Somewhere Between Blackhawks And Boy Commandoes...

We've been looking at Pat Parker's evolution from War Nurse to Adventurer to Superhero to ... ? 

When we left off, the 'artist' promised us that Pat was headed off somewhere new next time. And indeed, not just a new front of the war, but also a new role - Girl Commando...

And now Pat was no longer a solo act - she had a team to back her up. From this point on, the series was The Girl Commandos. They ran for about a score of issues, dissolving after the war... 

(Yes, this is unfortunately how our Friends & Allies were depicted.)

(Finally! we start seeing Jill Elgin's signature on the strip)

Note that last caption - "Not so long ago..."

The war was over, and rather than follow the often tread route of retooling the Girls to fight crime, they allowed the Commandos to retire and enjoy civilian life in peacetime.

Not a bad run. With the exception of #38, Pat appeared in every issue of Speed Comics from #13 to #42, outlasting the war she fought by several months.

page art by Jill Elgin from Speed Comics #s 23-37, & 39-42 (1942-1946)

Dia De La Cabeza Muerta

It's one of those days...

Brain not talking to me just now. And doesn't want to prep pages. And Mel doesn't want to play. So, here's a few random images from work on The Third Colony. That's obviously another shot from Alyce: Glass Wonderland above.

Here's advertising for one of the most popular eateries -
 

(Yes, Dina Jr.'s pose is intentionally awkward and stiff - and in character)

...Cats Will Play, with Tom Cat and Pritty Kitty (and Manic Monday in the shadows - poor Tom)...
 

...and a recruiting poster for the local force -
 

Yeah, mostly weak bits of filler sitting on hand. Sorry about that. Maybe if we kiss and make up, my brain and i will be back later today with more better.

stuff by -3- (2020)

Perusing Pat Parker's Progression Proceeds...

We're back with Pat Parker, War Nurse - our latest Fly Girl. As we saw, her look had morphed from Nursing Uniform to Adventurer to Superhero. And her adventures went far beyond what one might expect from a Nurse - a fact that would soon be reflected in both title and content.

As we can see, Pat was out in the field, taking an active role in the war...

...and even going behind enemy lines...
 

That's a fun looking splash, innit? Let's go ahead and follow along on this one before we continue. We open with Adolph Hitler wandering the halls of power, desperate for a Twitter account...
 

For younglings with confusion - the Army Air Corps was what we had before the Air Force became an independent branch of the military. (A real branch, not a PR farce based on tyrants' dreams of conquest like our latest gomer induced military branch.) 

Continuing on, we can see how Pat took an ever more active role in the fight...

The next tale highlights how wrong i was in forgetting that Pat was a Fly Girl when first we spoke of her. Pat Got Around -
Motorcycles, planes, rafts, parachutes ... frelling hijacked submarines!
 

As mentioned several times previously, i love seeing the creators inserted into the comics. But - who in the 9 hells is that?

Best guess for the artwork is Jill Elgin, who was drawing it a couple issues earlier.  That sure doesn't look like her.
We could say maybe it's the writer, but that's a drawing table. So... who knows?

But, we'll be back to see what he was talking about, and the changes to which i alluded above. 
Meanwhile, two issues later, Pat made the cover...
 

page art by Jill Elgin (and maybe others) from Speed Comics #s 16-22 & 24 (1942)

Getting Coo Coo With The Strength Of 14,376 Men And A Boy

You probably already knew it was Saturday morning - though maybe not. It seems a lot of folks are getting rather detached from calendar time while isolating from trump flu. That's pretty much my normal, being a cave dwelling hermit and all. 

But, i did notice as i sat down to sort out today's post and decided i'm in a Saturday morning cartoon-y sort of mood, so let's go with it.

You might be a tad perplexed by the title on this post, so let's clear that up right away. "Getting Coo Coo..." might better be stated "Going Coo Coo..." as we're diving into the first few issues of Coo Coo Comics - "America's Funniest Magazine"...

As you may have noted above, the star of the book was Supermouse, whom we somehow have managed to overlook until now. How super is the mouse? He has "the strength of 14,376 men and a boy" of course - hence our title.

Kin Platt was the artist who launched Supermouse. Let's take a look and see how he started, eh?

Oops.
Maybe we better visit with someone else while our mousey hero languishes behind bars. Meet Mortimer Magic, who comes to us via Victor Pazmiño -

Well...  That was brutal.

Perhaps we should check back with Supermouse instead. Milt Stein has taken over the art chores on the second tale...

Well, the little perv did peep into over 16,000 homes on the previous page, so maybe he should be locked up.

Let's see who else was hanging out in Coo Coo. R.G. (Rube Grossman?) brought us S'no Use And The Seven Dopes...
 

All fairy tales have morals, right?
I'll let you sort that one out yourselves. Meanwhile, Art Gates gets educational with Bashful Brown of Nuthouse U -
 

...and Matt Curzon brings us another educated hero with Bookworm Billy -
 

...and another dead faint at the end. 
Hmm...

And now, i have a confession to make.
I lied. Mortimer Magic didn't just get thrown to the dragon as implied above.

Here's how his tale continued...
 

That's better, right?
Unless you came back next issue and found they left him buried in a hole and forgot him.

Okay -
He did finally return to get out of that hole... 

seven months later! 

Maybe that quick dragon ending wouldn't have been so bad, huh?

page art by Kin Platt, Victor Pazmiño, Milt Stein, R.G., Art Gates and Matt Curzon from Coo Coo Comics #s 1, 2 & 5 (1942, 1943)