More Smokey Stylin' With Munson Paddock

Continuing from yesterday, we complete the run of Smoke Carter in 1939's Speed Comics from Munson Paddock (here signed as Joe E. Martin). As noted previously, there were only six episodes, usually six pages each. The final episode only has five pages, so perhaps they knew it was on the way out.

I still like the 'smokey' style Munson used which first drew me to the strip. It's even inspired me a bit while prepping the pages. (Whether that'll go anywhere remains to be seen). So let's race along with Smoke and the fire company to face Crime With A Crawl...

"A Brand New Adventure Feature..."

I guess they did know it was the last strip.

page art by Munson Paddock from Speed Comics #s 4-6 (1940)

Getting Smoke In Your Eyes

I've herded those kittens i call a mind back towards posting, so let us see if TPTB will play along. I'm going to split today's post into two, just to lighten the image load. Working with no hard drive here - OS and files all on USB sticks. Combine that with the hate i've been getting from Blogger lately, and you might realize that i'm rambling mostly from fear-stalling the image uploads.

So, let's push on - and back to visit Munson Paddock once again. This time his artwork appears under the name of Joe E. Martin, but it's Munson. What first drew my eye to Smoke Carter is prominently displayed in the first splash panel. Leaning heavily into fluid brush strokes and stark contrasts, he adopted what could most appropriately be termed a 'smokey' style  for the strip...

Smoke Carter only appeared in the first six issues of Speed Comics. Since there's just a half dozen half-dozen page tales, we'll run them all. But, as noted above, i'm splitting it into two batches to alleviate postings struggles.

Here are the next two stories:

Next Time:
Crime With A Crawl
Death Races The Fire Fiend
and
Flames Lick The Stamp That Seals His Doom

Gotta love that 3rd title.

page art by Munson Paddock from Speed Comics #s 1-3 (1939)

Will Chen Chang Live To Carry On His Fiendish Schemes?

While we've looped back around to Munson Paddock, let's touch on a topic we'll be hearing a lot about over the next year or two - Yellow Peril.

Sax Rohmer's famous and infamous Fu Manchu is the best known example, and the popularity of the old books inspired a host of comic book imitations. Marvel, of course, had the Yellow Claw long before they licensed Fu Manchu - way back in 1942. He didn't get his own title until '56 - was that when Jimmy Woo first appeared? We'll have to go looking at some point. Not today.

Today, as i said, we're still hanging with Munson Paddock and looking at the Yellow Peril strip he produced for Victor Fox in Mystery Men Comics - Chen Chang. Some may recall that i have at times remarked on how the creators seem to have been trying to do good things even though they come off terribly racist in this next century. That's not the case here. While not quite leaping into Dwig territory, they fully embrace the racist elements of the stereotype. More often than not, Chen Chang stories open with an introduction like "Chen Chang, cultured but fiendish master mind, seeks the downfall of the white race!"...

...or "Chen Chang, master mind, plots to destroy the White Race!"...

...and occasionally the peril got a fair bit more yellow...

Here's a sampling of other introductions...

Even when there was no introductory caption, they'll mention the basics soon enough, as you can see in this tale of River Lily and the Purr of Death. And you can see how it's not just the introductions. It seems perhaps a conscious attempt to embrace and exploit the yellow peril trend...

No, we're not missing a panel. They were just so used to him dying at the end of each story that they could merely imply it by that point. Better to go ahead an tell you what story he'll be returning in than to finish the job there. 

Here's the reason Kendall asked "Can they really be alive?" in the story above...

And so it went...

...and went...

...and went...

...and went...

...and went...

...

...

...

Eventually, Kendall started to grasp the concept...

However, based on the closing captions, i guess they decided the readers hadn't figured it out yet.

page art by Munson Paddock for Mystery Men Comics #s 2-6, 10-17, & 20-23 (1939-1941)