After You've Opened Your Presents, Enjoy These Yuletide SuperHero Tales...
Merry Christmas!
(We're taking New Year's Day off, but we'll be back to Russkie-Smashing on January 8th!)
Monday, December 25, 2023
Monday, December 18, 2023
Russkie-Smashers MARVEL BOY II "Phantom Pen"
...and we're going to close out the year with one more action-packed tale starring him!
Illustrated (and likely written) by Bill Everett, this tale fom Atlas' Astounding #6 (1951) was the next-to-last appearance (and final Russkie-smashing story) starring the character in any form until his revival as The Crusader in the pages of Marvel's Fantastic Four #164 (1975).
Note: due to constant reboots of Marvel Universe continuity since the late 1990s, this is now in dispute.
Note: due to constant reboots of Marvel Universe continuity since the late 1990s, this is now in dispute.
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which includes all of Marvel Boy's 1950-51 appearances as well as the 1953 re-intro of Captain America, Human Torch and Sub-Mariner
Monday, December 11, 2023
Russkie-Smashers WONDER BOY "Midnight Showdown"
Like a certain Man of Steel, this character was also a survivor of a doomed planet...
...now a castaway on Earth, battling evil (including Russkies, of course) during his 1940s-50s career!
The teenage Last Son of the Planet Viro, possessing super-strength, speed, and limited invulnerability, arrived on Earth inside a meteor in Quality's National Comics #1 (1940).
Though he came to Earth in his teens, he never referred to his family or life on Viro.
He wore civilian attire from time to time, but he didn't have a secret identity, and everybody called him "Wonder Boy" no matter how he was garbed!
Since he was created and owned by the Eisner/Iger Studio, which "packaged" stories and art for publishers, he and other Eisner/Iger characters (like studio mate Phantom Lady) would be leased to other publishers when contracts weren't renewed, or if the characters' rights were purchased by the client and continued by in-house staff, as was the case with Blackhawk, Uncle Sam, among others at Quality.
In Wonder Boy's case, he bounced from Quality to Elliot, then to Ajax-Farrell, who published this particular tale in Terrific Comics #16 (1955).
BTW, this tale may be a re-working of a previously-published comic story, which Eisner/Iger was notorious for, as shown HERE, where a story written and drawn for one character was modified/updated for a totally-different character!
Or, it may be a totally-new tale.
We're not yet certain.
Though he came to Earth in his teens, he never referred to his family or life on Viro.
He wore civilian attire from time to time, but he didn't have a secret identity, and everybody called him "Wonder Boy" no matter how he was garbed!
Since he was created and owned by the Eisner/Iger Studio, which "packaged" stories and art for publishers, he and other Eisner/Iger characters (like studio mate Phantom Lady) would be leased to other publishers when contracts weren't renewed, or if the characters' rights were purchased by the client and continued by in-house staff, as was the case with Blackhawk, Uncle Sam, among others at Quality.
In Wonder Boy's case, he bounced from Quality to Elliot, then to Ajax-Farrell, who published this particular tale in Terrific Comics #16 (1955).
BTW, this tale may be a re-working of a previously-published comic story, which Eisner/Iger was notorious for, as shown HERE, where a story written and drawn for one character was modified/updated for a totally-different character!
Or, it may be a totally-new tale.
We're not yet certain.
Monday, December 4, 2023
Russkie-Smashers LIBERTY BELLE "Freedom's Star"
The Russkies continued to be a threat into the 1970s and early 1980s...
...as this never-reprinted tale from Charlton's E-Man V1N5 (1974) so aptly demonstrates!
Note: I, in fact, did write in, but I may have well been the only one!
The script, besides dealing with Commies, also goes into Women's Lib, which was in its' heyday.
The script, besides dealing with Commies, also goes into Women's Lib, which was in its' heyday.
The character has reappeared recently, without any mention of what happened on the space station!
And, before you ask, the Golden Age DC character, also named Liberty Belle, hadn't appeared since 1947, except in a 1972 reprint, so the name/trademark was available at the time.
DC's character would reappear in new stories in 1981 and her daughter, also called Liberty Belle, would debut in 2006, sometimes working alongside her mother!
Both still appear in DC books to this day.
Both still appear in DC books to this day.
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Monday, November 27, 2023
Russkie-Smashers BLACKHAWK "Hitler's Daughter"
You read the title and muttered "What the f@#c does this have to do with Russkies???
Well, it does have a lot to do with Russkies, as you'll see as you read this never-reprinted tale!
World War II had ended only a decade earlier when this tale appeared in Quality's Blackhawk #97 (1956), and, if anybody did the math, Hitla (who appears to be in her mid-20s) would have been born around 1930-32...when Hitler wasn't married, but he was involved with Eva Braun...who was never pregnant!
Curiously, at that time in real life, Adolf's half-sister, Angela Raubal, and her 21 year-old daughter Geli, moved into Hitler's home.
Hitler's relationship towards Geli, while initially kindly, eventually bordered on the obsessive, fueling rumors that they were romantically linked...which Hitler denied.
In late 1931, Geli was found dead at Hitler's flat in Munich.
Verdict: suicide.
Did writer Joe Millard know about this, and could he have used it as a cover story for the imposter daughter in this Dick Dillin-penciled and Chuck Cuidera-inked story?
Curiously, at that time in real life, Adolf's half-sister, Angela Raubal, and her 21 year-old daughter Geli, moved into Hitler's home.
Hitler's relationship towards Geli, while initially kindly, eventually bordered on the obsessive, fueling rumors that they were romantically linked...which Hitler denied.
In late 1931, Geli was found dead at Hitler's flat in Munich.
Verdict: suicide.
Did writer Joe Millard know about this, and could he have used it as a cover story for the imposter daughter in this Dick Dillin-penciled and Chuck Cuidera-inked story?
We'll never know!
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Labels:
1950s,
Adolf Hitler,
Blackhawk,
Chuck Cuidera,
Dick Dillin,
Joe Millard,
Nazis,
Quality Comics,
Russians,
Russkies
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Monday, November 20, 2023
Russkie-Smashers BLACKHAWK "Doom in the Deep"
When you fail at killing just one Blackhawk (as seen last week)...
...try to kill all of them in one fell swoop!
Like last week's tale, this never-reprinted story by writer Joe Millard, penciler Dick Dillin, and inker Chuck Cuidera is from Quality's Blackhawk #96 (1956) features Russkies getting their butts kicked again by the Dark Knights!
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Labels:
1950s,
Blackhawk,
Chuck Cuidera,
Dick Dillin,
Joe Millard,
Quality Comics,
Russians,
Russkies
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Monday, November 13, 2023
Russkie-Smashers BLACKHAWK "Case of the Missing Blackhawk"
Easily the busiest Russkie-Smashers of the 1950s were the "Dark Knights"...
...who were using that phrase long before The Batman co-opted it in the 1970s!
They would fill entire issues, like the never-reprinted Blackhawk #96 (1956) from Quality with nothing but Commie-crushing comics tales like this!
You didn't think Andre was really dead, did you?
And why was he wearing that leather Blackhawk uniform under a business suit?
Written by Joe Millard, penciled by Dick Dillin, and inked by Chuck Cuidera...as were all the Russkie-smashing stories in this issue...as you'll see over the next two weeks!
Written by Joe Millard, penciled by Dick Dillin, and inked by Chuck Cuidera...as were all the Russkie-smashing stories in this issue...as you'll see over the next two weeks!
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Labels:
1950s,
Blackhawk,
Chuck Cuidera,
Dick Dillin,
Joe Millard,
Quality Comics,
Russians,
Russkies
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