[crashryan]

Speed Comics 23

Captain Freedom: A bargain-basement Captain America. Routine story. Someone could write an essay on how easily comic book heroes were assumed guilty of some awful crime. Admittedly in this case it's CF's civilian identity who is railroaded, but in countless other stories a superhero is immediately presumed to have "gone bad" if s/he appears to have committed a crime.

Shock Gibson: Al Bryant is a sadly underappreciated Golden Age artist. His work on "Doll Man" ran a close second to Reed Crandall's. Even here you can see his draughtsmanship was above the ordinary. He had a troubled life. After a nervous breakdown in 1955 he made a nearly-fatal suicide attempt. Thankfully he recovered enough to return to a normal existence. He worked as a draughtsman for the military and passed away in 1976.

As for the story: I wonder why the heck Shock Nazi just watches while Shock Gibson blows things up. After a blast or two SN would have realized he could do the same stuff SG was doing. Maybe SN isn't too bright. We can already tell he hasn't much of a fashion sense. The script gave me a new word to use among my friends (or soon-to-be-ex-friends): ELECTROFRIGIDIZE!

Pat Parker, Girl Commando: This is one of the briefest origin stories I've seen. In fact the entire story has a breathless pace which prevents it from making much sense. The only scene that isn't polished off with a panel and a caption is the bizarre "comedy" scene with the two Japanese soldiers.

The art doesn't show much effort. Pat's costume appears out of nowhere and the other women (whom we barely see) wear capes in some panels but not others. The big action scenes that end the story (our pages 23 and 24) are nothing but copouts.

Not an auspicious debut for the team.

Biff Bannon: Even ignoring era-specific cringe attitudes, this just ain't funny. Bannon simply blunders from one unrelated incident to another, none of which are especially humorous. Helfant should have watched a few Warner Bros. cartoons for ideas.

Black Cat (et al.): What a wasted opportunity. Absolutely no effort is put into making the backgrounds look like Los Angeles / Hollywood. The writer gives us 8 pages of fight scenes. Consequently the Japanese invasion of California--something of a big deal, don't you think?--is polished off in a single panel. And where are the cops, the American army, the local residents? Lots of feistiness, maybe, but dull, dull, dull.

Warning: I am now going to discuss female comic book anatomy. Sexy women, preferably underdressed, were a staple of comics almost from the beginning. Ample breasts (the ampler the better) were the order of the day. Yet despite untold panels full of bulging cleavage, there seems to have been one unwritten rule. The early Arturo Cazeneuve Black Cat seems to be the only comic heroine to have shown the underside of her breasts. Jungle queens, SF babes, even the legendary Phantom Lady and her Fox-y friends popped out of their tops without showing that region. As a result the early Black Cat's tank top, together with her comparatively realistic proportions, makes her appear "semi-nuder" than the rest. I've noticed that over time the offending strokes disappeared. This is why I concluded that even in deliberately provocative shapes and poses, drawing the underside was a no-no like drawing bare butts or, ahem, the unclad pelvis.

Crash, Cork, and the Baron: With only 6 pages you knew Eddie would be a bad guy. I'm surprised C, C, & B didn't find a way to blow him up with the aircraft carrier. The only thing that differentiates the three heroes is their appearance. They have no personalities. That's 6 pages for you. Decent art by Gates, nothing special.

Flossie: We'll demonstrate this flame thrower by shooting it over your heads??!!!

Ted Parrish: Comics have such laughable notions of how movies are made. A mountain lion is trying to kill the co-star and all the director does is yell, "What a scene!" The denouement is pretty lame. It would have helped to establish that the miner believed in The Spirit of the Canyon earlier in the story.

Speed Taylor: The villain here is missing only the "Nyah ha ha!" as he twirls his mustache. He's a bounder, but blowing him to bits seems a bit extreme. But then, blowing Speed Taylor to bits seems a bit extreme on the bounder's part. I'm not sure I buy Rudy Palais as the artist, but some of the over-the-top action shots are reminiscent of Rudy.

One odd note. The masher admonishes the woman to "stop putting on the dog," intending to tell her to stop resisting his advances. But the expression "putting on the dog" means "dressing up in a flashy manner." For example, putting on one's best outfit before going clubbing. I love this line from one of Danny O'Keefe's songs:

Put on the dog / Put out the cat / We're stepping out tonight!

Eleven showers and fifty-five cups of coffee later...we will tackle the final book.

