“That’s not a manbun, you fraud!”
Exciting Comics #1
Better Publications, Inc (April, 1940)
Another new title enters the game, not to be confused by a similar titled comic by Antarctic Press I just learned about. Yep, it’s an anthology. What do we expect. I write this before reading it, but going over the story list I don’t recognize any of the character names. Outside of Klaus Nordling I don’t recognize any name here, and I only know that one from other Golden Age comics I’ve reviewed. So we’ll just have to see how “exciting” these comics are if they didn’t release any famous heroes but lasted 69 issues.
By the way, those of you who actually read this feature here at the Spotlight will want to check out Sunday’s update, usually mixed into the Jake & Leon posting. “Yesterday’s” Comic isn’t going away but there’s going to have to be a change in how I do this. Archival readers won’t care so check that out, or the Programming Note on Sunday if I don’t get the comic done. For now, let’s meet the new kids on the block and see why they didn’t have the right stuff. (Look, someone was going to make that reference.)
The Mask Strikes by Raymond Thayer
The quality of the fische scans make it hard to read the dialog but I got enough to follow along. DA Tony Colby is trying to bring mobster Olly Snate (what a name) to justice but his men hiding in the courtroom manage to pour acid on a recording that would have convicted him. Pretty sure there’s still a crime involved that happened IN FRONT OF AN ENTIRE COURTROOM OF PEOPLE, but Tony’s eyes are also splashed with the acid. A woman, Carol Smith, knows a surgeon and she gets his eyes fixed out of revenge against Snate. Tony decides to pretend to still be blind so he can fight crime as The Mask, wearing an owl mask and aided by his attendant, Silk Davis, who warned him of a previous attack. During the case of stopping Snate from robbing banks they pick up another ally, who doesn’t seem to have a name. Together this quartet plans to bring Snate to justice once and for all.
A lot happens but since it does so in so few pages the origin part of the story is seriously rushed and poorly presented as a result. So we have a guy whose origin is part Daredevil (not the Marvel version and we aren’t up to the Golden Age namesake yet) and part Two-Face with a bit of Doctor Midnite in the Mask’s ability to see in the dark and an owl calling card. There’s potential here if they can better fit the story into the allotted panels in later issues.
Major Mars
A story ripped off adapting a Captain Future tale. Set in 3964, an Earth agent returns from Jupiter turning into a beast, the result of a plague tied to a “Space Emperor”. The president of Earth calls for Major Mars and his robot, Grag, to save the day. Once again they packed too much into the small space, the idea that turning a robot invisible will keep it from melting in a volcano is the dumbest bit of science, and there’s no breathing room to enjoy any of it. Add putting the Jupiter President’s daughter in a typical skimpy outfit of the period just to have a hot girl there (if she at least mattered to the story I’d only like it because I’m straight) and this story doesn’t live up to it’s potential.
Sargant Bill King In No Man’s Land
What can you say? Bill basically beats up the Nazis by himself after taking over his unit from the dead lieutenant, ends up spying on the enemy after getting kidnapped, saves another unit from driving into a minefield, gets shot down but survives, and still manages to break up a Nazi operation. I’m surprise the story didn’t end with him going right to Germany and punching Hitler before Captain America or America Chavez could get to him. I supposed a Gary Stu versus Nazis story could be cathartic, especially in a period where they actually mattered instead of being reduced to an internet insult in the culture war by people whose history teacher failed them, but otherwise this was not very…exciting. So far the title is lying to us.
Jim Hatfield: Texas Ranger
Jim is sent to stop a war between two railroads looking to occupy the same land first. After fighting cattle rustlers. Then dealing with a fake pastor who is part of a plot with a local senator to take those lands to exchange for lands with precious metals they’re already secretly smelting with Mexican slave labor. Oh, and Jim has to find the guy who killed a friend of his. Seriously, guys, can none of you stop shoving everything into this? Did they not tell you how many pages you had until the last few minutes? At least the others were all one story. There’s like three or four different stories crammed in here!
“Gunner” Thompson: “Payoff In Lead”
Did they still have hired guns in the 1940s? That’s what Gunner supposedly is when he tasked by the mayor of Midtown City (nice) to expose a crooked DA running two gangs as “One”. Except that’s not who the crooked guy is. I can’t even blame this one on the page count. The story is just “Gunner” shooting mobsters, getting the mobsters to fight each other in a mob war (aren’t civilians in the crossfire what led to the Punisher?), and getting captured but barely escaping. No surprise this is supposed to be his only appearance.
Hy Hardy: Ace Newsreel Cameraman by Ken Browne
Well finally, someone who knows how to work in the page limit! Hy gets pictures of a sinking ship but when he goes in to help the camera is stolen. Hy and a new lady friend he makes, Ruth Wildon, track the camera down and recovers the film. Simple, doesn’t feel rushed, and is just a good story. I can’t wait to see more of…only appearance? Well…crud!
Dan Williams: Private Investigator by Ray Lowry
A woman hires Dan to find out what happened to her father when he disappeared heading to his mine in Arizona. However, someone wants to stop him. What follows is a series of attempts for Dan and his lady friend to escape being dead and not much else. At least it’s a story that feels like it fits in the page count outside of why Dan suspected the bad guy. It’s better than most of this book.
overall
Was it exciting? Not a chance. Only two stories were any good while the rest crammed too much into one tale or somehow did the opposite and it’s just shooting bad guys. This has maybe two more issues to convince me to stay on unless the next issue shows they learned nothing or got worse.
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