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.

Action Comics - The Vigilante!

A great way to get a handle on the history of Golden Age Comic Book Super Heroes is to somehow wrap your head around the literally hundreds of said Super Heroes sprang out of that flash of heroic deeds from 1938-1946. It's dang near impossible, but I'm going to do my best to touch on 'em ALL.

Comics of those formative years were very different from comics of today. Today a new character comes along and immediately gets his or her own title, but in those first days of no one knowing for sure what this was all about, publishers put outanthology books. 64 pulse-pounding pages of 4 color action and adventure for one thin dime! And in each of these 64 page tombs were close to a dozen characters, all searching for an audience.

One such book is still being published to this day, Nationals own "Action Comics" whose issue #1 touted the first appearance of Superman and brought forth this well-spring of super heroes. But while super heroes would eventually lord over nearly all comic book content, at first not all were costumed folk. Action itself carried humor and adventure by this wide variety of characters...


But the sheer garishness of the medium (I use garish in it's most positive sense here) begs for colorful costumes, and Action wouldn't be left behind. I've already touched on Superman and Zatara, and yes, "The Black Pirate" DID make his debut in Action, but he didn't don a costume till he switched titles. The third costumed vigilante to grace it's pages was, just that..."The Vigilante"!

It was a big time for Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, the "Singin' Cowboy" ruled at the Saturday afternoon matinee and on the radio airwaves...so why not in comics too? Indeed.

Created by Mort Weisinger and Mort Meskin, here's Vigilante's origin from his very first appearance in Action Comics #42 from 1941...dig in, kiddoes!

Talk to you soon.

Beginnings of the Sidekicks - A'S'HGACB:SH*

*This is part of a semi-regular series in this blog "A 'Slight' History of Golden Age Comic Books: Super Heroes". To catch up on the other posts, click the label in the right hand column or at the bottom of this post.

I honestly don't intend to post every story from the Golden Age of Comic Book Super Heroes, but in the year of 1938 we are still at a very disparate time from our own, and the contrast of these first stories and the world we know today is as broad as it could be. And therefor, very exciting and interesting.


It's July of 1938 now, and in the 2 years since the debut of The Clock in 1936, there have been only 2 more super heroes introduced into comic books. Superman and Zatara both premiered in Action Comics #1 in June and issue #2 brings us their sophomore efforts.

Zatara, while for all intents and purposes was a straight rip-off of Mandrake the Magician, he DID offer a more fantastical approach. Zatara could actually perform magic as opposed to Mandrakes use of hypnotic illusions. He kind of outmatched his foes though, as they are all common every day thugs with tricks up their sleeves, at least as far as 1938 is concerned.

With this broadness of atmosphere also comes more broadness of character. Mandrakes right arm man Lothar, may have been a big strong olive skinned ethnic type, but he was also depicted as Mandrakes friend, not just a servant. He was depicted as a man of royal blood, with regal breeding, manners and education. Zatara's Tong on the other hand, was just a big mook.

As you read this story, please take the characterization of Tong as it was intended. Tong is powerful. Tong is loyal. Tong is moral and just. Tong is also a pretty 2 dimensional stereotype. It was a different time, the world was a bigger place and America was more innocent in 1938. We should take it for what it was and know it for what it is.

The story itself is pretty well told and the characters more fleshed out. Zatara has his trademark moustache now. And Tong? Well. I like him. Stereotyped in speech and appearance as he may have been, he was also one of the good guys. He fought the good fight for all the right reasons. Not such a bad thing after all.

See y'all tomorrow!

Superman's Second - A'S'HGACB:SH*

*This is part of a semi-regular series in this blog "A 'Slight' History of Golden Age Comic Books: Super Heroes". To catch up on the other posts, click the label in the right hand column or at the bottom of this post.

In July of 1938, Superman and Zatara's second appearance's came and went unheralded. While Superman had been featured on the cover of Action Comics #1, this was after all an anthology comic book with lots of virgin features, so the characters rotated on the covers and Superman wouldn't make a cover appearance until #7 in December.

