[MarkWarner]

Last week's Judomaster was a solid hit with the reading group. I think that the only dissenting voice came from Jim (aka Narfstar). Even then, he said he was a Judomaster fan, but just did not particularly like the story.

Now to this week's book, which is a 100 page digest from Harvey. It is a suggestion from one of our number, and interestingly (pay attention at the back there!) the story we are concentrating on is not the lead one, but instead "Origin of the Fly-Man".

Personally I will read "Origin of the Spitfire" as well. It seems rude not to!

Whoops, I almost forgot to say Spitfire #1 can be found here https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=27074

[narfstar]

Fly-Man starts with a great splash. The art is pretty good throughout. The origin is very wild and implausible. The story was pretty fast moving but equally silly. The size of the individuals seems to very. They can fit through a key hole but are usually shown much bigger. I love the quick dispatch of the villains. Of course with all the crazy in the story I LOVE IT. Pure golden age gold.

[Morgus]

Hey, not bad at ALL! A pretty solid collection from the Golden Age...I liked Clown better then Fly Man, but both were okay...the other stories held up nice. A great investment for the dime back then.

[crashryan]

Here's another grab-bag. I like it more than I did Gold Medal. The stories are somewhat better-written and there are no terrible humor strips.

What a mash-up "The Spitfire" is! A Rip van Winkle seafaring man who breathes fire, emits gas (gotta watch those beans, Spit) and teaches himself to fly a fighter plane by "turning every gadget." So crazy I loved it. It wasn't until a second reading I noticed Spitfire wasn't fighting Nazis, but Naztis (yuk yuk). Weak art.

Based on "Fly-Man" I'd never have dreamed Sam Glanzman would mature into the fine artist he became. Fly-Man reminds me of the Silver Age Atom in a Golden Age suit. The story is confusing but fun. Bloodthirsty fellow, that Fly-Man. I wonder why Glanzman avoids drawing the hero's face after the first page. Check out that contraption in page 32 panel 4. I swear it's Gil Kane machinery from the Marvel Age!

I got a kick out of "The Clown." I've never been much for the "creepy clown" trope, but this guy would scare the socks off me. Fun script, good art. My favorite story in the book.

The art in "Hank and Pudge" (fine frontier name) isn't bad but the choppy story reads like a cut-and-pasted newspaper strip.

"Gary Morgan" suffers from diagrammatic art and a diagrammatic script. I get that he's supposed to be a happy-go-lucky daredevil, but does he have to break the ferry pilot's skull with a monkey wrench?

John Giunta's art on "The Magician of Bagdad" has a lot going for it, especially in the magic combat scenes. We need more detail when Nadir reaches the world of 1990. It's hard to tell what's going on.  Is Mohamed Bey the same guy as Amud from the first page? Kind of an odd concept, but I like it.

Last week we talked about swiping. I can't make out the byline on "Rurik" but it ought to be "Hal Foster, Jr." I've never seen a more blatant Prince Valiant rip-off. Rurik/Val is joined by Relth/Gawain (who disappears partway through the story). In his crew are the pigtailed redhead and the other PV supporting characters. Maybe one panel on each page wasn't drawn first by Hal Foster. I think the author didn't know the meaning of the word when he proclaimed his hero "the new tyrant of the sea."

All in all this is an entertaining package. Pretty good for a dime.

[mr_goldenage]

Ahh...Once upon a time I had this book. Enjoyed it then and enjoyed it now. I even used the Spitfire and the Fly-Man (He was the first) in my collection of the Greats of the Golden Age which there were 12 volumes, that is how much I enjoyed those two strips. Liked some of the Magician of Bagdad. What I didn't like was the time period that he was sent to. Why not send him to the 1940's where a real war was going on. The same story could have been equally interesting and more relevant than the 1990's and could have used the same villain and minions that was presented in this story. Now...Fly-Man. He seemed to gain powers that the two minions didn't have. Was that a result of being thrown into a vat of acid? Anyways loved the costume and the concept and Sam was also good on the 2nd Iron Skull as seen in Stars & Stripes comic. Check that out. Spitfire was a hoot, given his powers to emit gas from his nostrils and then using his mouth to exhale gas and turn it into fire! What a concept... Kind of reminds me of the Centaur character Vapo Man. The Creepy Clown was well, to say the least interesting concept. Even Quality's character the Jester couldn't hold a candle to the Creepy Clown. The rest of the book...ugh. Well that is my take on these 3 characters.

