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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 5, 2020 20:52:31 GMT -5
Wertham talked a couple of games, depending on his audience. The bigger attacks were coming from the Catholic League of Decency and similar groups that were attacking comics as a whole. 20 years earlier, similar attacks came on newspaper comics. It was a class war, as well as an immigrant attack, more than any real content issues. Comics were the same.
Charles Biro was one cracked nut and his comics were as violent as they came and his studio provided material for a lot of companies, though quite a bit for Lev Gleason. However, he was an inventive nut. I've mostly read the Iron Jaw stories that AC Comics collected from Boy Comics, with Crimebuster. That dude was one of the more memorable non-Batman villains of the Golden Age.
The problem with the Code, aside from the issue of outside censorship, was the random application of the Code and the deliberate targeting of EC and Lev Gleason, with prohibition on words in the title. The Code is like a shopping list of everything in their comics, including the more innocuous ones. That was the big guns using fear to eliminate competition, far more than a reaction to outside interest. Congress had little interest in censoring comics as they didn't want that hot potato. they just wanted to be seen to be doing something, even if they weren't. Same with the crime hearings that Kefauver presided over. A lot of noise came out of them, but little real action against organized crime.
I don't like ratings systems any more than Codes, for the same reason: they do not get applied consistently and the standards are usually so vague as to be pointless. The MPAA has used their ratings system to effectively block movies that have gay themes, the idea of women enjoying sex, social satire and other attacks by slapping ratings on those movies for arbitrary reasons then not articulating those reasons to the filmmakers, forcing them to make cuts in the dark, in hopes of an improved rating. It all boils down to ceding responsibility to someone else to decide if material is appropriate for your children or fits into your own sensibilities.
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Crimebuster
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Post by Crimebuster on Apr 5, 2020 21:09:45 GMT -5
I just read that Crimebuster story.... wow. When you said it was bonkers, you meant it! I find Crimebuster's outfit distracting to the story a bit... why? They could have him where the sweater and that would be enough.. the shorts on the outside and the cape are just too much. No teenager would wear that.. I guess WHY he is, but it is jarring to me. It's a hockey uniform! Crimebuster's outfit is the hockey uniform he was wearing when he learned his father had been assassinated. He just grabbed his cloak - he was at a military academy at the time, hence having a greatcloak, as it was part of their dress code - and threw it on over his hockey uniform when he ran off to find the killer. His costume is almost literally a Montreal Canadiens uniform. They barely even had to change the logo!  |
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 5, 2020 21:13:19 GMT -5
Can't add much to Crimebuster. The costume is supposed to be hockey gear (hence the shorts over longjohns and is also parodying superhero comics. The monkey as sidekick was another area where it was original. Every other one was either a boy or a dog; or, horrors, a girl!
The credits for Swoop say "Bob Montana?" I'm inclined to lean in that direction as it looks like his Archie work, though Archie was riding pretty high by this point and I would have thought he had plenty of work with MLJ. Plus, he was doing the newspaper strip.Maybe someone was swiping from him. Nice expressive style, though.
Francois LeBlanc-nice art from Rudy Palais He did a lot of nice work on stuff like Catman, Dr Mid-Nite, Doll man, Phantom Lady, Blackhawk, Daredevil, Classics Illustrated and the 60s Charlton horror comics. I have to wonder if the name isn't a nod to artist Andre LeBlanc, who did lend his name to Blackhawk's Andre. He was another from Classics Illustrated and drew the Picture Bible.
Little Dynamite is okay, but kind of lacks the punch Simon & Kirby gave the kid gang strips. Not exactly the Little Wise Guys.
Yankee Longago is fun, with a bit of history to make it different. Kind of feels like slightly less sophisticated Mr Peabody.
Young Robinhood and his gang is rather derivative, though kind of weird, with the mixing of medieval archers and modern cities. Green Arrow seemed less bizarre.
On the whole, it's a pretty decent comic that would give you a nice value for your dime. I'd still rather go for a Fawcett or Quality comic; but, these would be up on the list.
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 5, 2020 21:18:31 GMT -5
If you are taking nominations, how about some Jingle Jangle Comics? You can't go wrong with George Carlson! One of Harlan Ellison's favorites.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Apr 5, 2020 21:37:22 GMT -5
I had no idea about the hockey uniform thing... I'm not a big fan. Good to know.
As for the rest of the book, I'd say it was probably the best of the 3 so far overall (Planet comics a close 2nd)
Swoop Storm Fun story somewhere between an adventure and a gag strip.. nothing too exciting, but a decent story
Hero of the month Impressive bit of War propaganda..gotta give Lev Gleason props for supporting the war effort! They certainly turned the negative German stereotypes up to 11 for this one!
