Retro Comics are Awesome

[andersonh1]

More Fun Comics #91
May-June 1943

Silks and Spice and Everything Nice!
More "crooks with a gimmick", this time based off the old "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers" tongue twister. Crooks Peter Piper and Pickle Pepper (who always refer to each other as Mr. Piper and Mr. Pepper) decide to start stealing "silks, spice and everything nice". I'm not going to belabor the plot on this one, but Pepper is fond of using clouds of pepper to blind people as a fighting tactic, and Mr. Piper has trick pipes, including one that creates a smokescreen, one with a knife hidden in it, and one that explodes. The crooks succeed in stealing the first two items, but Green Arrow sets a trap and catches the gang on the third attempt, all except Piper and Pepper, who escape to fight another day (though I don't think we ever see them again). It's all corny, but more entertaining than it probably has a right to be. Colorful villains are better than generic ones any day.

[andersonh1]

More Fun Comics #92
July-August 1943

Legacy for Loot
Joe Cracker, head of a small gang of crooks, has a rich uncle who died and included Cracker in his will. Cracker thinks its money and plans to share his good fortune with his two gang members, but it turns out to be three pieces of construction equipment: a steam shovel, an electro magnet and a pile drive. Disappointed at first, a chance newspaper article about a millionaire with a steel vault on his estate leads to the idea that the piledriver could be used to break into the vault and steal the money. And so it goes, with each of the three construction vehicles used to commit a crime. It takes a trap set by Green Arrow to round up the crooks, who had actually gotten away with the first two robberies, and probably would have been home free if they'd stopped there, as one of Cracker's gang actually suggests. Greed gets them all in the end.

[andersonh1]

World's Finest Comics #10
Summer 1943

The Eye of Sheba!
Oliver and Roy visit a friend, Joseph Vance, who shows off his jewel collection, including the Eye of Sheba, a giant ruby. Oliver is concerned that it makes his friend a target for crooks, but Vance has quite the security system, including a panther named Sheba who roams the house. Vance's butler appears, and Oliver is sure he's seen him somewhere before. Making an excuse to leave early, he tells Roy that the butler is a member of Big Max's gang, so as predicted, the gang is going after the ruby. The gang break into the house after silencing the alarm, thanks to their inside man, and it takes several attempts for Green Arrow and Speedy to round up the gang, who fight them off more than once. The arrowlines save them from Vance's hungry lions, while in the end Sheba pounces on Big Max and stops his theft.

[andersonh1]

More Fun Comics #93
September-October 1943

The Case of the Corny Crook!
Gentleman Jim Dawson gets out of prison after 40 years and tries to go back to crime, but his methods are hopelessly out of date. A modern gang takes him in and "follows his orders" however, but only so that he distracts the cops while they pull some real heists. It takes a number of tries and a few brushes with death before Green Arrow and Speedy can stop the gang, but they let Dawson go, and even find him employement writing old fashioned crime stories. This is the second would-be crook that Green Arrow has let go after Professor Million. I get the sense he's fine with busting hardened gangsters, but he's happy to go easy on others.

More Fun Comics #94
November-December 1943

Guardians of Injustice!
There ouughtta be a law against it!

Honest Herman is getting annoyed with the police for (correctly) accusing him of crimes which he committed, which they cannot prove. A chance remark by one of his hired gangsters gives him the idea to buy the nearby small town of Edgewood, a bankrupt, one-cop town, and take it over, becoming that town's police force and judge. They use their position to rob and steal people in the town. When GA and Speedy round up some burglars, the two archers get arrested by the "police" and thown in jail. But GA has figured out what's going on, escapes, and attempt to bust up the gang. They're successful enough to push them out of town, but Herman and his men decide to pull one more heist before dropping the police racket, and they go into a hotel to pretend to search it, robbing as they go. This time the gang is rounded up, and Herman is arrested by the very cop he was taunting as the story opened.

