July 1940: Flash Comics #9

Cover by Sheldon Moldoff

'Hawkman' (by Gardner Fox and Sheldon Moldoff): New York harbour is attacked by an evil underwater race known as the Kogats, who have lived there for centuries. Hawkman destroys them with the help of the Greek God Poseidon. Hawkman works better when dealing with the mythological world, I feel, and this is one of his more eventful stories.

'The Flash' (by Gardner Fox and Everett E. Hibbard): A gang of crooks uses a formula to create giant lizards, and uses the distraction to commit robberies. It's a more interesting plot on paper than what we usually get in the Flash, but the execution isn't quite up there. It's still a fun read, but lacks the strip's usual energy.

In other stories:

'King Standish' (by Gardner Fox and Harry Lampert) teams up with the Witch to deal with some pirates. 'The Whip' (by John B. Wentworth and Homer Fleming) is framed for the theft of money to be donated to an orphanage. 'Cliif Cornwall, Special Agent' (by Gardner Fox and Sheldon Moldoff) goes to Antarctica and destroys a secret enemy base that is a threat to the Panama Canal. 'Johnny Thunderbolt' (by John B. Wentworth and Stan Aschmeier) transforms a rabbit into an elephant, and helps fight a fire. 'Rod Rian of the Sky Police' (by Paul H. Jepson) heads for the city of Uncor with his friend Price Taro, but they are attacked by a dragon. Also, the writer has chosen to write out the skeleton-men from the strip, which is completely boneheaded.  And in 'A Case of Hives' (by Ed Wheelan) a detective investigates the theft of a beehive shipment.

June 1940: Flash Comics #8

Cover by Sheldon Moldoff

'The Flash!' (by Gardner Fox and Everett E. Hibbard): Flash goes up against a manufacturer who is forcing builders to buy his substandard building material. It's not the most exciting material, and the Flash is still doing that annoying trick of being invisible everywhere. There's one amusing scene where the Flash becomes a wrestler, but otherwise it's slim pickings.

'Cliff Cornwall' (by Gardner Fox and Sheldon Moldoff): Cliff investigates the disappearance of a submarine, and discovers that it has been taken by Doctor Brine and his underwater pirates. Brine has discovered an amazing fact: apparently, with a steady diet of raw carrots, apples and beetroot, a man can breath underwater for up to an hour! Wow, I did not know that. This is pretty good by Cliff Cornwall standards.

'The Whip' (by John B. Wentworth and Homer Fleming): This is a sequel of sorts to last issue's story. What I've discovered is that that story starred the original Whip of the 1800s, not the "modern day" Whip. In retrospect the time frame made it pretty obvious. In this story, some ranchers discover the buried treasure from last issue, and a banker tries to fleece them out of it. It's nothing special.

'King Standish' (by Gardner Fox and Harry Lampert): The Witch steals some rubies and hides out on an island, and the King goes after her to retrieve them. The King is infallible in his disguises, and the Witch is made to seem so utterly incompetent that it doesn't feel right. The King just seems like a jerk for toying with her so much.

'Johnny Thunderbolt' (by John B. Wentworth and Stan Aschmeier): Having lost his job and his girl, Johnny is determined to win them both back. Which he seemingly does by exposing a magician who takes his audience's money and returns them counterfeit bills. The humour and situations in this strip are starting to get a little too forced.

'Rod Rian of the Sky Police' (by Paul H. Jepsen): Rod and his friends escape from the gorilla men, and trap them in a cave. This strip has a skeleton fighting a giant gorilla, and I think that's all I need to say.

'The Money Vanishes' (by Ed Wheelan): A female hypnotist is making wealthy businessmen withdraw their money and give it to her, and a detective stops her. It's pretty rudimentary stuff, but it's not badly told.

'The Strange Formula B-9' (by Evelyn Gaines): A scientist invents a formula that can make animals and plants grow very quickly, and uses it to upstage the heads of a rival university. I gather that it's meant to be amusing, but it did nothing for me.

