Zip Comics 1 (1940)(1) Steel Sterling - Man of SteelThis story has a LOT of problems, in my capacity as a story editor and storywriter. I understand that kids want to be entertained by fantastic happenings they could imagine, but are so fantastic they wouldn't have thought of how it would manifest itself, at least in detail. And they wouldn't be entertained as much by true stories of the real World, especially during a hellish World War with so many people being killed, and depressing news about it being broadcast and printed every day, and families already having had beloved relatives drafted or enlisted into the armed services, and some already killed or wounded. They would hope that brave men from their nations would rose to the occasion and become heroes from doing heroic deeds to help win that war. This, and the fight against the organised crime's criminal gangs that arose during The Great Depression, spurred on the birth of The Superb Hero Genre of early comic books. With young boys wanted to imagine themselves as society's heroes fighting against the evil aggressor nations in war, or taking the law into their hands helping the impotent police fight the criminal gangs and crime bosses, to be heroes of their towns or cities.
Unfortunately, the low pay offered by the comic book publishers for story writing made it difficult for such aspiring writers to do much, if ANY research on the subjects of their story plots, and, apparently it provided them precious little time to even think logically about the elements of their stories and how best to structure them, and especially about the premises of their newly-created superheroes' super powers.
A man who jumps into a large cauldron filled with scalding hot molten steel, hot enough to kill him almost instantly, and not only lives, but his skin becomes as strong as steel, is awfully tough to take, even in a fantasy. And the author didn't even try to "cover up" that issue by "explaining how that works" with official pseudo-scientific jargon that would sound very scientific and allow the reader to pass over any deep thought about how that could work and not being able to suspend his or her belief in what he or she knows about The World. At least the credentials of the scientists, and complicated scientific words might allow the young reader to move on in the story, subconsciously feeling that it COULD be plausible, and not have to stop, think deeply, and realise that it is too ridiculously silly to even enjoy as a fantasy. There are way too many physical problems with the entire premise. If the skin were so dense it could be like steel, it couldn't breathe(respirate). The being would die of heat prostration. But, before that, the kid would wonder how a man with normal human skin could survive jumping into several thousand degree liquid and not be scalded (burnt to toast). Atb least, he could have had a scientist inject a liquid into the man's skin, explaining that it would start a chemical reaction which would cause a mutation which would change the skin cell configurations, and be reproduced in all future replacement cells, so he would have tightly-bonded skin cells, for the rest of his life that are so tight that they have the strength of steel, but otherwise still have all the original properties of human skin. There should be a footnote at the bottom of the page saying: "Kiddies, please DO NOT jump into cauldrons filled with 1000+ degree molten metal!"
(2) MugsyNeat little one-page gag, nicely drawn by Warner Brothers animator Kin Platt, who also worked for Sangor Studios on Funny Animal comics, for Ben Sangor's Creston Pub./ACG, and Ned Pines, Better/NEDor (Ned & SangOR)/Standard Comics. The artwork is excellent. The gag is just routine, but entertaining enough for someone like me, who grew up reading '40s comics.
(3) The Scarlet Avenger - Gang BusterIt is interesting that The Scarlet Avenger is an amateur scientist who invents devices that can help him fight crime. I'm guessing that he was wronged by a criminal gang who murdered his parents, and chose to fight
criminals to get his vengeance (starting first with that gang, and continuing until ALL orgasnised criminal gangs are obliterated from The Planet! My guess was close. His wife and child were killed in a hijacked plane, which crashed. This all reminds me of another US publisher's "Avenger" superhero series. It seems to me that almost all MLJ's superheroes and detective-crimefighter series are direct copies of those of earlier more successful series of other publishers (except maybe Hangman). Similar to MZLJ's own Steel Sterling, Scarlet Avenger has a steel (foil) mesh cloak. That would certainly feel rough to the skin and hold warmth in. Not sure if it would really be thick enough to repel all bullets, based on the looks of the drawings. He has an "hypnosis machine" that acts like "truth Serum", forcing liars to tell the truth, and a lantern that flashes a magnetic ray. And he has a paralysis ray, as well. Although this is the series opening and lightly-covered origin story, there is NO attempt to use a pseudo-scientific explanation for how most of these inventions work. The Avenger uses his magnetic ray gun to "pull" a hidden steel safe out from its hiding place behind a wall, opening it and leaving the evidence to convict the Insurance Racket Mob. Not very interesting to me.
