Sure this isn’t the summer issue?
Uncle Sam Quarterly #2 (Winter Edition)
Comic Magazines Inc (Winter, 1941)
Uncle Sam is one of those characters that even in post-comics media exist in an alternate continuity, and for good reason. Even with all the potential weirdness that exists in a less cynical and superserious DC universe I don’t really see him fitting in. The concepts he was created in, and at this point I don’t see signs of a Comic Magazines/Quality shared universe (maybe as we continue down this path), just doesn’t work within the DC mythology…and we have a dude that’s essentially “what if Billy Batson was Captain America and really, really old while having the same power source as Lady Liberty” in the form of General Glory. (Not to be confused with Major Glory from Dexter’s Laboratory, though I suspect they’d be best buds with each other and Sam.) It certainly doesn’t fit modern DC lore since today’s writers hate anything remotely silly outside of quirky dialog that makes you want to shoot someone.
“Raiders Of The Deep” by William Eisner
An inventor comes up with submersible battleships, but the government agent he talks to mocks it. So he sells it to the worst German accent using people ever as they’ll give him money and not mock him. Meanwhile, Buddy designs his own speedboat, his “bumble boat”, and Sam will need it to square off against the evil armada. The story is fine but the boats are not well designed on the rare occasion you can actually see it.
“War In Kid Land” by William Eisner
Remember what I was saying about silly stories? Well, here’s a prime example. Giants from an underground world chase miners off because their evil queen wants to take the resources from the underground city of kids brought there by the Pied Piper Of Hamlin and never aged. (So what happened to the rats?) You won’t see that in a modern comic. Buddy leads the kids while Sam learns the giants aren’t really evil, and nobody in Bad Land really wants to hurt anyone in Kid Land except the queen, who gets killed by her own release of not-Godzilla before Godzilla existed. We also see Sam fight a kaiju because shut up. Just enjoy the madness.
Then stay for “The Villains Revolt” where a comic book villain leads all the villains in a revolt. Someone needs to point Sasha Woods to that illustrated poem. I’m moving on, though.
“The Fiddler Of Death” by William Eisner
And the insanity continues. Long story short (just read the thing), a fiddler ends up with the hands of a killer. It drives him to kill and he ends up in charge of a monkey army he controls with a primitive tribe’s fiddle. Yes, I know what I wrote and you should see the stuff I didn’t. This stretches even my tolerance for silly.
Margo The Magician by Bill Bydem
A fallen stage magician reveals his magic hypnotism to save his children when “invaders” go after two Chinese soldiers trying to steal food meant for the “invader” soldiers to feed starving Chinese. The man dies but his daughter Margo picks up way too quickly that she can also use mass hypnosis and rescues her brother Jimmy and his new reporter pal Chic (must be a popular name for reporters back then), then helps steal the train. I’ve seen worse magic heroes in the Golden Age. There is potential here. Wonder if she would have gotten along with Zatanna and Constantine?
“The Return Of King Killer” by William Eisner
Just who I didn’t want to see. King Killer breaks out of prison, makes it look like an old mining town is ready to find new gold, and kills a bunch of people along the way. Sam and Buddy show up after he’s scammed everyone, and after that the story doesn’t seem to know what to do with itself while Buddy comes off like a self-parody. This was not a good story to end on.
overall
I am not impressed with anything except the guts to put this out. We won’t see this comic again until July, 1942 and I’m not even sure I’ll want to continue after that. I think we have a good idea about Uncle Sam’s early years.
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