Daredevil Battles The Man Of Hate!

Once upon a time in America, Adolph Hitler was the epitome of evil. He was the loathsome skunk who forced two of my uncles to go to war to protect the civil order of the Western world itself. Once upon a time we all hated him. And we have the comic books to prove it. Arguably the most infamous is the cover above for the debut of the Daredevil series from Lev Gleason which has the one-off title of Daredevil Battles Hitler! Signing as "Woodro" the infamous cover above was created by Charles Biro. 

In this absolute riot of a comic book Daredevil battles Hitler and his minions on many fronts, and he is helped by other Lev Gleason heroes of all kinds in this comic dated July 1941. (For the record, I love comic images which showcase heroes coming out of the very pages of book or even bursting through the cover.)

Daredevil joins forces with Silver Streak to combat the malevolent dictator. This splash page showcases Hitler as a giant crushing regular folks under his boot and crashing buildings to the ground. Charles Biro produces both story and art for this initial chapter. 

One the biggest "stars" for the company was actually the villain the Claw, who is a maniacal giant with fangs. He seems like an ideal choice to help the little dictator but as the title suggests there's little honor among malevolent maniacs. The villains team-up but then fall-out as Daredevil does his best to wind the day. Writer Biro was joined by the great artist Jack Cole for weird outing. 

The action switches to the jungle where Daredevil joins up with Lance Hale, a Tarzan inspired hero. The duo drive the Nazis out of this little corner of deepest darkest Africa. It's assumed Biro wrote this one, bt the artist's name is lost to time. 

I love this double-page spread which advertises the various heroes Lev Gleason publishes. Not all of them get featured in this comic. 

When Dickie Dean invents a new decoding machine, the news reaches the ears of Joseph Goebbels who sends out his henchmen to kidnap Dickie and his friend Zip Todd. Daredevil seeks them out in enemy territory and the heroes not only return with the machine but do some harm to the Nazis as well. Biro and Cole team up again for this story. 

Next Daredevil takes to the skies as he teams up with Cloud Curtis to battle Herman Goering's dangerous fighter planes. It takes more than a dash of derring-do to subdue the enemy. Sadly, again the artist for this story is unknown. As we learned yesterday, they produced them fast at Lev Gleason. 

In perhaps the strangest of the adventures Daredevil is in conflict with Grand Admiral Von Roeder who is attacking shipping. The Pirate Prince appears from the mists of time to assist in putting down this threat and then he and his sailing ship disappear just as mysteriously. Harry Anderson supplies the artwork for this Biro story. 

The comic takes a turn by leaving off with these focuses instead on Adolph Hitler himself and muses upon how his vile man came to power. The story is both written and drawn by Bob Davis. 

Hitler's notorious biography is tracked in a two-page prose offering which details many of how he came to prominence and ultimately a threat to the world. 

We then get some potent pages showing how Hitler and his forces moved beyond their borders and became an immediate menace to all of Europe and beyond. The story has the Roman god of war Mars join Hitler in his predations. 

The story "Man of Hate" was reprinted in 2001 in All-Hitler Comics from Bill  Black's AC Comics. 

This is a wild comic book, published before the beginning of the war and so it could be argued was needlessly provocative. Those arguments are largely hogwash. Recognizing the immensity of a menace, whether overseas or in one's own homeland, it's necessary to face up to the task of defeating evil. 

I read this story in The Original Daredevil Archives from Dark Horse. If you can't wait and I haven't spoiled too much, you can read it here. 

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Daredevils Battles The God Of Storms!

First mentioned, to my knowledge at least, in the pages of The Great Comic Book Heroes by Jules Feiffer is the legendary tale of how a Golden Age comic book was created in a single weekend, one in which the survival of the artists themselves was in some meager doubt. The comic book in question is the second issue of Daredevil Comics from Lev Gleason Publishing which hit the stands in the summer of 1941.

This tale has been told in several venues and even immortalized in fictional form in Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. It kindles the imagination for a number of reasons, one it speaks to the helter skelter nature of comic book creation in its infant days, how raw energy often substituted for craftsmanship and care. How comics are an art, but they are also a product for sale which are fashioned within the demanding rigors of a deliberate and often unforgiving schedule.

Things have changed nowadays with comics having been reduced to a minor art and no longer a true mass medium, but throughout most of the history of the comic book, we fans want our comics to be good of course, but first and foremost we wanted them to simply be. We were eager to buy and publishers were sure to have it available so that the opportunity would not slip by.

