His friend Gomez prefers trains.
Top Notch Comics #2
MLJ Magazines (January, 1940)
While checking to see what I thought about the previous issues prior to reading #3 I found out I didn’t read #2. The first issue was curious, with a lot of my issues blamed on introducing various characters. So this may be where I decide if I even bother with the third issue. Not much else to say, so let’s get to it.
The Wizard: The Man With The Super Brain by Will Harr & Ed Ashe, Jr.
The Sybernians (and I can’t tell if they’re supposed to be caucasian or yellow skinned) are attacking Alaska, at the time just something the US owned. Still, the Wizard has to keep the invaders busy until the military can arrive. Apparently he has mental powers, super strength, and I can’t figure out if he can fly or not. He has a bunch of different type of ray guns and chemicals that he carries…somewhere in his ye old stage magician outfit, but no actual magic. A lot of action and not much else to the story.
Dick Storm: “In The Foreign Legion”
There are spies for the Arabs in the French Foreign Legion, so travelling adventurer Dick Storm is asked to go undercover and smoke them out. As of this writing the scans at Comic Book Plus aren’t great for this section, but most of the story involves running off the Arabs and two guys jealous of the captain seeming to favor him…except (spoilers) they’re the spies. It’s like they forgot why Dick was there and just shoved them in at the end “oh yeah, these characters we pointed out to not like are the villains”. Kind of disappointing.
The Mystic
So our hero is just a regular magician, not a magic user. Neat. He exposes an attempt by fake spiritualists to swindle his unnamed girlfriend so they make the mistake of going to his home and getting revenge. The ending’s a bit quick so I wish they had another page or two, but not a bad story.
Stacey Knight, M.D. by L. Streeter
Before Quincy or Diagnosis: Murder we had this story. He’s a medical intern that is also a police consultant, which in fiction usually means they’ll solve the crime and fight the villains. I guess they didn’t have a crime lab yet. Stacey ends up undercover in a dope smuggling operation. and he does save the day. I’m not sure if an extra page would have helped. It’s fine.
Air Patrol by Irving Novick: “Sky Raiders Of The Western Front”
Ben Johnson, an American pilot in the REF, has a personal gripe with a particular U-Boat captain for reasons not explained, and is determined to sink his sub even before the ship he’s on is sunk by him. There’s some good plane vs sub fighting, though the air battle with a random German scout party took away time from the sub story, or maybe it had to pad it out. It’s okay.
Swift Of The Secret Service
Rex Swift disguises himself as the murdered member of a counterfeiting ring to expose the whole operation. It’s not a bad story, one of the better ones, which if you haven’t guessed aren’t really going beyond the mid range. The only issue is that the narration is always at the bottom even when it isn’t needed in the first place. It has to run through the story quickly and manages to get a satisfactory conclusion for the panel count, but that’s about it. So slightly above mid on this one.
Scott Rand In The Worlds Of Time
I can’t make out the creator’s name. It’s either Josh Smith or Singer. The Grand Comics Database treated it as a pen name and tried to figure out who it really was, so that was no help. Jack Binder gets a splash page credit, though. Scott and Dr. Meade have returned to 1940 with Thor and Princess Elda, but after Thor nearly gets his dumb self hit by a car they decide it’s too dangerous here and they’ll go to the far off year of 2000 AD. Prepare to be disappointed what that will look like, readers. Actually, considering the Martians are invading, maybe you’re better off. Thor and Scott don’t get lasers on their airplane, which is sad, while Meade and Elda help out in the lab. Will they stay in the future? Find out next time, I guess. Nice that the two non-fighters were given something to do, even if we don’t get to see it in action. Instead it’s Scott and Thor fighting Martians and it does a good job there.
The West Pointer
After getting some humiliation that turns out to be deserved from the upper classmen instead of just bullying or initiation rituals, someone approaches Keith Kornell who will pay him in exchange for letting him examine the new improved rifle they’re using. Instead he turns them in, and they turn out to be spies. I’m not sure if that’s more or less interesting that just being gangsters looking to get their hand on military grade weaponry, but it’s a very basic story at any rate.
Manhunters: California’s Kidnap-Murder Mystery by Jack Cole
We end on a true crime story. Like in Dragnet, names are changed to protect the innocent. A man kidnaps a girl and kills a motorcycle cop he thinks is after him for the kidnapping and not his speeding. Then it turns out the girl is not the one he wanted to kidnap (never explained) and lets her go. This leads to police work to track him down. An interesting bit of procedural crime drama storytelling.
overall
I was basically neutral for most of this book. If I had more time I’d probably continue reading this series but since I don’t this might be the last issue. We’ll see what happens next week when I get back into the rotation proper what I decide.
BW Media Spotlight 