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[MarkWarner]

So last week's book, Mr Risk #2 received another thumbs up from the group (despite slight murmurings of discontent at the beginning of the week).

Let's hope this roll continues when we tackle a book which has a VERY famous Golden Age cover, Daredevil Comics #1 https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=35416. The story we are concentrating on is the first one "Daredevil Battles Hitler". 

[SuperScrounge]

For some reason I thought this would be one big story rather than Daredevil in a proto-Brave and the Bold style team-ups.

Daredevil Battles Hitler - Well, more like gets in one blow. Really, had Daredevil just taken a gun or some explosives with him he could have wiped out Hitler and his top men and probably ended the war. On the other hand Daredevil racing through the conference room made me wonder if the guys who made The Naked Gun had memories of this comic when they wrote the opening of their movie. (Leslie Neilson as Daredevil!) Of course, having Daredevil on the Hood was eerie, but only because I know what happened to the Hood in real life.

The Claw Double Crosses Hitler - Not so much double crosses as gets tricked.

Fighting Hitler and his Jungle Hordes - What a coincidence that Hitler just happens to go to Africa and run into the local Tarzan wannabe, and Daredevil shows up. Does he have a tracking device on the guy the way they keep ending up in different parts of the world like this.

Smash Goebbels Spy Net - Don't most heads of spy nets send other people to steal things rather than go out themselves? Funny how they return Goebbels to Germany. Almost as if there was some conspiracy to preserve the status quo. ;-)

Wreck Goerring's Sky-Fighters - Was Goerring still a qualified fighter pilot at this point?

Von Roeder, Nazi Sea Raider - Did the Pirate Prince have time travel as one of his abilities in his own series?

The Man of Hate - Interesting little fact piece on the man and his methods, although a bit of a mood swing from the other stories.

Well, nitpickings aside, it wasn't a bad little collection of stories. Not the great big story I was hoping for, but an entertaining read.

[Mazzucchelli]

The cover of this comic is so appealing that makes you want for more.

It

[SuperScrounge]

It feels like something rushed, only to sell magazines during the war, to profit.

And there's a good reason why it feels rushed.

To quote Brian Cronin from this article

"Publisher Lev Gleason stumbled on a chance for a windfall of paper, but couldn

[narfstar]

Thanks for the info Scrounge. I actually liked it anyway. I see it so much as a book of the times. We were so superior to the enemy and would always be able to defeat them. I love how they make the Axis look so stupid. It is a propaganda piece. The art was rushed but not bad. It is interesting the types of faults we can overlook in stories. I was unable to see past the faults in last weeks story but do not have the same problem with this weeks. I have the Alan Light reprint of this book.

[jimmm kelly]

I read about comics like these back in the '70s when I was a teen-ager. Which is why I appreciate having CB+ so I can see them for myself. It's all the stuff of legend. The idea that this was put together so quickly just makes it that much awesomer. But I really need someone like Ron Goulart to describe the comic to me as he would have seen it as a kid. Still, whenever I look at these comics, I put myself in that headspace as best I can. How wondrous this must've been for kids who were filled with both dread and awe at the war their fathers and mothers were involved in.

Biro must've been some kind of genius. It's amazing how much detail about the politics he puts into what would otherwise be a simple story. But I'd guess people were studying the new reports in those days to get a handle on what was going on. I think Biro's idea of Daredevil is different from Cole's. Biro was more bookish, while Cole mainly wanted Daredevil as a foil for the Claw's larger than life grotesque action.

[Morgus]

I dug it a lot. If the art was rushed, I didn't see it. But then, my inner 12 year old was on the loose and I was enjoying the gunfire, wild elephants and giant yellow guys trying to squeeze Hitler to death. (Why would a giant yellow guy NEED money, though???)

Favourite line: "What a predicament!"

[crashryan]

I posted a reply day before yesterday but it never showed up, so I'll try to reproduce it. If the original post appears you can compare the versions.

There's no two ways about it, this is one weird comic. I've never seen a better example of the visceral appeal of comic book wish fulfillment. The whole issue is like the feverish revenge fantasy of a schoolboy beset by bullies. The bad guys are dropped into one ridiculous situation after another so they can be thrashed and humiliated by the heroes. You can almost feel the flailing fists and kicking feet as he cries, "Take this, you meanie!" But of course the comic was produced by adults and the world they were living in was far more complex than the blast-bedecked playland of Daredevil Battles Hitler.

