FF&G - Breaking The Marvel Code

While the real men of the comic blogging world are off battling in Friday Night Fights, around here we hide out and relax with Friday Fun & Games insead -

 This week, it's time to dust of those thinking caps and code books.  
Spider-Man, Submariner, Hulk, and especially that ticky Thor have been keeping secrets. Can you break the codes to find their hidden knowledge?

Y'know - we used to use that code the Hulk is using on our notes back in my school days. Well, that was part of the coding process, depending on the security level.
Old school geeks.

Check back for Saturday Solutions if you get stumped.

answers and sources tomorrow, eh?

Signature Finlay

I made comment this morning about Virgil Finlay's signature's evolution over time. Of course, as any good artist, his work evolved as well. Here's the signature he was using at the time of the work we saw in our previous post:

And here's a look at how both work and signature evolved into the look familiar to me when i discovered the art of Virgil Finlay -

That square sigil in the lower left corner of the pic above became a mark for me to hunt for in old pulps, and an instant "Buy Me!" sign when found. I promised a look at his work for those unfamiliar, and we'll go into greater detail in the future. For now, here are another dozen images to give you an little peek at the incredibly detailed (insanely detailed, say some artists who understand just how much work is involved) art of Virgil Finlay - 

Just because i'm sure some are wondering - the caption for that last image is "Irene gasped as her dress was snatched back into the other world.", from the story Peter Merton's Private Mint by Lee Archer in the October 1956 issue of Fantastic.

art by Virgil Finlay, of course (varied)

Meanwhile, In 1938...

While we're in the neighborhood...

Just down the rack a ways from yesterday's Life magazine, a young artist was beginning to make a name for himself with the cover painting and interior illustrations for the April '38 issue of Weird Tales -

At this early stage of his career, Virgil Finlay had yet to work out the signature that was to become so familiar in his later works. You can see the signature he's using here in the lower right corner of this next piece. Or rather, one of the signatures - the shorter, first name only signature is below her head on the cover above, while the longer signature with full name is on the art below.

Here's the Table Of Contents for the issue, with quite a few great old writers on the bill -

Finlay had another half dozen illustrations in the issue. When they were title illos, i left the story details in the images for context:

Finlay, of course, went on to become one of the great science fiction/fantasy magazine artists of the 20th century and honoree of the Science Fiction Hall Of Fame. If you're not familiar with his work, no worries. We'll be correcting that...

art by Virgil Finlay for Weird Tales v.31 #4 (1938)

Life In 1938

We haven't done a cultural archeology post in a bit, so let's dive into the past and take a look at life 80 years ago. I' speaking rather literally - we're digging into Life magazine from 25 April 1938 - 80 years ago today.

Um...   I gots no sports.
Like - at all.
So, near as i can tell - this cover is from Mudville and that guy is named Casey.

Before we go on, let's get our minds into proper perspective. How long ago was 80 years?
Here's the UK's seemingly immortal Queen Mother at the time...

Got your head wrapped around it?
Okay - Buckle Up! This is gonna be a long one. We're not going to cover everything, but there's still a lot. Let's start with a look  at the table of contents -

Ah - there's the cover info. MeKenzie, Tenn... That's close to Mudville, ain't it?*

The letters from the editor in this issue are all on the same topic. Here's the first page...

Well, if you're like me then you're wondering what that four page sequence must have looked like, eh?
Let's jump back a couple of weeks and take a look-see...

Frankly, i'd rather have seen that when i was a kid than the very clinically obtuse or metaphorically confusing literature options that were available at the time.

Back to today (80 years ago)... Here's another fine indicator of just how long ago this was -

Note that $685 is the price for the mid-range automobile. There are both cheaper and more expensive options available. Damn
What else was going on in the advertising?

People were still taking advise from animals...

The idea that maybe cars should have stronger glass than what's in your kitchen window was still a new thing...

...and the idea of what goes in that kitchen was being revolutionized by the new Electric Kitchen...

Cars and trucks were big, the largest single advertising block So perhaps it's no surprise that Texaco was running a two page advertisement for their  gas  Service Stations -

I guess they were focused on the rest rooms because drivers already knew to "always trust your car to the man with the (Texaco) star"?

The lead story of the issue was President Roosevelt taking to the radio for one of his famous "fireside chats"...

What i find really fascinating is that Life apparently sent out photographers to various people's homes to take pictures during the broadcast. 80 years ago they were already using the tech of the day to make audience reactions to a story into a story of its own? Did the following issue have reader comments to listener reactions to the original event - playing out like a slow motion version of today's internet commenting?
(No. I looked, and no letters were on this story)

Hmm. Isn't it interesting how they present Addison's speech in ethnic colloquialisms in the bold face quote, but only in the the bold highlight. "Ah hopes he brings me some good work!" vs. "I think it was wonderful." and "I always favor the President's programs."
 
A bit that might seem right at home today followed with the radio station owners complaining of lost advertising revenues...

Here's the full page piece on the Royals from which the opening picture of Princess Elizabeth was sourced...

One thing that remains consistent is a celebrity gossip section, though the celebs may be rather less familiar...

Hollywood children getting ripped off by their parents is nothing new - though it was new for Jackie Coogan...

They were first, but Jackie's parents may have done it best with their declaration that he was a minor so all earnings belonged to them and he wasn't entitled to anything earned before he turned 18.

They seemed to shoot both low and high for their audience, featuring both Chess Champion...

...and Marbles Champ...

Ah - forget them. There's Daffodil Girls!

A big difference was that it was shocking for a Wall Street broker to commit financial fraud.

 Another is the view of D.W. Griffith and that of Birth Of A Nation in particular, calling the now widely-reviled movie "the most celebrated film ever made"...

The U.S. Capital was being reshaped into a form more recognizable to today's readers, and Life did a special pictorial - with colour!

I'm willing to bet they did not tell the subjects of the photographs that "little men in big buildings" line before the issue saw print. Readers got pics of the new office of the Attorney General...

...the International Commerce Committee...

...the Ways & Means Committee...

...and the Federal Reserve Boardroom...

Meanwhile, New Yorkers were enjoying a bit of statuary...

...and the long highway to key West was finally in service...

Since the stock broker above got sent to Sing Sing, San Quentin was the party destination of choice, long before Johnny got there...

Wouldn't want readers to think it was all fun & games in prison? or capitalizing on the potential sensationalism? Either way, we switch from party to death row...

The gallows were painted baby blue? I don't think i ever would have guessed that.

Okay - let's wrap this up (Finally!) with a movie review for...   wait. What's this? Clark Gable, Spencer Tracey and Myrna Loy? In a movie about Test Pilots? I'd watch a movie with any one of them in it. My dad was a test pilot! Why don't i know this film?

Okay, time to go.
I gotta find out if this film still exists.

pages from April 25th issue of Life magazine (1938)

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*(I was born in Tennessee. I'm allowed to mock.)