'Hawkman' (by Gardner Fox and Sheldon Moldoff): Hawkman tackles a mad scientist who is using a machine to manipulate sunspot activity and make people go crazy. This guy gets the full treatment, as Hawkman throws a spiked mace right into his head. A few panels later he gets shot, but I honestly think the mace did him in. It's another story that doesn't have a great deal going for it. Luckily it has Sheldon Moldoff's art, which is always welcome.

May 1940: Flash Comics #7

Cover by Sheldon Moldoff

'The Flash' (by Gardner Fox and Everett E. Hibbard): The Flash helps an inventor and his daughter, who are being threatened by a crook named Black Mike into creating a machine that can dissolve metal. Mike tries to use it to fix a motor race that he has bet on, but the Flash stops him. There's a slight shift in tone with this story. I can't quite place my finger on it, but it's not quite as upbeat and pacy as before. Also, the Flash's ability to become invisible by moving quickly on the spot is completely overused. He spends almost the entirety of this story in an invisible state, which gets very tiresome.

'King Standish' (by Gardner Fox and Harry Lampert): The King poses as a janitor in order to stop his arch-enemy the Witch from stealing bonds from a lawyer. Another gang of more violent gangsters also tries to steal the bonds, and the King must rescue the Witch, then team up with her against them. There are enough factions to keep this interesting, and the King/Witch relationship adds a little as well. It's not great, but it does just enough to stay above average.

'The Hawkman' (by Gardner Fox and Sheldon Moldoff): A scientist named Boris Nickaloff creates an "Unkillable Man" called Czar out of animated stone, and sends him on a crime spree. After an unsuccessful confrontation, Hawkman discovers that Czar needs to breathe. He returns later and kills Nickaloff and Czar both with a bolas, and everyone acts like it's the happiest ending ever. Except that Czar had a certain childlike, innocent quality, and desired nothing more than to make his master happy. He didn't deserve to die by bolas strangulation, and the story feels off because of that.

'Rod Rian of the Sky Police' (by Paul H. Jepsen): One of Rod's buddies, a Unicor, is kidnapped by talking gorillas. Rod goes to rescue him, but is menaced by a tri-horned buffalo. To be continued! This strip just keeps accumulating weird elements. There are the Unicors, who are green-skinned men with horns on their head. The aforementioned gorilla men. There are still friendly skeletons wandering around Rod's camp. It's all strange, and never quite gels, but I keep reading with interest to see what the hell is coming up next.

'Johnny Thunderbolt' (by John B. Wentworth and Stan Aschmeier): Johnny Thunder inadvertently prevents some army intelligence agents from capturing a female spy, and gets fired as a g-man. He even loses his girl Daisy when she sees the spy thanking him with a kiss. He decides to become a superhero called the Thunderbolt and captures the spy, but fails to regain the affections of Daisy. It's still absurd, and still funny, and I can't ask for much more than that.

'Cliff Cornwall, Special Agent' (by Gardner Fox and Sheldon Moldoff): Cliff goes up against the Clue Criminal, an art thief who likes to send the FBI clues to his future crimes. This guy seems to have a good gig with the art thievery business, but then he decides to blow up a zeppelin for no apparent reason. It's quite jarring.

'Planet of the Metal Men' (by Evelyn Gaines): This prose story is continued from last issue. Jack, Sally and Tommy are still on the planet of the metallic Zoopians, who have decided to invade Earth and capture a few thousand humans to provide amusement for them. Tommy escapes by rusting a Zoopian with a water pistol, and summons a an Earth battalion to rescue them with a giant hose. It's crazy stuff, and enjoyable on that level. But it does beggar the question: if there's no water on the planet of the Zoopians, how did Tommy and co. survive there for so long?

'Circus Curse' (by Ed Wheelan): A circus is apparently under a curse, but the real culprit behind the accidents ends up being the former treasurer. The mystery is set up here, with a few red herrings presented, but the actual reveal is a character that the reader can't possibly know about. All the relevant information is given in a horrendous infodump after the fact, when it really ought to have been parcelled out before the reveal.

'The Whip' (by John B. Wentworth and Homer Fleming): This story begins with a history lesson, briefly touching on the Mexico/Texas conflict, then following the story of a hidden cache of gold. A bandit nursed back to health by some ranchers leaves them a clue to the gold as gratitude, but the Whip must intervene when bad men come after the gold. This is continued next month, not something I'm particularly excited about. I was more interested in this when it was doing the history lesson. Also, the Whip's accent seems to be getting more and more outrageous. It's even funnier when you remember that he's faking it.