I wish I were historian enough to place this book in context. It was likely produced around March-April 1941. Europe was engulfed in World War II. The US was sending arms and equipment to help the British but they weren't yet in the fight. Many other comic heroes were still fighting Hitler stand-ins ruling imaginary countries. It was still possible for public figures to suggest the US cut a deal with Hitler. Reading Daredevil Battles Hitler I get the feeling that Lev Gleason and company were frustrated with the status quo and wished the US would declare war and get on with it. So maybe it is a revenge fantasy, by grown-up schoolboys.

I wonder if Biro was also ahead of the curve in taking on the Japanese. It was my impression that comics didn't tear into the "Japs" until after the Pearl Harbor attack in December. All the racial stereotypes were already firmly in place, though.

I've never been able to figure out The Claw. I mean, come on, a giant fanged Fu Manchu? Someone was drunk when he came up with that one. I notice The Claw shares with most other giant comics characters the ability to change size depending upon the situation. He starts out as tall as a dozen men, then he's slightly taller then a dam, then he can stand on the ocean bottom and still poke his head and shoulders above the surface.

Both art and writing are pretty bad. I like how Cloud Curtis repairs his stuck carburetor while his engine is running. What's the deal with Goering, having landed next to a pig, deciding to shoot himself (but changing his mind)?

In conclusion I find this comic extremely interesting but I can't say I like it much.

[Morgus]

Some time ago, I saw an interview with some old lizard from the American Nazi party or something like that. He was very specific in pointing out that movies and comic books were two of their biggest downfalls. Of course he blamed both on 'the Jews' who he figured ran 'all media'. Said they had a lot of the captains of American industry on their side. But they couldn't crack 'the media' especially the 'lowbrow media' who were always against Hitler, you know, HITLER DEAD OR ALIVE, that sort of thing.
Like crashryan, I wish someone could put it into some sort of context. I have to wonder how much of an effect it all really had. But it WOULD be nice to think Daredevil and Captain America really did some good.

[SuperScrounge]

The whole issue is like the feverish revenge fantasy of a schoolboy beset by bullies. The bad guys are dropped into one ridiculous situation after another so they can be thrashed and humiliated by the heroes. You can almost feel the flailing fists and kicking feet as he cries, "Take this, you meanie!" But of course the comic was produced by adults

Young adults, not far removed from their boyhood, I believe.

I wonder if Biro was also ahead of the curve in taking on the Japanese. It was my impression that comics didn't tear into the "Japs" until after the Pearl Harbor attack in December.

They did show up as villains from time to time, though.

Notably in December 1939's Amazing Mystery Funnies vol 2 #2 in the Daredevil Barry Finn story the Japanese attack Hawaii.

Dr. Seuss was doing cartoons about the Japanese threat in PM Magazine prior to Pearl Harbor. (Reprinted in Dr. Seuss Goes to War.)

I believe Terry And The Pirates being set in China would have addressed the Japanese attacks on China.

Although it's possible people may have seen the Asian war as a "yellow man vs. yellow man" situation and nothing for "white men" to worry about, but the European war was definitely "white man vs. white man".

[crashryan]

Thanks for those references, SuperScrounge. Terry and the Pirates was an interesting case. The strip addressed Japanese incursions into China as early as 1939, but Caniff didn't name the perpetrators. They were always referred to as "The Invader," though Caniff drew them wearing Japanese uniforms and using Japanese equipment. I believe they were first called Japanese in 1942. Same with the Germans. There's a Sunday page from mid-1941 showing German types meeting at their headquarters. A big Nazi flag hangs from the wall, but it's mostly cut off by the panel border. All we see is the red ground, a bit of the central white circle, and just enough of an arm for the reader to recognize a swastika. As I understand it Terry had an international presence and the syndicate were afraid of offending someone important. I suspect nobody gave a damn about comic books so they were free to fire at will.

