This was also Dan’s favorite carnival ride as a kid.
The Blue Beetle #27
Holyoke Publishing (November, 1943)
Okay, figure this one out. Two Blue Beetle stories again, but according to Comic Book Plus’ listing (as I write this I haven’t read it yet) the second story is part one, with part two next issue. There were better ways to do this in your anthology comic. An extra length Blue Beetle story, have parts one and two bookend the comic…this just seems out of place for the layout and the Golden Age. I don’t have anything against stories continuing in the next issue ordinarily but in this case it seem an odd choice.
The Blue Beetle: “An Epidemic Of Truth”
So Joan Mason (and in the radio dramas the Commissioner’s daughter) has a new rival. Sally Kirby is apparently someone Dan is always willing to make time for. Good thing since her father’s missing, but that’s just to lead into the subject of the story. He’s fine. Doctor Marks has created a “truth gas” that will somehow end wars? And THIS is the thing a dude who fought zombies once is having trouble believing. You ever see that movie where Jim Carrey plays a man magically induced to not lie? Imagine a whole town like that. Not sure why Marks went crazy and blew himself up trying to get to Mars like he’s Dynamite Thor (remember him? Can he replace Ali Baba because at least he was fun to make fun of) when everyone else just gets so upset at everyone else telling the truth…which just makes people look terrible in most cases in this story. Easy solution with making it rain and meh story over all. And that’s the truth.
Crime Reporter: “Death In The Sky”
Wow, they didn’t even try to tell an interesting story with this one. A saboteur damages a test plane and messes with the pilot’s parachute so he dies trying to jump from the plane. The FBI agent identifies the Nazi agent so far, and outside of the photo we don’t even get to see him, even in his disguise. He ends up taking a plane he sabotaged and crashes. And you can help stop these guys with war bonds and stamps. There’s no impact to this story, no real drama. You can do better war propaganda than this, writer!
I don’t usually talk about the gag shorts but I’m a better artist than “Mel” if this “Little Willie” comic is any indication. He and his friends watch a parrot for their neighbor and it learns to be a potty mouth in two panels. “What do you think of him”, the story asks. I think he’s lame. Later he does “Rookie Rod” and that didn’t look much better, and a page of one panel gag strips about the military that just isn’t funny. He has better anatomy than me and that’s it. I feel better about what I do here on Sundays now. With that, back to the important comics.
Rod Ripley: Wizard Of Science by Jerry Maxwell
Of course the globetrotting scientist has a lovely assistant. Gotta bring that eye candy along. Rod and Zarita (heck of a name for a white girl) go to Egypt, “the land of the dead”. Way to insult a whole nation who is not our enemy in the war we’re fighting at the time. They’re after the cure for “a disease” that Rod and his friend Bascom believe is in Ramses tomb. The tomb seems to fight back, thanks to a curse, but even after their guide is killed our heroes press on and find the tomb. Then Isis the goddess shows up and says that if they leave she’ll give them the formula. Indiana Jones this isn’t. Maybe it’s just because it’s not my kind of story but I didn’t get into it. You may feel differently.
Turkey Joe by Lazarus
I wasn’t going to discuss this one seeing as it’s another lame gag story, done in rhyme, even though it’s more than one page. However, the story of a turkey who liked to dress up in fancy wear hoping to win an award turns rather dark when the Army wants him for Thanksgiving dinner. The animals talk, he has friends on the farm, he’s known by the mailman, and yet we get a rather gruesome (by kids comic standards) scene of a dead Joe being plucked, then cooked, then the solders after eating him, with a GRAVESTONE AND JOE’S GHOST GOING TO HEAVEN! Ye gods, man, it’s like the vegan movement started in the 1940s and they want you to feel sad about this! Seriously…what the deuce?
Igor Sikorsky And His Amazing Helicopter
Coming from Connecticut, Sikorsky is a name you hear often. His airplane factory is still headquartered in Stratford, Connecticut. The story goes over the early history of the helicopter, Sikorsky’s early attempts at one, the good and bad luck he had with airplanes and the war, before finally designing a working helicopter with any decent flight time. The comic also predicts that in about 10 years after the war that we’ll all have little helicopters instead of cars…and accidentally shows off why we’re lucky that didn’t happen. Thus far it’s been the only interesting story in this issue.
Durrand Draw: The Case Of The Fish Scale Man
Another new character, an expert in missing persons cases. Along with his…say it with me now…beautiful assistant because of course he has a beautiful assistant…very good, kids…he is searching for a missing woman whose kidnapper has a condition that causes scales to form on the human body. I looked it up. Ichthyosis is a real skin condition. I’m not sure why the bad guys forced a man to kidnap his own niece, then pay the ransom to cover up his condition but as far as this issue’s gone it is a rather curious story. And I joked about the assistant earlier, but Beth is actually a big help to Durrand. So a win for this story. Goodness knows this issue hasn’t had much of those.
Tamaa: Jungle Prince by Bob Kipler
Another Tarzan knockoff. They were all the rage to the point that they needed to create the jungle girl just to keep the concept fresh. I reviewed one of those once. In this story, Tamma makes a friend of a lost lion cub he names Augo. Later, the now adult lion is captured as part of a ritual to replace the dead tribal chief, but Tamma frees his friend. To prove that the one who captured him is worthy despite the lack of sacrifice he tells them that he freed Tamma because innocent blood shouldn’t be shed…though apparently the large captive snake used to test Tamma is fair game to squeeze to death because snakes are icky. Okay story but the message is a big garbled.
The Blue Beetle: “Double Trouble”
Well, apparently someone at Military Intelligence does know Dan is the Blue Beetle, and hires a German double to go to Germany to pretend to be the Blue Beetle. Turns out he’s a loyal Nazi, meaning the Nazis now have access to his secret identity, which doesn’t help when Spunky (because he has to be here in America) blurts it out to warn Blue Beetle he’s being attacked from behind during a sabotage attempt on trains in Denver. Realizing that Fritz (who tries to use the Blue Beetle disguise to steal gold from his unit) has betrayed them, a wounded Dan has to go to Germany to confront him…and they sent Spunky along with him! He doesn’t even wear the Beetle Junior costume and he’s no Bucky Barnes even before the retcon of Barnes being a trained assassin. Fritz is just after the gold but Fritz’s girlfriend almost causes trouble for both of them. The story ends with Blue Beetle and Spunky coming upon a captured Dick Wilson, so not much of a cliffhanger. Not much of a story, either. Dan’s superhero identity is exposed like its nothing, and yet he was bought by DC instead of Marvel, who nowadays doesn’t seem to care about secret identities. It’s not terrible but it’s not very interesting.
That’s kind of this comic in one sentence: it’s not terrible but it’s not very interesting. Even the good stories don’t have much to them and the bad stories aren’t awful but they aren’t that great either. Were all the decent writers at war at the time?
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