The Ads: Ads for the next issue of All-American Comics tease the first appearance of Green Lantern. He has also replaced Ultra-Man in that 'Big Six' ad with the head shots that I posted a while ago, which seems a little premature. Conversely, ads for All-Star Comics #1 have Ultra-Man as a headliner.

May 1940: New York World's Fair Comics 1940

Cover by Jack Burnley

Also, it's the first ever published image of Superman, Batman and Robin together.

'Superman' (by Jerry Siegel and Jack Burnley): Clark and Lois are sent to do a story on the World's Fair, and stumble upon a jewel thief who is trying to steal a priceless emerald. This couldn't be more straightforward, but it is executed quite well. I don't know who Jack Burnley is, but he does a great Shuster impressions.  I'd happily see him on some more strips.  But in the end it's still another jewel thief story. All the solid writing and good art in the world can't get me excited about it.

'Red, White and Blue' (by Jerry Siegel and Harry Lampert): It seems as though Siegel has limited patience for the World's Fair gimmick, because here it's restricted to a mention as Red's current vacation spot. From there the story kicks off, with a meat producer poisoning the army's current meat supply so that they will get their contract back. Red, Whitey and Blooey stop them with the usual hijinks and banter. It's light and amusing as this strip always is when at its best.

'Hanko the Cowhand at the World's Fair' (by Creig Flessel): Hanko and Daisy tour the various exhibits, and Hanko gets into situations because he is a dumb hick from the country. It's a series of scenes and gags strung together rather than a story, and none of them really work.

'Slam Bradley' (by Jerry Siegel and Howard Sherman): Slam and Shorty investigate the kidnapping of a foreign princess, with some lip service paid to the fair. At this point I am really missing Shuster on this strip. Sherman does okay, but is inferior to Shuster in every respect, and the strip can't help but suffer for it. I get the feeling that I've seen the best Slam Bradley has to offer, and that it's all downhill from here.

'Zatara the Master Magician at the World's Fair' (by Gardner Fox and Joseph Sulman): Zatara puts on his own exhibit at the fair, and in the process nabs a pickpocket, some armed robbers and a jewel thief. Then he randomly takes his audience on a trip to Mars and flies them through the centre of the sun, only to reveal that it was all an illusion. The crazy, stream-of-conscious randomness fits well with the ending, but still. "It was all a dream"? That's never good.  And I'm wondering what the deal is with the creative team. Where's Fred Guardineer? It seems wrong that he's not involved here.

'The Hour-Man at the World's Fair' (by Ken Fitch and Bernard Baily): Rex Taylor is sent to run an exhibit for his chemical company, and ends up stopping some crooks from ransacking a rich guy's house while he's out hunting.  The most notable scene is when the Hourman releases the head crook to be hunted down by his intended victim, which at least has a bit of black humour to it. The rest is pretty dull.

'At the World's Fair with Jim and Jane' (by Creig Flessel): Two kids and their uncle tour the fair and react very enthusiastically to things like a film about the history of transportation. Were people really so much easier to entertain?  Anyway, I thought that this was familiar, and it turns out to be a reprint from the 1939 issue of this comic.

'The Sandman Goes to the World Fair' (by Gardner Fox and Chad Grothkopf): The Sandman must rescue his girlfriend/sidekick Dian Belmont from crooks who have kidnapped her as revenge on her father, the DA. If you want layers, don't come looking at this story. It does the job, I guess, but it's dreadfully dull, despite some uncharacteristic bursts of enthusiasm from the Sandman.

'Johnny Thunderbolt' (by John B. Wentworth and Stan Aschmeier): Johnny goes to the fair and is robbed by a pickpocket; hijinks ensue. Johnny's powers get overhauled a little in this story. Now when he says the magic words, his wishes are actually enforced by thunderbolts, and people who don't do what he says get zapped. It's going to take some getting used to.

