“Hey, my mother-in-law is down there. Drops the bombs!”
Popular Comics #44
Dell Publishing Company (October, 1939)
I was kind of hoping to hit at least one Christmas comic by the end of the year, but that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. We’ll be doing our own version of Christmas 2 (if you get that reference, kudos) or Christmas In July. I can, however, stick it to our old “friend” Fredric Wertham. This comic has a contest that encourages you to read a regular book to answer questions to enter. It’s a cheap way to promote a novel, but if it works, why not? A bunch of kids read a book and some kid got $1,500…which they probably spent on comic books.
Gang Busters: “The McCoy Gang! Slot Machine Racket Murders”
Based on a radio show. Someone talks the gang into stealing his rivals’ slot machines. They keep the money and he gets a little further in the rigged slot machine racket. I’m not sure if this was a collection of newspaper strips or not, though it does have the title like it was. It held my attention but the writing was kind of small. I had to zoom in to read it. My eyes aren’t that bad. I just got new glasses a few months ago.
The Masked Pilot by Bob Jenney
The title character with no other name and his co-pilot, Tom, hears of a mysterious plane and goes to investigate. The only victory he gets here is surviving. The plane escapes, they manage to take out the planes sent to stop them, and while the baddies are dead, they’re successful. Kind of a lame story.
The Mystery Of Mister Wong part 2
This is apparently an adaptation of a Boris Karloff movie where he doesn’t play a monster, and one of two stories not contained to this issue. According to IMDB Karloff plays a Chinese inspector in China because it’s 1939. In part two, an art collector has stolen a diamond from some Chinese group and they’re ready to kill him to get it back. So the collector asks Wong to protect him. Also, he’s beating his wife according to one scene so it’s not like this guy is worth protecting. During a game of charades…wait, when did charades involve a script and someone firing a gun with blanks? Must be playing by different rules from what I know. Meanwhile he gets shot by the actual…hmm. At this point I’m not sure who the bad guys are. That’s where it ends. I find it interesting that there’s a movie and a later book adaptation in this comic. I guess they didn’t have enough of their own stories. However, if you ever wanted to see a yellow-skinned Boris Karloff with glasses and a mustache…why?
G-Men Vs The Living Masks
How many serials are in this comic? Okay, so last issue some witness got shot while in the hospital and in this issue he evades the police. Mr. Lane gets fingerprints, the killer has to lay low because the nurse saw him and his boss isn’t happy about that part, and Lane and his secretary…assistant…whatever she is continue the investigating. Not what you’d call “riveting”.
Tailspin Tommy by Hal Forrest
I think it’s a shorter list of comics NOT serialized outside of the gag strips. I couldn’t tell you which character is Tommy but some pilot decides to join the search for a missing passenger plane where a murder seems to have happened. This might of been interesting if it were all in the same issue.
Ben-Hur
Not a movie adaptation. Unless they adapted the Italian silent film from 1907, this is based on the 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale Of Christ by Lew Wallace. I do my research. At this point in the book Ben-Hur wins the chariot race, but another racer will never walk again and pays to have Ben-Hur killed. Instead he escapes, not knowing Pontius Pilate release his mother and sister. There’s a love triangle, and that’s about it. Frankly, you’re better off with the movie or the untruncated book. This is basically a summary of part of the novel, in illustrated form rather than comic form.
Tex Thorne by Zane Grey
Tex and his friends escaped from outlaws last issue (I guess) only to be found by them again and after being forced to shoot their horses rather than have them starve to death. If it wasn’t for the posse, our heroes would be dead. Another serialized story, but at least it ends here. Ends short, but ends.
The Hurricane Kids by A.S. Callender
The continuing story of two kids lost on an island that time forgot. They find a launch from their ship with lots of supplies and a dead crewman. They hope to fix the boat but as they try to bring the supplies to their high cave, a sabertooth tiger decides he wants the place for himself. This is the closest thing to interesting I’ve seen and I’m still not actually interested.
Bronc Peeler by Fred Harman
If I wasn’t in the middle of a review I would have stopped reading by now. Another serial, another Old West story. Bronc is caught in a cave-in after setting a trap for bad guys, and when it looks like the trial will end in lack of evidence in favor of the villains, there’s a commotion at the trial. We all know it’s going to be Bronc still alive and he found another exit, possibly bringing the dynamiter with him and I really don’t care if I’m wrong or not.
Shark Egan
Shark and Ace are fighting modern day pirates on their boat. A rescue ship is coming but our heroes are on a mast and the captain decides to cut the mast down…which is a bad idea on a sailing vessel but they want some pearl. Shark and Ace end up in the water and sharks come. This might have been a more interesting story on its own. As presented I can’t get into it.
Penguin Pete: “At The World’s Fair” by Win Smith
At least it’s self-contained, even though it’s a comedy comic. Still, three continuous pages instead of being one-page gags, so why not at this point? Pete and some ranger…boy scout dressed dude, go to the fair. Pete is allowed into the aquarium by himself to see the fish…which should be a bad idea to let a penguin do, but the real issue is he recognizes a shark who once cost him a meal and breaks the glass. Hilarity?
overall
I do not plan to read further issues unless I’m curious for forget. I couldn’t get into any of these stories because most of them started elsewhere and the one that didn’t wasn’t that exciting. I don’t think any of these comics were popular outside of the source material a few of them adapted.
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