The REd Tornado - She Was IN The Jusice Society...kind of!

Happy Saturday and more from "A 'Slight' History of Golden Age Comic Book Super Heroes" as I present the last "Red Tornado" story in my library. This one's from "All American Comics #47!

Check out this bit of Sheldon Mayer fun and hang on tight for another treat at the end!

As I've stated before, as a young reader of the early 1970's Ma Hunkel's Red Tornado was only hinted at. A curious counterpart to DC's Earth One Red Tornado who was is an android and much different than Ma Hunkel in every way. There were a few pin-ups of the Justice Society and the always seemed to include Hunkel, but in the great sea of mish-mashed reprints in the backs of the comics available to me, NEVER a Hunkel reprint...including in reprints of stroies of the JSA! Where the heck WAS she???

Well, it turns out she DID make an appearance in the annals of the JSA, in fact in their very first adventure. "All Star Comics" #3 which would be the very first appearance of the very first super hero team ever, even telling the story of their first gathering, featured a cameo by the great Ma Hunkel.

H'yar is that cameo...

So see? If not for a little modesty on the lady's part, Ma Hunkel could very well have been that leader of the Justice Society.

Instead of that pompous Hawkman!

Talk to you soon

Adventure Comics - Final!

More of "A 'Slight' History of Golden Age Comic Book Super Heroes" and the end of my Adventure Comics look.

It wasn't really the end of Adventure Comics in the golden age. By 1945 or so, paper shortages and changes in comic reader's tastes away from super heroes caused a change at National (DC) Periodicals. Over at "More Fun Comics" the format was changing to a humor format, so the heroes that now inhabited those pages made a mass exodus over to Adventure and teh Adventure Heroes were laid to rest (or at least in Sandman and Starman's cases to their adventures with the Justice Society of America over in All Star Comics.


I'll reserve my look at these later additions to Adventure Comics, when I get to More Fun Comics since that's where they originated...I have to have SOME semblance of order, no matter how loose.

So for now, here are the heroes that made Adventure Comics great.


That's a mess of star power. Those old anthology books with this many heroes (and more fun features) cramming 64 pages of 4 color goodness each and every month for one thin dime must have been pretty awesome!

Meanwhile, back at "Ye Olde Drink Hole"...

Talk to you soon.

Adventure Comics - "Manhunter"!

Next up in my "A 'Slight' History of Golden Age Comic Books" look at the heroes of National (DC) Periodical's "Adventure Comics" is a lesser known character in the DC universe, but oddly enough, one that's been used more than you might think, "The Manhunter"!

The feature "Paul Kirk, Manhunter" began in Adventure #58 (1940), but he wasn't a costumed adventurer as we're spotlighting here, but rather an investigator who helped the police with tough cases. Running around in a suit and a tie stopping the bad-guys like so many in the early golden age.

In issue #72 however, he got a make-over courtesy of the great Joe Simon and Jack Kirby and a snazzy red and blue outfit with a very unusual full face mask, and became "The Manhunter"! Um...kind of... The character's name was now Rick Nelson and NOT Paul Kirk...until 2 issues later in #74 when they changed his name back, but kept the costume and new feats of heroic derring-do!


Simon and Kirby only stayed with the character until #80 and the character fell to other staffers. I don't have any of the Kirby stories from this era, but here's a couple of cool Kirby Adventure Comics covers I did latch on to!

And even one without the funky mask!

The feature only lasted until #92, when wartime paper shortages cut back the magazine from 64 pages to 52 and the character wasn't seen again until he was ret-conned by Kirby himself in the early 70's during the bronze Age of comics, and that's not what we're talking about here, now is it.

Here's the only golden age Manhunter story I have, done by an unknown artist and writer. Still good stuff though, and a rare glimpse into this little used character with a cool mask.

Enjoy!

Meanwhile in the back room at "Ye Olde Drink Hole"...

Talk to you soon.

Adventure Comics - "The Shining Knight"!

Next up in my "A 'Slight' History of Golden Age Comic Book Super Heroes" look at the heroes of National (DC) Peridocals "Adventure Comics, is "The Shining Knight".

The Shining Knight made his debut in the September 1941 issue #66 of Adventure and was created by Crieg Flessel. A knight in King Arthur's court of Camelot and member of the legendary Knights of the Round Table, Sir Justin was battling an ice ogre, when he fell into a crevass and was frozen solid, only to be preserved until scientists in 1941 found him and thawed him out. In one little nap, he went from battling dragons and ogres in merry old England, to fighting the dreaded Hun and evil Niponese scurge of World War II!


Oh, I forgot to mention. During his tenure at Camelot, he was rewarded for his bravery and steadfastness by Merlin the Magician and endowed with magic bullet-proof chain mail, an enchanted sword which could cut through any material and his horse Victory was given wings.

Hitler never had a chance.

Here's Sir Justin in a 1945 exploit from Adventure Comics #101. It has a little flash back to his origin, and shows some nice insight into Sir Justin's private life, working as a shlub in a museum to hide his gallant true self, and being taught the ways of the 20th century by a kindly old curator.

It really is a fun little story. Enjoy!

Meanwhile, in case you were concerned, Jeffy's Angels have lent the back-room of "Ye Olde Drink Hole out to a little Super-Hero-Elixir-aholic support group. Let's wish Roger Ramjet, Underdog, Hourman and Super Chicken all the best.

Talk to you soon.

Adventure Comics - "Starman"!

Continuing my "A 'Slight' History of Golden Age Comic Book Super Heroes" we meet the third super hero to take up residence in National Periodical's "Adventure Comics, Starman!

Created in 1941 for the 61st issue of Adventure by Gardner Fox and Jack Burnley, Starman was astronomer Ted Knight who found a way to harness the power of faraway stars and invented "The Gravity Rod" with which he could control the force of gravity, allowing him to fly as well as several other tricks.

One trick, seldom if ever seen in the comics, was one which should interest you ladies who struggle every day with the negative effects of gravity. Ted "Starman" Knight demonstrates here as he visits "Ye Olde Drink Hole".

Ah, Rusty was a happy gal that day.

Starman later learned to shoot energy beams from the rod and changed it's name to "The Cosmic Rod". He later, alongside Dr. Mid-Nite (more on him later) replaced Hourman and Green Lantern (again...more to come) in the Justice Society of America.

Very slick art and some genuine dynamic storytelling soon earned Starman the cover spot in Adventure Comics which he wrested away from Hourman who had of course taken it from Sandman. Quite the line-up of heroes each and every month, no matter WHO got the cover.

Here's Starman's story from Adventure Comics #67, which also features the debut appearance of one of the classic golden age villains, "The Mist".

Enjoy!

READER REBUTTAL:

I don't believe this has ever occured in the life of this blog, but a concerned citizen from Lompoc, California registered a complaint about the gag in yesterday's post featuring Hourman. In the interest of fairness and equal time, Jeffy lends an ear to this concerned citizens greivance.

He's right. "Jay Ward" cartoons are immeasurably more funny than "Total TV" cartoons.

Talk to you soon.

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.