The Daredevil text piece wasn't bad for a 2 page story... I would have liked to see him in the comic instead though!
Little Dynamite A story that has probably been written 10 million times, but a find version of it. It reminded me of Top Cat
somehow (which I guess is really a boy gang in cat form, when you come down to it)
Yankee Longago Great idea for a strip and good execution.. love seeing some legit education in there. terrible name, though.
Robin Hood Ugh.. worst of the lot.. a bit confusing and non sensical plot.. pretty character designs though.
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Post by Hoosier X on Apr 5, 2020 21:41:45 GMT -5
It's been a while since I read any Lev Gleason Comics. I used to have a handful of issues of Crime Does Not Pay. They are so AWESOME! The only Crime Buster story I ever read was the one where he fought Iron Jaw that was reprinted in Golden Age Great. Also AWESOME!
Yeah, that story about the amputees was BONKERS! But also pretty great! I'll read the rest later. COMIC BOOK PLUS is great! I usually use it to read Fiction House. I usually skip around and read a little Sheena or a little Tiger Girl. But I've also used it to read all of Sky Girl and all of Futura!
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Apr 5, 2020 21:46:49 GMT -5
Here's what I don't get, though.... the lawyer said Pete had a million dollars (we'll set aside for a moment how a guy could get a million dollars begging in the 1940s, which might be the 2nd most absurd part of the story). Then the lawyer collects the taxes(Which also doesn't make sense), which should have been more like 1/2, not 75% (That was the top rate in the 40s, for 10m or more). It's implied Biff is a criminal, he should have been happy to take the case and try to evade the taxes. This is what happens when finance guys read comics  I continue to be charmed by your efforts to apply real-world logic to Golden Age comic book stories. Never stop believing the next story around the corner is going to make more sense than all the ones before it! |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Apr 5, 2020 21:48:45 GMT -5
Heh, what can I say. If you're going to apply real world situations to a fiction story, they should be CORRECT  |
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Apr 5, 2020 21:50:06 GMT -5
If you are taking nominations, how about some Jingle Jangle Comics? You can't go wrong with George Carlson! One of Harlan Ellison's favorites. Throw me a specific issue, and I'll make sure we get to it sometime next week! |
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Post by electricmastro on Apr 6, 2020 0:26:35 GMT -5
If you are taking nominations, how about some Jingle Jangle Comics? You can't go wrong with George Carlson! One of Harlan Ellison's favorites. Throw me a specific issue, and I'll make sure we get to it sometime next week! Are you looking for anything else in particular? I recall you saying we wouldn’t do superheroes for the time being, so I wondering if you had other genres, themes, etc. in mind. |
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Apr 6, 2020 6:31:19 GMT -5
Throw me a specific issue, and I'll make sure we get to it sometime next week! Are you looking for anything else in particular? I recall you saying we wouldn’t do superheroes for the time being, so I wondering if you had other genres, themes, etc. in mind. I'm hoping to sample a bit of everything. Taking a detour from heroes only because I didn't want to limit our scope. |
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Apr 6, 2020 6:59:56 GMT -5
Assignment #4...  Web of Mystery #18 (May 1953)Taking a deep dive into a more obscure corner of the public domain! There are better known horror titles out there, but I thought it would be interesting to try something no one here has ever seen before. It's nice to take a break from the 1940s as well. April 6th thru April 7thA free and legal public domain scan can be found here |
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 6, 2020 10:33:22 GMT -5
If you are taking nominations, how about some Jingle Jangle Comics? You can't go wrong with George Carlson! One of Harlan Ellison's favorites. Throw me a specific issue, and I'll make sure we get to it sometime next week! Okay; Jingle Jangle #4, available from the same source as your others. |
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Post by mikelmidnight on Apr 6, 2020 11:59:26 GMT -5
As far as MLJ some of their heroes could have been a big deal if they had tried a little harder. The Shield would have been a decent hero with a better costume. Some of their ideas were unique like killing the Comet and having his brother become the Hangman. I also feel publishers saw this with the revivals by Archie in the 60's and 80's and even recently.
There's a lot of MLJ stories that are good, solid reads (there's a second flame-based hero who is a reformed villain, and his redemption arc was interesting and somewhat noir), but they were never standouts, and after Cole left never attracted many particularly imaginative creators. I think it's just as well once they found a hit with Archie that they stuck with him.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 6, 2020 13:23:10 GMT -5
As far as MLJ some of their heroes could have been a big deal if they had tried a little harder.
There's a lot of MLJ stories that are good, solid reads (there's a second flame-based hero who is a reformed villain, and his redemption arc was interesting and somewhat noir),
Inferno? |
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