Number 131


Twin Terrors


These two horror comics stories, "Tale Of Cain," from Tomb Of Terror #12, November 1953, and "My Brother's Keeper," from Mysterious Adventures #17, December 1953, are basically the same story. They're told with different characters and different locales, and the motivations are slightly different, but the basic plot and endings are much the same.

They try for a surprise but it's pretty obvious as readers we're being manipulated, so the endings aren't much of a surprise.

These two stories could only be told in comic books, where such manipulation is possible. It would look too cumbersome using live actors in the movies or on TV. The artwork in "Tale Of Cain," is by Howard Nostrand,* and is better at its own manipulation than "My Brother's Keeper," attributed to Bill Savage by the Grand Comics Database.

Both artists are influenced by EC artists: Nostrand by Jack Davis, Savage by Reed Crandall.

The fact that both of these comics, published by completely different companies, were on the stands simultaneously in late '53, is another coincidence. You can't say one stole the story from the other. But what it shows is what we already know: there are only so many plots in horror comics.

The cover of Tomb Of Terror #12 is another great cover by our old pal, Lee Elias, discussed in Pappy's #129.



A Tale Of Cain

My Brother's Keeper

*Stories by Howard Nostrand were shown in Pappy's #15, and Pappy's #109.

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Number 130


Jet Powers and The Thing From The Meteor


Recently a couple of my local congressmen voted against a memorial to Rachel Carson. If you recall, Rachel Carson wrote a book called Silent Spring back in 1962 that showed the pesticide DDT to be a cause of much ecological damage. DDT was removed from legal usage. My congressmen apparently think it's a mistake that has cost lives.

I believe my congressmen are wrong, but have to admit if Jet Powers hadn't had DDT back in 1950, we'd now be ruled by 6' tall grasshoppers using neurostasis rays to numb us and we'd all be stored in jars.

This is an entertaining story with a 1950's alien invasion premise, and I don't think I'm ruining it for you by telling you that Jet Powers wins, saving the earth in the process.

"The Thing From The Meteor," written by Gardner Fox and illustrated by Bob Powell, appeared in Jet #1, 1950, from ME Comics. This is the fourth and final story from that issue. For you latecomers, you can read the rest of the magazine by going to: Pappy's #121, Pappy's #123, and Pappy's #127.

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Number 129


COVERING UP: Lee Elias and The Art Of The Horrible



Lee Elias died in 1998 at age 78, and left a lifetime's worth of very fine work behind him in the comics field.

He drew in several genres of comic art, but my favorites were his science fiction and horror. In the early '60s I liked his work on DC Comics' Showcase issues of Tommy Tomorrow.

I have read that Elias doubled as art director for Harvey Comics, specifically on their horror comics. The contents of the comics didn't always match the exteriors, but even without the contents, the comics are worth having just for the covers.

Click on the pictures for full-size images.

I'm sure these comics got lots of attention when they came out, both from readers and alarmed parents. Monsters, mutilation, skeletons! Living dead! Yow!

In my opinion from looking at hundreds of covers of horror comics over the past couple of years, the best artists were Jack Davis* of EC Comics, Bernard Baily,* of Fawcett and other publishers, and Lee Elias of Harvey Comics. Not only were they all great comic book artists, they were artists with a lovingly natural bent (and I do mean bent) for the gruesome and grotesque .


From Pappy's #38, some of my favorite Davis horror covers.

From Pappy's #34 and Pappy's #31, some classic Baily.

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Dying Features

We've talked a lot about the rebirth of old features in the Silver Age, like the Flash and Green Lantern, and of course Captain America, Namor and the Human Torch. But many, many features did not survive to the end of the Silver Age, and I wanted to touch on a couple of these.

Green Arrow was one of the few superheroes to make it all the way from the 1940s to the 1960s. He had started out in More Fun #73, and by that issue's #77 began a run as the cover boy and lead feature. He was also included immediately in Leading Comics #1's feature, The Seven Soldiers of Victory, and added to the World's Finest lineup with #7.

He was bumped out of More Fun after #107, when that title went more to a humor format, and the feature moved over (along with the new Superboy stories) to Adventure #103, where it replaced Starman. But after that, Green Arrow settled down for a very long time. Although he was not an original member of the Justice League of America, he was added to that cast with issue #4. Unfortunately, about the same time, he was dropped from Adventure comics after a 167-issue run. He did get to appear in the first superhero teamup in Brave & Bold, along with another doomed hero, the Martian Manhunter.