[Quirky Quokka]

Speed Comics 23


Pat Parker, Girl Commando: This is one of the briefest origin stories I've seen. In fact the entire story has a breathless pace which prevents it from making much sense. The only scene that isn't polished off with a panel and a caption is the bizarre "comedy" scene with the two Japanese soldiers.

The art doesn't show much effort. Pat's costume appears out of nowhere and the other women (whom we barely see) wear capes in some panels but not others. The big action scenes that end the story (our pages 23 and 24) are nothing but copouts.

Not an auspicious debut for the team.

'''

Black Cat (et al.): What a wasted opportunity. Absolutely no effort is put into making the backgrounds look like Los Angeles / Hollywood. The writer gives us 8 pages of fight scenes. Consequently the Japanese invasion of California--something of a big deal, don't you think?--is polished off in a single panel. And where are the cops, the American army, the local residents? Lots of feistiness, maybe, but dull, dull, dull.

Warning: I am now going to discuss female comic book anatomy. Sexy women, preferably underdressed, were a staple of comics almost from the beginning. Ample breasts (the ampler the better) were the order of the day. Yet despite untold panels full of bulging cleavage, there seems to have been one unwritten rule. The early Arturo Cazeneuve Black Cat seems to be the only comic heroine to have shown the underside of her breasts. Jungle queens, SF babes, even the legendary Phantom Lady and her Fox-y friends popped out of their tops without showing that region. As a result the early Black Cat's tank top, together with her comparatively realistic proportions, makes her appear "semi-nuder" than the rest. I've noticed that over time the offending strokes disappeared. This is why I concluded that even in deliberately provocative shapes and poses, drawing the underside was a no-no like drawing bare butts or, ahem, the unclad pelvis.

Hi Crashryan

Yes, it certainly was a very brief origin story for the Girl Commandos. I haven't read previous issues, but I assume Pat and Ellen were well-established. However, the others are introduced very fleetingly and apparently with no screening process. They're very accepting of Mei Ling's word that she's not a spy.

"A spy?"
"No .. I am no spy."
"Righto, Mei Ling, you're in!"

I know page numbers were tight, but they probably tried to achieve too much in the short space given, so it didn't really work.

And yes, there was a similar problem with the Black Cat story. Too many characters to effectively interweave them into one story

And thanks for the interesting detail about the way Black Cat was drawn. It's always amused me that many of the male superheroes, like Superman and Batman, are completely covered from head to toe, but the women are all doing these marvellous feats in such skimpy costumes. Don't get me started on the way Wonder Woman was drawn in the 1980s and 1990s. There's no way she could have fought crime in those skimpy bikini bottoms that were always riding up.

Cheers

QQ

[Quirky Quokka]

Black Cat - Speed Comics #23, Oct 1942


Interesting splash page, though it doesn't really reflect what we see later on. I've come across Black Cat before, but I don't know her well enough to know the sidekicks, or the other superheroes that appear in Speed Comics. I found it hard to tell the difference between all the blond-haired males.

I've never heard 'fish guzzler' as a term for Japanese before. Was that a thing or did the writer just make it up for this story?

No woman, let alone a superhero, would yell 'Whee!' while landing in an enemy machine gun nest.

I hadn't heard the term 'Kilkenny Cats' before and had to look it up. According to my friends at Wikipedia, 'The Kilkenny cats are a fabled pair of cats from County Kilkenny (or Kilkenny city in particular) in Ireland, who fought each other so ferociously that only their tails remained at the end of the battle.'

The story is full of action and would have been a patriotic booster at the time. After Pearl Harbor, Americans would have been very keen to see the Japanese defeated. Though like Crashryan, I did wonder where the American police and military were during the Japanese invasion.

The story also tried to include too much in the limited space, given how many characters there were.


Black Cat #24 - New Speed Comics - Dec 1942

Again, an interesting splash page, with Black Cat defeating the Germans this time. Interesting ploy to have the movie actors and real Nazis intermingled. Who are the real ones?

Though I had to laugh at the panel where Linda takes off her skirt to change into Black Cat. No woman has ever taken a skirt off that way. Just saying 


In spite of plot problems, I do like Black Cat overall and would read more of her stories.

Thanks for the selections, Panther. I enjoyed looking at these feisty women.