(4) Nevada Jones - Cattle DetectiveYet another "Cowboy Detective" hired to find out who is rustling (stealing) cattle from a large cattle ranch (as even Donald Duck once did). And here we have foreign (Mexican) cattle rustlers. The author shows the Amrericans' contempt for Mexicans, by having the hero calling them the derogatory term, "Greasers". The backgrounds show only rocky land with almost no plant life. What are the cattle grazing on? In the Sonora desert there are short dry grasses, tumbleweeds, and various species of cacti. Camels would do a lot better in such hot, drty deserts than cattle. Cattle ranches in Arizona and New Mexico are located in the seasonally grassland areas of the high plateaus and mountain foothills, where it actually rains, NOT in the lower, sandy and rocky terribly dry deserts. Nevada foils the rustlers, saving the beautiful young woman's ranch. She offers him the job of Ranch Foreman, but, in true Gary Cooper and John Wayne roving cowboy drifter fashion, he politely lets her know that he has to move on.
(5) Kalthar - Giant King of The JungleYet another Caucasian King of The African Jungle, showing those aboriginal, black-skinned people that people of light skin are better, stronger, smarter, and more powerful. Another Tarzan clone, who speaks the animals' language. But, instead of being raised by Apes, he was raised by a Black African tribe. His father died saving the tribe (single-handedly?) from Arab slavers. They made the son (Kalthar their tribal chief and god! His secret source of giant size and super strength is swallowing a red type of grain. In some panels, Kalthar is almost twice the size of his fellow tribesmen; but, in others, he is only about the same size, or slightly larger than they are. He changes from giant size to normal human size by swallowing a green grain. Magic, African VooDoo use of local herbs. He carries the different "magic" seeds (grains) in his hair. As is usual in many Jungle Genre stories staged in Africa, the thck rainforest (jungle) ends and a sandy desert is right next to it. That only happens in real life when the "Jungle" area is a thin band next to an oasis pond, or small lake, or a river, with plant growth only adjacent ton the river water. What happened to the 500 to n1,00 miles of "Sahel" Savanna high grassland and steppe low or bunchgrass grassland, in between.
While tied by The Arab slavers, Kalthar yells loud enough for his Jungle animal friends, several miles away hear it, and come running to The Arab fortress, to rescue him. Kalthar tells his monkey friend to hand him a seed from inside his hair, so he can grow large again. This was an obvious excuse by the author to show off (introduce) "superpowers" available to Kalthar to fight evil villains. Overall this story didn't entertain me very much. It was a much better plot premise than the job of writing it in detail, and drawing it out. His elrephant friend helps him defeat the slavers.
(6) War Eagles - The Devil's Flying TwinsA pair of American flyer adventurers who join The British RAF to fight, before USA joined The Allies in WWII. Lots of nice flying action in dogfights against The German Luftwaffe fighters. The Twins, who are rivals for glory, and apparently, winning over women, fight over a young woman ambulance driver. After their squadron's planes are all destroyed by Nazi bombers, The Twins "steal" their replacement planes early, and go after The Germans alone against the rules. They destroy the entire German camp and all it's planes. This should be a superhero story! The Kommandant vows to kill The Twins in their next meeting. Good action, but thin story.
(7) Captain Valor - Ex Marine AdventurerThe US Marines don't feed this guy enough action! What a man! He quits to seek adventure on his own as a mercenary. He travels to China, and meets a teenaged boy whose sister has been kidnapped by Chinese pirates. So they team up to save his sister. My guess is that they will stasy teamed up for the entire series, with the boy as his "sidekick". After defeating several pirate guards, they rescue his sister. A new Chinese chieftan rescues the three of them from the pirates as the episode ends. A bit from "Terry and The Pirates", and some from "Captain Easy".
