Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Reading Room: BLACK OWL "Man Who Couldn't Remember to Forget"

Realizing it would be best if The Black Owl was still believed to be fighting crime...
...Army recruit Doug Danville aka Black Owl, passed his costume and equipment to Walt Walters, father of patriotic teen superheroes, Yank & Doodle whom Danville had teamed up with on several occasions, most notably Prize Comics #24, when they, Green Lama, and several other characters, took on the Monster of Frankenstein!
While the writer of this tale from Prize Comics V4#3 aka #39 (1944) is unknown, the artist is Maurice Del Bourgo, a journeyman with credits in every genre at almost every company during the Golden Age.
Once their dad became a superhero, the kids became his sidekicks, but remained Yank & Doodle, instead of renaming themselves something avian to match the Black Owl's motif!
(Luckily, their color schemes matched!)
Curiously, the boys didn't realize their father was the Black Owl, despite the fact they had worked with the original!
The Black Owl was framed for murder and jailed in Prize Comics #45, and when their father didn't return home, the duo finally figured out their dad's secret identity.
When Walt was shot and wounded in Prize Comics #64, he retired from active crimefighting, serving as a non-costumed assistant to Yank & Doodle until their series is cancelled several months later.
Note: we never learned what became of Doug Danville after he entered the Army...
 Next...Enter The Owl!

Friday, July 6, 2012

Reading Room: BLACK OWL "Crime in Chinatown"

The next hero in our look at comic book Owls was the Black Owl...
...whose politically-incorrect (and potentially NSWF due to racial stereotypes) first appearance in Prize Comics #2 (1940) is our subject today!
This never-reprinted premiere tale was written by Robert Turner, penciled by Pete Riss and inked by Jack Binder, under the single nom-du-plume "Pete Nebird", which the team retained for their brief run on the series.
The Black Owl kept his "mystery-man" ensemble until Prize Comics #7, when the Simon & Kirby team took over the strip and performed the first of their reboots/revamps of existing series which included giving the hero an actual costume (as opposed to a mask and business suit)...
...enabling him to take over the cover slot for most of his remaining stories.
You can see the complete Simon & Kirby Black Owl collection in the recent hardcover Simon & Kirby SuperHeroes, so we're not going to present those stories here!
Next, the Black Owl passes the mantle to...the Black Owl II!

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Reading Room: BLUE BEETLE "Protection Insurance for Newsboys"

At last, the Blue Beetle hits his stride...
...as he finally appears in the armored costume that will (with minor variations) strike fear into the hearts of evildoers for the next decade or so!
This story from Fox's Mystery Men Comics #4 (1939) 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 "Charles Nicholas" name for all his comic work until he retired.

Support Small Business!

Friday, June 29, 2012

Reading Room: JET DREAM "Demon Dogfight"

...as a public demonstration of prowess goes awry due to evil intent!
Story by Dave Wood, art by Joe Certa.
This new story from Man from U.N.C.L.E. #22 (1968) backs up a reprinted U.N.C.L.E. tale, so most people (myself included) thought it was a reprint as well.
Good thing I took a look inside the book! ;-)
There's one more never-reprinted Jet Dream story to tell, but you won't find it here.
It will appear on our "sister" blog Heroines™ blog in daily installments on the week of August 13th, along with another long-unseen tale with an unusual history!

And, as of our next post, this blog's title is altering to Hero Histories™...although the feed and addy will remain the same.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Reading Room: ONE-SHOT HEROES! The Owl

With the Court of Owls currently bedeviling The Batman...
...we'll be looking at previous heroes to use the motif of an owl.
This character from Centaur Publications' Funny Pages V4N1 (1940) was the first costumed Owl.
Written and illustrated by Martin Filchock, he appeared only a couple of months after the first appearance of The BatMan in Detective Comics #27 (1939), and shows a number of similarities to the initial version of the Caped Crusader.
As it turns out, 1940 was a good year for owls as two more heroes (and one heroine) would show up within six months to claim the name.
We'll be looking at them next week...