Cheers

QQ

[The Australian Panther]

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=96212
Blue Circle Comics 4 - Version 2
Gail Porter - Girl photographer
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=81325
Blue Circle Comics 6 - Version 2
Gail Porter - Girl photographer

I am a photographer so it fascinates me that Photography was seen as glamorous enough to be the occupation of comic characters. Most obviously Jimmy Olson. Almost forgot Peter Parker!
# 4.
Assignment to the Tombs - I understood the reference from reading Harlan Ellison's early hard-boiled fiction.
The Font introducing 'Gail Porter' is distinctive and works well for the feature.
We get a statement for which the story is going to give us an answer.
Gale is wearing Red in the fight and we get hair-pulling and Gale armed with a stilleto. Not not a knife a high-heeled shoe. Could do a lot of damage actually.
Most of the dialogue is 'hardboiled', partiicularly Gails.
Why would 'Toots' come back to the pawn shop, and not in disguise either? I would think after a prison break she would get as far away as possible.
When she enters the shop she's wearing a Red blouse and a black skirt. But next page, during the fight, the black top has disappeared and she is all in Red - Gail's clothes?
Story is short and sweet. Gail is depicted as tough but too trusting. 
# 6 
Splash Panel. Same Red Dress, same Hat (which is about the same size and shape as Cap's Shield. If I was writing Her, I'd have her use it like that in a fight.)
And a Villain 'The Mad Auctioneer'!
He wears a Monocle so straight away we can identify him as a NAZI.

What do you call someone from Holland and the Netherlands? Actually, in Dutch (and in English), you'd call someone from Holland a Hollander. This only applies to people from Noord Holland and Zuid Holland. Someone from the Netherlands is called Dutch although you'd say in Dutch Nederlander. 

https://www.wanderlustingk.com/travel-blog/difference-holland-netherlands
Moving Right along.....
But - Did Holland have submarines?
Lightning flash syncronised with the camera flash - you can predict lightning? - and no rain? The details in this narrative are awkward. Anyway, unless the window was open, she would just get a reflection of the flash.
Horrible gutter Deutsch dialogue.
From page #4 to Page #5 we have a change from Night to Day. Did the Taxi Driver wait, and did the paper pay the fare eventually?
Apparently Gail can read German.
In all seriousness though, this is one of the few comics that highlights Holland and their plight under the NAZI's.
Who says kids can't learn anything from comics.
Again, Short and sweet. Maybe it's the red dress the hat and her hard-boiled attitude, but I have a softspot for Gail. Note, at no point did she have to be rescued by a male!           


       

[The Australian Panther]

I will handle these together
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=25809
Pat Parker Girl Commando
Speed Comics 23
Same comic - Black Cat  story.
A team-up!
Black Cat, Girl Commandos, Shock Gibson, Captain Freedom and Rick Horne.
Because I llike the Pat Parker cover
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=59986
Speed Comics 24
Girl Commandos again
and
Black Cat.
And Carol in 'Crash, Cork and Baron'
# 23
Pat Parker started her career as 'War Nurse' complete with motor-bike, mask and costume. I guess the idea was that she had a secret identity [as a nurse]  and needed to hide it. The medical cross on the mask is a giveaway though. The biggest problem with the costume would be how much it would distract the men she was working with. 
She is pretty capable ' I've flown everything from a Spitfire to a Flying Fortress' [#22]
# 24 In one issue, Shes gone from the Mediteranean to India and and aquired a team of Commandos. What a girl! We have a multi-national group. US, Russia and Chinese. Is this the first multi-national group in comics, apart from the Blackhawks. Were they thinking about doing a female BlackHawks.
We could definitely use a lot of backstory.
Crash, she calls the plane 'a Martin' but later, 'the Baltimore' so what would it have been? And is it accurately drawn? Why is Pat the only one with a costume?
The 'Beethoven's 5th' Whistle indicates the story was written post D-Day.
   
