“It’s not my fault he finds you delicious!”
Blue Ribbon Comics #1
M.L.J. Magazines, Inc. (November, 1939)
Hey, a new comic anthology series. MLJ will someday pull a National/DC Comics and grab a name from their most popular comic. In their case it’s the Archie series, but that’s not for awhile yet and I’m pretty sure they still own the trademarks on the old Archie comics, which won’t be in public domain for some time yet.
Okay, let’s see what these guys opened their trip into comic books with. Like other magazine publishers of the time, they were probably seeing the presses not running after they were done with their existing monthly magazines and opted to make comics. The only name I recognize off of the cover is Little Nemo, which I thought had a publisher for those strips, but if so I didn’t review it. There’s an intro section stating that none of the comics are reprints of comic strips; they’re all original stories and done-in-one adventures. No serials…except for the serials we will be seeing, so that’s a lie. It boasts 64 pages but on Comic Book Plus, linked to below so as usual you can read along, it lists 68. That covers the cover, inside cover, back inside cover, and back outside cover, but will it count the advertisements? Let’s see.
Rang-A-Tang: The Wonder Dog by Norman Danberg
Quick search: Rin Tin Tin, the hero dog, started all the way back in the silent film days. I didn’t know it was that old. There have been other shows and movies starring a namesake German Shepard, but…wait, he had his own radio show? Point is I know what they’re knocking off and you’d think they’d come up with a better name. He’s not the only Rinty knockoff. Anyway, this is his backstory. Rang was a circus dog who escaped his cruel owner, explaining why he had some understanding of human speech and emotions. For whatever reason he saves police detective Hy Speed (I see odd naming choices aren’t reserved for the canines), and works with him to save a woman held as insurance by the would-be assassins’ boss. Rang is made a full police dog. Naming oddities aside the story works and it’s a good introduction to our heroes.
Dan Hastings
Space cop Dan Hastings and his…partner? Teammate? Dude that just happens to hang around because his kids are in danger later? Anyway, Dan and Dr. Carter are sent to find out what happened to missing uranium shipments, but those kids I mentioned, Bob and Gloria, are captured by the thieves, a villain name Europas and his thugs from planet Mexaday. The Mexidians plan to replace Earth in the sun’s orbit with their own planet, making them rulers of the universe…somehow. Why twice they don’t kill Dan when they have the chance only to fail to kill him later is logic I can’t follow, but the big problem with this comic is the caption boxes all being at the bottom of the panel even when it breaks the narrative flow and continues in the next panel. Somebody needed to learn how to do comics better. Buck Rogers this isn’t but it isn’t terrible for the time.
Buck Stacey: “A Bad Bargain”
From the future to the Old West. Stacey is a range detective, hired to find stolen cattle. While it appears the rustlers have vamoosed, Buck is convinced that the guy his boss thinks is helping her and her foreman are in cahoots on something…which they are. How does he know? What happens next? We won’t find out this issue. That’s the lie I mentioned in the intro. The art is kind of bland even for the time, looking more like a talking heads comic most of the time. (I should know since I make one.) Kind of a disappointment.
SPEED ROUND
Most of the pages that follow are two to three page short strips. The first involves a grandfather playing a trick on his family when they treat him like he’s too old to go hiking up a mountain. Then three bears with odd names turn the tables on a fox that tries to trap them. Jack Cole, later creator of Plastic Man, gives us a lady sleuth comedy story as she gets rather easily tricked by the crook she’s pursuing. After a page of one-panel gags, we get the tale of a guy (with a twin brother for no discernable reason) who takes on a bunch of guys in a competition, but his wife wallops him for coming home late. Ha. Ha. Frankly, “Foxy Grandpa” (as in “smart as a fox”–sorry, ladies) was the only one I found amusing Then we get back to what passes for longer stories in these anthologies.
Burk Of The Briny
Two guys digging radioactive quartz are betrayed by their old partner but Burk stops him. That’s it. That’s all that happens. It’s as boring as the summary sounds.
“Village Of Missing Men” by Cliff Thorndike
After another gag comic we get a tale of a diamond slavery operation in Africa being foiled by the Diamond Patrol. I’m not sure if this is racist or not. Only one of the black slaves talk and I don’t expect him to be fluent in English but given the times we should be glad this story is against slavery. The big issue is that it’s not very good. A text story follows and then we get our next comic.
Little Nemo
Okay, I know understanding what happens in these stories is already a challenge, but a doctor gives Nemo a big pill and suddenly he’s in Slumberland on a trip to the moon? Did the pill put him to sleep? Kill him? You’re guess is as good as mine what happened here.
Crime On The Run: “The Murderous ‘Red’ Keenan Gang by Jack Cole
Cole is back with a longer story and one of those “true crime” tales to end the book. Our gang slowly escalates their crimes from simply carjacking and mugging to murder, and get taken down. One dude dies, another gets his hand shot off…not exactly a ringing endorsement for being a criminal. It’s kind of by the book but supposedly these are real events with real names (Jack Webb knew better than that) and drawn based on actual pictures of the criminals.
overall
These old anthologies are always a crap shoot. The comic started okay and kind of meandered by the end. Honestly I only enjoyed one story but it’s new and I’m not paying for these so I might check out a few more issues before deciding whether or not to drop it.
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