The perspective on this cover is so off.
Jumbo Comics #10
Real Adventures Publishing (October/November, 1939)
Since I need to fill space here, seeing as the credits are different for each comic and thus too long to list here, this isn’t the best scan in the world, but not the worse. Comic Book Plus has two covers (the one pictured is the second), there’s obvious signs of time on some pages, and apparently two pages of the “Peter Pupp” story is missing according to a commenter. Considering previous issues are using black & white microfiche I’d say we’re pretty lucky to have what we’ve got. That someone saved an issue long enough for it to be scanned onto the internet is amazing.
Sheena: Queen Of The Jungle by W. Morgan Thomas
Sheena fights a lion who has killed members of her village while they fought the Mad King. Bob has to reclaim his manhood to kill a cheetah who just shows up so they can give Sheena a new outfit, which will be her signature outfit. Otherwise, that part is unnecessary. We’re here to watch the hot blond kill a lion in a way that makes sense given her upbringing. It’s a good fight.
Frankly we didn’t miss anything with Peter Pupp unless you like moon giant Chinese laundry stereotypes.
Stuart Taylor in Weird Stories Of The Supernatural by Curt Davis.
Stuart gets his name in the title now. Yay? Somewhere in the issues we missed out on, Stuart and company ended up in the past or something. Not sure what past had tiger-headed servants of an evil queen, but it’s still less impossible than some Japanese takes on ancient civilizations. Earthquake out of nowhere just happens to kill the baddies. It’s about as lame as I expect from this one by now.
Hunchback Of Notre Dame
Apparently, somebody requested a different excerpt of a classic novel each issue. Wasn’t there already a graphic novel series adapting old novels? This one…well, it’s right there in the title. The scene we get is very rushed. And Jehan wins. He kills Esmeralda’s mother, kidnaps her, has Notre Dame attacked, and after Quasimoto pours molten lead on the attackers gets stabbed in the back and dies ringing his beloved bells. If this is supposed to encourage you to read the novel, it doesn’t. Fredrick Wertham would be freaked out if he actually read this.
Wilton Of The West: “The Crimson Rider Unmasked” by Fred Sande
Okay, so the Crimson Rider helps Wilton and Snorty (Old West names in Golden Age comics just don’t feel real), but Wilton still chases after him to find out who he is…except he turns out to be a she, which Sande makes the mistake of accidentally revealing. Never mind that he nearly gets her killed and costs the Old West another Lone Ranger style protector while being an ungrateful ass, there was nothing necessary about this. Shame to lose an interesting idea, of a young woman becoming a masked rider but letting people think she’s a man to hide her identity.
Spencer Steel: “The Perfect Crime” by Dennis Colebrook
Um…there’s a murder, and a suicide, and they aren’t connected, and the Irish stereotype detective argues with the Irish stereotype cop because reasons, and Steel solves the cases and takes the daughter of the murder victim to a hotel or something…someone has to explain to me what happened before I can explain it to you. This is one of those stories where stuff happens and maybe a story develops.
The Hawk by Willis Rensie
This is another “stuff happens” story but at least I can follow it. Why is the Hawk and his ward, Jeremy, here and under cover? Why did they buy a slave to free him, and what about the other slaves at the auction? How do he and the senorita fall for each other this quick? Explain things, story!
ZX-5: Spies In Action by Major Thorpe
ZX-5 stumbles upon a bunch of spies and immediately comes up with a multistep plan to ferret out the ringleader in mere moments. The rest is such a dry read of events. The conclusion would be satisfying if the story has any real life to it.
Inspector Dayton by Geo. Hatcher
Well, we aren’t ending on a high note. This tale of the typical “hero has to solve a case anyway while on vacation” story just goes too fast. There isn’t enough room to take things in, and I’m not completely sure of the cast list here. I’d like to see this reworked with more page space to tell a full story.
overall
So many of these stories have interesting plots but just rush things through or are too garbled in their storytelling to really be interesting. It seems to go downhill as the comic moves on, starting with a rather good Sheena story and thus bounces around the bad part. The Hawk is the only other story really worth reading and I still have unanswered questions. Basically these stories would have been better if they weren’t stuck in a Golden Age anthology comic.
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