[Robb_K]

Good morning or evening (wherever you may be).  This fortnight's Reading Group's comic book for reading and review is "Flip Falcon in The 4th Dimension Collection 1", collected from Fox Features' "Fantastic Comics" # 1-11, from 1939 and 1940.  It is made up of early and primitive Science Fiction/Fantasy stories from near the beginning of the comic book industry, when the emphasis was a LOT more on newspaper comic strip-style fantasy than on the current level of scientific knowledge.  This compilation contains a wide variety of plot styles and settings for their star SCi-FI scientist/superhero and his loyal, amorous, Ladyfriend sidekick assistant, Adele.  The series' hero's name was changed from "Flick" Falcon, to "Flip" Falcon, after its first three issues of Fantastic Comics, when it was realised that from a distance the word, "Flick" appeared exactly as the scatological, offensive 4-letter slang word, especially in Fox's print font.



Flip Falcon in The 4th Dimension Collection 1 can be found here:   https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=61175

I look forward to all your posts describing what you think of these stories.  They are all very short, taking up only 66 pages in total, so I think we can cover them all, as they take up only the size of one standard early 1940s 10 cent comic book.  The artwork and storytelling is fairly primitive for the genre, as it was so early in the development of comic books.  And the story telling styles and settings cover one of the widest and loosest ranges I've seen from a single series.  Fox Features' early 1940s production always brings up controversy and a myriad of strong opinions and interesting back stories.  So, I hope you all enjoy them and have a lot to say about them, perhaps including information about the artists and little-known back stories about the series' production.

[The Australian Panther]

Interesting!
'Orville Wells'?

[Robb_K]

Interesting!
'Orville Wells'?

No doubt a pen name.  If I had been a budding writer and wanted to eventually have a respected career, I, too, would have been afraid to use my legal name on these weird and wild, but poorly thought out, fantasy stories.

[bowers]

Words fail me.... Cheers, bowers

[Robb_K]

Words fail me.... Cheers, bowers

You're speechless in awe of this volumes' wide range of unexpected plot ideas and interesting ancient artwork?

[bowers]

 None of the above, Robb! It's just so awful it defies description. Cheers, bowers

[Robb_K]

None of the above, Robb! It's just so awful it defies description. Cheers, bowers

Fox wasn't known for top-level quality.  It's no wonder that people were getting in line to sue him when he finally ceased operations.  He was probably glad to gon to prison so his creditors couldn't harass him, in person or on the telephone.    -And discriminating comic book fans couldn't ridicule him for giving the comic book industry a bad name!   

[bowers]

 Maybe reading some of the bad ones helps us appreciate the good ones all the more! Cheers, bowers

[Robb_K]

Maybe reading some of the bad ones helps us appreciate the good ones all the more! Cheers, bowers

That's for sure!  A strong understatement.  As a former editor, I can testify that this series is a perfect editor's dream, chock full of examples of what NOT to do.  That is part of my reason for its choice, to point out that the early history of the Comics Industry was full of experimentation by young artists and storywriters who took advantage of lots of openings to jump into, trying to barge their way into the story writing sand illustration field, during the scramble by publishers to take advantage of The Great Depression's need for low-cost entertainment's boom in the popularity of newspaper comics, and larger demand to read such material in more permanent packaging and in larger sizes.  And many of these new publishers were often recently-started magazine publishers, who had had no previous publishing experience in the book publishing field.  So even many the publishers and their editors had little experience, and so, were experimenting quite a bit.