Like I said, archers are a requirement in superhero universes.
Funny Pages volume 4#1
Centaur Publishing (January, 1940)
I don’t know if any of you actually do read along with these reviews (stats are not promising on that front) but it should be noted that this one is not in the best condition at Comic Book Plus as of this writing. These are old comics and the fact that someone saved enough of these to make sites like Comic Book Plus and the Digital Comic Museum is amazing. Imagine losing these comic history artifacts. So if anything is missing, like a page or a panel or a bit of text, the fact that it exists is still pretty darn cool. I haven’t read the comics where I know something was taken out for whatever reason, but I’m hoping there’s enough here to do a proper review. Just wanted to give you guys a heads up if you wanted to check these out yourselves.
Mantoka: Maker Of Indian Magic by Richard Bruce
Ah, so we’re trying a different form of magic hero instead of the occult one. Or is he coming later? Also interesting to see a 1940s comic calling out the “white man” for persecuting the Indians like they did in the 1800s. Then again, they assume that the Indians still live like its the 1800s. Also, he gains his father’s medicine man knowledge by being bitten by “the snake of knowledge” in the throat. Maybe ignorance is bliss after all. It means not getting a hickey from a fanged snake. Apparently that magic is pretty much transmutation as he takes on a miner who is forcing Native Americans (for those of you who prefer that term) to work in his mine by making them sign a contract after dogs trick them into a cave cage. For the comics I read this actually wasn’t that crazy. I can understand how Mankota’s magic works without it doing whatever the writer feels like at that moment. We’ll see in later issues if that stays true.
The Arrow by Paul Gustavson
Beating Green Arrow to the bow, it’s a guy in red who is just The Arrow. So don’t confuse him with the CW version of Oliver Queen. There is a Golden Age hero just called the Sword, so it’s not too unlikely. No trick arrows, just the usual pointy kind that goes into car engines and the shoulder of a man who killed the restaurateur he was trying to get protection money from. The outfit is as basic as you can get: red pajamas, a hood with a full face mask, and a quiver on his belt. Also not sure why the top of the page has pictures of two characters from the story with I guess an establishing shot. Seems unnecessary. A very basic story of an archer beating up mobsters.
The Circus And Sue by Claire S. Moe
I didn’t even know there were other issues on Comic Book Plus. The “Virtual Newsstand” only goes back to 1939. So this story is continuing from the last issue of volume 3. Apparently we’re doing that same top of the page nonsense The Arrow was. Sue spends all but the last panel out of the story since she was kidnapped. Instead we get the sob story of two other women during the 1914 war, how one married a man who died in battle while the sister ran off to America with her man, and a bunch of other soap opera nonsense I couldn’t care about. Seems out of place given the other stories thus far have been crimefighting in nature.
The Phantom Rider
The Rider disguises himself as the sheriff of a town where the crooks have taken over. Not much else to say. It’s a good story, but will the sheriff have the guts to continue what Rider did?
Mad Ming by Harold Delay
Another story named for the villain, so you know he’s at least going to get away. Our hero is G-Man Gene and his girl Jinny (no last names) while our baddie is of course part of the “Yellow menace” variety. Weren’t we getting along with China back then? I guess not, given that the accents are worse than the Old West ones in the Phantom Rider story. Our heroes are ferreting out an opium den hidden in a mountain somewhere in midwestern America. It’s mostly a story that goes from one beat to another and is rather boring. You know “this happens, then this happens” outside of Jinny being kidnapped for stealing the bad guys’ plans. I guess “illegal search & seizure” wasn’t an issue back then. Did not get into it.
Diana Deene in White Goddess by Allan Dorne & Lee Barton
It’s presented like a movie, I guess with Deene playing a woman named Joan and does that weird thing at the top of the pages again. Can we stop that? Again, not much happens. We learn a white girl was abducted in Africa by a medicine man. She escaped as an adult and found her former caretaker or something, though she knows little English. The medicine man tries to kill her for running off but gets the old man instead and is then killed by the girl’s gorilla companion. She leaves with another man to find her father and learns English rather fast. Also, they decide to get married despite knowing each other…what, a week? If that sounds boring, you know what it was like to read it. Next issue she’s playing a war nurse.
The Owl by Martin Filfhccio
So he works in a library in the city, operates out of the swamp, his dad designed a flying owl costume and a two-way radio, as part of their plan to pay back all criminals after a racketeer crippled his father. I’ve seen worse stories. The Owl costume looks odd, but more like a superhero than the Arrow has on. There is room for improvement, but not a terrible introduction if he didn’t show up in a previous issue.
overall
Not sure I’m dropping this just yet, but it’s not really off to a good start for me. Most of it is by the numbers and boring. Maybe I’ll give the next issue a try and maybe I won’t. We’ll see when we get to the next year’s offerings.
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