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[MarkWarner]

I claim all responsibility for this week's choice. I thought it was about time we read a detective book and whilst looking I found this book. I am a sucker for the "older" comic.  So Centaur's Detective Eye cover date Nov 1940 appeared to fit the bill ... well apart from it is actually a superhero book, but let's not split hairs! 

I have had a flick through and I liked what I saw. So, the book can be found here: https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=62225. And the story we'll concentrate on is the first one featuring Airman

[Yoc]

Nice choice Mark!

Members here might know Frank Thomas was the man behind this very odd character - The Eye.  I just happen to be working on a short bio for Thomas to include in an upgrade to The currently incomplete Owl Collection.  Thomas is one of those artists that flies under the radar of most GA fans but the Owl, admittedly a Bat-Man clone, was done at a better level or artwork than the majority of GA books.
Thomas worked on a handful of Centaur characters before moving on to Dell and The Owl, his likely best known character.  But he also did the writing (and some art) for several newspaper strips over his career before dying of cancer in 1968.

Stay tuned for the new Owl Collection in the next week or two.
-Yoc

[narfstar]

And the Owl will appear in the Dell revival and All-New Popular Comics in a story entitled The Owl and the Pussycat. Looks to in line for the first issue.

[SuperScrounge]

The Air Man - Those saboteurs were considerate not to just shoot Air Man when they had the chance... twice. As heroes go Air Man seems to be enthusiastic and lucky rather than having a keen mind. The story moves quickly, but is a little too simplistic.

The Eye Sees - Okay, but could have been better.

Spark O'Leary - Boy another lucky "detective". Sub-par.

The Murder of a City - Not that good.

Dean Denton - Another "The Most Dangerous Game" ripoff. *sigh*

The Masked Marvel - Wow! A story with some actual dectoring!  Okay.

Dick Hurston - Not bad.

Dan Dennis - Feels rushed and jerky. Not that good.

[SuperScrounge]

But Yoc, Frank didn't draw the Eye story in this issue. Hank Schneider did. (Although looking at that signature I wonder if his name is actually Mark Schneider?)

But yeah, Frank is an interesting artist and I considered doing an Owl story for Narf's Dell project.

[Morgus]

Nice read. Another golden oldie that even has my favourite novelty company with an ad. Love how some of the stuff hung around for decades. But I was wondering: Narf has been talking about writing for his comic book he's working on...(All New Popular Comics, thought I'd just drive that home) Unless it's talked about someplace else on this site, what is involved in WRITING a story for a comic book? How do the words and what is primarily a visual medium link up? It's an elemental question, I know, but as a civilian and a rookie to boot around here,  it just never really OCCURRED to me before. Can you guide us through the steps?

[K1ngcat]

When I was a "trainee artist" (read "gopher") back in the sixties, in a studio that provided work mostly to Fleetway and DC Thompson, the writers would send a panel-by-panel breakdown of the story to the artist with instructions as to what should be shown in each panel - one of the reasons why British comic art of the period often had so many cluttered panels, as the artist tried desperately to squeeze in everything the writer demanded.

The Marvel approach, I gather, was for the writer and artist to have a brief "plot conference," then the artist would go away and draw the whole story before handing it back to the writer to put in the dialogue.  Of course if the writer was the artist, as in the case of Will Eisner or Jack Cole, things must've been much easier.

I know crash ryan's has more recent experience in the publishing world, maybe he can be persuaded to speak on the subject?

[SuperScrounge]

I tend to use a modified play format when I write out a comic script. Like say

Page 1:

     Panel 1: (description of art)

          Person: Saying Stuff.

     Panel 2: (more description)

          SFX: Ka-pow!

So on and so forth.

[mopee167]

But Yoc, Frank didn't draw the Eye story in this issue. Hank Schneider did. (Although looking at that signature I wonder if his name is actually Mark Schneider?)

