The Inverse Evolution Of Jane Martin - War Nurse

We've been looking at how Pat Parker - War Nurse evolved from War Nurse to Adventurer to Superhero and Commando.

While we've looked at Jane Martin - War Nurse previously, it was mostly looking at later episodes featuring Lily Renée doing the artwork. Jane started the year before Pat, in the spring of 1940. When she launched, she sported a rather superheroic look to her uniform...

She kept that look for a few issues. This is one of the two for which we have confirmed art credit - George Tuska on both pencils and inks...
 

...then started to modify it to look less superheroish...
 

...and by her 5th appearance, she was uniformed as a standard Nurse, with Tuska returning on at least pencils...
 

 

Obviously, the outfit change didn't slow her down. She kept up her heroics, no matter how she was dressed, for a decade, long after the war had ended.

Oddly enough, there was another seeming change along the way. Based on the above tales, one might conclude that Jane Martin was British (unless i missed a reference while skimming). The USA wouldn't enter the war for another year and a half, and Jane's boyfriend was a British pilot.

So, why was i thinking she was from across the pond, demarcating her from Pat Parker?

Later stories told me so...

...though actually, it only says that "No American Girl has ever run such a strange gamut of thrills and mystery as Jane Martin." It doesn't actually state that's her nationality.

I'm not going reading through 100 tales to find out now. Read it the way you prefer, as shall i.

page art by George Tuska and ??? (Nick Cardy?)from Wings Comics #s 1 & 2-6, splash page by Lily Renée from Wings Comics #33 (1940,1943)

The Evil Of Dr. Strange

Just a quick look at a series this morning while i'm sorting out my calendar confusion.

UPDATE: I found this tale reprinted in Dynamic Comics #10 with George Tuska credited for the artwork.

Today's strip is definitely an Odd one, in many ways. For one thing, he's a scifi superhero with a costume (and mask), but he uses his civilian name - Dan Hastings. You may, perhaps, be thinking "Hey! The title says Dr. Strange!" Indeed, but he is the villain of this tale.

For another thing - it's brutally grim from the first page, even while being light in style. Giant space insects devouring the flesh from infants, leaving behind skeletons? And this was about 80 years ago...

Of course, we should maybe be expecting Oddness when consecutive covers on the title look like this -

For more Odd, though hardly unexpected, the evil Dr. Strange did return after being reduced to a skeleton - later in that same issue...

I should perhaps point out that Dan Hastings was not a new character in this story. He had already been around in comics for five years at this time. And he continued to appear for another 5. So there's plenty for us to peruse when we return this way.

page art by George Tuska from Scoop Comics #2 (1942)

And Now That Title Makes More Sense...

Yesterday we featured two short tales that didn't seem to read quite right. Character names changed, details didn't line up... something was a bit Off.  Or just Odd.

And that oddness is what both had in common. To answer yesterday conundrum - what made the stories nearly identical is that both were re-published twice, each time with the names, even story details, changed.

Both of these stories originally ran in Red Seal Comics, just a few issues apart in 1946. Both were republished two years later in 1948, and then again in 1950 & '52, diverging a bit at the end.

George Tuska's Gay Desperado, not to be confused with Fred Guardineer's Gay Desperado, ran from mid-1945 to mid-'47 and has had stories reprinted as recently as 2016. The Gay Desperado name seems to have lost its cachet over the years, and he was renamed The Bold Buckaroo and The Lone Vigilante in the republished versions. But that wasn't enough, it seems. Jim Collins became Tim Rollins became Tom Cullen. Here are all three versions of this story, in publication order -

In a demonstration of customer contempt that would fit right in with today's corporations, that last version of the tale above was published only 8 issues after the previous version - in the same damn title.

Meanwhile, the second version below is from Authentic Police Cases, running a retread of a Lady Satan story. Authentic enough for the History Channel.

Another link between these two stories - although this Lady Satan tale is drawn by Ralph Mayo, the original artist on the series was none other than George Tuska. Mayo drew three Lady Satan stories that i know of, putting him even with Tuska.

You'll note more dramatic changes to the story on this next one, especially since she's not a superhero in the later versions -

Lady Satan was also reprinted in 2016, along with The Gay Desperado. Both were in Gwandanaland Comics, if you want to go hunting. Lady Satan saw more action with them.

page art by George Tuska and Ralph Mayo for Red Seal Comics #s 15 & 18, The Texan #s 1 & 9, Authentic Police Cases # 5, and Strange Terrors #1 (1946, 1948, 1950, 1952)