Electro was embarrassed to learn this is was actually a new wave spa.
Science Comics #1
Fox Feature Syndicate (February, 1940)
Back when Fox Feature was putting out good content, we get yet another new comic to go with Mystery Men, Wonderworld Comics, and the others they were putting out. Interestingly, this is also the first time I heard of a bit of science called the “Comicscope”, a cheap cardboard projector that showed comic pages on the wall. Sounds impressive until you read this article from Kirby Museum and the only thing it had going for it was that it was free after subscribing to their action library and that it was something new for 1940. I would love to see one of those builder channels try to build something better but just as cheap to make. (It’s pretty much cardboard and a light bulb, but some people are nostalgic for Easy Bake ovens and that was cooking with a lightbulb I hear. Never had one.)
The Eagle by Lester Raye
Bill Powers creates a formula that, when coating the wings of his costume, allows him to fly. Nobody said this was “Real Science Comics”. The Purple Suit Gang is causing trouble and the Eagle is going to stop them…after messing with a drunk driver first. Also, apparently nobody else wears purple suits so he spots them easily. This is the first time a crime comics cartoonist is our superhero, which makes me wonder how he came up with an “anti-graviton formula”. It’s not a bad costume design if you ignore the lack of a mask, or at least goggles. Must sting his eyes like crazy while flying. I also wonder why his attendant is Cockney…and why he has one in the first place except to have someone who doesn’t believe a man can fly like that and make a final panel joke. Otherwise it’s a pretty good start.
Electro by Harold Weber
Don’t mistake him for the Marvel villain. He’s a long way away…and wears a mask. Jim Andrews is an electrical scientist who uses his body as a safe conductor when the one being used in their experiment fails. Somehow this not only works it gives him superstrength and electricity powers. Oh, science is going to take it hard in this book, isn’t it? Now he can no longer live as a normal human because he’s a walking eletrical plant and half the lab knows he has superpowers anyway. So he puts on a silly costume, calls himself Electro, and goes up against agents from Gerlandia, our first not-Nazis of the issue. The science is a joke but the story itself isn’t too bad. It’s not the weirdest thing I’ve seen from this period.
Cosmic Carson by Michael Griffith
Here’s our obligatory Flash Gordon wanna-be. Carson and his partner Rowland go after space pirates, though it looks like Carson does all the work flying the ship, entering the enemy base, watching the villain acid bath himself rather than go to prison and somehow thinks he’s won…that’s the story. Carson couldn’t even save the freighter the pirates were after. We have our first weak story of the issue.
Perisphere Payne: Interplanetary Explorer by Arvnold Hardy
Well, that’s what the writer’s name looks like to me. I don’t think the scanner lost some pages, I think the comic did. Perisphere (yes, that’s actually his name) is hired to stop slavers attacking space cruise ships. He does, though someone is going to have to tell me how. The comic was doing better with the dodgy science superheroes than with the outer space heroes.
Marga, The Panther Woman by James T. Royal
Try to combine Flash Gordon wanna-be #3 with the jungle girl and you have…whatever the hell this is. A scientist really wants to make panther men badly. Why? Who cares, the authorities won’t let him so he kidnaps his nurse, turns her into a panther woman (which involves turning her hair black, giving her long nails, panther instincts, and superhuman strength and reflexes). She thinks she killed but he survived so he could kill himself and blow up the lab so his secrets could die with him. No kill like overkill, I guess. She find the future city of Succo (I laughed, too) and ends up helping space pilot Ted Grant (not to be confused with DC hero Wildcat, though at this point…) stop bad guys who want to conquer it. I can’t wait to see what madness the obligatory occult magician hero is going to have if this madness is going on.
Dr. Doom by Richard Crater
Let’s see: Electro, Ted Grant, and now Doctor Doom. This is going to look weird in a search engine result someday. This one is even evil. I think I’ll keep this out of the tags to limit confusion on this site. Not-Victor wants to turn people microb-sized because we need a dumber plan than the last mad scientist. Jan Swift and his friend Wanda land on the planet and become part of the experiment. This is just an excuse to have people fight microbes before regaining their regular size. I don’t really need a return of this villain.
Navy Jones by Frank Pensley
From space to microbe to underwater battle. Navy (really?) accidentally gets his sub with the big ray gun all submarines have hit with a mine. He’s rescued by fish people, giving us an out of context gem I have to share.
In context it just means the chamber with air, since they breathe water. That or he’s just messing with surface dweller. Navy, thanks to a special suit, offers his services to the king because apparently they have no way to get him back to the surface or something. We never see them try. Instead, thanks to a jealous prime minister, Navy has to be turned into an underwater breather when he’s injured, then Navy has to rescue the princess when the minister tries to frame Jones for it. Interestingly the king and his daughter look human while everyone else if a fish person. Funny how that worked out for him. You don’t think Princess Coral is a love interest, do you? This story is all concept. I might be curious to see what they do with it.
overall
Yeah, I might give this one another look. Not every story hits but enough do and I’m paying less than the price of a comicscope to read them.
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