Better a little late than never. I will now review Great Comics 3:
"Futuro Kidnaps Hitler"
This unthought out bunch of pages isn't really a "story". It has very little in the way of character development and setting. The artwork is interesting, especially the front cover drawn by Reed Crandall, and the story, drawn by Marty Palais, whose artwork I like less than that of the cover, but still find interesting. Futuro and his US Futurians are invisible travellers from the future, who, because they come from another time, are invisible. They go to Hitler's hideout in The Bavarian Alps (ostensibly, "The Eagle's Nest" (Berghof near Berchtesgaden) -although almost no background details are shown, not even the outlines of the mountain peaks. We only see the non-detailed outlines of part of a castle. The Futurians capture Hitler, and Futuro takes him to Hades (Hell), to show him a preview of what he will face after he will die after his judgement by representatives of all of Humanity. Unfortunately, we readers don't get to see other Human sinners being tortured, no flames or stench of sulpher. I think it is amusing that the author uses Futuro's wolfhound's thought balloons t make fun ridiculing Hitler, but it's the same "joke", over and over, only making fun of his foul stench and filthiness. It is also interesting that a reader of this story who knows nothing about World War II and Hitler's part in it, would think that Hitler deserved to burn in Hell because he managed to entice Japs (Japanese men) to do his dirty work for him, and they made up his army (rather than his own German people). The basic premise could have been developed into a very nice, coherent, logical story. But, apparently, the author spent little time thinking about it, and the artist spent little time thinking of how he would stage it, and also spent little time drawing it. It was long enough, at 15 pages, to develop a decent story plot, with a detailed setting, character development, lots of action leading to a grand showdown at the climax point, and even to have a short epilogue. But the author dropped the ball. It was interesting to look at the pages, but very disappointing to read.
The Khaki Kid
This is a harmless, well-meaning, cliche story of the young boy who dreams of being a hero, and is jealous of the older boys who are able to join the military and see The World, and face danger, and have the opportunity to behave heroically. The artwork by Filipino artist, Pagsilang Isip, is good.
The Great Zarro
Zarro is a US Intelligence Officer, assigned to a hidden, secret military base. But, he travels there wearing a superhero outfit of tights with a skimpy pair of undershorts over them. Not very smart for an intelligence officer. Inside a laboratory, the commanding officer (a major) greets him wearing an apron and holding a test tube. Instantly, the two men are transported by magic back outside, where they see an airplane landing. The pilot "Rags", is a member of Zarro's Victory Club of patriotic young boys, who had just become old enough to join the military. He looks only about 15 or 16, so that young teen readers can identify with him and vicariously imagine themselves being a hero like he is. At that tender age, he has just entered military service, but is already an airplane pilot, and an intelligence officer. An incredible "phenom" overachiever, and secret weapon to be used against The Axis powers. Rags' plane was shot down by an enemy plane's gunner, but he repaired it. So, he's not only a pilot at 16, but an experienced aircraft mechanic, as well. Impressive young fellow. The artwork is very good, but the artist is not listed.
Kid Bagdad
This is a very cartoony comedy both written and drawn by Victor Pazmino (VEP). The story is his typical zany string of animation-style slapstick action, and the artwork features his typical very simple, bouncy, roundish figures. Normally, I HATE finding VEP stories in my funny animal comic books, like Creston/ACG's and Better/Nedor/Standard publications. I dislike his artwork and mostly physical, slapstick, gag-driven, plotless stories. But I have to state that this story has BY FAR, the best artwork I've seen by him, and it has a real, logical storyline, and I enjoyed the rhyming narratives, as well. I'm very impressed. It's kind of sad that, amazingly, so far, this story has the most logical and reasonable storyline in this book, so far.
Madame Strange
An American secret agent posing as a newspaper reporter in Southeast Asia, during the height of World War II sounds a bit far-fetched, especially given that she seems to have the strength of two big men. Her weapon is a riding crop. The artwork by Isip is good. But I think the Octopus' henchmen are too grotesque-looking, to the point of not even looking like Humans. That demonstrates The Americans' prejudice against non-Caucasians, as Germans were rarely portrayed to that extreme. I like the location and setting of The Octopus' lair, as a cave inside a hill dominated island inside a volcano's seawater-filled caldera, which can be approached and left unseen by using a submarine. It was very disappointing to NOT find out why The Octopus got his name, and why he has a metal claw for a hand, and what kind of beings his henchmen were. On the first two pages, they looked just like grotesque Humans. But on his island, they looked more like inhuman monsters, as if made by Doctor Moreau. There are several interesting eye-catchers used by the artist (possibly from the author), to grab the interest of the reader, but they were never used in the storyline, leaving the reader with a very disappointed feeling.
The Lost City
This series of episodes has the look and feel of the low-budget, short film serials of the 1930s, that were heavy on fantasy, short on science and logic, and whose background props and costumes looked cheesy and unprofessionally-made as compared to higher-budgeted feature films. However, I DO like the basic premise of a villain who uses the power of lightening and magnetism to wreak havoc upon the authorities of civilisation, and creating an army of superhumans to do his dirtywork. The information on how the "living dead men" are possible is missing, which should be made with some pseudo-scientific explanation that sounds, at least, plausible should have been provided. I think it is funny that the monsters not only are bigger, but they seem to wear bright red lipstick. Surely such bright red lips can't possibly be natural. Having an enemy saboteur among the protagonists' group is a good feature to help the suspense. The reader doesn't find out in this episode why this city, deep in the jungles of Africa is "lost", and why this villain, the last of The Ligurians, a pre-Indo-European people of Europe, were a tribe of "master scientists". The reader hopes to find out the answers to those questions in future episodes (only one of which was ever published (to my knowledge) in Choice Comics # 3).
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Topic: Reading Group #270 - Great Comics #3 and Choice Comics #3 (Read 3736 times)
