“Yesterday’s” Comic> Speed Comics #1

I can accept a lot of strange superhero outfit choices, but somehow that helmet is on the line.

Speed Comics #1

Brookwood Publishing Company (October, 1939)

Coming in on a new comic, and it isn’t using someone else’s numbering to continue. The Grand Comic Database is where I got the publisher name from, but Comic Book Plus, where the link below goes to so you can read along, calls it Harvey Comics. According to Wikipedia (question the source), Harvey bought Speed Comics from Brookwood at some point. I can’t find out a lot about it, but the Hey Kids, Comics wiki states: “Brookwood Publications owned by J.A. Rosenfield and Frank Temerson. Named after a suburb of Temerson’s hometown of Birmingham, Alabama. Titles were eventually acquired by Alfred Harvey.” That’s all I know. I think this was their only comic. There’s apparently a Brookwood Global, which makes tutorial books and ebooks but I don’t know if they’re the same company, since Harvey only bought their comic(s), not the whole company.

[Read along with me here]

The Adventures Of Shock Gibson, The Human Dynamo by Maurice Scott

Barry Allen was hit by electrified chemicals to become the Flash, but Charles Gibson also gets hit by the lighting bolt, become an electric hero with superstrength. Changing his first name to Shock, because he apparently doesn’t know how secret identities work, he teams with his friend Doctor Blitzer to fight evil. His first adventure…is a doozy. An unnamed politician wants to take control of a construction site and delays the contractor’s progress until Shock uses his powers to finish building it on time. So the politician sends his gang after him, except Shock beats them, and makes the politician agree to spill the entire operation…and that’s not the end of the story! His goons work for a mad scientist who wants to rule the world with his death rays and fuzzy zombies…and he wants to force an actress to marry him. It’s like three stories at once and kind of insane in the best ways. What a way to start a comic, and it’s the longest story in the issue.

Crash, Cork, & The Baron: The Three Aces by Fred North

It’s 1939 and one of our heroic mercenaries is German, with the thickest accent the writer could get away with. Didn’t see that coming, but after the last story I’m not sure what’s coming in this book. The trio are sent to break up a group of Arab baddies, but the story is incomplete. I don’t know if the comic is missing pages or if this is serialized and they forgot to mention it. I’m not sure it’s that big a loss. Just an excuse to have fistfights.

Ted Parish: Man Of A Thousand Faces by Bob Stanley

Ted is an actor tired of “sissy” parts, and wants a real he-man role. He gets to do it live when he sees a woman being carried off for some kind of experiment to turn her into a statue for some reason or something…plots make little sense in this comic. I wonder if this is a regular feature or just a one-shot as he proclaims that he doesn’t want to do any more action stuff. Not sure where he got the clothes or how he got made up so fast, but it was fair.

Spike Marlin by Carl Lawson

It starts to be a story about a new whaling ship crewmember getting hassled by the current crew and turns into a fight to stop illegal whaling (the whales being hunted are too small–it was still legal to hunt whales back then). It’s a better twist than Shock Gibson gave us. A good story.

Smoke Carter

Not the most exciting names, are they? It’s not a superhero comic unless you count old Shock Gibson because he actually has powers. That’s not a deal breaker, plus we haven’t have a firefighter hero thus far in our readings. I guess Carter’s a fire inspector or something because he investigates arsonists doing a bit of overkill to get revenge on the man who sent them to prison. What’s with this comic and strange twists? I mean, it’s not Shyamalan level twists, but nothing is straightforward.

Landor: Maker Of Monsters!

Wouldn’t be different if he was making monsters to fight evil, like the Drak Pack? Instead, he’s making a monster (obviously) who takes a shine to the female member of a couple lost in a storm and seeking refuge at their castle. It feels like an outline for a monster horror movie of the period, but that’s not my genre. As a full story it comes up pretty short.

Texas Tyler by Harry Walters

These writers love their nicknames. Surprised our last story wasn’t “Creature Landor” or something. His pal goes by Baldy but he looks like he has hair on his head to me. It’s an Old West story so I wouldn’t expect a toupee. Our wandering cowboys end up helping a ranch pay its debts so a rival can’t take the ranch over. It’s your average Western, complete with a pretty gal (no room for romance), but at least there’s no crazy surprise in it. Average can still be interesting.

Biff Bannon Of The United States Marines by Remington Brant

Biff and Truck…really?…are sent to rescue stranded Americans in China, but some of the Chinese are working for spies. Or maybe they’re supposed to be Japanese? All these World War II racist stereotypes look the same to me. The art’s slightly less trying to be realistic but it’s not a silly story. And for once the twist is rather amusing in the “we intended it to be” way, even if it requires some odd ways of naming the “death machine”.

overall

Well, it’s a strange one in parts. Not terrible, but definitely strange. I may check out a few more issues.