!?!?!?!!?

The Blue Beetle #19

Holyoke Publishing (March, 1943)

No, seriously, why him? You only have two Blue Beetle stories this issue for some reason (it’s his comic) and you waste one on Dascomb Dinsmore? Really?

On the upside, no Likkity Split and no wishing kid.  As mentioned, only two Blue Beetle stories so his third story has been replaced with a reprint from another comics. Were they slowly pulling Blue Beetle out of his own comic book? Considering how things went with comic names and numbering back in the Golden Age I wouldn’t put it past them.

Read along with me here.

The Blue Beetle

• “The Land Of Tomorrow” by Louis Golden: When you have to tell your boys your the boss, you might have a problem. It’s a weak way to start the first panel just to tell us readers who the boss is for this gang. Not that it matters since the page isn’t over before Nick Tartini’s gang is brought down for pushing the populace a bit too far. So a scientist manages to trap Blue Beetle, Spunky (still going with the new name in both identities), and Tartini when the heroes chase the villain into his house. He wants to use them as an experiment in time travel. Our trio find themselves in the future of really weak naming. The city they end up in after civilization rebuilt from the great war (a rather questionable story idea when World War II is still going on) is called Worromot (tomorrow spelled backwards), the old king is Anciento, the bald villain is Baldo, and I’m sure Anciento’s daughter Alida is a name I’m just missing the reference for. It’s all so the scientist can send himself into the future. Yeah, pretty stock plot back then and not much done with it interesting to me in the 21st Century.
• “Dascomb Dinsmore Amateur Magician Is Back” by…yeah, I wouldn’t want my name on this either: Oh, good grief. It’s worse than I thought. Dinsmore broke himself and his sidekick Siedlitz out of jail and now pulls off a safecracking. It takes the minimal amount of his “magic tricks” to trap our heroes who brute force their way out but the villains escape. The lamest villains Blue Beetle faced and they’re the ones who manage to escape while Blue Beetle and Spunky suddenly stop to tell the reader to buy war bonds and stamps. This was just a pathetic run for the Beetle and his lame sidekick. I’m starting to miss Mike and Dr. Franz by the way. Maybe the guest stars will do something worth reading this issue?

The Guest Stars

• Aesop’s Fables “The Lion & The Mouse”: It’s a more lighthearted and silly retelling of the story of a lion who likes scaring animals but is otherwise a really nice guy. When a friendless mouse is not beaten by the lion for disturbing his nap the mouse repays him by saving him from a hunter. The caption at the end admits it’s not quite how Aesop wrote it down but the moral is still there and it’s okay for kids.
• V-Man “The French Revolt”: A spy in the Nazi army warns V-Man that one of the villages is about to be attacked to send a message to the French Underground, so he gets them out, blows up the village to take out the soldiers, and leads everyone to the unoccupied part of France. The spy kills the general and together he and V-Man lead the men from the village to attack the Nazis and strike a blow for freedom. It’s as basic a story as it could get. Maybe back then the story stirred something in the patriotic looking to see Nazi Germany go down but now all I see is a bland story and a lot of heavy German accents (except for the spy who I think is German but is one of those who didn’t like what the Nazi party did to their country).
• “Pancho Villa’s Yankee Captain”: This is the reprint, originally from Cat-Man Comics Vol. 3 #5 (15, whatever this added number means). I’m not sure it was worth it. A young man journeys from Iowa to visit Mexico, gets caught by Pancho Villa, joins his gang to save his neck (and convinces Villa rather easily) and that’s the best sense I can make out of this story until the kid has enough and goes back to Iowa after Villa is defeated. This was a mess, and in keeping with every other accent in this comic they really didn’t know how to write accents.
• “Injustice Of The Peace”: Mexico is really getting the bum rap this issue. We have the supposedly true story of a cowboy they can only call Jack (even though everybody involved is dead from time if not being murdered), who went to Mexico to mine for gold. The local Alcalde hated Americans and framed him to be arrested. Lucky for Jack an American came by with enough clout to protect himself who helped Jack bribe the Alacade, but Jack was forced to kill him anyway when he tried to double-cross our protagonist. Basically this comic is telling you to stay out of Mexico and buy war bonds instead.
• Spark Stevens “The Land Down Under” by Joe Kubert: Only two comics from the title character but this one is still here. Still, Joe Kubert should know what he’s doing, right? Or maybe this is a different Joe Kubert, or early in his comic making career. That would explain why this isn’t much of a story but it’s a better plot than I’ve come to expect. While in Australia our hero stand-ins come across a man who collects exoic animals and wants to add Spark and Chuck to their menu. Squaks works with a playful kangaroo to help rescue them. Maybe the rest of the comic just numbed me but the story just doesn’t work for me.

Once again the Holyoke period is proving to be a disappointment. The stories are just so weak but at least the art isn’t too bad. I hope this run picks up soon, or at least that when Fox gets the title back they show him how it should be done.