Green Arrow continued in World's Finest until #134, a 128-issue streak, then alternated with Aquaman for a few issues before DC decided to go with reprints behind the Batman/Superman teamups. And with that, Green Arrow found himself with no regular feature for the first time in 23 years. Oh, he still had the appearances in the Justice League, but even those were irregular. Speedy, his longtime sidekick, eventually caught on with the Teen Titans, and that was essentially it for their relationship, as is well-documented.

Of course, Green Arrow would change dramatically at the very end of the Silver Age; I have talked about that in the past.

Roy Raymond initially appeared in Detective Comics #153, where he replaced Slam Bradley, which was at the time DC's longest running feature. Roy was a "TV Detective", with a show called Impossible But True that exposed frauds. Ironically, the name of the program was deceptive, since usually it turned out to be Impossible But Phony.

Roy Raymond lasted until Detective #292, when he was bumped to make way for Aquaman's brief run (7 issues) in 'Tec.

Ant-Man was one of the earliest Marvel Superheroes, as I have discussed before. After a tryout in Tales to Astonish #27, Hank Pym returned in #35 for a fairly long run, both as Ant-Man and Giant Man. He held down the cover position until #59, when the Hulk joined TtA. However, effective with TtA #70, Giant Man was bumped in favor of Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner.

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Number 128


The Sick Joke


Manny Stallman was one of those journeyman Golden Age comic book artists that most fans have never heard of. He seldom signed his name. He ended up his comic book career doing commercial comics, things like Big Boy comics for a restaurant chain.

During his time at Harvey Comics in the early 1950s he did some very memorable stories, working in all of the genres, horror, crime, romance and war. This particular story, "Ugly Duckling," from Chamber Of Chills #22 in 1954, is one of his best.

Cover by Lee Elias. Click on pictures for full-size images.

He's teamed up here with fellow Golden Ager, John Giunta, another workhorse of the era. Between the two of them they've come up with a story which is really about setting up the last panel, like a punchline to a sick job.

And quite a punchline it is. Since this is a horror comic book, the stories don't have to make sense or even be possible, they just have to be horrible. And this is horrible! It's such a macabre joke that in 1987 the same motif was used in a card in the Garbage Pail Kids series by artist John Pound. I'm including that also.

The face in the splash panel is a red herring…it's from a Mayan mask, I believe. Don't quote me because I'm relying on memory.

The scans are taken from the original artwork, and since it's not from a poorly-printed comic book we can see how good the drawing really is. Stallman's figure drawing and composition are excellent, and his pencils are brought to life by Giunta's inks. A very nicely done story.

I got these scans from Heritage Auctions, and thanks to them.

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Number 127


Space Ace: The Man Who Would Be Boring

This is story number three from Jet #1, an ME science fiction comic from 1950. The character is completely different from the star of Jet, Jet Powers. Jet's world is that of 1950, although some of his technology would be advanced even for 2007.*

The Space Ace stories are set in the future when people live on Mars. It's space opera, with pirates and rogues in tight costumes and funny helmets, and in this first story some giant robots.

The artist isn't identified except by some initials, "LW.", on the bottom right of the splash panel. That is Larry Woromay, according to the Grand Comics Database. The artist has borrowed poses and some other things from Wayne Boring, who at the time was the Superman artist.

*He didn't have the Internet, though! Not so smart after all, are you, Mr. Jet Smartypants Powers?

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Number 126


Supermouse in Monsters On The Loose!


Supermouse was a funny animal character who had a decent run in comics, lasting from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. What's even more surprising about Soupie's longevity (and yes, his nickname was "Soupie") is that he managed to avoid being sued out of existence by DC Comics, owner of Superman, and stalwart defenders of their rights not to have their copyrights stepped on. So wha' hoppen? Whither Supermouse?

Supermouse was created in 1942 by Kin Platt, who was apparently some sort of renaissance man of popular culture. He wrote novels* for children and adults, worked in animation and basically all over the place. The character was created for the Sangor comic book shop, suppliers of funny animal stories to several publications that eventually became the American Comics Group (ACG). I can only guess at the non-action by the legal-types at DC Comics, but it's probably because they were after characters they claimed infringed on Superman, like Captain Marvel, and not a mouse that wore a similar costume but got his powers through "super cheese."

This particular Supermouse story is from Supermouse Summer Holiday Issue, a 100-page giant comic from Summer 1957. It was published by Ned Pines, a longtime pulp and comic book publisher under various names and logos. The story was drawn by  Milton Stein.

Click on thumbnails for full-size images:

*Here's a 1971 Platt novel, published by Scholastic:

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