“There’s a door two feet to your left!”
Fantastic Comics #1
I’ll be the judge of that. 😀
Fox Publications, Inc (December, 1939)
We have a new title to catch from the beginning, and this time it’s actually starting with a #1. We have 23 issues, since the 24th issue isn’t in public domain. It was done by Image Comics as part of something I wasn’t aware they did. Might be interesting to look more into someday. There will be a few origins here, but since none of these characters made it past this series outside of the Image special, or at least not out of Fox Features Syndicate comics that I’m currently aware of (that might change in the comments), so we get to find out why over time. Blue Beetle was the only one to make it, and even he didn’t exactly come out the same way he went in.
Samson by Alex Boon
Who is Samson? How did he get his superhuman size and strength? Why is he here defeating the mad scientist Thorga, who has an army that rivals small nations somehow? Is his greatest fear the barber? We don’t have time for that. We’re too busy having Samson smash all his stuff. If that’s what you’re after, you win. It’s the Golden Age. You aren’t getting anything resembling depth for a few decades. Enjoy watching him smash stuff, though.
The Super Wizard Stardust by Fletcher Hanks
Okay, you lost me on page one. Stardust, who has broken mobs on other planets, is coming to Earth and despite not being a future tale everybody has heard of him. Right. Knowing he’s coming, the network of every crime you can get away with in a book whose primary target audience are kids gathers and tries to kill the President before he can arrive to stop him. Why kill the President? If you’re going to keep asking questions this whole book you’re going to run out. We don’t get answers. We get Stardust’s hype man for half the story and Stardust stopping all the affiliated evil guys in his first day on Earth.When being a Gary Stu thanks to every gadget the writer could pull from his rear end isn’t the silliest thing in this story, it’s either stupid or stupidly awesome. Why Mystery Science Theater 3000 didn’t use this comic instead of a romance comic in their comic I couldn’t tell you.
The Golden Knight by Grieg Chapian
Sir Richard Of Warwick, called the Golden Knight for his long blond hair I guess, is sent by a woman dressed in something out of Flash Gordon of the period (in other words somewhere above lingerie…not that I’m complaining, mind you) who is actually a vision in a fire to join the Crusades. I’m not a historian, especially around this period, but I don’t remember witches and “firebat” dragon things being there around that time. If you can get around that it isn’t a bad story.
Space Smith by Hank Christy
How creative a name for our future period space hero, who takes his girlfriend out on dangerous missions. Space and Dianna are captured by the Martian scientist Skomah, who has a huge brain and of course wants to marry the hot girl and take over Earth. The art and dialog are really a downgrade from the other stories, teleportation is done through belts or suits that “transmit” people via radio waves or something, and that’s not the only odd science in this tale. We were doing so good…and then we got to this one.
“Yank” Wilson: Super Spy Q4: “The USA Is Invaded” by…darn, no credit so I can’t make the obvious joke
The USA is invaded (at least you can’t call the title a lie) by the Eskmongolians from the Arctic Circle country of North Polera. I’m not sure if this is more or less creative than “Space Smith” the space hero. The Americans have a brilliant plan: to attack the Eskongolians. Only future hero Yank Wilson can defend future America from the future enemy. Good thing our silly future tech is better than their silly future tech, but it’s not quite as future as you usually see, somewhere between Space Smith and Tom Clancy. It’s better than Smith’s story…but that doesn’t make it a good story. It’s just a lot of sci-fi and counter sci-fi and the superspy is more of a general.
Captain Kidd: Explorer by Bill Bossert
This Captain Kidd is a pilot seeking adventure. His plane is brought down by a mad scientist who is uncovering the secret to eternal life. So Kidd kills him. This is not what you call well thought out.
Professor Fiend by Boris Plaster
It’s the only comedy comic besides “Buzzy” and this one is barely enough pages to qualify. Neither one are funny, by the way. Buzzy fails at being a Little Nemo knockoff and this one fails as a story of a dippy old scientist who goes to Mars when his bladeless knife idea is rejected. On Mars, the kids are superstrong and took over the adults, who just want him to judge a beauty contest and the losers all shoot him in a cannon back to Earth. They’re threatening us with another story, people. That’s the really scary thing here.
Flick Falcon In The Fourth Dimension by Orville Wells
Flick invents a machine that turns his ball inside out, so he immediately says good-bye to the attractive woman he’s with and jumps in. There’s a joke in there somewhere I’m not the guy to make. Especially when he says “I’ve never felt so queer” when he wakes up on Mars. No evil muscle kids here. It also turns all his organs backwards, turns his clock backwards, and introduces him to a giant and his alien masters with multiple arms who have gained all knowledge by going into the past and the future. Flick manages to return home but he must prepare for the alien invasion. If you think this summary made no sense then clearly you didn’t read the comic.
“Sub” Sanders At The Bottom Of The Sea
I hope nobody got paid to come up with these nicknames. The space hero? We’ll name him Space. The patriotic hero? Yank. The underwater hero of the year 10,000? Sub. Apparently I’ve seen him before because he’s in my tag list already, but darned if I remember him. Sub and his lieutenant, Dirk (the only name we get) are sent to find Atlantis, and get caught up in the plot by Naulus to take the throne from the beautiful(?) Queen Lantida. They escape but now she needs to convince the surface world to help her reclaim her country and her frog man slaves. I don’t know what to make from this final story. It’s not terrible but it’s not good, either.
overall
We’re off to a neutral start. The early stories are okay but the later stories are kind of lame. Even the early stories are not fully thought out and just want to get to the action. I’ll check out a few more issues because half of it was an enjoyable read and the other half wasn’t that bad. I’d like to see this improve, but we’ll see what happens.
BW Media Spotlight 
Ah, I see you’ve finally experienced the madness that is Fletcher Hanks. He is one of comics’ most mysterious figures, having suddenly appeared on the scene and disappeared just as suddenly after only a few years, leaving behind some of the most bizarre power fantasies
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Sorry to leave my previous comment unfinished, but WordPress decided to just lock the comment box and not let me continue typing. Basically what I was going to say was that Fletcher Hanks also did a few other characters, with his most famous besides Stardust being Phantoma, a skull-headed jungle goddess with a similar power level and sadistic creativity. The most normal comic Hanks ever made was a serial about a lumberjack murdering scores of gangsters working for a rival lumber mill, which really tells you all you need to know. There were several collections of Fletcher Hanks comics put out a few years ago, including a biography of what little we know about the artist/writer.
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What is it with all these Golden Age magical/occultic heroes being sadistically cruel? It’s an odd trend. Even the Spectre falls into that category, as has every magic users I’ve reviewed from the Golden Age thus far.
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