436 – Crypt Creeper

Well, the era of EC horror comics finally begins in December 1949 with The Crypt of Terror #17. Prior to this issue, the comic was named “Crime Patrol” and before that it was International Comics. Remember? The Crypt-Keeper introduces the first story, but his debut appearance was actually two issues prior in Crime Patrol #15, […]

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435 – Kent General Store

In Superboy #6 (November 1949) it is established for the first time that Pa Kent owns and runs a general store in Smallville, further fleshing out Superboy’s back-story. Jonathan Kent twists his ankle and Clark has to take a week off school to run the store. Superboy foils a criminal plan at the same time.

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434 – Evil and Weird

The very very last vestige of Timely (Marvel) Comics’ superheroes occurs with Captain America’s Weird Tales #75 (November 1949). The cover mentions Captain America, but the book is very clearly EC Comics-inspired (down to the left-hand vertical title bar) with anthological horror tales. The magazine probably needed to include “Captain America” in the title so […]

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433 – Heat Vision Redux

Only one month after Superboy first uses his heat-vision, Superman does the same in Action Comics #139 (Oct 1949). In a typical lazy-writer stunt of the time, Superman sets fire to an old covered bridge to force the criminal driver into the river. Why not just use your super-speed to catch the car? At least […]

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432 – Shared Secrets

In All-Star Comics #50 (October 1949), it is established for the first time that the members of the Justice Society of America know each other’s secret identities. Jay Garrick (The Flash) and his college classmates had written down their ambitions a decade before with their professor, and one of the classmates had decided to become […]

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431 – Heat Vision!

In Superboy #5 (Sept 1949), for the first time, Superboy concentrates his x-ray vision into heat vision to melt a bullet. The bullet was meant for a girl named Lucy from Borgonia, who is a top athlete visiting Smallville. She ends up helping Superboy and being dubbed Supergirl:

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430 – Kryptonite!

In September 1949, Superman #61 hit the stands – the most important book so far in the evolution of the Superman myth. In it, Superman encounters a fake “swami” who happens to have a piece of kryptonite in his turban. Lois Lane helps him out of this first encounter. The swami, believing he has hex […]

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429 – JSA Hi-Tech

In All-Star Comics #49 (August 1949), the JSA continues to chug along. This story reveals that the JSA have a surprising amount of sophisticated technology – a computer lab that analyzes crime data from newspapers, and video chat technology borrowed from the Amazons: It’s funny that these things, which were 100% science fiction back then, […]

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427 – Zombie Zombie

ACG continues to push its horror comic with Adventurers of the Unknown #7 (August 1949), featuring a story called “Drums of the Undead” which featured zombies. The zombie was a pretty new concept to western culture at the time, but the latter half of the 20th century brought zombies to the foreground in horror culture.

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