By the mid-1940s, Miss America from Timely (Marvel) had transitioned from a comic book into a “magazine” with lots of ads targeting young women and articles/stories seeking to shape young girls minds into proper “American ideals”. I love how every article consists of the the first page and then a “continued on some later page” […]
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In Captain America #54, Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes appear out of their army uniforms (for the first time, I believe) though they are both still working for the army. Speaking of civilian garb, I got a big kick out of the ad at the end of Captain America #54 for a “trick tie”. By […]
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USA dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 with Japan announcing surrender in a matter of days. Nonetheless, it took until October 1945 for stories mentioning “atomic” science to make their way into the public’s hands. The stories had been held back thanks to wartime censorship. I actually found it pretty […]
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Possibly spurred on by the success of Patsy Walker and others, several “career girl” comics were launched by Timely (Marvel) Comics in 1945, with many first issues happening in August 1945. While Tessie the Typist, Nellie the Nurse, and Dolly Dill did not fare very well – Millie the Model became a big enough hit […]
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By May 1945, Germany had surrendered to the Allies – yet the comic books that came out in July 1945, like Sub-Mariner Comics #17, had been written before that. In this one, Namor takes on the Order of the Blue Flower, a fascist group that looks and talks a lot like the Ku Klux Klan. […]
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Timely Comics continues its trend into gruesome territory. In Marvel Mystery Comics #64 (March 1945), Namor shows his savage side by murdering a random henchman by tossing him into an iron maiden.
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I had to laugh at this super-clunky advertisement that I came across in Captain America #43 (October 1944). I guess it’s pretty clear what kind of audience that Timely Publications believed they had: 98-pound weaklings, greasy teens, and wannabe radio technicians. That actually sounds about right…
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Timely Comics (aka Marvel Comics these days) introduced a new female character in Miss America Comics #2 (September 1944): Patsy Walker. Although the Patsy Walker feature was in the “teen humor” genre, like Archie, I did learn from Wikipedia that she is an important character for Marvel because she one of the few that bridged […]
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Throughout 1944, Timely Comics (Marvel) featured increasingly vicious covers as its heroes were shown battling Nazis and Japanese soldiers in surprisingly violent ways. Here, Captain America is shown simultaneously punching, kicking and shooting three different Japanese soldiers, while Bucky Barnes uses a flamethrower on another in an effort to prevent a bridge from being blown […]
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By 1944, the shape of Namor’s head has evolved in an increasingly bizarre triangle-shape direction, as seen by the panel above from Sub-Mariner #13 (April 1944). His body has also gotten considerably more muscular, but his head really makes it hard to take him seriously. Two-and-a-half years is a short time for the look to […]
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