'Batman with Robin the Boy Wonder' (by Bill Finger and Bob Kane): Batman and Robin go to the World's Fair, where they must tackle a mad scientist on a crime spree with a ray that can disintegrate metal.  When Kane is firing his stories have a real energy, and that's the case here. Batman rushes from crisis to crisis with a smile, and this is easily the most fun story in the whole comic.

April 1940: Flash Comics #6

 Cover by Everett E. Hibbard

'The Flash!' (by Gardner Fox and Everett E. Hibbard): When this story started with some crooked gamblers trying to fix the Olympic tryouts by drugging the favourites, I was all set to hate it. But it picks up when the Flash enters himself in the races in a bid to stop the gamblers winning any money. He doesn't hold back at all, which is something of a dick move, and it's fun watching the reactions of the commentators and the crowd. It's also apparent that the Flash has no desire for a secret identity. He enters the races as Jay Garrick, his girlfriend Joan calls him Flash in front of people, and he's just careless with it in general. It's a refreshing change that adds to the strip's breezy nature.

As a final note, Jay Garrick seems to have graduated college since the last story.

'King Standish' (by Gardner Fox and Harry Lampert): When the Witch steals a safe full of emeralds, King Standish disguises himself as a safe-cracker to thwart her plans. The King gets a little bit of character development here that I find interesting; he likes leaving hints and clues to his true identity, almost as though he wants to be caught. His playful rivalry with the Witch is also quite a bit of fun.

'Hawkman' (by Gardner Fox and Sheldon Moldoff): While flying back from his last adventure in the Middle East, Hawkman and his companion Ione are captured by Arab slave traders. There are a lot of sexual undertones to the whole thing, with Ione chained up to be sold as a harem slave, and Hawkman being an object of desire for the villainous Queen of Sheba. It all ends when the British Army rides in to show those pesky Arabs who's in charge, but not before Hawkman fights a lion. I might have enjoyed this if Hawkman wasn't such a bland character. Come on dude, find a personality trait!

'Rod Rian of the Sky Police' (by Paul H. Jepsen): Rod Rian is still in the village of skeleton men (who are in actuality just regular dudes, but their drinking water has the side-effect of turning their flesh invisible). After a brief battle with some sabre-tooth tigers, Rod tracks the tigers back to a pure water source, so the skeleton men can return to their normal appearance. As if they would want to; skeletons are rad.

'Johnny Thunderbolt' (by John B. Wentworth and Stan Aschmeier): Johnny goes fox hunting, and once he unknowingly says his magic word shenanigans ensue involving a talking fox, and a pack of dogs transformed into ravening wolves. It's amusing enough.

'Cliff Cornwall, Special Agent' (by Gardner Fox and Sheldon Moldoff): Cliff is on the trail of some arms smugglers, and his method of investigation is the worst ever. The main suspect is a bald man, so Cliff just starts following bald men at random. One goes to a tailor, and on a hunch Cliff decides that the guy has some plans hidden in a secret pocket in his jacket. None of his deductions make sense, and his leaps of logic are just absurd.

'Planet of the Metal Men' (by Evelyn Gaines): In the last chapter of this prose story, Jack, Sally and little Tommy rocketed to the planet Vesta. Here they meet the natives, a race of robotic people who give off electricity that is lethal to humans. The Earth-people befriend them, and then there's a lot of talk about their lifestyles and society and such. It's continued next month, but there's no hook to interest me in the next installment.

'Don Fuel and the Mystery Planet' (by Ed Wheelan): When the mad scientist Rascalli discovers a planet from which the soil can be distilled into destructive atomic pellets, Don Fuel must go there to collect a soil sample and save the Earth. This is a parody of the sort of rockets and ray-guns sci-fi that's prevalent in the late 30s and early 40s. It has as many good jokes as crap ones, operating on the principle that if you throw one out in every panel some are bound to stick. On the whole I think it comes out slightly behind, mostly due to the presence of Don's black sidekick Bunion, who hits every negative racial stereotype there is.

'The Whip' (by John B. Wentworth and Homer Fleming): The Whip takes on a crooked judge and newspaper editor. To be honest, I can't figure out what they've done wrong. Something about hiring prisoners from the jail as servants? Obviously, this one didn't hold my attention.