The Eye story in this issue of Detective Eye is indeed by Mark Schneider.

http://www.pulpartists.com/Schneider.html

[narfstar]

Why not come over to Dell Comics Heroes on facebook and carry on the conversation. There are different styles. Dave and Lou give detailed panel by panel. I give more freedom to the artist. More than Marvel style but not panel by panel.

[narfstar]

As far as Airman goes I did not find it too enjoyable. It was early in comics so I g it more lead way. It was too simplistic and lots of dumb stuff. Only two things keep it from being a flop. The fact that it was early and wings.

[paw broon]

Early, naive, simple - and just a bit daft.  All that could be applied to The Air Man in this story.  But I enjoyed it.  As a hero, he's a bit clumsy, don't you think? He crashes through the window and right into the trap - a pile of tins, sophisticated, eh?.  He's also quite amusing with his "OOPS" and ..."er, hello"  That appealed to me.  I was struck by just how much he packed into that utility belt, but it's just as well he had it.  The wee rocket on his wings between his shoulders is amazing.  Where's the fuel? Why don't the wings burn?  Who cares!  Good fun. 
I was aware of The Air Man from his Protectors appearances and his one-off? own title from Malibu.  There of course the costume was moderned up and slightly resembled King Cobra's cowl.  These 1980's appearances were nowhere near as entertaining as this 1940 comic.
The Eye story was crudely drawn and I'm not sure why The Eye was that important to the story.  Couldn't "the plan" have been thought out by the hero?  Was there not a Green Glob, or similar title, that did the same sort of thing much later?
Talk about crudely drawn, well, now we get Spark O'Leary.  Not a lot of fun.
I'll pass over Dean Denton apart from saying it's crude, derivative and not very good.
Whereas The Masked Marvel is good superhero stuff.  I love those boring machines, being a big Black Sapper and Cave Carson fan.  MM does the business in a proper detective superhero way and I thoroughly enjoyed the story.  (We have a French reprint of a MM story on site in the French section).
I have to admit that I haven't yet read the last stories yet and I have to go and peel tatties and Brussels sprouts for our tea.

[crashryan]

I'm last out of the gate on this one. I've said before that I enjoy the crude energy of early comics, and Centaur is my favorite pre-GA company. There's not a lot of good stuff in here, but what's here is fun.

I like "The Air Man" mostly for the trick devices he produces to meet every challenge. But the crooks are one step ahead of him, thanks to a pile of soup cans! "I fixed up that trap in case he came back!" Some rather rudimentary artwork here.

"The Eye Sees" is a shock. The Eye tells our hero "Sorry, I have a cake in the oven. You're on your own." and bows out of the story! I like the weird concept of The Eye, but this episode is just a detective yarn with The Eye shoehorned in. Ray Schneider looks like someone who'll become a capable artist in a couple of years.

Painfully crude art in "Spark O'Leary"--except for the cars! Pearson draws cars accurately from multiple angles. Instead of drawing generic cars, he gives each character a different vehicle. (He only falls down in the shootout on the last page, which looks like a deadline-induced hack.) Everything else he draws is awful. Strange. The story is the bunk. "invisible bombs" made of compressed powder? Gimme a break.

The "Doctor Darkness" story is unique in that we never find out who "the fiend" is. And no one in the story seems to care.

"Dean Denton" doesn't get to do much scientific detecting in this knock-off of "The Most Dangerous Game." Harry Campbell's art has its moments but the panel layouts are a mess. Especially story page 7, where the page ends on the lower left instead of the lower right. Decent early comic stuff.

"The Masked Marvel" is the most entertaining story in the book. I kept expecting ZL, ZR, and ZY to appear. Are they on vacation? Also I don't remember MM having super strength. Add my name to the list of fans of earth-boring machines. Nice of them to give us a cutaway drawing. The crew's mess is the same size as the control room. Our "foreign power" knows how to take care of its operatives. I'm a leeeetle bit skeptical that MM could use his natural buoyancy to leap onto the deck of a freighter.