The reat of the story is just plain silly, too many issues for me  to engage in criticism - would take all day. .
The team-up.
I don't believe there were too many team-ups like this in the Golden Age, teams yes,but not random team-ups.And two women heroes. Pat and her Commandos and Black Cat. 
Girl Commandos go from India to Hollywood for an emergency. Would have taken them a miniumum of several days at the least, but lets disregard reality. And this time they don't fly the planes - because they need to parachute into hollywood.   
I'm going to assume this is Cazeneuve's script, since he does this repeatedly, not just in this story but others, He sums up a whole battle in one panel of one page and then returns to another which we see in detail. Also, even though the team-up features Captain Freedom, Shock Gibson, Rick Horne and Ted Parrish (Man of 1000 faces) , most of what he illustrates is the female's battles. Unusual to say the least. 
# 24
The Girl Commandos [by B. Hall]
Format - Grandad reminiscing in a story told to his Grandson.
Now we are in Korea. They do get around.
This time they fly from India to Korea. Instantly? Did the creators look at a map? There are 6 pages and two panels here and the creators cram so much into the story that it is thoroughly confusing. I feel they would have liked more time to expand. The three panel 'swinging on the bell' scene is excellent.
The Black Cat
Double page spread. I'm more famiiar with Linda's later stories and her later costume.
What would Gestapo be doing in Hollywood in full uniform? Ho Hum story but good action sequences.
Carol.[Crash, Cork and the Baron.]
Carol is another photographer. Also another Red dress.
"Boy, that's a hot one. Just because they wear skirts women think they can lead us around on a lease"
Did comics write male heroes with attitudes like this because they figured that the main audience was young boys who hadn't reached puberty yet?
How do you drop something out of a window from inside a plane? Hey the script demanded it.
I note that when she parachuted out of the plane upside down she uses her hand to hold her dress down.
Never saw Supergirl do that. Always thought she should.
She fights male piggishness all the way, single-handedly saved the day and then gets the man exactly where she wants him. What a gal! 
SuperScrounge is up tomorrow. Can't wait.
Cheers!   

[Morgus]

Well, ‘Panther, your entry on photography was probably the coolest thing in this edition. Pat Parker was okay, the art was second tier, but seemed to be getting better. The stories were just about what you’d expect for a golden age comic...keep the kids reading.
My fave was the Girl Commando team up. That missing link between Eric Stanton and Steve Ditko. Only with a Simon Kirby flavour. Made me laugh out loud. The wife took one look at the SPEED comics cover and said; “Oh, THOSE kind of comics, huh??? Is THIS where they thought up WICKED WANDA??”
I told her I doubted it.
But you do learn stuff from these. I thought Joe Weider invented those spring chest expanders on the inside cover.

[mopee167]

According to SortedByName.com Al Brynat died in 1993.

BRYANT, ALBERT S was born 20 July 1917, entered the United States Army 29 March 1944, was released 20 June 1945, and he died 27 September 1993.

BRYANT, ALBERT S. was born 20 July 1917, received Social Security number xxx-xx-xxxx (indicating Pennsylvania) and, Death Master File says, died 27 September 1993.

[crashryan]

Speed Comics 24

As usual, I'm late to the table with the last review. Comments on the final Feisty Females follow. First, though:

Crash, she calls the plane 'a Martin' but later, 'the Baltimore' so what would it have been? And is it accurately drawn?

I could pretend that I knew this all along but in reality I had to research it. I was aware of other Martin bombers like the Marauder but not the Baltimore. The Baltimore, known in the US as the A-30, was a light attack bomber built by the Glenn L. Martin company beginning in 1940. Originally it was designed for the French air force, but when France fell the order was redirected to Great Britain. Hundreds of them were built for our WWII allies though none served in the US armed forces. Baltimores were flown mostly by British units in the Mediterranean and the Middle East. Given the approximate nature of most comic book aircraft, the one in this story is not bad.

Now for our main feature: Speed Comics #24. Not just Speed Comics but New Speed Comics!

Captain Freedom and the Young Defenders
Joanie of the Young Defenders is definitely a feisty female. She's the one who leads the way and calls the others fraidy-cats, and she holds her own in a fight. She also owns the only "bycycle" I've seen. Joanie reminds me of The Kitten, another no-nonsense junior scrapper.

The story is standard stuff, helped by Cazeneuve's art, which is a touch above average. I cringed when Captain Freedom starts throwing people around while the jar full of Yellow Death sits in the middle of the lab. Luckily no one struck it...what a way to end the series. After reading several Captain Freedom stories I think the Defenders know darned well he's Don Wright. They just pretend not to. Either that or they're not as bright as they seem.

Shock Gibson
Another nice art job by Al Bryant. I never knew there was a snake called a hamadryad. I only knew about the mythological tree spirits. The dictionary says a hamadryad is a King Cobra. Morse code knots is a neat trick.

The Girl Commandos
Not sure what the point is of the framing story. I agree with others who pointed out "young imp's" resemblance to the Yellow Kid. They should have lettered his dialogue on his shirt front. Manolo/Zero is beyond silly. Small enough to fit into a valise but lightweight enough for Ahnho not to notice. The Siamese twin villain(s) is a unique gimmick, but the story is too short to do anything with him(them). It's a failing of the entire story: so much is packed into six and a half pages that nothing is given time to develop. A case in point is the pilot "Bick Caniff." The writer takes the trouble to name him, but we never see him.