March 1940: Flash Comics #5, All-American Comics #14

 Cover by Jon L. Blummer

'The Flash' (by Gardner Fox and Everett Hibbard): The Flash takes on the Vandal, an art collector who is murdering artists to drive up the value of his collection. At the very least it's not a plot I've seen before in this blog, so it gets points for that. It's also light and peppy as usual, and makes inventive use of the Flash's powers (he spends a lot of the strip moving so fast that he is invisible, using his voice to confuse the crooks).

'King Standish' (by Gardner Fox and Harry Lampert): The villainous Witch hatches a plan to bump off the King, but by the end of the strip it seems that the two have fallen for each other. It's quite sweet in a way, but I could do without the narrator constantly warning the Witch not to fall for her enemy.

'Hawkman' (by Gardner Fox and Sheldon Moldoff): The cult of Assassins is revived, and Hawkman must help a lady secret agent stop them from killing world leaders and taking their place. The setting moves from the USA to the Middle East, and I think that this sort of globe-hopping suits Hawkman very well. It's exotic, and there are some solid action sequences, but in the end there's little of substance to it.

'Johnny Thunderbolt' (by John B. Wentworth and Stan Aschmeier): Johnny, now a G-Man, foils a group of crooks who have stolen an entire bank vault. This story feels a lot more conventional than previous installments, and there's not a lot of humour involved either.

'Rod Rian of the Sky Police' (by Paul H. Jepsen): On the planet Mephis, Rod and his friends infiltrate the city of the Skeleton Men. Meanwhile on Earth, the head of the Sky Police has allied with Chan, ruler of half the planet, and they are raising an army to attack the pirates of Mephis. But watch out, because Chan doesn't have white skin!  That means he must be a treacherous baddie! This is all build-up, but it's hard to see what the diversion with the skeleton men has to do with the main plot. It's just lucky that it's got skeletons in it. Skeletons are rad.

'Cliff Cornwall' (by Sheldon Moldoff): Cliff Cornwall takes on the Snow King, a spy who operates only in Winter and has never been seen. His secret is that he uses sleep pills combined with a building's heating system to put all of his victims to sleep. It's a well-worn plot, but it's quite cleverly presented.

'Planet of the Metal Men' (by Evelyn Gaines): After marrying his fiancee Sally, Jack Raymond insists that they take their honeymoon on the nearby planetoid Vesta. Along with Sally's kid brother they rocket to the planet where they discover strange, metallic life-forms. To be continued! It's decent enough set-up, if you don't mind some completely bollocks science.

'You Can't Get Away With It!' (by Ed Wheelan): A judge's son is kidnapped, and threatened with death unless the judge lets gangster Tony Madera off the hook. The judge, with the help of his son's showgirl fiancee, rescues his son, and consents to their marriage. It's a decent enough story from Wheelan, though it's let down by the fact that we don't find out what happens to Madera.

'Whip' (by John B. Wentworth and Homer Fleming): A crooked judge is charging excessive fines for speeding, and using criminals as his personal servants. Huzzah for the Whip, who is sticking up for the rights of speeding motorists and hardened criminals everywhere!

Cover by Jon L. Blummer

'Red, White and Blue' (by Jerry Siegel and William Smith): My complaints are somehow beaming backwards in time, because we're getting a story without Red, who has been the main character of this strip for quite some time now. Whitey, Blooey and Doris go up against a gang of saboteurs and defeat them almost by accident, with a large helping hand from Blooey's pet parrot. Sadly, the whole point of this seems to be that they can't get along without Red. Even from a hospital bed he manages to take over the story somehow.

'Hop Harrigan' (by Jon L. Blummer): There's a story here about spies trying to sabotage Hop Air's first demonstration of its planes for the army, but of more interest is the custody battle between Hop's friend Prop Wash and his former guardian, Crass. It's pretty effective as a dramatic device, but in the end it falls down when the evidence that stops Crass's victory comes by pure coincidence. What luck that Hop's old school teacher just happened to stop by a certain farmhouse at exactly the right time! And that she has letters from Hop's father in her possession!

'Ben Webster' (by Edwin Alger): Having discovered a pool of magic mud, Ben and his friends set about selling it as a beauty treatment. Everything works out perfectly for them, and I'm struggling to see where the drama is going to come from.

