Adventure Comics - "The Hour-Man"!

Time for another post in my on-going "A 'Slight' History of the Golden Age of Comic Book Super Heroes", every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday inside my head. Hit the A'S'HGACBSH label below to see what's come so far, or just start here and...whatever.

The next hero after The Sandman to color up the pages of National (DC) Comics "Adventure Comics" was a mild-mannered chemist by day, Ray "Tick-Tock" Tyler who invented "Miraclo" which when taken in handy pill form, gave Tyler the power of 10 men for sixty minutes. For 1/24th of a day, he would become "The Hour-man"!! I think Rusty would like him.

With the advent of every hero on the block having a kid sidekick, Hourman was no exception, though instead of just a lone boy in a copycat costume, Tyler was given a team of boys. A loyal bunch of junior fan-boys called "The Minutemen of America" who aided our man of the hour.

Created by Ken Fitch and Bernard Bailey (just like Sandman), Hour-man debuted in "Adventure Comics" #48 in 1940 and would soon become (again...like Sandman) one of the 8 charter members in The Justice Society of America, comics' fist ever superhero team.

Here he is in a sweet little solo adventure with giant-robot-flame-throwing-dinosaurs from Adventure Comics #61.

Ride along with the Minute Men of America and have some fun!

Talk to you soon.

Action Comics - Tex Thompson/Mr. America/Fat Man/Americommando!

The last of the costumed super heroes in Golden Age Action Comics for National, had a long and veried career. Appearing from the git go as one of a number of non-costumed adventure features in the comic as his alter ego "Tex Thompson", when the super hero boom hit, he suddenl dyed his blonde hair black, slapped on a patriotic red, white, and blue costume and became Mr. America!

Battling crime in costume with confidant and friend Bob Daley just wasn't enough to get readers interest though, and in 1941 a re-tooling of the feature came as Mr. America fashioned his cape into a flying carpet (I know, smacks of desperation...but hey...they were all flying by the seat of their pants back then, so why not by their capes) and to add more color to the feature, Bob Daley fashioned a costume for himselfand beame..."Fat Man"!

When America entered WWII, a re-tooling again took place as the dynamic duo of Mr. America and Fat Man became for a few issues, "The Americommandos" to add a little gung ho to the strip, and shortly after it took a more serious (at least attempted) tone and Fat Man was dropped, Mr. America actually (unlike other costumed heroes of the day) went behind enemy lines in Europe and became the singular "Americommando"!!!

Here's a story of the strip from mid-way of all that developement, issue #42 of Action Comics from 1941 and the story wherein Mr. America fashions his cape into a flying carpet, and Bob Daley puts a lamp shade on his head. Created by Ken Fitch and Bernard Bailey here's...

You can't blame them for trying kids, they were ALL doing it.

There as magic to these anthology comics. For one thin dime, you could get 64 (cout 'em!( 64 pages cram packed with as many colorfully costumed super hero fighting for the right as you could hope for. Each title had it's own roster. Each title had it's followers, you can bet. They didn't sell a million and a half issues a month by doing it wrong!

Superman, The Vigilante, Zatara the Magician, Mr. America/The Americommando and Fat Man! The heroes of the Golden Age of Action Comics!

Talk to you soon.