The Doctor is IN...and he's STRANGE!

Initially called "Doctor Strange" scientist Hugo Strange became a superhero in Thrilling Comics #1 by ingesting a substance he created called Alosun, obtained by distilling the atoms of the Sun, which gave him super-strength and near-invulnerability.
He couldn't actually fly, but could leap great distances like the Hulk and the Golden Age Superman.
Like his inspiration, pulp hero Doc Savage, he initially wore a standard business suit, which would become shredded during the course of that issue's adventure,
But within several months, this became dark jodhpurs, riding boots, and a red safari shirt, which quickly became a faster-to-draw red t-shirt.
Again, like Doc Savage, he didn't have a secret identity, so there was no need for a mask, but Strange did have an unusually-large pompadour to give him obvious visual distinction.
When kid sidekicks became a trend, Doc introduced Mike, who wore a similar outfit. Reports conflict as to whether Mike received Alsoun or not, and since the Thrilling Comics I've scanned are all slabbed, I have no way of confirming if Mike was super-powered or not.
While he never received his own title, Doc not only ran in Thrilling Comics, but as one of the features in the anthology America's Best Comics, where the covers showed him interacting with other Nedor Comics heroes like The Black Terror and Fighting Yank. (Though inside, the heroes all had separate strips and didn't work together!)

Doc retained the Thrilling Comics cover spot for most of his run, only losing it for two months to the patriotic American Crusader, before regaining it until #60, when a jungle heroine named Princess Pantha replaced him. (Ironically, his final cover on issue #59 showed him rescuing a jungle girl, but not, as reported, Princess Pantha!). Doc stayed as a backup until #65, when he disappeared.

But you can't keep a good hero down.

In the 1990s, Alan Moore (Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Swamp Thing) revived Doc as one of the Terra Obscura heroes in his Tom Strong series. (He had already used Doc as the visual template for the Tom Strong character.)

Working off the Earth-One/Earth-Two alternate-Earth concept made popular at DC Comics, Alan remade Doc Strange into Tom Strange (changing his name from "Hugo Strange" to "Thomas Hugo Strange" and making him into a Golden Age variation of Tom Strong!)

The concept proved popular enough that a spin-off book entitled Terra Obscura, starring Tom Strange and his new crime-fighting companion/wife, Princess Pantha (who had replaced Doc in Thrilling Comics!) ran for 12 issues!

Doc has also appeared in Alex Ross' Project SuperPowers series, though simply called "Doc", to avoid confusion (and potential trademark conflict) with Marvel's Doctor Strange.
We at Atomic Kommie Comics™ have also revived Doc as part of our Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics™ line!
There are four classic covers (including his FIRST appearance) on a variety of collectibles including t-shirt, mugs, messenger bags, and other cool stuff as well as a Classic Doc Strange 2010 12-Month Calendar with a dozen different covers including his first and last!
Any of them would make great Christmas gifts, especially in conjunction with the trade paperbacks of the Project SuperPowers Golden Age revival series or Terra Obscura! (Hint, hint!)
The Doctor is in, and he's ready for action!

Video Fridays: THE GREEN HORNET in "The Ray is For Killing"

NOTE: Fixed the YouTube links to provide bigger images.
Continuing our weekly feature "Video Fridays"...

The Green Hornet and Kato face art thieves armed with a laser rifle!

Except for the two-part series finale, "Invasion from Outer Space", this was the most outlandish episode of the series.
Usually, the show was a straight "detectives with masks" format, dealing with gangsters, extortionists, etc.
No flashy costumed villains.
No super-weapons (except The Hornet's, of course).

Curiously, there's no explanation as to how these criminals got their hands on a laser, who taught them how to use it (or who's gonna fix it if it breaks), or why they're not using it for more lucrative crimes.
SideNotes:
We don't know who built the laser. These guys didn't have the scientific background to do so. Was there a mad scientist running around the city?
Why didn't The Hornet take the laser and incorporate it into his weaponry? As it is, leaving it for the police left open the possibility that they could adapt it and use it against him and Kato!
The laser itself is shown to be powered by simply plugging it into an electrical outlet! 110 or 220 volts? It also conveniently fits into a suitcase.
There's location shooting in the Los Angeles storm drain system, both inside the tunnels (where the Black Beauty's green headlights really glow with an eerie effect unseen any other time in the series), and outside using some of the same viaducts seen in Terminator 2 and THEM.
Though it's the ninth episode aired, this was the second episode shot, after "Programmed for Death".
We're using a new YouTube provider, HornetNest1000, so you'll notice a slight difference in the openings of the individual segments, though the picture and sound quality are equal to Michelle66's work.
Enjoy.

Call Her Miss Masque...Call Her Masquerade!

Debuting in Exciting Comics #51, Miss Masque was another of the line of rich socialites-turned-masked crimefighters in the Golden Age which included The Shadow, The Batman, and The Green Hornet!
Diana Adams had no superpowers or abilities, just her keen deductive mind and a pair of .45 automatics. And, unlike her male contemporaries, she didn't have a sidekick or aides!
Clad in bright red cape, mini-dress, gloves, and slouch hat, she pursued criminals and saboteurs thru several issues of Exciting Comics, appearing on the cover only once (#53) during her run, before transferring over to America's Best Comics, where she teamed up (on the covers) with other heroes, most notably The Black Terror, even though they didn't appear together inside the comic! (They all had seperate strips!)

