Fun fact: My grandfather ended up drafted into two different military branches due to a clerical error. Not at the same time, mind you.
Feature Comics #27
Comic Favorites, Inc (December, 1939)
I wasn’t planning to read this series again. Golden Age Friday is where I’ve been reviewing the anthologies of the period, and this one was lacking so I stopped. This might not be costing me money but it does cost time, which is kind of precious to me at the moment. However, this issue is the first every appearance of Dollman, before the company changed it’s name to Quality Comics. Actually, I’m not sure if Comic Magazines, Inc was part of the same company or if someone got acquired. I’m not a Golden Age historian. Anyway, the comic is important, so while I’m not going to continue with this series regularly, it’s an important chapter for pre-DC Tuesday.
One more thing to note is that Comic Book Plus’s scan of the comic is incomplete. I tried the Digital Comic Museum but they’re in the same boat. Only 27 pages and the cover survived, this is actually fine with me given my opinion of the comic. Luckily, the one we’re here to see is not only intact but at the start of the comic as a result, meaning no Mickey Finn starting us off. I just hope the full origin story is here.
The Dollman by William Erwin Maxwell
….which according to Comic Book Plus is a pen name used by Will Eisner. Darrel Dane consults with his future father-in-law about putting his new formula into a liquid form. I thought that’s what a formula was, unless he’s using the written definition or something. While it drives him mad for a moment he recovers in time to take down his fiance’s blackmailer and devote himself to fighting crime. We never learn what Martha was being blackmailed with or how Darrel plans to grow back to normal size, which we know from later stories he can do. Otherwise, it’s not a bad introduction. I’m just a little too used to all the heroes starting to use formulas to get superpowers at this point in the Golden Age.
We’re missing The Bungle Family, Ned Brant, Dixie Duggan with “Good Deed” Dotty, and Slim and Tubby. I think I would have bypassed some of these anyway as I tend to ignore the attempts at comedy in the Golden Age comics.
Reynold Of The Mounted by Art Pinajian
While searching for a missing engineer, Reynold is captured by convicts using the engineer to help extract gold from an ore, because being escapees they can’t legally claim the mine. Reynolds and the engineer work together to defeat the villains. I’m not sure why they opted to drive Reynold mad with radium ore instead of just shooting him like the first guy our hero finds, who of course lasted just long enough for some short exposition, but otherwise it’s a decent story for the space allowed.
The Clock Strikes by Geo E. Brenner
Just one gag page missing between stories. Also missing? The END OF THE STORY!!!!! A gang mysteriously disappears every time they drive around a corner. The police are baffled and even the Clock is confused until he figures the connection is the truck that’s there every time. Yeah, by now this such an often used method of bad guys in fiction (and even a few heroes) I’m surprised real life crooks haven’t tried it by now, so we can at least guess how it ends.
We’re also missing Big Top and Jane Arden before we get to the next comic.
Captain Fortune In The Days Of The Spanish Main by Vernon Hunkel
Despite being branded a pirate (not sure when that happened), Fortune and his men are pirate hunters, so they go hunt some pirates when they capture a ship and kill all the crew and passengers except for the obligatory pretty girl to rescue. You know, it’s the first time I’ve seen a fencing sword actually go through a person’s body? Otherwise, pretty basic story.
Okay, we’re missing a few comedy strips and part two of something called “Cove Of The Beasts”.
Rance Keane by Will Arthur
Rance is sent money by a friend who wants to buy a gold mine in the area. Thinking he’s helping Rance, Pee Wee is tricked by a con artist into buying a mine already out of gold, so they come up with a plan to trick the con man. It’s not a bad story, really.
Charlie Chan by Alfred Andriola
We miss another comedy page to reach our final story of the issue…we have a scan for. Some sports story finishes the comic. Too bad it doesn’t end on a good story. It’s supposed to be about Chan and Kirk investigating the murder of an actress, making a movie that Kirk’s new script girl girlfriend (with Chan playing matchmaker) was on. She’s not really in the story, and we have suspects. However, none of the clues are there for the audience to solve along, when there are even clues at all. I was rather disappointed in this one.
overall
We’re missing pretty much half the book, but it’s not like this half was any more impressive than the other books I reviewed before I stopped. The surviving stories aren’t terrible, but they’re mostly average to not worth the trouble. As for the reason we’re here: Dollman’s first story is trying to fit a story that needed a few extra pages. At least now we know the origin, basic as it is for the period. Unless there’s another origin I’m not aware of, full issue or not I won’t be back here.
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