[andersonh1]

Interesting. DC got cold feet on reprinting this once, but they've decided to go ahead with it. I like 1940s Captain Marvel, so I'm planning to get this if it actually materializes this time.

https://www.newsarama.com/40421-shazam- ... arvel.html

SHAZAM!: THE MONSTER SOCIETY OF EVIL DELUXE EDITION HC
Written by OTTO BINDER
Art by C.C. BECK and PETE COSTANZA
Cover by MICHAEL CHO
At first he was simply a disembodied voice on the radio, taunting Captain Marvel with his ever-more-fiendish schemes to conquer the world. Then, readers gasped as Mr. Mind was revealed—all two inches of him! Was this lowly creature really the epitome of evil he claimed to be? Fortunately, Billy Batson understood the folly of underestimating someone based on their size! As small as he was, Mr. Mind was big trouble—especially once he turned the menacing members of his Monster Society of Evil loose to wreak havoc!
This new title collects the entire 24-chapter serial from the Golden Age of Comics with new essays by Fawcett Comics expert P.C. Hamerlinck and film producer and comics historian Michael Uslan. Collects stories from CAPTAIN MARVEL ADVENTURES #22-46!
ON SALE 02.06.19
$49.99 US | 272 PAGES

[andersonh1]

The Batman Golden Age Omnibus vol. 5

Detective Comics #113
July 1946

Crime on the Half-Shell
I guess no crime is too small for Batman to tackle, even Oyster pirates? Is there such a thing? Captain Joe Jibbs, long time oyster fisherman, hoped for a son to take over the business after him, but his only child turned out to be a daughter, who he and his wife named Josephine, or "Jo" for short. She insists that she can take over the business when she's grown, and when her dad is blinded in an accident, she does indeed take over the oyster fishing business. Sadly for her, Gotham gangster Blackhand has taken up oyster piracy, and it takes the help of Batman and Robin (already on Blackhand's trail) to stop the piracy and help rescue her after she's been kidnapped. Her father admits he was wrong about her, and praises her hard work and success at carrying on the family business.

World's Finest Comics #23
July-August 1946

Champions Don't Brag!
Gotham crook Goldplate Gorney gets out of jail. He complains that Batman has put him away three times, and he can't afford to be caught again, or it's life for him. (It never occurs to him to just stop committing crimes, I guess). He and his gang discuss the situation and decide they must get rid of Batman, and that the best way to do that is to capture Robin, who must go to school somewhere since he's a kid. They figure he's the best athlete in his school, so they stake out various athletic competitions, hoping to figure out which kid is Robin. That's not a bad bit of deduction on their part, but they end up kidnapping the wrong boy, Hugh Ross, since Dick Grayson does indeed compete in athletics at his school but holds back so he doesn't win everything with ease. Batman and Robin must rescue the kidnapped boy and put an end to Goldplate's schemes. Batman avoids being shot and unmasked by saying he's pulled an explosive from his belt, threatening to blow everyone up, and Robin demonstrates that his athletic skill tops Hugh's with ease. The gang is rounded up after they escape because they let slip a clue about their hideout that Hugh is able to pass on to Batman.

We've gotten a number of stories focusing on Dick Grayson and Robin in the last few issues of the previous volume, and this is another solid example of how skilled at his work the character is meant to be.

[andersonh1]

Batman #36
August-September 1946

The Penguin's Nest!
This story was adapted as an episode for the Adam West Batman series in the 60s. I recognized the plot as soon as I got a few pages into it. The Penguin opens a restaurant, claiming that he's gone straight. But of course he hasn't, and since he caters to the very wealthy, and has then write out their order and sign it, the reader is miles ahead of Batman and Commissioner Gordon in figuring out that there's some forgery scheme going on here. Sure enough, the Penguin commits a purse-snatching right in front of Gordon to get himself arrested, but Batman realizes the Penguin isn't that clumsy and prevents the arrest. Gordon agrees to cooperate (after threatening to throw Batman in jail for interfering with the law! Not something I expect in these 1940s stories) and we get a few pages of the Penguin constantly trying and failing to get himself arrested. It turns out he wants to spend a stint in jail because a well-known forger is there, but a disguised Batman and a fake signature trap the Penguin when Batman's signature doesn't match the real millionaire he was impersonating. It's a fun runaround, but again, the Penguin's scheme is so obvious that Batman ends up looking a little slow on the uptake here.