[paw broon]

Having read this comic years ago, I wasn't taken aback by the art or story as I had previously made up my mind that it was all a bit silly.  The main attraction for me were the superheroes and that continues to be the case.  But The Claw just doesn't excite me at all.  For such a supposed danger to mankind he just looks a bit naff.  And "Ow, my hand", really?  There doesn't seem much to Daredevil's encounter with Hitler and considering he got so far into Europe and Germany, he didn't appear to have much of a plan for disposing of the Fuhrer.  Now that I know the comic was done in such short time, it sort of makes sense that the stories seem rushed - they were. 
As for the politics that have been brought up, I was surprised that the publishers made up a different name in Lord Hee Haw as he's obviously closely based on the real William Joyce - Lord Haw Haw. Here's a lot about him up to his execution as a traitor:-
http://www.nickelinthemachine.com/2010/02/the-execution-of-lord-haw-haw-at-wandsworth-prison-in-1946/
But it wasn't only Joyce who had Nazi sympathies:-
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/nazi-sympathiser-and-former-king-the-duke-of-windsor-wanted-england-to-be-bombed-international-archives-reveal-10306121.html
And this:-
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/britains-wouldbe-nazi-queen-1312830.html
There were also certain newspaper proprieters who are alleged to have had Nazi sympathies:-
From the Wiki:-
"Rise of fascism
The "Hurrah for the Blackshirts" article by Lord Rothermere

Lord Rothermere was a friend of Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, and directed the Mail's editorial stance towards them in the early 1930s.[32][33] Rothermere's 1933 leader "Youth Triumphant" praised the new Nazi regime's accomplishments, and was subsequently used as propaganda by them.[34] In it, Rothermere predicted that "The minor misdeeds of individual Nazis would be submerged by the immense benefits the new regime is already bestowing upon Germany". Journalist John Simpson, in a book on journalism, suggested that Rothermere was referring to the violence against Jews and Communists rather than the detention of political prisoners.[35]

Rothermere and the Mail were also editorially sympathetic to Oswald Mosley and the British Union of Fascists.[36] Rothermere wrote an article titled "Hurrah for the Blackshirts" in January 1934, praising Mosley for his "sound, commonsense, Conservative doctrine",[37] and pointing out that: "Young men may join the British Union of Fascists by writing to the Headquarters, King's Road, Chelsea, London, S.W."[38]

The Spectator condemned Rothermere's article commenting that, "..the Blackshirts, like the Daily Mail, appeal to people unaccustomed to thinking. The average Daily Mail reader is a potential Blackshirt ready made. When Lord Rothermere tells his clientele to go and join the Fascists some of them pretty certainly will."[39]

The paper's support ended after violence at a BUF rally in Kensington Olympia later that year.[40] Mosley and many others thought Rothermere had responded to pressure from Jewish businessmen who it was believed had threatened to stop advertising in the paper if it continued to back an anti-Semitic party.[41] The paper nonetheless continued to oppose the arrival of Jewish refugees escaping Germany, describing their arrival as "a problem to which the Daily Mail has repeatedly pointed."[42]"

In the pages of this comic we see London getting flattened by German bombs and England is mentioned regularly.  Lest we forget, the country is Gt. Britain and other places were hammered beyond belief incl. Clydebank and Sheffield.  And had the country wavered and certain powerful members of the establishment and aristocracy had their way, the world might be a very different place today.

Apart from all that, this comic was ok, not great, just ok, and for me it's the colourful superheroes who made it just worth reading

[crashryan]

These links made for fascinating reading. I'd heard of the Duke's and the Duchess' sympathies, but I knew nothing about Lord Haw Haw. To think, he even has his own conspiracy theory. It's depressing to read the comments and find people holding him up as a hero and still mouthing the same tired old BS.

[MarkWarner]

So eventually, I digitally turn one of the best-known Golden Age comic book covers to see what is inside.

There is a standing joke over here (on the other side of the pond) how America thinks it "won the war". The main story does nothing to dispel that. Blimey, our superhero chums certainly give Churchill a helping hand. I found the dark colours on the text descriptions VERY hard to read. I guess I need new eyes! But the main criticism is that I found the story way too silly!

This continues with the next one featuring The Claw. Great art, terrible story! I did like the panel top left on our page 24, I may us this in some sort of project:

"The white infidel

[narfstar]

Mark I would have thought this puerile to your pleasure. Not always I guess.