Richard Boucher AkA Mr_Goldenage

[crashryan]

Mr GA, your comments reminded me of a super-villain from the Mighty Heroes period. I can't remember his name and I can't remember which book he was in (I think it was in the "Too Many Superheroes" battle royal). What I do remember is that he threw his head back and sent "thunderbolts crashing from my nostrils!!"

[mr_goldenage]

The villains of the story were the old Wizard and the "Criminal" Hangman.I cannot remember off hand if there were other minor villains in the story or not, not without me running to my Mighty Guys storage box. And... I always wondered the once heroic Wizard "The Man with the Super Brain" how and why he turned evil? Just my curiosity at work and I had an idea once one why and how.

RB

[narfstar]

Inferno was the MLJ firebreather

[mr_goldenage]

Yes...and there was also the character called The Flame Eater he could breath fire (Due to the sodium pills he took) and also could eat fire as well. FYI

RB

[narfstar]

can't find a Flame Eater but there is a Fire Eater in Cat-Man

[mr_goldenage]

I'm sorry I meant to say Fire Eater in Choice Comics # 1 & 2.
RB

[MarkWarner]

This book has 100 pages so off I go ...

Origin of the Spitfire - I have often thought it would be cool to be called "Black" something or another ... Eg: The Black Prince, the Black Knight or Black Douglas (aka The Spitfire in this story). Trouble is Black Mark doesn't really work

Anyway, back to Spitfire. I really liked this. I prefer "older style comic book art". And the Rip Van Winkle story plot is a tried and tested winner!

I must admit  I am not too sure about the breathing out gas business. To be honest, it looks ridiculous!



Also, why is Nazi misspelled as Nazti? Is is the same as idea as reversed swastikas (not to give any respect)

Crocky Doyle - I skipped over this 4 page text story as there are 100 pages in the book and time is of the essence!

Origin of the Fly-Man - So here is the main story we are concentrating on. Again, I liked the art, but the story was pretty pants. I was a bit surprised by the rather graphic panels at the end of this story!



Origin of the Clown  - A couple of the names of the villains being rounded up sounded more like disreputable friends of my youth rather than protection racketeers ie: "Stinky Jones" & "Repulsive Mike".

Maple Syrup Rescue - I was really not keen on this, and the Buckskin Boys. The first fail of the book..

The Rescue of a British Banker - And I am afraid that cub-reporter Gary Morgan is another fail.

Presenting the Magician From Bagdad  - The artwork was great in this. But I HATE "Thou fool" type dialogues. The story meandered all over the place. So, I would certainly have to read another one, or two to figure this out!

Rurik Against the Vikings - Maybe it was me getting tired, but I really thought this one of the worst comic book stories I have EVER read

Verdict: A hit!! This started off great, but slowly went downhill. The Spitfire was my favorite story by far!

[SuperScrounge]

Fly-Man - Uhhhhhh... yikes! So was this written by a 10-year old child or does it just seem like the sort of thing a 10-year old would come up with? So a heavyweight champion decides to basically throw away his championship to prove that his dad could shrink people to twelve inches for... reasons? Well, I guess we should be glad he wasn't a world-class pianist. So where did Fly-Man's super-strength come from?

[SuperScrounge]

Trouble is Black Mark doesn't really work

Nonsense.

"Think you've committed the perfect crime? Well, the Black Mark is here to spoil your spotless record!"

[bdw]

Fly-Man - Uhhhhhh... yikes! So was this written by a 10-year old child or does it just seem like the sort of thing a 10-year old would come up with? So a heavyweight champion decides to basically throw away his championship to prove that his dad could shrink people to twelve inches for... reasons? Well, I guess we should be glad he wasn't a world-class pianist. So where did Fly-Man's super-strength come from?

Check out Dark Horse's Axe Cop comics sometime, they really were written by a little kid (with his adult brother doing the art work) 

[narfstar]

Richard "Black Mark" Boucher vs SuperScrounge in A BLOT ON MY RECORD

[narfstar]

I really liked the first Axe Cop mini series but the humor got old. It is difficult to sustain quirky humor for long. Green Acres and Get Smart are two TV show exceptions.

[SuperScrounge]

Check out Dark Horse's Axe Cop comics sometime, they really were written by a little kid (with his adult brother doing the art work)

I've read some and even saw an episode of the cartoon. Just... not my style of humor.