Reading Room: ONE-SHOT HEROES Blue Flame

Who looks like the Human Torch and acts like the Human Torch...but is blue instead of red?

The Blue Flame, that's who!

Nope, S. Aitan, you won't meet Blue Flame again.

Nor will anybody else...ever!

Even though the story implies the Blue Flame's been around for awhile, he never appeared anywhere except this one appearance in Four Star's Captain Flight #11 (1947).

The writer is unknown, but the art is credited to Zoltan Szenics, who was primarily a letterer, but did several stories as a penciler or inker.

Perhaps it was a tryout for Timely Comics that didn't sell, and was reworked.

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Reading Room: JET DREAM "Captive Jet"

What happens when you take "Jet Dream" out of...

...and the team has to rescue their erstwhile leader?

"Jet-A-Reeno"???

Well, it ain't no "Hawkaaa!", but it'll do.

It's good to know they can function without Jet's leadership when necessary.

Script for this tale from Man from U.N.C.L.E. #18 (1968) by Dick Wood, with vastly-improved art by Joe Certa.
(We can finally tell which StuntGirls are which!)

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Reading Room: BLUE BEETLE "Armored Car Robbery"

The Blue Beetle dons his blue chain-mail costume for the first time...

...and displays the BeetleMobile in it's only appearance, ever!

You'll note Blue Beetle now wears distinctive chain-mail armor, but with short sleeves and no domino mask!
(Lucky for him no one recognized him as policeman Dan Garret!)
Next issue he gains the mask, and by his fourth appearance the long-sleeved look he was to keep for the remainder of his career.
This story from Fox's Mystery Men Comics #2 is credited to the the pen-name "Charles Nicholas", but was written by Will Eisner and illustrated by Charles Nicholas Wojtkoski, who later used the name for all his comic work until he retired.

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Reading Room: PHANTOM LADY "Success is No Accident"

For the final time, if the story seems familiar...

...it's because this is yet another re-write of a story of the Fox Comics version of Phantom Lady published several years earlier!

Both ironically and appropriately, this final Phantom Lady tale in Wonder Boy #18 (1955) is based on a story that appeared, not in Phantom Lady, but All Top Comics #9 (1948), entitled "Killer Clown".

This is the final Golden Age Phantom Lady tale on this blog, but it's not the last one in our archives!

There's one more tale, from Phantom Lady #22 (1948), featuring our heroine at the 1948 London Olympics!

It'll appear in our new "sister" blog, Heroines™, when the Olympics open on July 27th!

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featuring goodies emblazoned with cover art that Fredric Wertham railed against in Seduction of the Innocent.

Reading Room: JET DREAM "Farmer Brown Fiasco"

It's difficult fitting a team into only four pages...

...so Jet Dream usually had solo action stories or a team-up with one of the Stunt-Girl Counterspies!

Unfortunately, because of the 4-page per story limitation, the individual Stunt-Girls never had any real characterization.

Add Joe Certa's passable art using the same facial features for all the female characters, and the only things differentiating the women were hair color and stereotyped accents.

Script for this tale from Man from U.N.C.L.E. #17 (1968) by Dick Wood, art by Joe Certa.

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