I most recently ran across this legendary yarn in the biography Jerry Robinson - Ambassador of Comics, in which the story is told from the perspective of one of the men who was there on that prodigious weekend of March seventeenth.  The story goes that a gaggle of young energetic artists and writers assembled at a sparsely furnished New York City apartment rented for that very reason. Charles Biro has learned that because of a need to use up their allotment of paper they needed a new comic ready for the presses and they needed it by the following Monday. To that end the talent was assembled and given largely carte blanche to create stories to fill the needed sixty-four pages.

Charles Biro would handle the lead feature Daredevil which accounted for the first thirteen pages. After that it was every man for himself as a ferocious binge of creation ignited. Bernard Klein created "The Whirlwind" about boxing, and other talents such as George Roussos and Dick Wood contributed "Nightro". Jerry Robinson himself created "London", a masked hero who was involved with the Blitz. Dick Briefer wrote and drew "Real American". Others did what they could, creating characters, some which would only appear in this single comic, in the mad rush to hit the deadline.

New York City under snow in March, 1941

The story then takes a dangerous turn when, while the artists are furiously creating in the apartment a heavy winter storm strikes the city, closing down everything save the subways, and forcing stores to close. Getting something to eat was problematic, and Bernie Klein was sent off into the white wastes to find sustenance. He returned hours later with only some eggs and a can of beans. The artists desperately pried loose ceramic bathroom tiles and created a fire to cook the eggs and heat the beans, which staved off fits until the streets quickened with life once again.

Needless to say, the book was completed and assembled and sent to the printer on time. This story shows not only the ruthless nature of publishing but also the wild bristling energy which informed the earliest days of comics, an art form still in its infancy and eager to please the audience which fondled it with such devotion.

The story is made more poignant in that Bernie Klein, a talent with much promise was one of those multitude of young men who lost their lives defeating the Axis powers on the battlefields of Europe. His death made all the more tragic, because as the legendary weekend showed he was like so many of his peers a man filled with spirit and life.

Daredevil must break out the boomerang and confront an evil from ancient history when a deadly mummy is revived. Charles Biro presides. 

Terry Turner is a powerful boxer, but he might have met his match in Jean Jacques, a savage lumberjack. Dick Wood and Bernie Klein do the honors.

Nightro isa rather nifty version of Dr. Mid-Nite when Hugh Goddard is blinded in a radiation accident. He can see in the dark thanks to special lenses and mops up the criminals who attacked him. Dick Wood writes and George Roussos draws this one. 

Dash Dillon at Hale (not Yale I notice) is a sports natural and is recruited by a young woman to join the team and save the season for her school and her dad, the coach. Ed Ashe is both writer and artist. 

Pioneer is a naive young man who lives in a remote valley and is lured to civilization by some thugs who see riches. He turns the tables. Bob Woods wrote this one for Jay Gahr. 

The Bronze Terror is "Real American #1". He's a denizen of the Indian territory and uses his strengths to save the chief from villains who want to prey on the people. Dick Briefer is man for this one. 

London is the hero and London is the place where a brave young man fights against the Nazis for the sake of us all. This one is all Jerry Robinson. 

Pat Patriot is born when a brave young woman stands up for her overworked companions and discovers a smuggling ring. Bob Wood likely wrote and Reed Crandall might well have drawn it. 

The Claw is in fine malicious form as he steals a train and all the men aboard it. He tries to blackmail the government, but one brave man has an idea which might defeat the towering menace. This one is by Bob Wood. 

To read this epic iconic comic in its glorious totality check this out. They don't make like that anymore.

I enjoyed this wild yarn in the pages of The Original Daredevil  Archives. Tomorrow. we back things up a bit, as the Dojo takes a look at the debut issue of this comic book series. 

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The Starr Mysteries - Seduction Of The Innocent!

Seduction of the Innocent is the third book in the Jack and Maggie Starr mystery trilogy by Max Allan Collins. This book was published by Hard Case Crime in 2013. The series first two installments had been published in 2007 and 2008 by Berkley Prime Crime, a division of Penguin Books, but that publisher had decided against doing the third and at this time final volume. So, it's real pleasure to see this final book, perhaps the best of the three. The late Glen Orbik's cover is a real stunner, echoing the most memorable of vintage 50's comics covers.

(Dr.Frederic Wertham)

The story is set in 1954 and concerns itself with a notorious psychologist cum social crusader named "Dr. Werner Frederick" whose book Ravage the Lambs sets out to reveal the lascivious nature of comic books and create a public furor about same. Of course, the Starr Syndicate, headed by former stripper Maggie Starr and her stepson Jack Starr care a great deal about this effort as it will directly impact their business.

(Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein)

So, when E.F. (Educational Funnies) Comics honchos "Bob Price" and "Hal Feldman" seek to face down the critic, it becomes a real problem for comics when Price's testimony before a Congressional commission becomes a debacle. Price ends up embarrassed and threatens to kill Dr. Frederic.

