“Yesterday’s” Comic> Jumbo Comics #12

He was embarrassed to find out it was the wrong boat and this was her idea of a good time.

Jumbo Comics #12

Real Adventures Publishing Company, Inc (February, 1940)

I apparently missed this one. I was neutral but hopeful in my review of the previous issue. Hopefully this one is worth the time. Doing these Golden Age reviews takes about as long as a regular article, which is why I avoid the gag pages and text stories to speed these along. I only have so much time in my day so I’m trying not to review every Golden Age comic, just the ones that interest me. It’s how stuff gets into “Yesterday’s” Comic otherwise, so why not these as well?

[Read along with me here]

Sheena, Queen Of The Jungle by W. Morgan Thomas

Bob gets to be the hero for a change. It’s like if Lois had to save Superman, which she actually has done a few times even in the Golden and Silver Ages. Sheena and the village are taken by slavers, but because the pasha wants to wed Sheena, a jealous rival helps her and Bob escape. Someone in the comments for the Comic Book Plus posting was disappointed that they didn’t rescue the villagers and just accepted they came home to an empty village and would have to start over. I have to agree. They escaped but the villains still got what they wanted for the most part.

The Hawk by Willis B. Rensie

Learning that a retired pirate captain’s old first mate is taking over the operation and going into slavery, the Hawk and some of his friends go to help the old captain defend his home and stop the bad guys. Long story short (I linked to it so you can read it), Hawk’s men have to come to the rescue…but it isn’t clear if Hawk is dead or not by the end. Also, random girl out of nowhere who doesn’t contribute anything, not even as a love interest. She’s just there to…I don’t know, have a French accent or something. A lot of good action, but that’s all you can say for it. I wonder if what happened to the Hawk will even be addressed next issue or if Rensie will just move on to the next story?

Wilton Of The West by Fred Sande

Wilton finds a map to a hidden Aztec city with a gold temple, but hombres want the gold for themselves. Apparently somebody doesn’t know Aztecs were the bad guys of the region. Otherwise the story is kind of unfocused near the end. Stuff happens, and while there’s a fair flow to it, it still feels like “this happens, then this happens, then this…”. It wasn’t that great a story.

Stuart Taylor in Weird Stories Of The Supernatural by Curt Davis

Stuart and Doctor Hayward use their time machine to visit medieval England. There they help Queen Lenore escape a failed alchemist who sells his soul to the devil Mephisto (keep telling us Peter and MJ didn’t make a deal with the devil) to turn things to gold. It suffers the same issue as the last story: “this happens, then this, then this…). Why didn’t Stuart and Hayward stop the kidnapping in the first place?

ZX-5: Spies In Action by Major Thorpe

A Mr Heil (subtle) is about to start a revolution in a small village…somewhere. He’s working for the daughter of Genghis Khan, but she actually wants to prevent the war, and works with ZX-5 to blow up the treasury. This actually has the reverse problem, speeding through the start of the story, but at least that means the rest of it works much better. So it’s a step back in the right direction.

Spencer Steel by Dennis Colebrook

A corrupt politician (yeah, I know) sends thugs to beat up voters. At least that’s what the newspaper calls them: voters. Not sure if they’re attacking polling places or why he’s having them be attacked. Spencer gets to throw a lot of punches, and his pal gets to break a dog’s back. Seems kind of cruel. The story needed more room to fill out the whys but there’s only time for action.

Inspector Dayton by Geo. Thatcher

A woman is murdered so thugs can steal her daughter’s inheritance. The panel layout on some pages is confusing and a few other parts are a bit rushed, but most of it was okay. Maybe with more pages they could have fixed some of the problems.

The Count Of Monte Cristo by Jack Cortez

Adapting the novel by Alexander Dumas, but I couldn’t tell you how well. In this section, the Count saves a woman when her carriage horse gets scared by a bee, but her husband sends a private investigator to look into him. I’m not sure if he’s the same guy who gets his hands on the Count’s mail to see what he’s investing in. Meanwhile, the Count’s servant (slave?) tells her backstory. It’s all very rushed. You might be better off just reading the novel instead.

overall

Yeah, I might continue reading this comic. There’s more good than bad here, but I wish they’d fix some of the rougher stories. The problem is layout more than anything else. Maybe they had too many comics in one periodical?