It’s the old invisible ball play.
Feature Comics #26
Comic Favorites, Inc (November, 1939)
Well, last issue was unimpressive, and if I wasn’t curious to see how Charlie Chan and Jane Arden’s stories ended I probably would be moving on. We’ll see Charlie Chan again in Comic Book Plus’ “virtual newsstand”, but is time running out for The Clock and other characters in this book? Let’s find out.
A bit short for the homepage, but not much to say here.
Jane Arden
I can’t read the creators names because they don’t try to fix the images at Comic Book Plus for better reading. As of this writing they’re working from a color fische rather than the usual comic scans. The older these comics are the harder it gets to scan and upload them. Anyway, when we last left our heroine and her pages cut in half for paper dolls and a comedy strip about hillbillies for some reason, she was trying to run a sting to catch some jewel thieves, the op taking her to Paris. She manages to trick the man with a scar, who invites her to join him…or else. Also, the scar is fake. Yeah, for those of you who think Clark Kent’s glasses are hard to believe…a fake scar by a “respectable businessman”. Sadly, the story ends here because half the page keeps getting wasted by unnecessary garbage.
Captain Fortune by Vernon Henkel
Last time, mutineers stole Fortune’s ship and attacked a sea town. Fortune is blamed but he and his first mate manage to get back to the ship and deals with the mutineers. How will this lead to clearing his name as captain of this ship when they seemed determined to punish him for it? Maybe we find out next time, maybe they ignore the whole thing. The ending would be satisfying if it didn’t end so short.
A bunch of gag strips later….
Ned Bryant by Bob Zuppke
It’s just a football game. Someone gets the idea to invite the players’ families on “our” side, but Ned is an orphan. His friend convinces his dad to cheer for him, but Ned gets knocked out…and yet the team still won. This one suffers from my lack of interest and how light the scans are when trying to read this. It just wasn’t for me.
The Clock Strikes by Geo. E. Brenner
For some reason these pages actually got darkened up, possibly a bit too far given the black lines are too dark. At least I can read this one without straining as much. They’re going for the “hero gets framed” angle, but the Clock’s solution to not only hypnotise the villain to confess after successfully setting a trap but to let the cops know he’s hypnotised into talking. I’m not sure that will hold up in court.
After watching a bunch of girls moon over actors in a movie they nearly screwed up and then mistook an actual robbery for another shoot, we get o our next adventure. Also, we’re back to the hard to read scans.
Rance Keane by Will Arthur
Rance comes across a man being forced to sell his ranch and rescues him, then works to expose the crook and his corrupt sheriff. This was a decent story, though why Pee-Wee (the rancher) decides to travel with Rance I couldn’t tell you.
More gag strips and then the next adventure. I would review it if the stories lasted more than two pages or were actually funny. Neither of those happen.
Reynolds Of The Mounted by Art Pinajian
Okay, this one is totally going to be personal perspective as to how well this aged. Reynolds is told he isn’t allowed in the Red Hawk Indian village, but another white man is. He learns the man is selling them guns so Reynolds has to prevent them from trying to overthrow the “redcoats”. As a story it makes good use of its short page count, but anything beyond that will be up to you to decide if it bothers you or not. For me it’s a product of its time set during a time long past. I think. I’m not really sure when this comic is set in.
More gags and a two-page serial about a cowboy forced to be a boxer to pay off a ranch, only for the ranch handler to send the money to the wrong person, I don’t care about. Also a text story, and there’s a lot of reading to review already just in the comics. It’s why I pick and choose when it comes to these anthologies. So let’s jump to the next long story.
Charlie Chan by Alfred Andriola
Our final story concludes Chan’s adventure, as another man dies in the mine. We get new suspects, but Chan manages to uncover a conspiracy against the mine owner. I won’t say any more because I linked to the comic and if you read the previous issue and this issue I don’t want to ruin the mystery of the only enjoyable story in this book.
overall
That’s why I’m stopping here. There will be more Charlie Chan stories elsewhere. I could have enjoyed the Jane Arden story if the presentation wasn’t so terrible, and the other are meh to I really don’t care. I may not be spending money on these public domain stories, but I am spending time, and I can better use that elsewhere.
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