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| "Stencho Odora" is a great villain name, though here he's a comical good guy. "Frank Swinatra" sounds like a funny animal version of Ol' Blue Eyes. |
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| Interesting book.
1/ Very weird cover. They didn't have mechanical agriculture then? Tracotrs and Plows?
2/ The Steel Sterling story is Irv Novick at his best.
Frank Swinatra is definitely a thinly discuised Frankie.
This would have been published at the height of his first career, when 'Bobby-soxers' would mob him and scream loudly at his concerts. You thought that started with the Beatles, didn't you?
3/ The two Bill Vigoda [Brother of Abe] stories here are a revelation, being examples of non-archie storytelling. |
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| This 1945 book is essentially a reprinting of MLJ's Zip Comics #46, from May, 1944, as all its stories were all taken from that book. Only the adverts and an informational page were different. It makes no sense to me that MLJ would lease stories and cover art from books issued from less than one year to a little over one year before, to an unrelated publisher, who only published a few comic book very short-lived series, sporadically. I rather think that Green Publishing bought the plates of artwork at bargain bin prices from a printer who MLJ had used, a year before, but were no longer using. It appears that Green, like Norlen and I.W./Super Comics, obtained ALL their artwork in that same manner. |
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| This comic is my 2nd exposure to Red Rube. As I enjoy body transfer heroes, this was enjoyable, if somewhat simplistic. I need to dig up his origin. How did he get the power and the magic phrase?
And the villain's recited formula? Shades of Johnny Quick. |
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| Additional Information |
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| Publication | 1945 | Price: 0.10 USD | Pages: 1 |
| Notes | This may be an unused cover from Zip Comics (Archie, 1940 Series). It resembles the covers from #36-#39, where Steel Sterling appeared with the various humor characters from Zip.
Ginger's hair is mis-colored as blond (it should be red). |
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| Notes | This may be an unused cover from Zip Comics (Archie, 1940 Series). It resembles the covers from #36-#39, where Steel Sterling appeared with the various humor characters from Zip.
Ginger's hair is mis-colored as blond (it should be red). |
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| Text Article | Contents (1 page) |
| Credits | Letters: typeset |
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| Comic Story | The Wand of Weirdness (10 pages) |
| Synopsis | Apollo and Muley break into a museum and are confronted by a guard, so Apollo grabbed a scepter out of a case to use as a club. It was the "Wand of Weirdness", supposedly belonging to Merlin the Magician which had a curse that said anyone using the wand for evil purposes would have it visit back upon them. Sure enough, it does and both die. The wand next brings bad luck to a cab driver and racketeer Dippy Dugan, who is killed when he wishes for bullets to go around him. Steel Sterling retrieves the wand and returns it to the museum. |
| Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: Steel Sterling [John Sterling]; Sergeant Clancy McGinty (Policeman); Apollo Bates (villain, introduction, death); Muley (villain, introduction, death); Dippy Dugan (villain, introduction, death); the Nazis (villains) |
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| Featuring | Steel Sterling |
| Content | Genre: Superhero |
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| Comic Story | Stencho's Woman Problems (6 pages) |
| Synopsis | Stencho's wife wants to find out if he still loves her. A red wig and a new dress will do the trick. |
| Content | Genre: Humor | Characters: Señor Banana; Stencho Odora; Dolores Odora (wife); Rosita |
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| Advertisement | Archie Is Good for What Ails You! (1 page) |
| Featuring | Archie |
| Credits | Pencils: Bill Vigoda (signed) | Inks: Bill Vigoda (signed) |
| Notes | Ad for the Archie radio program. |
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| Comic Story | County Fair (5 pages) |
| Synopsis | The Applejack boys are on a gas balloon trip and land near the house of a screwy professor, who turns them into monkeys. |
| Content | Genre: Humor | Characters: Slappy Applejack; Happy Applejack; Professor |
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| Comic Story | Frank Swinatra (6 pages) |
| Synopsis | Ginger meets Frank Swinatra. |
| Content | Genre: Teen | Characters: Ginger Snapp; Dotty; Tommy Turner; Frank Swinatra (introduction) |
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| Comic Story | The Fourth Dimensional Dr. Karvalla (10 pages) |
| Synopsis | The wicked scientist, Dr. Karvalla, invented a formula that enabled him to travel in the fourth dimension. |
| Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: Red Rube [Reuben Reuben]; Dr. Karvalla (villain, introduction) |
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| Text Story | The Future and the Past (2 pages) |
| Credits | Script: Harry Rose | Letters: typeset |
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| Comic Story | Introducing the Flying Dragons (6 pages) |
| Synopsis | The American Volunteer Group in China is disbanded and some join the Army Air Corps. |
| Content | Genre: Adventure; Aviation | Characters: The Flying Dragons [Hank O'Toole, Spud] (introduction); The Japanese (villains) |
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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 |
