That Time Hawkman & Neptune Perkins Flew To Venus In A Light Bulb To Fight Legends

As i've mentioned before, i sometimes enjoy simply perusing the covers of Golden Age comics. They can be raw & primitive, boldly experimental, unbridled fun, and just plain strange at times.

Just under a dozen after the last issue of Flash Comics we saw yesterday, this cover hit the stands -

So, i was enjoying J.C. Kozlak's fun little cover, and my first perception was that Hawkman had picked up a caveman to take to Venus in a lightbulb. But then i saw the claws of the webbed feet and realized "Hey! That's Neptune Perkins!" 

Those who remember Perkins very likely do so from his Young All-Stars revival. He was one of many golden age characters Roy Thomas brought into the (then) modern DC Universe. His penchant for doing that, his Alter Ego fanzine, and his Kree/Skrull War were the Big 3 that initially made me a life-long fan.

And, yep - the story inside, also drawn by Kozlak (writer unknown), brings Hawkman and Neptune Perkins together for a lightbulb ride to battle mythical monsters. 
The cover does not lie -

Usually when an old Hawkman cover catches my eye it's from Shelly Moldoff or Joe Kubert. I think i'm going to have to snoop around to see what else i find from Kozlak.

page art by Jon Chester Kozlak from Flash Comics #81 (1947)

This Post Is Rated GP

Somewhere between the Challengers Of The Unknown and the Blackhawks existed the Ghost Patrol.

So, who were these guys?

Originally written by Ted Udall and Emmanuel Demby with art by Frank Harry, (good luck figuring that out from the page credit below), the Ghost Patrol debuted with their origin in 1942 in the pages of Flash Comics...

Things sure worked out better for them than for these guys...

Like the Blackhawks, the Ghost Patrol continued well past the end of World War II - until 1949 - appearing in most issues of Flash Comics between #s 29-104. And, like those other guys, they sometimes had trouble finding direction without the war that spawned them. Things evolved and changed, with John Wentworth now scripting...

...things always change...

(Thanks, kiff57krocker)

...except   War. War Never Changes.

There was a Ghost Patrol that appeared in Our Army At War in 1963, but that was some other guys. They were Infantry. 
Fred, Slim and Pedro seem to have moved on from this realm.

page art by Frank Harry from Flash Comics #s 29, 38, & 70, panel art by kiff57krocker (1942, 1943, 1946, 2019)

(Yes, i've been playing FallOut games again)

A Post Before Posting

Odds are that folks who read this blog like old comics. One of the groups mentioned here from time to time that helps to preserve and archive the old comics and culture is TwoMorrows Publishing. 

Perhaps it comes as no surprise that they're being hit hard by the economic side of Trump Flu.

Meanwhile, many folks are slowly (and not so slowly) going stir crazy and are in desperate need of entertainment to keep their minds distracted from the Trump Flu furor. 

Well, maybe you folks can help each other out. With distribution channels closed, the only way for TwoMorrows to do business is via online/mailorder. To encourage those orders, John has announced a special 40% Off sale. Visit the TwoMorrows site for more info and to see how you and they can help each other out in these times.

Now i'm off to dive into some of those old comics and i'll be back later with today's post.

Busting Out Of This World

With Trump Flu lurking out there, seeing new things can be tricky. Fortunately, there's lots and lots of old things to dig into, eh?

One of the oldest figures in comics was Buster Brown, the 'younger child' of R.F. Outcault, the father of the Yellow Kid. Buster had great longevity. Debuting in 1902, the newspaper strip lasted for 20 years. But, if you know the name Buster Brown (and his dog Tige), it's probably not from the old newspaper comics. Only two years after he premiered, the Brown Shoe Company hooked up with Buster for an association that lasted into the '90s.

In the 1940s & '50s, Buster got into comic books, like pretty much everybody else. They were primarily promotional comics for shoe stores, similar to Bob's Big Boy comics, like those we saw for Li'l Genius not too long ago...

(Contrary to rumours, Buster did not grow up to be Captain Kangaroo)

Unlike Big Boy, Buster Brown enjoyed popular stardom outside of the free comics. And not just in the regular comics from Dell. Buster was the star of a series of live-action film shorts, a Broadway play, a radio series, and a tv series. And, of course, many years of commercials for the shoes.

And it surely didn't hurt his popularity that those comic books could actually be a lot of fun. And a bit delightfully deranged.

From just over 60 years ago, here's Out Of This World -

Alas, both writer and artists are unknown.

page art from Buster Brown in "Out Of This World" (1959)