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This was a pretty good comic for the time, capitalizing on the excitement about science of the period. It would have been better if they had thrown an occasional educational feature in their, perhaps they did in later issues. |
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I've never seen a superhero stop a speeder before. Also maybe they should have had a talk with the colorist about the *purple* gang. |
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Ironically, the type of blood and immune system transference depicted here in Marga the Panther Girl's origin story is in fact theoretically possible. |
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The "Purple Gang" is a historical reference to a well-known mob of bootleggers and hijackers who operated in the Detroit area in the prohibition era and beyond.
They were Capone associates and purportedly involved in the St Valentine's Day Massacre. There's a bunch of theories about the origin of the name but nobody is certain. It wasn't because they wore purple outfits :) |
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There was also a British band in the early 70's who called themselves the Purple Gang after thiis gangster group.
Their music was Jugband music.
https://infogalactic.com/info/The_Purple_Gang_(band)
I owned their album, which is how I remember.
The Purple Gang: Detroit's Most Ruthless Racketeers
https://websites.delta.edu/michiganremembers/stories/Purple%20Gang-M.%20Grow.htm
'rumor has it the gang received its colorful name as the result of a conversation between two Hastings Street shopkeepers of the era. Both of the men's shops had been the target of the youngsters' shoplifting and vandalism forays (5). One day in disgust one of the shopkeepers exclaimed, "These boys are not like other children of their age, they're tainted, off color"
"Yes," replied the other shopkeeper. "They're rotten, purple like the color of bad meat; they're a Purple Gang"
cheers |
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Dr Doom. Fighting a girl named Jan shrunken down to insect size. Who has a friend named Wanda.
Where have I heard that before? |
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If you look closely it's a guy named Jan and a girl named Wanda.
And ELECTRO is a hero and not one of Spiderman's villains.
Cheers! |
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Additional Information |
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Publication | February 1940 | Price: 0.10 USD | Pages: 1 |
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Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: Electro [Jim Andrews] |
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Comic Story | Origin of the Eagle (8 pages) |
Synopsis | Bill Powers returns home from vacation and, as the Eagle, captures the Purple Gang. |
Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: The Eagle [Bill Powers] (first appearance, origin); Jason (first appearance); The Purple Gang (first appearance, villains) |
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Comic Story | The Origin of Electro (12 pages) |
Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: Electro [Jim Andrews] (first appearance, origin, becomes Dynamo in next issue); Saunders (first appearance); the President's daughter (first appearance); The Gerlandians (first appearance, villains) |
Notes | The "Electro" feature changes its name to "Dynamo" next issue, and stays that way to the end. The name change is probably because Fox discovered that Marvel (Timely) already had an established "Electro" feature. |
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Comic Story | The Fang Men of Jupiter (7 pages) |
Synopsis | Cosmic Carson fights against a band of pirates - the Fang Men of Jupiter. |
Content | Genre: Science Fiction | Characters: Cosmic Carson (first appearance); Roland (first appearance); Fang Men of Jupiter (first appearance, villains, one dies); Okal |
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Comic Story | The Space Slavers (8 pages) |
Content | Genre: Science Fiction | Characters: Perisphere Payne (first appearance); Villon (first appearance, villain, death) |
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Notes | Patterns and instructions on how to build a cardboard bomber plane. |
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Notes | Patterns and instructions on how to build a battleship using cardboard. |
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Comic Story | Origin of Marga, the Panther Woman (8 pages) |
Content | Genre: Jungle; Science Fiction | Characters: Marga [the Panther Woman] (first appearance, origin); Von Dorf (first appearance, villain, death); Ted Grant (first appearance, not DC's Wildcat!) |
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Text Story | Death on the Air Waves (2 pages) |
Synopsis | Dick Gordon investigates the death of Jeff Stone and discovers a race of beings that live within radio waves. |
Credits | Letters: typeset |
Content | Genre: Science Fiction | Characters: Jeff Stone; Dick Gordon; Maxwell |
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Comic Story | The Shrinking Serum (8 pages) |
Synopsis | While exploring a strange land, Jan and Wanda are captured, and experimented on, by Dr. Doom. |
Content | Genre: Science Fiction | Characters: Dr. Doom (first appearance, villain); Jan Swift (first appearance); Wanda (first appearance) |
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Comic Story | Origin of Navy Jones (8 pages) |
Content | Genre: Science Fiction | Characters: Navy Jones (first appearance, origin); King of a sub-sea people (first appearance); Princess Coral (first appearance); The prime minister (first appearance, villain) |
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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 |