[andersonh1]

Batman #36 concluded

Stand-In for Danger!
Stuntman Jerry McGlone vanishes after attempting a dangerous dive from a falling car and is missing, presumed dead. Soon after, crimes start occurring which exactly follow the script of the movie McGlone was filming. Batman and Robin are called to the west coast to hunt down and stop McGlone, who has taken up this life of crime out of nowhere. HIs athletic skills and stuntwork give Batman and Robin quite a run for their money, but eventually they do capture him, and it turns out to be the old "hit on the head, partial memory loss, adopts persona of last movie role" crime spree. Jerry gets the medical help he needs, ending his temporary life of crime.

Elusive London Eddie!
"The Adventures of Alfred" is cut from four pages to three. Oddly enough, for once the story works better than usual, even though it's the same old "Alfred blunders his way into catching a crook" plot that every single one of these has. "London" Eddie is loose in Gotham and Alfred decides that it takes an Englishman to catch an English crook, and he starts by visiting all the English pubs and restaurants in Gotham, stuffing himself to that he can barely walk. He mistakes a moustached man in his final stop for Eddie, throws pepper in his face, and accidentally trips the real Eddie (who had shaved off his moustache) as he tries to escape unnoticed. GCD notes that this is the last Alfred story, and I can't say I'll miss this series within a series. I like Alfred, but "The Adventures of Alfred" always feels like what it is: filler, a way to take up part of the page count, and it really is the same exact plot every time.

Sir Batman at King Arthur's Court!
I should have kept count of this, another "series within the series', as Bruce (complete with his pipe for the first time in years) and Dick visit Professor Carter Nichols and it's time for another "time travel via hypnosis" story. I'm still not sure how this is supposed to work, but it does, as Nichols (the world's foremost authority on time travel!) sends them back to King Arthur's court to investigate the mystery of a previously unknown knight, Sir Hardi Le Noir. No points for guessing that the mystery knight will eventually turn out to be Batman himself, as he and Robin get another fun swashbuckling adventure battling court intrigue, Sir Mordred and Morgan LeFey as they work to rescue Merlin and his niece Aline. Batman even mentions some of the skills her learned in Ancient Rome and fighting with the Musketeers as he swordfights Mordred. These stories are always fun.

[andersonh1]

Detective Comics #114
August 1946

Acrostic of Crime!
This Joker story is just so by-the-numbers that it's almost dull. The Joker hasn't seen his name in the headlines recently so he comes up with a plan to commit crime by an acrostic made up of his name and leave clues for Batman to figure out. Apart from a few good character moments, such as Batman and Commissioner Gordon's embarassment that the Joker is running rings around them, and the Joker's desire for notoriety, there's very little to recommend about this story, and very little that sets it apart from any other "Joker with a new gimmick" plot.

[andersonh1]

Detective Comics #115
September 1946

The Man Who Lived in a Glass House!
A little like a goldfish bowl, if you know what I mean. - Robin, commenting on the glass house

This is a bizarre story about an architect building houses made from glass and his former partner who wants to ruin him. I know the old "people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones" proverb, but if this story proves anything, it's that some maxims just don't make for good stories. A house with no privacy isn't going to go very far, right? Bruce and Dick even have to duck into the bushes and not the house to get some privacy to change into costume when thugs attack the glass house with stones and grenades.

I don't mind some far fetched plots, so long as I can buy into the premise, but I just can't do that here. No one in their right mind would live in a glass house, even one made of super-strong, unbreakable glass. With the premise unworkable, the plot mechanics don't mean much either. This story's a dud.