Judo Joe!
What a simple but evocative name!
This series is striking (no pun intended) for a number of reasons. First is the early publishing date, 1953, long before I'd imagine most folks had any understanding of martial arts, at least in a popular way. Another is the way the concept of Judo is combined with a totally cornbread-fed All-American blonde stereotype. No Asians need apply, though as Scott Shaw notes in his Oddball Comics reviews for the first few issues (see
this link and
this one too), finding anything positive at this time about Asians was unusual and useful.
Getting information on this book has been more difficult than I expected. The name of the creator, Dr.Barry Cosneck, struck me as distinctive and I've finally discovered he had little to do with comics, but a lot to do with popularizing martial arts and self-defense in America. He's the author of
American Combat Judo and the co-author of other books on self-defense. Most of the sources have a low regard for this book in terms of its pure Judo awareness and suggest it's more like wrestling than true Judo.
Here's what one site says about Cosneck: "Bernard J. Cosnack is (or rather, was?) an American wrestler who also trained judo, jiu jitsu, French savate (what he calls "foot-fighting") as well as kung fu. In his days he allegedly trained the US Coast Guards in physical self-defense. It probably will come as no surprise, but there are hardly any traces of judo in this book. As soon as you see the topic, and titles such as "Combat Judo", you can almost guarantee that we are leaning more against ju jitsu than judo."
Like so many later heroes who make use of Judo,especially my favorite Frank McLaughlin's Judomaster (McLaughlin of course was another martial artist who drew comics) and Pete Morisi's Thunderbolt (Morisi was a trained policeman so he doubtless had some training), we have the allure of judo (a martial art that's presented almost akin to a superpower) blended with an All-American look. Having an actual Asian with such skills would have to wait for Bruce Lee's Kato.
I recently picked up the ACE Comics reprint from 1987. It's a book I've long wanted, but never found. It features two choice reprints from the debut issue of Judo Joe from 1953 by Grosneck and artsit Paul W. Stoddard (about whom there is less than Grosneck) as well as a newer one written by Joe Gill with inks by Frank McLaughlin. The cover is by McLaughlin too.
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