The Eye Day!

Captain Billy Joe "Biljo" White was born on this date in 1929. He is perhaps most famous for creating the term "Batmania" with the publication of his fanzine of that same name. White was a dedicated fan artist, one of the best of his time but he never broke into the pros. He created more than a few heroes but for me none match the sheer awesomeness of The Eye which he co-created with Grass Green. Wearing a spell-binding helmet the Eye was a classic crimefighter with a Golden Age gloss in a Silver Age fanzine environment. 

Biljo White co-created a hero who is one of the most fascinating superheroes I've run across. Working in a city filled with crime, this hero goes out and deals with the threats in a most direct manner. The visuals on this hero are outstanding, having instant recognizability and long-lasting memory. That impossible helmet, those jodhpurs - outstanding! The original design was dreamed up by Richard "Grass" Green who drew a single image of a strange bloke with a bizarre eye helmet. Later this was used by White to actually fashion a character from the single image. 

The Eye operated in Yorkton City. He's actually an undercover cop who uses the guise of the Eye to operate in the underworld as a seeming criminal enforcer. The character debuted in full bloom in Star-Studded Comics #3 and later in Fighting Hero #10 before graduating to his own self-titled comic. He soon became a favorite among the fanzine crowd and went on to appear ultimately in two issues of his own. The combines pulp mystery with superhero hijinks, possessed of a helmet that can hypnotize and blind his enemies. It also allows him to see behind him. 

Over that last several decades his adventures have been reprinted in various places by Hamster Press. Even new adventures written by Bill Schelly have been created with the blessing of White himself. 

(Jerry Ordway)

(Ron Frenz)

(Bill Schelly)

I got to know The Eye though the publications of the late Bill Schelly's Hamster Press. Here's a link with more on the father of the Eye -- Biljo White:

BILJO WHITE

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Take That, Adolph!

Adolph Hitler! The name still resonates in the culture, a single man who has become the very symbol of unblinking hatred. Adolph Hitler became for the World War II generation an icon against which every atom was put to the wheel against his brutal aggression. The way in which his name is still evoked with such relative ease makes me wonder sometime if people don't miss the nostalgic glow of presumed simpler times when enemies were easy to identify and against which they were eager to rally their will.

Of course, those years were far more complicated, but having a shared mission is something that can give a fragmented society its identity and mission for good or ill. But we forget that was the very thing Hitler was so very good at too; it's a dangerous game to play. We must be careful not to fall into those nationalistic traps ourselves, nor should we imagine for a moment our modern sophistication makes us immune. We sure haven't proved we are any smarter than the folks who fell under Hitler's evil spell. 

Here are fifty comic book covers from across the decades which showcase the terrible and sometimes terrifying image of the Hitler and in some instances his Axis allies Mussolini and Hirohito. Some of the images challenge our modern morality, but alas they are at least understandable if not justifiable given the tenor of the times. 

Hitler and the Holocaust he instigated and inspired must never be forgotten, nor should we allow history to be revised to make that horror other than what it was -- mankind at its most savage. We are still that animal after all, and we must always strive to rise above those twisted passions which can consume us if we do not follow our better angels. 

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