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| The site index card for Columbia contains the following comment (not sure who's responsible for these):
"Other Columbia Comics creations were Marvelo the Monarch of magicians, - a possible forerunner to Lee Falk's Mandrake the Magician -, the Face, Big Shot, Mickey Finn, Tony Trent and Sparky Watts."
Marvelo a "forerunner" to Mandrake the Magician? No, not possible. I'm not sure if whoever wrote that misunderstood the meaning of 'forerunner', or was just unaware that Lee Falk's Mandrake the Magician began in June of 1934 -- almost six years before Marvelo's debut in BIG SHOT No. 1. (Or had the writer of that somehow gotten the impression that Marvelo was one of the newspaper reprint strips in BIG SHOT, and had already been around many years by 1940?) By this time in 1940, Fred Guardineer had already done one Mandrake knock-off (Zatara) for Action Comics No. 1 (and possibly others... I didn't check dates on possible candidates) -- but apparently every publisher seemed to want one, just like they all seemed to want a Flash Gordon clone. Surprisingly, Lee Falk's The Phantom did not seem to inspire nearly so great a rash of imitators (although his costume, or various elements of it, certainly was copied in enough different variations). At any rate, Mandrake seemed to inspire legions of comic book mystics and spellcasters -- more than any previously established hit character except the Lone Ranger and Tarzan. Perhaps the publishers saw the basic idea of a magician as less actionable in the legal sense, and therefore more of a safe bet. |
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| Bigshot was (and is) a great comic.
A great big THANK YOU to all the scanners who have made it possible to enjoy its run after all these years.
Good luck always. |
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| Additional Information |
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| Publication | May 1940 | Price: 0.10 USD | Pages: 1 | Frequency: monthly |
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| Content | Characters: Skyman, Joe Palooka, Dixie Dugan (in main panel); Charlie Chan, Joe Palooka, Marvelo, The Bungles, Spymaster (in vignette) |
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| Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: The Skyman; The Red Signet (spy) |
| Notes | Whitney signs on the final page. |
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| Comic Story | Joe's Decision (6 pages) |
| Featuring | Joe Palooka |
| Content | Genre: Adventure; Sports | Characters: Joe Palooka; Knobby Walsh; Tony Penthaus; Red; Big Barney |
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| Comic Story | Food Shortage (6 pages) |
| Synopsis | The Face successfully gathers the information he needs to prove allegations against Tony Grogan of providing poisoned turkey meat to poor asylum children, making them ill, as well as keeping the majority of the money given to the poor. |
| Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: The Face [Tony Trent]; Babs Walsh (radio station secretary); Tony "Grudge" Grogan (villain); Melissa Sanders (villain, Grogan's secretary); Grogan's gang (villains) |
| Notes | Bailey signs (as MB) on the final page. Blake byline credited to Fox in the Who's Who. |
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| Comic Story | Snow Activity (3 pages) |
| Featuring | Dixie Dugan |
| Content | Genre: Humor | Characters: Dixie Dugan; Mickey; Dixie's mother |
| Notes | The top tier of each page features Good Deed Dotty, by the same creators. |
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| Featuring | Tom Kerry District Attorney |
| Content | Genre: Crime | Characters: Tom Kerry; Davis (police spy); The "Weasel" (villain) |
| Notes | Ernst signs in the final panel. |
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| Text Article | Heroes Are Born (2 pages) |
| Credits | Pencils:? [as C F] (signed) | Inks:? [as C F] (signed) | Letters: typeset |
| Content | Genre: Drama; Children | Characters: Tommy Clark; Mrs. Brady; Ann Brady |
| Notes | Text story with illustration |
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| Featuring | Marvelo Monarch of Magicians |
| Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: Marvelo; Zee (manservant); "Big Shot" Bonnett |
| Notes | Guardineer signs (as FBG 39) in the final panel. |
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| Comic Story | A Touch of Pacifism (2 pages) |
| Content | Genre: Humor |
| Notes | The top tier of the first page is "Testimonials", the second "Optimisms", by the same creator. |
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| Content | Genre: Humor |
| Notes | Five unrelated gag panels. |
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| Comic Story | The Murder of Norda Noll (5 pages) |
| Featuring | Charlie Chan |
| Content | Genre: Detective-mystery | Characters: Charlie Cham; Gina Lane; Kirk; Norda Noll; Hugo Mance; Detective Casey |
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| Featuring | Jibby Jones |
| Content | Genre: Humor; Children | Characters: Jibby Jones; his father; Mr. Boppins; Mrs. Justwed |
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| Comic Story | Bhangi Si's on the Warpath (6 pages) |
| Content | Characters: Rocky Ryan; Bhangi Si (villain); Roy |
| Notes | Whitney signs on the final page. |
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| Comic Story | The Detonator Ray (6 pages) |
| Featuring | Spy-Master |
| Content | Genre: Spy | Characters: Spy-Master [Jeff Cardiff]; "Slick" Muller |
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| Comic Story | Mirror Image (1 page) |
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| The data in the additional content section is courtesy of the Grand Comics Database under a
Creative Commons Attribution License.
More details about this comic may be available in their page here |