'Adventures in the Unknown: The Infra-Red Destroyers' (by Carl H. Claudy and Stan Aschmeier): Ted and Alan struggle to convince Washington that the Earth is being invaded by invisible men from Venus. You have to appreciate a story that destroys both the White House and the Washington Monument.

'Scribbly' (by Sheldon Mayer): Scribbly's editor sends him to a dude ranch, where everyone has the idea that he's an expert rider. With the focus back on Scribbly's job this strip is starting to get funny again.

'Traitors' Treachery' (by George Shute): Passports and records are being stolen from the State Department, and Jimmy Stone goes undercover to stop the crooks. There's not much to this but set-up. 

'Popsicle Pete' (by Art Helfant): After collecting their reward money, the kids and Zeke buy suits, and Zeke's shoes squeak because there's a horn in one of them.  This is either some form of obscure 1940s humour that I don't get, or a poor attempt at comedy. I suspect the latter.

'Gary Concord, the Ultra-Man' (by Jon L. Blummer): Gary must foil a plot by his enemy Tor to take over the world with a lethal poison gas.  It's a solid enough action story, but wasn't this world at peace just a year ago?  It's been a mess ever since Gary took over from his dad.

February 1940: Flash Comics #4, Superman #4

 

Cover by George Storm

'The Flash' (by Gardner Fox and Everett E. Hibbard): The Flash goes up against the crew of a gambling ship, who have kidnapped the son of a steel magnate so that he won't help outlaw their operation. It's the little touches that make these stories so much fun. For example, when the Flash swims at super-speed the water behind him turns to steam, and after rescuing a woman from drowning he runs so fast that her clothes dry in an instant. The creators have really thought out the Flash's powers, and they're having fun with them. I also greatly enjoyed the Flash going undercover as a gambler, using his powers to cheat at roulette and exploring the ship at high speed between spins of the wheel. This strip really is enjoyable.

'Cliff Cornwall, Special Agent' (by Gardner Fox and Sheldon Moldoff): Cornwall must stop a plot by an oil magnate and his fiancee to assassinate an ambassador from the nation of Sofia, and thereby plunge America into war. The plot here is a familiar one, but Moldoff's art is dark and moody, and the characters are all relatively well-rounded, with distinct motivations.

'Hawkman' (by Gardner Fox and Sheldon Moldoff): Hawkman takes on the Thought Terror, a hypnotist who is running a fortune telling racket; he charges for his predictions, then hypnotises his victims so that they do whatever he has just foretold. It's a sound money-making plan, but I don't get why he is murdering people. Surely he's just attracting undue attention to himself. And somehow he has the ability to hypnotise his goons into invincibility (but only when the plot requires them to capture Hawkman; when Hawkman must escape, they're suddenly quite vincible indeed). The design of the Thought Terror is good, but his goons wear exactly the same outfit, which doesn't help the clarity of the story. But really, I'm just nitpicking things here. The story has its problems, but it's still quite fun.

'Johnny Thunderbolt' (by John B. Wentworth and Stan Aschmeier): Johnny is now the World Heavyweight champion, and must catch a crook who has stolen money from his fiancee's father. The things that Johnny can do with his magic word "say you" just get more and more ridiculous, culminating when he quite literally punches the crook into next week. This is exactly the kind of thing I love in comics.

'Rod Rian of the Sky Police' (by Paul H. Jepsen): Rod Rian fights a dinosaur. Then he fights a skeleton. Then he fights a giant snake. Then one of his buddies drinks from a strange pool and becomes a skeleton. I don't know why any of these things are happening, because I can't remember the last chapter and there is no recap. With just a bit more coherence this could be great.

'King Standish' (by Gardner Fox and Harry Lampert): King goes up against a gang of diamond thieves disguised as a crook named English Pete, who by pure coincidence is the head of the gang. It's little too convenient for my tastes.

'Adventure in a Time Warp' (by Gardner Fox): In this prose story continued from last issue, time-travellers Rolf and Drokker systematically annihilate the green men who have invaded Earth. There's a token nod to the morality of wiping out a whole people, which is more than I expected, but it's still kind of distasteful. If the green men actually fought back I wouldn't mind, but there's no evidence in the story that they ever resist.

