He left his “kick me” sign at home.
Feature Comics #25
Comic Favorites Incorporated (October, 1939)
The Amazing Mystery Funnies for this month doesn’t have a full scan up at Comic Book +, just the Fantom Of The Fair story. Had to get through a few collected comic strip ones before finally getting here. As it is this issue starts with two gag strips collection and a gag page before we finally reach our first story.
Charlie Chan by Alfred Andriola
Charlie and Dirk Barrows are called in to help find out what is behind strange deaths in a gold mine. There are suspects and motives aplenty, but unfortunately we’ll have to wait for the next issue to see how it ends.
Captain Fortune by Vernon Henkel
After another gag strip collection we reach our next story. Tyrome Fortune, captain of the Revenge, is on a mission for the Dutch king to attack French ships, but his men want to go full pirate. While at Spanish port for repairs and provisions, they decided to betray their captain and attack the port. I don’t know if this story continues next issue, but I clearly don’t know a lot about the time period. It sounds like what Fortune does is pirating to me.
The Clock Strikes by Geo. E. Brenner
More collected gag strips before we reach our next adventure. The police commissioner, sure a gang has a spy in his office, wants to call the Clock in to help ferret him out because his men are too well known to work undercover. I wonder if this will eventually lead to the Clock working with the police like Batman or the Spirit? Short but decent story.
Rance Keane by Will Arthur
Rance’s friends seem to be dying ever since returning to his hometown. He suspects his banker friend didn’t commit suicide and looks for the killer and method. Maybe if they dropped the gags around it there would be more time to make this a proper mystery, but it’s mostly Rance and Chaps investigating and Rance figuring everything out rather easily.
The next two ongoing stories are too short. “Big Top” has Jeff called to do his next Western early and his girlfriend worried about him until something shows up in the newspaper. Then “Ned Bryant” I can’t tell if it’s supposed to be a gag about college kids or a running story. More gags and a text story follow. This is why I have trouble getting into Golden Age comics as much as I want, with all these anthologies. It’s a pain to review, but I do find good stories during them, so on we go.
Jane Arden by Monte Barrett & Russel E Ross
Must be another collected comic strip, but the more I duck the less it feels like a proper review. Could still have more space without the paper dolls and “Lena Pry” strip. A comedy strip about a hillbilly stereotype trying to marry up with some guy while a rival family wants them to marry one of them I really don’t care about. Again, this leads to little storytime, as we just see Jane continue her ruse as a thief. She has a chance at the boss, but her boss wants to bust “the man with the scar”, which is how everyone refers to him. Another part of the ruse is set up in Paris…and that’s all for this issue. Weak!
Reynolds Of The Mounted by Art Pinajian
Since the comic ends on more gag collections, this is our last story. Reynolds is called in when a young man knows his father was betrayed by his mine partner. They really don’t do a lot in this story, as the partner and his pal are tricked into giving themselves. Reynolds just needs to be there to make the arrest.
overall
If I wasn’t curious how some of these stories end this might be my last issue. Charlie Chan and The Clock are the only good stories here, while Jane is hampered only by the formatting. The rest I really don’t care about. So they have until Charlie and Jane get their men to convince me to read past that. Even then it’s more Charlie than Jane.
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