Seeing Stardust

This blog has been going for a while now and we've still only made bare mention of the man many consider to be the Golden Age God Of ODD - Fletcher Hanks. As noted previously, it seemed too easy at launch and kept getting pushed back.

Or maybe i'm just being lazy, eh?

So, let's take a dive into 1939 and the dawn of comic books in the pages of Fantastic Comics and visit this guy -

Stardust, the Super Wizard, was anything but subtle. He was the essence of the Golden Age in many respects. Vaguely defined and unbounded by set rules or even logic.

Okay. I guess we're going to have to keep going and see "Rip-The-Blood" battling Stardust. (C rip-the-Blood?)

All right... One more. Just to make three...

Yes - unconscious people floating in space can breathe and not pop. Just go with it.

Stardust got stranger at times, and he wasn't alone. Fletcher Hanks created several rather deranged characters and we'll have to look at more of them, as well as coming back to Stardust.

But, don't worry. We won't be visiting any of the sad reboots from more recent times.

page art by Fletcher Hanks from Fantastic Comics #s 1, 2, & 7 (1939, 1940)

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)

The Lighter Side Of Death Patrols

Earlier today we saw what Al Jaffee was doing in Military Comics back in the days before MAD Magazine. A few pages down the book, another major member of the Usual Gang Of Idiots was delivering deranged comedy with a group that echoed the most famous stars of the title - the Blackhawks.

This was another international squad of flyers, in a rather different vein, the Death Patrol...

BTW - They lived up to their name, despite the comedy stylings. This splash is from issue #10. Only one of the members depicted is a survivor since issue #1.

Obviously, from both the title of this post and the signature above, we're talking about Dave Berg as the current artist on the strip. It was originated by Jack Cole, who drew the first three episodes. Berg took over with the fourth issue and stuck around to both write and draw the stories until the series ended (the first time) in #12.

When Dave took over the book, he started killing off old characters and bringing in new members to diversify the team. He added the sovereign of an African nation invaded by the Nazis, a Native American, a Russian, a Woman, a Latino, and even a Frenchman.

Way ahead of the times in diversity. 
Not so much in handling. We get a bone-in-the-nose cannibal chieftan, a headdress wearing Indian chief, a Bolshevik borscht-eater, et cetera...

As you might have noted, the tales are often narrated by someone who was there.
Or by something who was there...

Beyond both being done by famous MAD pre-alumni for the same comic book, Inferior Man and Death Patrol had something else in common. 

So now we're all set up for next time...

page art by Dave Berg for Military Comics #s 9-12 (1942)

Father Of Five?

How's everybody holding up with Trump Flu in the air? I apparently went into a brief coma for hibernation and woke to find it snowing outside the cave. The calendar says i was only down for a day or so, but it sure feels longer.

Anyway, i'm up and fairly functional and we'll be getting two related posts today. 

Back in the days before MAD Magazine, the Usual Gang Of Idiots still had to eat. What to do while you're waiting for your home to be built?

Al Jaffee is a name most of you likely know. Not only a long, long time member of the gang, but also creator of the iconic Mad Fold-Ins. And when i say Creator, i don't just mean he invented the concept, he also created nearly all of the monthly fold-ins for over half a century. Quite a feat of brain-bending that.

Back in 1941 in the pages of Military Comics, the superior artist brought us the Inferior Man -

As you can see, Inferior Man started out fairly deranged. In time, he would become outright surreal.

But first, let's take a look at another of the Usual Gang who was hanging out in the pages of Military Comics with Al. We'll be back with another post in a few hours.

page art by Al Jaffee for Military Comics #s 7, 8, 10, 11, & 13 (1941, 1942)