In February 1949, Timely (Marvel) debuts Amazing Mysteries comics with issue #32, an odd first issue number. It seems like it picks up numbering from Sub-Mariner, except Sub-Mariner Comics has its final issue (#32) next month. Anyway, in Amazing Mysteries, an anthology of creepy tales, one story features a narrator character named “The Witness” that […]
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Luthor manages to create a teleporting device in Action Comics #131 (February 1949). While committing crimes with them, he manages to accidentally teleport Superman, and then decides to trap him in “the 4th dimension”. While Superman is trapped there, he is invisible to everyone but can still move and see things that are going on […]
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In the midst of major superhero books being cancelled, it is surprising to see a superhero character get a new book all their own, but Superboy #1 debuts in January 1949. Superboy also had his own distinctive font/logo that I associate heavily with the Silver Age. The first time this logo was used was actually […]
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In Captain America #71 (December 1948), we see some rare glimpses of Marvel continuity when Bucky Barnes is finally healed up in the hospital after being shot six months prior and returns to active duty. I guess it was too premature to call Timely (Marvel) done with boy sidekicks – Bucky was not written out […]
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In Action Comics #129 (December 1948), we get an odd story about Superman thawing out a caveman, and that caveman becoming sort of a celebrity. What’s odd is that the women in the comic seem to all be harboring secret fantasies of being treated poorly by their men, like being dragged about by their hair. […]
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In Flash Comics #104 (December 1948), the Rival makes his first appearance. Though he is not the first evil speedster, he is the first recurring evil speedster and the first to style himself after The Flash. Dr. Edward Clariss worked on a chemical formula to give himself temporary superspeed after learning that the Flash was […]
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Harvey Kurtzman really started to get work in the late 1940s. He had a regular 1-page comic called “Hey Look!” with a distinctive crazy style to it, as evidenced by the above picture from November 1948. I love the stark black backgrounds, they really stand out in the Patsy Walker comic. Harvey would eventually go […]
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Tommy Tomorrow makes his way from “Real Fact Comics” to something more fitting: a feature in Action Comics #127 (October 1948). In this first story, he is given the task of collecting alien fish from the solar system for a new Space Aquarium and we meet some stock supporting characters (Joan Gordy, a radio reporter). […]
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No, I didn’t quite lie. The last 1940s appearance of Two-Face was back in 1943, but Batman #50 (October 1948) brings us one last Two-Face story in the Golden Age. In it, Harvey Dent, cured with kindness and some plastic surgery these past five years, suddenly seems to be sleep-walking and moonlighting again as the […]
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In October 1948, Star-Spangled Comics #87 has Merry the Gimmick Girl taking over for poor ol’ Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy. The story features Merry and Mr. Pemberton, her foster father – but Sylvester and Pat are nowhere to be seen. The comic industry really seems to have declared itself done with boy sidekicks, with basically […]
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