This was an age before Twitter, so it took some time for feedback from the public. The "Dawn of the Golden Age Comic Book Super Hero came with a whisper.

Here, for your reading enjoyment, is that second appearance of Superman from Action Comics issue #2. As I mentioned before, issue 1 has been re-printed over and over again, but this story has seen little daylight, and since it's the conclusion of a two parter, I thought it deserved to be seen.

The scans for this are not as clear as the first and are a slight strain to read, but it's the best I can find. Hey, what do you want? Haven't you heard? These comics are selling for a million dollars a pop nowadays!

Anyway, click the images to make bigger or download them and enlarge them in your picture viewer...it makes for some fun reading.

You know, of course, that this is all going to Superman's oversized Kryptonian head. The last time we were all down at "The Drink Hole"...

Next time: More Zatara!

See y'all then!

Zatara - The OTHER Action Comics Debut - A'S'HGACB:SH*

*This is part of a semi-regular series in this blog "A 'Slight' History of Golden Age Comic Books: Super Heroes". To catch up on the other posts, click the label in the right hand column.

Much ballyhoo has long been made that the Golden Age of Comic Books began with the publication of Action Comics #1 and Superman's first appearance therein. While it's true that Superman was the major selling point and was the break-away character whose soon-to-be-burgeoning-popularity would spark the Super Hero revolution to come over the next decade (and well into today for that matter), there was another Super Hero that made his debut in that very same issue.

Zatara, the Magician! I find it a little ironic (though not a lot, really) that, later in the Superman mythos, the only other thing beside Kryptonite that could affect him was magic. The power held by the character who shared his debut.

Well, maybe it isn't that magic can harm him, so much as he's easily fooled by it. But that's just my take.

Zatara was really just a rip off of Mandrake the Magician from the newspapers. He dressed the same and even had a big mook of a sidekick named Tong to assist him, much like Mandrake's Lothar. In this debut story, the only real differences are the color of the lining of his cape (Mandrake's is red) and Zatara is sans moustache. The moustache later came though.

The real difference is that while Mandrake's magic was all centered around his knack for quick hypnotism of his subjects to create illusions, Zatara actually had magical powers. His spells are cast by saying his commands backwards.

Reminds me of this Steve Goodman song:

OK. Enough dissertation. While Superman's premier story has been re-printed and re-printed over and over, the Zatara story hasn't. Here it is to read for yourself, "The Mystery of the Freight Train Robberies"!

Enjoy!

Ta Da! Magic First Aid Kit:

Zatara's arch enemy...the beautiful and ruthless Tigress! You can tell she's the Tigress by her stripedy shirt:

Check it out! He's talkin' backwards!

Zatara is handy at the fisticuffs too!

You can tell The Tigress is evil. She kicks a man when he's down.

Zatara, of course, is not below Mandrake's hypnotism trick. He just says it backwards.

He's not above a little gun play if need be either.

...I mean, for real. Check his shooting the bad guys! Not gnitoohs, but shooting!

I think panel 3 here is a typo. Tigress' gun appears to become a banana, not a bullet. If I had a dirty mind, I'd wonder where she disappeared so fast to with the phallic fruit.

Oh wait, I do have a dirty mind.

And so, the Tigress escapes to challenge Zatara again. So begin the EPIC adventures of comicdoms favorite magical Super Hero.

If you don't count Sargon the Sorceror. Or Ibis the Invincible. Or Doctor Fate. Or...

Oh hell. Let's face it. Zatara is best remembered for just 3 things.

1. He was a rip off of Mandrake.

2. Because he was one of the first Super Heroes ever, retconning in the Modern Age of Comic Books sometimes references Zatara being the man who helped train Batman. Though I believe this has been retconned out of continuity at present.

3. And the most important thing that Zatara is remembered for is his daughter, Zatanna who debuted in the 1960's in the Silver Age of Comic Books:

Is if creepy that a man's legacy be carried in his daughters fish-net stockings?

Yes. But, "Hubba Hubba" who cares! Check out them gams!

Next up: Action Comics #2!