“Yesterday’s” Comic> Amazing Man Comics #7

“You’re close enough to help me!” “Sorry, I’m on my coffee break.”

Amazing Man Comics #7

Comic Corporation Of America (November, 1939)

I do these comic reviews at latest the night before in the hopes of getting them up on time. If I can do them sooner, I try to. This week wouldn’t give me the chance and as I write this on a Thursday night it’s after not getting much sleep Wednesday night, having to get up early to do something, and being really tired all day long as a result. Forgive any typos spellcheck doesn’t catch and good luck discerning my insanity from the Golden Age, but that’s why I link to the comics to read. Even in my weird dreams I don’t know if I can come up with this level of crazy.

[Read along with me here]

The Amazing Man by A.L. Kirby & Bill Everett

Aman rescues an engineer trying to warn his boss about an attempt to blow up a dam. The Great Question tries to frame Aman for the attack after the man dies in the hospital, and Aman must clear his name and save the dam. It’s a good adventure, but how did this guy form an entire international gang of terrorists? It’s been a bit since the last one, but aren’t these Tibetan monks supposed to be in seclusion training this guy to save the world? And apparently they know Great Question isn’t happy with Aman doing just that and still aren’t suspicious? I don’t follow the backstory logically, though I am tired at the moment, but the story was good.

“Dinosaur Forest” (featuring Jay Douglas) by Robert Louis Golden

This story finds paleontologists Jay Douglas (whoever he is) and Ronald Wells (who doesn’t get top billing with Jay) trailing a dinosaur to a forest island. They see dinos and escape. This story is too short to enjoy. If there are more installments maybe they’ll make better use of the page space. Art was nice, though, but real paleontologists can argue the science. Most of us are just here to see dinosaurs.

“The ‘King’ Of The South Seas” by Harold Hughes

In a story that claims to be too fantastic to believe, you’d expect something more amazing than the dinosaurs of the previous story. No, this wordy part one is just about a ship sailing, some guy called “the king” who isn’t Elvis, and I don’t even know who the heroes and villains are here. I don’t think it’s just being tired making this hart to follow. At least the Borneo natives aren’t as racistly depicted as you’d expect from the period and I can write off their speech patterns as just learning English (though why they don’t speak to themselves and each other in their native language I couldn’t tell you), but as part one of a serial in a monthly comic this isn’t off to a good start.

The Iron Skull by Carl Burgos

Oh, so this story is set in 1960s Chicago after the Second World War hit American shores in the 1950s. Somebody is in for a surprise when history catches up to this comic. After learning the Skull’s origin we get to our adventure. It is the least crazy thing in this story and if I were wider awake I would still swear I’m dreaming. Catch this if you didn’t read it: The Skull and a cop chases after a criminal gland expert who can turn women into cannibalistic giants to rob banks for him. Yes, this is the plan he went with. Skull threatens to kill him (after escaping the giant women who want to eat them) if he doesn’t return them to normal and he does…then kills himself. Also, Skull can survive an explosion as well as shield someone else, but he can also be pierced with a hypodermic needle to be knocked unconscious. I…I don’t know what to say here.

Magician From Mars by John Giunta & Malcom Kildale

Following the origin and adventures of the rare lady hero, Jane 6EM5, the daughter of a Martian man and Earth woman. Yes, that’s apparently how they do last names on this Mars because shut up. Also, her joint heritage plus being exposed to cathode ray tubes gives her powers. Score one for old style TVs and interracial children? She gains magic wish powers, a high IQ, and superhuman strength…which ostracizes her from other kids because she’s too strong and smart to play with? This six year old girl wishes toys and ice cream into existence! Kids should be begging to be friends with her! Her parents die before she turns 16 and she has to fight her aunt to go to Earth. For someone who can break reality, she’s not evil. Nevermind, she steals gold from the rocket she sneaks onto to go to Earth when it is dealing with a meteor strike. No, fixing the rocket with her powers and donating most of the money to charity doesn’t make up for it. This is our hero? We’ll see if she shows up again.

Minimidget The Miniature Man by John F. Kolb

Minimidget and Ritty get their plane caught in a small tornado and have to make their way back to the farmhouse they live in with the old couple. It’s something we’re used to if you have seen enough stories about action-figure sized people, but still enjoyable. Somehow this is less weird than most of this comic, and it’s about a tiny couple.

Chuck Hardy: “The Land Beneath The Sea” by Frank Thomas

Chuck and Jerry (who I remind you is a woman…named Jerry) are taken before the undersea world council, but thanks to the language barrier (amazed they considered that) has to learn their language, which they do quickly. At their next meeting they show off their superhuman strength, whose explanation is dodgy science, like the opposite of Aquaman. A man named Oxan challenges Chuck to a competitive fight, and Chuck wins, so Oxan makes himself Chuck’s manservant. This is more explanation than action, but it’s okay. We’re promised a “strange adventure” next time.

Mighty Man by Martin Filchock

Big men, big women, small men, small women…there’s a lot of playing with size in this comic. Finding what he believes to be a dead forest ranger (I won’t go into why, since I linked to the comic), Mighty Man is very keen on finding the killer. He also meets the man’s family and goes undercover at a lumber operation to uncover the truth. This was a fairly decent mystery. Not a “can you solve it first” type since the clues aren’t very strong, but a good story overall.

The Shark by Lew Glanz

The Shark has a surprise waiting for him, the father of all undersea people, Father Neptune. Pop gives our hero a magic knife so he can be as strong on land as he is in the ocean. What happened to having a body designed for the ocean depths giving you strength on land? I guess between this and Chuck’s adventures nobody followed underwater biological science. I thought everyone studied that in high school? Anyway, it doesn’t matter because the duo have to do their bit underwater when a mad scientist first treats the loss of life as the only miss to his successful water vaporizing gun to wanting to KILL EVERYONE IN THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!! Stuff happens, but not much. Our heroes watch most of the story happen then do something to stop the villain in the last few pages.

overall thoughts

I really didn’t get enough sleep to prepare for this comic. This is all kind of weird, but not surprising for Golden Age comic science fiction. At least it’s a fun read.