"How to be an Amateur G-Man": That guy's suit is rumpled. It must be Sloppy Sam!

"Dick Hurston" boasts the best art in the book. The artist plays fair with the reader by giving us a good shot of the mystery villain's unique uniform stripes (you'd be surprised how often this courtesy is omitted).

I'm not sure what's going on in "Dean Dennis." Obviously I got in on the middle of the story. What's the deal with Polly? The artist draws adequate figures but he steadfastly refuses to draw anything else! Considering those crocodiles, that may be a good thing.

Interesting ad: "Live Turtle...with Your Name on It!"

Bye, kids...keep happy with Centaur Comics!

[MarkWarner]

So let's see how this good old-fashioned comic, cover dated November 1940 reads today!

Well firstly, I think Airman should be renamed Gadgetman, with his monoxide bomb, phosphorant solution and helium chemicals. Did anyone else notice the villain looks a lot like Hitler? The last sentiment certainly indicates that the writer (at least) foresaw the U.S. being dragged into the war.

"Our Country needs men like him to fight inhuman fiends as these men he overcame!!"

I must admit that my brain is a bit of a "plodder". So it took a few pages to figure out The Eye. Rather peculiar and it's nice that the superhero format had not been honed yet! Certainly very different!

Next up is Dean Denton ... have we not bumped across him before in another reading group book? Actually, after finishing the story I don't think we have. But, one thing is for certain I have never encountered Baron Blood before ... that's a name you'd not forget. MAH GOODNESS!

Next up is The Masked Marvel and this is easily the pick of the book. Corny as hell ... but I loved the story and art.  Even the crazy bits like this!



The two pages of how "To Be An Amateur G-Man" were packed full of interesting "facts". Dick Hurston was Ok ... but I must admit I thought Dan Dennis too much of a rip-off Fu Manchu / Terry & The Pirates rip off.

Verdict: A MASSIVE HIT!! Could not ask for more. Pure Golden age comic gold! That reads like I am leaving eBay feedback ... LOL

[crashryan]

I missed SuperScrounge's earlier comments about comic scripting. Even though it's late I want to respond. When I was pencilling professionally I worked on only one fully-scripted story, an 8-pager. The script was laid out the way SS does it: each panel described by a short paragraph followed by the dialogue.

All the rest of the work I did was for Roy Thomas, who used his personal flavor of the Marvel Method. Roy sent me a 6-8 page synopsis describing the action with notes about possible dialogue. He broke the synopsis into sections, e.g. "Pages 1-6," "Pages 6-14," etc. Each section consisted of several brief paragraphs along these lines (I made this up off the top of my head; don't blame Roy):

Star Spangled Kid tries to convince Jonni to stay. Garzok too powerful for someone without super powers, let me take him on. Jonni says no, I promised Dad I'd bring Garzok in and I'm going to do it. She pushes past SSK, jumps through window. We stay inside with SSK: he hears explosion outside. Jonni cries out.

I was always impressed by  Roy's sense of pacing. No matter how I laid a story out, each section always ran just as many pages as he said it would and the story proceeded smoothly from start to finish. Guess it's a knack you develop when you've written thousands of comics pages.

I sent the pencils to Roy and he wrote final dialogue. If I had a particular idea I'd jot it in the margin. Once in a while Roy'd pick up on it, but he always had a clear picture in advance of what he wanted to say.  99.9999% of the dialogue was his. One of the delights of working was Roy was the way he could tweak a scene with an unexpected line.  There's a scene in Alter Ego #1 in which the Green Sorceress vamps AE into removing his mask. Roy's tongue-in-cheek dialogue still makes me smile.

Anyway, Roy made a copy of the page and drew circles indicating where balloons would go. Each circle was numbered 1,2,3, etc., keyed to the dialogue pages. These went to the letterer. Roy was a whiz at locating balloons so that dialogue read properly without covering important art. It's a harder job it seems. I know from experience.