Biff Bannon
Easier to take than the other Biff Bannon story, but still nothing special.

The Black Cat
The first thing that jumped out at me is that the Black Cat knows director Garboil is a Nazi spy and lets him go. I checked the story in the following issue, #25. Apparently this is a continuing thread. Both Black Cat and Rick Horne know Garboil is a fifth columnist but they let him be in the hope that he'll lead them to higher-ups. However...in #26 the whole Garboil thing is forgotten. Black Cat goes on a world tour and (at least as far as #37, when I stopped checking) our Nazi director is never seen again. I guess it's another of those midstream course changes that plagued Golden Age comics.

The art is pretty good. Except for the last panel on our page 36. Why in the world does Linda pull her skirt up and over her head when all she needs to do is let it drop to the floor?

Crash, Cork, and the Baron
At last one of the trio gets a personality. It turns out Crash (no relation) is a jerk. Kudos to Carol for putting him in his place. Did anyone else notice that Carol doesn't get a name until page 5 of a 6-page story?

Flossie
No flame thrower demos, at least.

Ted Parrish
I would have liked a bit more explanation of the "plenty of trouble" Dinah Lake caused the director. It must have been some dust-up to drive her to murder him. Ted's speech on our page 52, panel 2, doesn't make a lot of sense. I guess he's playing off his reputation as "The Man of 1000 Faces"?

"Thousand faces--two-faced--get it? Nudge nudge--get it?'

Speed Taylor
Nothing to see here.

Final thought: I was constantly annoyed by the fake squiggles letterers and artists used to portray Asian languages. Was it really that hard to find examples of genuine Chinese/Japanese/Korean characters? The artist could ask his Chinese laundryman for a sample phrase. Or he could pull his Filipino houseboy out of a valise and ask him. The only authentic Asian lettering I remember seeing was in "The Green Turtle," which makes sense since it was created by Chu F Hing, an authentic Asian.

But one must be careful when reproducing a language one doesn't understand. There's a story about noted industrial designer Norman bel Geddes, who started as a stage set designer. Early in his career he was assigned a play set in China. He wanted some large Chinese characters on the backdrop, and being young and foolish he simply copied some Chinese text he found from a book. After the preview, a Chinese gentleman asked him, "Do you realize that backdrop says, 'Grandpa spanks the baby?'"

Thanks to the Panther for the introduction to these fightin' females. I'd like to see some of them in longer stories.

[The Australian Panther]

Why in the world does Linda pull her skirt up and over her head when all she needs to do is let it drop to the floor?

In my research ( I remember not where or when) I once came across the information that men and women disrobe quite differently. Men let their clothes drop down to the floor. (How else are you going to take off your trousers?) but women take their outer clothes off over their heads. I think I've got that right. Maybe to protect the dress?
So the (male) writer or artist was observant (at some point in his life) and got it right.   

After reading several Captain Freedom stories I think the Defenders know darned well he's Don Wright. They just pretend not to.

The same thing with Kirby's Newsboy Legion. They had to know who the Guardian really was.
Actually, Kids Gangs might be an interesting subject for a future Reading Group post.
https://comicsbin.blogspot.com/2012/02/boy-champions-and-other-golden-age.html
The Boy Champions, and other Golden Age Gangs

But one must be careful when reproducing a language one doesn't understand. 

Car names have caused a lot of trouble apparently. There are so many languages you can't be sure that the name is inocculous in all languages. PAJERO apparently has a problematic meaning in Spanish, for instance.   

[Robb_K]

But one must be careful when reproducing a language one doesn't understand. 

Car names have caused a lot of trouble apparently. There are so many languages you can't be sure that the name is inocculous in all languages. PAJERO apparently has a problematic meaning in Spanish, for instance.

What does "pajero" mean in English?   A man who rides BIRDS???   Or who HERDS birds???   
vaca - vaquero   pajaro - pajero
  It only means "straw" in Esperanto.  A Straw Man?  A man made of Straw?  What does the Spanish word, "pajero" mean in English?

[mopee167]

The Pajero nameplate derives from Leopardus pajeros, the Pampas cat. Mitsubishi marketed the SUV as the Montero in North America, Spain, and Latin America (except for Brazil and Jamaica) due to the term "pajero" being derogatory (meaning "wanker") in Spanish.