Trump Flu Blues Prevention II - Building With Edison Bell

Once upon a time people had to entertain themselves on a regular basis. Philo was still staring at corn fields and Net was for fishing. What's a poor bored person to do?

I've made no secret of my fondness for boy genius/inventor comics, and i think we can find a bit help from some of them. So, let's jump back about 80 years and get some advice on how to build some fun from one we've yet to meet - Edison Bell.

By this point, you might be wondering "Who the hell was Edison Bell?" (because it rhymes)

Let's visit Blue Bolt #1 and get a peek, shall we? 

Edison was around for quite a while. The Grand Comics Database lists nearly 200 appearances (likely including some reprints). 

Next time we visit with him, we'll look at more of his comics and not just the Make'em pages that appear at the end.

page art by Harold DeLay and Ray Gil from a bunch of Blue Bolt issues between v.1#1 and v.8#10 (that numbering is clunky, no?) (1940-48)

1940 - A Good Year For Fly Girls

We haven't looked at any Fly Girls in a bit, and since we've been poking around in the 1940s lately, let's jump back to the beginning of the decade. 1940 saw the debut of at least 3 Fly Girls in the comics - Jane Martin - War Nurse, Lee Preston of the Red Cross, and Page Parks - Air Hostess.

While i'm trying to salvage data as the new hard drive exhibits signs of advanced dementia, why don't you folks take a look at the introductory tales for each of the ladies. All three of them debuted as features in the first issue of new titles.

Page Parks premiered in issue #1 of Blue Bolt, written by Ray Gill with art from William Rowland. (The standard practice of writer/artist ordering on the credits hadn't yet been established at this point) -

Okay, you're right. Page doesn't really qualify as a Fly Girl since she never takes the stick. But she was up there in the air very early on, and debuted in a highly prestigious title with a Joe Simon cover and young Jack Kirby just getting together with him in the background, about to start a partnership that would help shape the next half century of comics, and beyond. So she gets a mention anyway.
Meanwhile...

Actually, one month prior... Crack Comics #1 featured the debut of Lee Preston with Bob Powell using the Terrence MacAully pseudonym -

Three or four months later, depending on which comic you're counting from, Wings #1 hit the stands with Jane Martin. (Fred Hawks is a house name, not the actual creator)

Of the three, one had another handfull (and a half) of adventures, the second appeared perhaps a hundred times or more, and the third was never seen again. Care to guess who was whom?

This afternoon, we'll have the answers and an odd entry from later in the decade - a long running character who quit being a Fly Girl at the start of her first adventure.

See you in 12 hours!

page art from Blue Bolt #1, Crack Comics #1, and Wings Comics #1 (1940)

Genesis Two - S&K (King Kirby 002)

Dateline: 1940

Welcome to our ongoing King Kirby 100 celebration. This time out, the beginning of his first great collaborative partnership. Jack and Joe, of course, helped define and establish the comic book as a form, and created a host of enduring characters, not least of which was Chris Evans Captain America, the man who punched Hitler while America was trying to decide whether or not he was a bad guy.

Way back in the dawn of comics, Jack Kirby met Joe Simon. Joe was working on a new book called Blue Bolt and he brought Jack in to join him with issue #2. By issue #5 they were fully collaborating and for (as far as i can determine) for the very first time the famous Joe Simon & Jack Kirby byline appeared:

The Green Sorceress has been plaguing our hero and his civilization since Blue Bolt was struck by lightning in his first issue. As always, she plots and seeks a way to... well, you read the intro caption, right?
Her infernal hench has delivered an arcane volume she hopes will contain the knowledge she needs to succeed...

She summons her master builder and gives him the plans for an incomprehensible (and huge) device - a gateway through the flame. Weeks later, the machine is constructed and troops are ready.
Ever vigilant, the Blue Bolt inspects the perimeter before reporting back in to "the Scientist Bertoff," and makes a startling discovery.

Blue Bolt goes on the offensive, "alone, he repulses wave upon wave of the attacking Green Infantry-"

Hey! Let's take another look at that last panel...

Damn. Right there from the beginning Kirby was already working out his trademark Kirby Crackle. It's not quite there yet, but he's obviously establishing the basics way back in 1940! On an entirely unrelated note, it's quite interesting to see that they were using not just dots, but stripes in varying directions to create their mid-tone colors.
Okay. I digress - let's continue.
Immediately upon crossing over, things get weird for our hero...

With the goggles restraining the sensory input (much like Spider-Man's A:CW goggles?), Blue Bolt can proceed through a disturbing landscape littered with Green Infantry skeletal remains. While trying to determine what killed them, he encounters the Green Sorceress again - now calling him Darling, and pleading to not fight any more...

Being crushed to death by a plant really is not how he wants to die. Blue bolt struggles furiously and finally "breaks the great tentacles' crushing grip"...

While Doctor Bertoff continues to fight a slowly losing battle to defend his "huge laboratories" from the seemingly endless invaders, Blue Bolt manages to hook up with his troops.

 They rapidly launch an assault from the rear on the Green Sorceress's troops:

Realizing that her plan has failed, the Green Sorceress flees in an armored counter-dymaxian car, but hits a mine placed by her own troops, destroying the vehicle and killing her guards...

And so ends our first co-credited tale. The duo continued with the book for another 5 issues, and continued to create together for another 20 years. Later Jack started working with another partner, and they turned out some pretty good stuff, too.

Blue Bolt story by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby from Blue Bolt #5 (1940)