(Al Williamson)

Also invested in countering Frederic is hot-headed artist "Will Allsion" who also threatens the pop psychologist on television. That becomes a particularly dicey problem when Frederic actually does end up dead under very mysterious circumstances.

(Charles Biro - the one with the monkey)

Maggie asks Jack to investigate, and he does. Among the many folks he interviews are Price and Feldman, but also editor of Levinson Comics "Charley Bardwell" who is a tough mug famous for his pranks and drinking as well as his pet monkey, which even gets into the comics he published. 

(Bob Wood)

Bardwell's partner "Pete Pine" is an even more notorious drunk, a man who becomes quite violent when he's had too much booze.

(Tarpe Mills)

Jack runs into a great deal of trouble when he finds Pine at the apartment of "Lyla Lamont", a darkly beautiful comic artist who has a wild reputation for enjoying life in all its many forms.

The chase around NYC in search of a killer is a snappy and finely paced affair. Because this story centered around a group of comics folks already close to the criminality in some instances, it seems to have a more noir atmosphere than the previous volumes, or maybe the lurid details are just naturally part of this at times most pungent tale. The action is rousing in this one, both of the amorous and pugilistic variety.

As always Terry Beatty supplies some beautiful illustrations for this story, his style very reminiscent of the great Johhny Craig, is especially apt in this volume.

This was a great send off for the series. It seems to me there are a goodly number of stories which could be yet told from the shadowy world of comics, but Collins said that this volume concluded his plans for Jack and Maggie.

If you can find them, I highly recommend these three books. They are filled with wonderful ambience and details from 1950's New York City. Any comics fan will find them fascinating, and any mystery fan will find them fulfilling.

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Golden Age - The Legendary Weekend!

First mentioned, to my knowledge at least, in the pages of The Great Comic Book Heroes by Jules Feiffer is the legendary tale of how a Golden Age comic book was created in a single weekend, one in which the survival of the artists themselves was in some meager doubt. The comic book in question is the second issue of Daredevil Comics from Lev Gleason Publishing which hit the stands in the summer of 1941.

This tale has been told in several venues and even immortalized in fictional form in Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. It kindles the imagination for a number of reasons, one it speaks to the helter skelter nature of comic book creation in its infant days, how raw energy often substituted for craftsmanship and care. How comics are an art, but they are also a product for sale which are fashioned within the demanding rigors of a deliberate and often unforgiving schedule.

Things have changed nowadays with comics having been reduced to a minor art and no longer a true mass medium, but throughout most of the history of the comic book, we fans want our comics to be good of course, but first and foremost we wanted them to simply be. We were eager to buy and publishers were sure to have it available so that the opportunity would not slip by.

I most recently ran across this legendary yarn in the biography Jerry Robinson - Ambassador of Comics, in which the story is told from the perspective of one of the men who was there on that prodigious weekend of March seventeenth.  The story goes that a gaggle of young energetic artists and writers assembled at a sparsely furnished New York City apartment rented for that very reason. Charles Biro has learned that because of a need to use up their allotment of paper they needed a new comic ready for the presses and they needed it by the following Monday. To that end the talent was assembled and given largely carte blanche to create stories to fill the needed sixty-four pages.

Charles Biro would handle the lead feature Daredevil which accounted for the first thirteen pages. After that it was every man for himself as a ferocious binge of creation ignited. Bernard Klein created "The Whirlwind" about boxing, and other talents such as George Roussos and Dick Wood contributed "Nightro". Jerry Robinson himself created "London", a masked hero who was involved with the Blitz. Dick Briefer wrote and drew "Real American". Others did what they could, creating characters, some which would only appear in this single comics, in the mad rush to hit the deadline.

New York City under snow in March, 1941

The story then takes a dangerous turn when, while the artists are furiously creating in the apartment a heavy winter storm strikes the city, closing down everything save the subways, and forcing stores to close. Getting something to eat was problematic, and Bernie Klein was sent off into the white wastes to find sustenance. He returned hours later with only some eggs and a can of beans. The artists, desperately pried loose ceramic bathroom tiles and created a fire to cook the eggs and heat the beans, which staved off fits until the streets quickened with life once again.

Needless to say, the book was completed and assembled and sent to the printer on time. This story shows not only the ruthless nature of publishing but also the wild bristling energy which informed the earliest days of comics, an art form still in its infancy and eager to please the audience which fondled it with such devotion.

The story is made more poignant in that Bernie Klein, a talent with much promise was one of those multitude of young men who lost their lives defeating the Axis powers on the battlefields of Europe. His death made all the more tragic, because as the legendary weekend showed he was like so many of his peers a man filled with spirit and life.

To read this epic iconic comic in its glorious totality check this out. They don't make like that anymore.

Rip Off