{8} Mr. Satan - International DetectiveInternational playboy and Soldier of Fortune ("The Saint" clone?) . A young woman answers his newspaper "Soldier of Fortune" advert , wanting someone to find her missing father. The old Pygmy with the blowdart, coming all 5the way from Africa to USA to kill an American. Where did the Pygmy get the money foir his travel tickets? Who would pay him to do that? Mr. Satan captures the Pygmy and asks him who sent him. The Pygmy tells him "Big Boat"., So Mr. Satan goes to his city's large harbour and finds a moored yacht with no lights on. So THAT boat of many hundreds there, MUST be the villain's boat! Of course, Mr. Satan defeats the entire villain's crew, take over the wheelhouse, and signals the harbour police to come. As they approach, he dives into the water to keep his anonymity. Such anonomous crime-fighter stories generally seem to all be very cliche and similar to me. Most of the MLJ detective and amateur crime fighter stories seem to be weak copies of other publishers' work, and not very inventive.
(9) Sport-O-Grams - Lou Amber - Lightweight Champion BoxerI never heard of the guy. But, most of the general public only heard of the heavyweight champions.
(10) The Miracle Man - Zambini The MagicianNo doubt, a Mandrake clone. Finally, an inventive idea! Zambini has the magic ability to turn an evil force around and back towards and upon its origin (source). The King of Ritania asks Zambini to help his nation to defeat Hundania in their war. Zambini agrees to come and talk with him. Why would a king of a modern nation, in 1940, hire a magician to help his country win a war?
Seems like Hitler consulting his astrologists before instructing his generals in making their battle plans (in that same war). Hundanian spies, send a cobra to Zambini's bedroom, to kill him. Zambini foils that scheme by hypnotising the cobra, and instructing it to return to its sender. Zambini has real, unexplainable, magic powers that, for example, can make guns jump out of their holders' hands. Does he know the secret of what makes gravity work, and know how to affect that so as to pull objects away from their holders from a distance?
I never believed in magic that defies how The Universe works. Magic was noit understanding the reason things happened, and so they couldn't be explained. So, I always thought magicians used slight-of-hand to fool people into thinking things happened that can't be explained. Maybe that ids because I had an aunt who was a professional puppeteer and magician (who entertained at local shows and parties). She showed us kids (family members) how magicians' tricks were achieved. So, I don't like stories that have magicians who use "Real" magic to capture or defeat criminals. In this story, Zambini turns the chief Hundanian spy into a tiny "dwarf", only as tall as a man's ear. First of all, he CAN'T be a dwarf, because dwarfism is a genetic disease which causes birth defects that include body torso sizes and limb lengths that are not within normal Human proportions. The man he shrunk had proper body proportions, so would be better termed as a "midget" (even though that probably would be a misnomer, as well). It seems to me that I've read some Mandrake The Magician stories in which a reader could believe that Mandrake used only slight of hand and knowledge of psychology to trick the villains in order to cause them to make mistakes that led to their capture and downfall. I like such stories better than Ibis, whose magic wand can do anything, and Zambini, who can do anything (and the author didn't even bother to mention the source of his knowledge of those "secrets of The Ancients" that he uses to fight Evil. Zambini also loses his magic powers at the touch of another person's hand. Yet another aspect of unexplainable magic that is difficult to accept, especially wioth even an attempt at explanation of how that works. It seems to me that an expert at psychology, reading people's actions, and through them, their minds, as well as fooling and tricking them with extreme mastery of slight-of-hand and knowledge of science, so that miracle-style magic wouldn't have to be used as the story's driver. Then, too, we can respect the hero for a real skill sand bravery, because he is in much more danger in a World in which he can't count on "Magic" to automatically make him the winner, getting him out of any dsanger he'd encounter.
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Topic: Reading Group #335 - 2 early MLJ Books - Zip #1 & Pep #22 (Read 374 times)
