Showing posts with label Nazi-Punchers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nazi-Punchers. Show all posts

Monday, July 28, 2025

Nazi-Punchers HIT COMICS "Ghost of Flanders in ' Who He Is and How He Came to Be"

Thanks to #JamesGunn 's Easter Egg in the new #Superman movie...
...specifically, this image on a multi-character mural at the Justice Gang HQ of a costumed hero with a World War I bi-plane overhead and a field of red poppies at his feet, we see that the head of the DC Cinematic Universe has plans for a certain obscure character who never appeared in a DC comic called Ghost of Flanders!
His strip ran for eight issues in Quality Comics' Hit Comics 18 thru 24 (1941-42).
Keeping in mind that this 1941 story (published before Pearl Harbor) appeared only 23 years after the end of World War I (considered the War to End All Wars) and taught extensively in American schools, and you might understand the significance of his nom du guerre.
Note: Though the costume design remained the same throughout the character's series, the coloring changed several times.
The color scheme seen in the mural is something of a compromise!
1) Why is the red poppy so frightening to German spies?
It ties in to Flanders Field as explained HERE!
2) How, you may ask, did Ghost of Flanders end up at DC?
DC purchased all of Quality's assets when the company folded in 1956.
They continued publishing Blackhawk without interruption thru 1968 (as we showed HERE), but held off on using any of the other characters until they revamped/revived Plastic Man in 1966 as we showed HERE.
In the 1970s, with the development of the 100-Page Super-Spectacular format, they began reprinting some of Quality's Golden Age characters including Quicksilver (renamed "Max Mercury" since Marvel has a super-speedster named Quicksilver since 1963), Black Condor, The Ray, Doll Man, and Phantom Lady, among others.
This led to a revival of the Quality characters in an annual JLA-JSA "Crisis on..." story involving "Earth X", where the Nazis had won World War II...and killed the Blackhawks and Plastic Man (and, presumably the rest of the Quality heroes and heroines except for these six!)
Art by Nick Cardy
This led to the featured Quality heroes coming to Earth-One and receiving their own title!
Art by Ernie Chua/Chan
Since then, post-Crisis on Infinite Earths, almost all the Quality heroes and heroines have been integrated into whatever the DC Universe currently is, largely thanks to Roy Thomas' integrating the Golden Age Quality/Fawcett/Fox characters into the All-Star Squadron!
But Ghost of Flanders didn't even make it to a group shot in any of those stories!

Ghost of Flanders Will Return!

Monday, June 23, 2025

Nazi-Punchers AIR FIGHTERS COMICS "Here Comes the Black Commander!"

Though Cover-Dated November, 1941...

Hillman's Air Fighters Comics #1 was on-sale during late summer, predating Pearl Harbor by several months, but featuring its' heroes battling Nazi aviators in Europe and German saboteurs/spies in the US!
This particular tale involves an American pilot flying with the RAF...











Though Air Fighter Comics kept going through 1945, then changed the name to Airboy Comics (after the book's most popular feature), The Black Commander didn't make it past this one appearance!
A pity, because this story, written by Kermit Jaediker and illustrated by Harry Anderson, has enough plotting set-ups and twists and turns for a live-action b-movie!
Good guy framed as bad guy!
Nazis create what will turn out to be their own worst enemy!
Good guy, now totally-unrecognizable to family and friends, wanted by friend and foe alike!
Note: the "Black Commander" is the aircraft, not the pilot!
Speaking of the airplane, does it look...familiar?
Another, very long-running Nazi-Puncher (and Russkie-Smasher) utilized that same experimental fighter as his very distinctive personal transportation...

Blackhawk began using the Grumman XF5F SkyRocket in Quality's Military Comics #2, cover-dated August, 1941, several months before Air Fighters Comics #1.
But, I believe the use of the unique airplane by both strips was simply a coincidence.
There's background info about the plane HERE, including the fact that it out-performed the British state-of-the-art Spitfire and another American prototype fighter, the XF4U Corsair (which did become an active-service aircraft!) in tests!

Monday, June 9, 2025

Nazi-Punchers VICTORY COMICS "The Coming of...The Conqueror!"

You Can't Get More Red-White-and-Blue Than This Guy...

...in his premiere appearance---but not origin story, from Hillman Publications' Victory Comics #1 (1941)!










It's apparent that The Conqueror has been operating for some time, as he's well-known by friend and foe alike!
Bill Everett, creator of Prince Namor: the Sub-Mariner, created, wrote and illustrated this premiere story which appeared months before America entered World War II!
As you saw in the splash panel, the war was well under way, and most Americans believed it was just a matter of time until we joined the fight!
Victory Comics featured super-heroes and spies battling the Axis (unofficially) in Europe and Asia as well as dealing with saboteurs and Bund-like organizations in the US.
Oddly, it ended with #4...before America actually entered the war!
Everett would do the cover for the next issue, but his work on the character (and Hillman Publishing) ended with that.
Others continued the strip, which ran for all four issues, along with an ongoing text feature which presented his origin!
Everett would later work on another Hillman character, The Heap, during the Bronze Age, when the character had fallen into the Public Domain and Skywald Comics published a new version of him!

Support Hero Histories
Visit Amazon and Buy...

Monday, May 26, 2025

Nazi-Punchers SGT FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS "Fighting Side-By-Side with Captain America and Bucky!" Conclusion

 Captain America and Bucky have discovered a Nazi plot involving movement of slave laborers to a French coastal site where large amounts of munitions are also being moved.
Why?
Freeing a group of captive American aviators who were about to be executed, Cap has an idea about how to discover the plan, but he wants backup...

 Now that was kool!
This wasn't the first time the Nazis tried this trick in the Marvel Comics Universe.
in Timely's Marvel Mystery Comics #16-17 (1941), Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner discovered another English Channel tunnel as well as a Japanese one under the Bering Strait!
After destroying the German tunnel single-handed, Namor then teams up with the Original Human Torch and Toro to destroy the Japanese tunnel.
In actual history, the idea of an invasion tunnel from mainland Europe to England dates back to 1804, when it was rumored Napoleon Bonaparte was digging one to bypass the British fleet!
1805 illustration showing proposed French invasion using a tunnel as well as barges and balloons.
Support Hero Histories
Visit Amazon and Buy...
Paid Link