Stahling For Fun

Yesterday we saw some early comics from two of MAD Magazine's famous Usual Gang Of Idiots, Al Jaffee's Inferior Man and Dave Berg's Death Patrol. I ended the posts teasing another connection between the two strips.

That connection? Al Stahl.

After Jaffee and Berg moved on from those comics, Stahl went MAD on them and added a new level of insanity to both comics. If you recall Inkie, you know he was qualified for crazy.

Inferior Man moved from Military Comics over to Feature Comics with Al Stahl at the helm -

As mentioned yesterday, Death Patrol ended with Berg's final strip in Military Comics #12. It returned nine issues later with Gill Fox doing the first of the new strips, and Al Stahl taking over immediately after. It's still war time for the Death Patrol, but things keep getting stranger...

Death Patrol's creator returned for a stint in the middle of Stahl's run. That's worth returning for, eh?

page art by Al Stahl from Military Comics #s 26 & 34 and Feature Comics #s 65-67, 70, & 71 (1943, 1944)

Frank's Girl

Do you know The Spider Widow?

She Weaves A Web Of Justice To Trap The Insects Of Corruption!

She had only sixteen short 5 page tales (6 pages for the intro) appearing in Feature Comics back in 1942-43.

One thing that makes her especially noteworthy around these parts is that signature above. That is indeed Frank Borth, the artist on the Enchanted Flivver tales, among other things.

The Spider Widow is a glimpse at another reality - a path not taken. The series was created and written by Borth, and drawn by him with the exception of the final tale. At that point, he was drafted into service in World War II and the strip came to an end.

After his return from the war, his comic work was primarily with Treasure Chest Of Fun & Fact. As many of you know, the book was only available to parochial students, and so his work went in a decidedly different direction. Given how much he worked with Capt. Frank T. Moss, i've wondered if perhaps they met while serving and returned to civilian life to work together? That's merely one of those idle speculations, not any sort of actual fact to be repeated as a distorted truth.
Kind of have to say that these days.

Instead of my speculative ramblings, i suspect you'd rather read the first Spider Woman tales, eh?

And so...

And then she fell for a guy...

...and for those who might be wondering - Yes, she did eventually meet the Spider-Man.
(Don't worry, we'll get there)

the works by Frank Borth from Feature Comics #s 57-59, 60 & 67 (1942, 1943)

Who Is That Funny Looking Guy?

Fighting with mind again. Every time i try to pick up the threads of where we left off, it refuses to participate. "I've already done that! Pissoff!"
It's hard to explain how frustrating that can be, or how full the digital bin is with cast-off attempts. So, quit trying for now. Maybe it'll come around.

Meanwhile, have a Blimpy -

Though not the originator, this Blimpy strip comes from Tony DiPreta, whose Stupid Manny we've seen here before. We'll get back to him.

If the brain will let me...

page art by Tony DiPreta from Feature Comics #79 (1944)