'Book Review: Robinson Crusoe': This review is the first of a regular series, but I would hesitate to call it a review at all. It's just a summary of the whole book, which kind of defeats the purpose of the exercise.

'Where There's a Will' (by Ed Wheelan): Cowboy Will Lawson finds himself working for an old prospector, and becomes like a son to him. When the old man dies, he leaves everything to his niece June, but asks that Will go to visit her to see if he might want to marry her. June is annoyed at the prospect, and pretends to be a maid, having one of her friends take her identity. It's all quite complicated to explain, but in the end Will and June end up together despite their case of mistaken identity. The ending was all a little neat and tidy, but I suppose that's they way of things in romantic comedy.

'The Whip' (by John B. Wentworth and Homer Fleming): The Whip rounds up some fat cats and makes them toil in the fields under the same conditions as their peon workers. It's a satisfying formula that Siegel and Shuster perfected ages ago on 'Superman'. The art has improved as well, with the arrival of Homer Fleming. As long as he doesn't take over the writing we'll be sorted.

Cover by Joe Shuster

'Superman' (by Jerry Siegel and Paul Cassidy): An artificial earthquake rocks Metropolis, the work of a malfunctioning machine, and Superman investigates. It turns out that an evil villain wants the machine for himself: Luthor! Yes, this is the first appearance of Lex Luthor in this blog so far. Whether this is his first actual appearance is debatable. The site that I use for release dates says that this came out a week earlier than Action Comics #23, but it's all conjecture. Nobody knows for sure when exactly when these Golden Age books were released.

Luthor (not yet Lex) has pretty much the same goals and personality as he will later have, but instead of his trademark baldness he's got a lovely head of red hair, which makes it a little difficult to think of him as the same character.  His plan is a good one though. He challenges Superman to a number of tasks, with Superman's brawn vs. Luthor's technology, with the loser to keep out of the winner's way.  The contests are fun, and include a race around the world, and a dare to see who can get the furthest out of Earth's atmosphere (which sees Superman jumping higher than a rocket ship). And while all this is going on, Luthor's goons steal the earthquake machine while Superman is preoccupied. His victory doesn't last long, but I did enjoy seeing Luthor outwit his enemy so early on.

Paul Cassidy ghosts for Joe Shuster on this story, and to be honest I didn't notice.  He does a very good Shuster impression.

'Superman' (by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster): It's Luthor again! This time he has raised an ancient city from the bottom of the ocean, where he has created an army of dinosaurs with which to conquer the world. It's not the greatest story, but it does have Superman wrestling a Tyrannosaurus Rex. And that's good enough for me.

'Changer of Destiny' (by Hugh Langley): In this prose story, a scientist drinks a formula that allows him to live a full year in the space of a second. While everyone else is frozen, the scientist goes about righting wrongs. He kills a gangster, and puts papers in front of the president that prove the current war was instigated by business interests. It ends when the formula wears off unexpectedly, and the scientist is hit by a truck. This is quite good stuff, with a novel premise that actually pays off pretty satisfyingly.

'Superman' (by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster): A foreign agent is destabilising America's economy through sabotage and working the stock market. Superman puts a stop to all of his plans, and then deliberately electrocutes him.  Come to think of it, Superman has been particularly murderous in this comic. In an earlier story he deliberately crashed a car, causing the deaths of two thugs, and now he's killed this guy.

'Pioneer Into the Unknown' (by Bert Lexington): A film star has volunteered to test a machine that can teleport people across time and space, but the whole stunt is supposed to be a hoax. Only the machine works, and the actor is teleported into the heart of a distant star. In the distant future of 1982, he is hailed as pioneer of interstellar travel. Again, this is much more inventive and interesting than most of the prose stories have been.

'Superman' (by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster): Superman joins up with a racketeer who has taken over the trucker's union, pretending to be a crook so that he can gather evidence. This is decent enough, with the appropriate amount of double-crossing. And this line from a truck driver as crooks emptied milk from his truck had me in stitches: "But that milk was intended for hungry babies!"