Wheelan's Weekend Film Festival

Back in 1939 at the dawn of Comics, Ed Wheelan created a strip for Movie Comics entitled Minute Movies. These were essentially old serials in half-page comic strip form. They were printed in two-colour format (black & red ink) and featured regular players - a brilliant concept, really. But Movie Comics lasted only a half dozen issues and Ed moved over to Flash Comics where he invented Flash Movies decades before we came to know them. After a few months, he decided to bring back the Minute Movies, now fully realized in concept.

Directed by Art Hokum and starring Dick Dare, Hazel Dearie, Will Power, Blanche Rouge, Paul Vogue, Lotta Talent, Andrew Handy (Don't call him Andy), and the rest of the Minute Movie Players - including the great villain Ralph McSneer, and comedy buffoon Fuller Phun. Not to mention, Milo the chimpanzee.

Each issue they'd mount a new production - Now Showing All Month!

As you can see above, Wheelan also got the jump on Bob Rozakis by several decades, too. It's interesting that this Answer Man delivers only the answers - figure out the questions for yourself! 
Ed kind of presages another feature i've been planning (ask the Mindbender from Mars, he knows. As usual.)

As noted in the green box above, Minute Movies did not appear in the next issue, but returned in #18 and stuck around for almost 50 more issues.

You didn't think i was kidding about Milo, the chimp, did you...?
 

Our weekend film festival continues this afternoon. And we might even get to meet the great Director.

page art by Ed Wheelan from Flash Comics #s 16, 18, & 19 (1941)

Posting Perkins' Past

Regular reader Eric (バーンズ　エリック) pointed out that Neptune Perkins only had one other Golden Age tale besides the one we ran a few days ago. It's an origin story tucked into Joe Kubert's Hawkman strip. 

That was going to nag at me and get in the way of Father Of The Inferior Five? and The Lighter Side Of Death Patrols, so let's dive right in and take a look at The Dweller In The Sea...

There. 

Now you've got the complete Golden Age Neptune Perkins. You'll have to jump ahead a few decades for Roy's Revivals to see more of the man.

page art by Joe Kubert from Flash Comics #66 (1945)

That Time Hawkman & Neptune Perkins Flew To Venus In A Light Bulb To Fight Legends

As i've mentioned before, i sometimes enjoy simply perusing the covers of Golden Age comics. They can be raw & primitive, boldly experimental, unbridled fun, and just plain strange at times.

Just under a dozen after the last issue of Flash Comics we saw yesterday, this cover hit the stands -

So, i was enjoying J.C. Kozlak's fun little cover, and my first perception was that Hawkman had picked up a caveman to take to Venus in a lightbulb. But then i saw the claws of the webbed feet and realized "Hey! That's Neptune Perkins!" 

Those who remember Perkins very likely do so from his Young All-Stars revival. He was one of many golden age characters Roy Thomas brought into the (then) modern DC Universe. His penchant for doing that, his Alter Ego fanzine, and his Kree/Skrull War were the Big 3 that initially made me a life-long fan.

And, yep - the story inside, also drawn by Kozlak (writer unknown), brings Hawkman and Neptune Perkins together for a lightbulb ride to battle mythical monsters. 
The cover does not lie -

Usually when an old Hawkman cover catches my eye it's from Shelly Moldoff or Joe Kubert. I think i'm going to have to snoop around to see what else i find from Kozlak.

page art by Jon Chester Kozlak from Flash Comics #81 (1947)

This Post Is Rated GP

Somewhere between the Challengers Of The Unknown and the Blackhawks existed the Ghost Patrol.

So, who were these guys?

Originally written by Ted Udall and Emmanuel Demby with art by Frank Harry, (good luck figuring that out from the page credit below), the Ghost Patrol debuted with their origin in 1942 in the pages of Flash Comics...

Things sure worked out better for them than for these guys...

Like the Blackhawks, the Ghost Patrol continued well past the end of World War II - until 1949 - appearing in most issues of Flash Comics between #s 29-104. And, like those other guys, they sometimes had trouble finding direction without the war that spawned them. Things evolved and changed, with John Wentworth now scripting...

...things always change...

(Thanks, kiff57krocker)

...except   War. War Never Changes.

There was a Ghost Patrol that appeared in Our Army At War in 1963, but that was some other guys. They were Infantry. 
Fred, Slim and Pedro seem to have moved on from this realm.

page art by Frank Harry from Flash Comics #s 29, 38, & 70, panel art by kiff57krocker (1942, 1943, 1946, 2019)

(Yes, i've been playing FallOut games again)