Also, she seemed to lose parts of her wardrobe when she changed homes, as her fedora disappeared along with the midriff of her costume (see left), making her predate the trailer-trash look of Britney Spears by decades! (Maybe it was her summer ensemble!)
When superheroes faded away after the end of World War II, so did Miss Masque.
Since the 1990s, she's been revived by several publishers, most notably, by writer Alan Moore (of Watchmen fame) in DC Comics' America's Best Comics imprint (ironic, eh?), and artist Alex Ross in Dynamite Entertainment's Project SuperPowers series as well as a mini-series under her new code-name of Masquerade!
In this revival, she's part of a trio of  psychically-linked, red-garbed superheroines (including The Woman in Red and Lady Satan) called The Scarlet Sisters!
We at Atomic Kommie Comics™ have also "revived" Miss Masque / Masquerade by digitally-restoring and remastering several of her best Golden Age cover appearances (including her first) on a line of t-shirts, mugs, and even calendars as part of our Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics™ line of kool kollectibles!

She was a woman ahead of her time...but her time has finally come!

PS: Pick up the Project SuperPowers and Masquerade comics! They're the best Golden Age revival books out there!

Video Fridays: THE GREEN HORNET in "Beautiful Dreamer I & II"

Continuing our weekly feature "Video Fridays"...

Since The Green Hornet was a weekly show, rather than twice-a-week like Batman, the producers wanted to avoid two-part or continued stories.

However, whether the original concept was to do an hour-long show, or the story editors were unaware of the edict when they solicited scripts, there were several shows that ran an hour.

This was the first one.

Peter Eden is a criminal posing as the owner of a health spa to the rich and famous called The Vale of Eden. Using subliminal motivation via "sleep teaching" to make his clients steal from their own companies and families, turn the loot over to him, and then forget all about it, he's created the perfect method to commit crimes and let others take the blame.
The Hornet (as Britt Reid) and trusty Girl Friday Lenore Case go "undercover" to investigate the spa. Eden becomes suspicious of them, and "programs" Casey during her spa treatment to shoot Reid.
When Casey tries to carry out her programming, only Kato's quick action saves Reid from being killed by his own secretary.
SideNotes:
This is the only episode written (actually co-written) by one of the Batman tv series writers.
The basic concept of a spa being a cover for a criminal operation hypnotizing/programming innocents to commit crimes was also used in the movie In Like Flint and the final Batman tv series episode "Minerva, Mayhem and Millionaires"
It's also the only episode we see The Hornet and Kato's gas masks (which they just test, but not use). Considering how often they use gas, either from the Black Beauty's grille-gun or the Hornet's pistol, I'm surprised the masks weren't seen more frequently. You'll note in the photo above they're also color-coordinated for the Hornet (green) or Kato (black/midnight blue).
There's lots more location shooting since the finale involves stealing the proceeds from a racetrack and the duo, in Black Beauty, pursue Eden's henchmen in an armored car all over the place; thru the stables and onto the track itself!

Here's the SEVENTH and EIGHTH broadcast episodes "Beautiful Dreamer I & II" in six segments.

There's no "teaser" for part 2 at the end of part 1, and no "synopsis" of part 1 at the beginning of part 2, which starts at the opening credits with no pre-credits sequence. They do exist, and I got them on audio tape, when I recorded them off tv in the days before VHS and DVD. The syndicated prints that HronetsNes1000 digitized his files from probably omitted them since most stations ran the 26-episode series as a one-hour block once a week, thus the preview and synopsis were unnecessary since the eps ran back-to-back, and by leaving them out, a couple of minutes of commercials were added without cutting into the episodes themselves.

Glittering is...Golden Lad!

One of the few Golden Age teen heroes both with his own comic book and not an established hero's sidekick, Golden Lad had a five-issue run in 1946-47 featuring art by comic art legends Jerry Robinson (who created Batman's foe, The Joker) and Mort Meskin!

High-school student Tommy Preston discovered an ancient Aztec artifact, the Heart of Gold in his grandfather's antique shop. (Wonder if grandpop discretely-handled some of Indiana Jones' transactions?)
The Heart of Gold had been empowered by "the blood of a thousand martyred Aztecs" to grant power to anyone who fought for justice.
Holding the artifact and saying its name, Tommy was transformed into Golden Lad, with the abilities of flight, super strength, and size-changing.

Trivia: unlike the Golden Age Captain Marvel, who changed from a kid into an adult hero when he said "SHAZAM!", Tommy still looks like his teenage self as Golden Lad, just in green tights, yet no one who knows him as Tommy recognizes him when he's Golden Lad! Go figure!

As part of our Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics™ line, he's one of the more obscure characters since he hadn't been revived since 1946 until Alex Ross brought him back for a cameo in the first Project SuperPowers mini-series!
Digging thru the Atomic Kommie Comics™ archives, we found all five issues, and decided on the three best covers (including the first and final ones) for Golden Lad, giving him his own section for his collectibles!

If you're looking for a kool, affordable, Golden Age comic collectible for your pop-culture-fan loved one, you can't go wrong with a Golden Lad goodie (unless you happen to find the Heart of Gold in an antique shop)!