“Yesterday’s” Comic> Silver Streak Comics #1

So we have what looks a Native American (but I don’t think is) beating up Chinese while a giant monster is in the distance. 1939, people.

Silver Streak Comics #1

Your Guide Publications (December, 1939)

Here we are with a new publisher diving into the world of comics books. It will survive 23 issues on the newsstand, or at least that’s what Comic Book Plus has, with a few rescans of earlier issues to mess with their numbers. Will this be any good? It starts off with the history of the Tom-Tom drum (not to be confused with the Tom Tom Club) before we get into our stories. So let’s get into our stories. I’m hoping this isn’t just a collection of newspaper strips.

[Read along with me here]

The Claw

We aren’t going to get a lot of name credits in this comic I guess. Our first story is named for the supernatural being who runs a sea pirate operation. Why would a supernatural being be into pirating? I don’t know, but chemist-adventurer (now we’re just making up action scientists in the Golden Age) Jerry Morris and “America’s only female ambassador” Eloise Pearsall (because we need the love interest who gets kidnapped because the villain desires the pretty white girl) are going to find out. He does hypnotize the ambassador to be his bride, which raises more questions, but I’m too busy laughing at Jerry’s anti mind control formula made from radium. Can’t control your mind if your body is dead from radiation poisoning, I guess. Also, it makes him bulletproof while giving him cancer. It also makes them fireproof, but not their clothes, so they have to fight the bad guys buck naked. Oh, this is going to be an interesting one to keep an eye on. If he’s giving this stuff out like this, the ambassador and a ship’s crew are half-way to being Captain America.

Mister Midnight: “As Time Stops”

Neil Caruthers is Mister Midnight, scourge of the criminal underworld, as he matches wits with a “will-o-wisp” who is even stealing from the crooks when they go to rob someone. Mister Midnight doesn’t so much freeze time as tell the clock tower to stop counting at midnite, and then someone has to reset the clock when he’s done I imagine. How does the criminal steal things as a ball of light? In the lamest way possible. I’m not very impressed.

Red Reeves: Boy Magician

Red finds a marble in the attic that contains a genie who gives him a magic wand. Why is it an attic in (presumably) New York? I don’t know. He visits his grandparents on the farm and later brings his mother along. Hijinks ensue and our three adults are surprisingly not very phased that the boy is now a wizard with a Muslim genie. Well, we’ve seen worse boy magicians in the Golden Age and this was an introduction. We’ll have to see what they do with him.

Captain Fearless by Malcom Kildale

Oh, an actual creator credit. And here’s where I have to take a Chinese pirate named “Ting Ling” from “Foo Ping” seriously as he speaks in the third person. He leads a mutiny aboard Fearless’s ship, with weapons bound for China because we got along back then but he thinks the Japanese will make him ruler of a province. Good think Lt. Dugan of the Marines flies by to help. (In a plane, though in this comic I wouldn’t be surprised. Probably what the uranium formula does.) Our heroes get knocked out a lot, and this story continues next issue. So more Ting Ling in our future. Not sure how to respond to that.

Calling The Duke: Ace Inspector by Larry Antonette

The police inspector is called in to examine mysterious murders at an airplane testing facility. I won’t ruin the solution for you, they do show early how he did it, a rigged parachute. It’s an okay story but they need to learn better panel placement so they don’t need arrows to tell you where to go next. That’s just bad page flow.

The Wasp by Jay Fletcher: “The ‘Spy Ring’ Case”

Don’t mistake this one for a shrinking heiress with a hots for an ant. Reporter Burton Slade is The Wasp because his cape looks like a set of wings and he buzzes to scare his enemies. There have been worse superhero ideas…in this comic. Someone is after plans for a new plane, even tricking Burton’s boss into helping with whatever revenge scheme wasn’t fleshed out in the story. Lucky for good people everywhere the Wasp is here. I kid. It’s not a bad story but not exactly outstanding. As mystery men go, The Wasp is not the lamest idea…yet, anyway.

Barry Lane: The Adventure-Hunter by S.B. Dahlman: “Mesa Justice”

Surprising number of these traveling adventure seekers in this comic. Barry is called by his heavy accented sheriff friend to stop a gang of also heavily accented rustlers called the Hooded Ravens. Bary goes undercover to expose the operation. It’s one of those stories that wants to be the Old West but still set in present day. Pick a lane, guys. Not bad otherwise.

Spiritman

Spirit Malcolm uses his “Futurescope” to spy on people and “Mistodine rays” to “spirit” himself to where they are to stop their criminal activities, helped by his pal, Ray Williams. He also has a “Ravodine” gun that fires lasers or something. With all of that at his disposal, Spiritman secretly fights crime while invisible, only with less exposure than the Invisible Hood. It’s an interesting concept. I’m curious where it goes.

overall

There’s an ad for Marvel Mystery Comics with the original Human Torch and Sub-Mariner. None of these guys made it to the Marvel universe, though that might have been interesting. I’ll check out a bit more of this series.