Golden Age Space Wars!

Skyman is not a Charlton character. The aviation hero actually was part of Columbia comics scene. But Skyman's adventures were popular and he appeared briefly in his own title as well for years in Big Shot Comics. The stories reprinted by Mort Todd in these Charlton Neo volumes come from Big Shot. If you enjoy classic movie serials you will like these tales which are paced almost exactly the same as say Radar Men from the Moon. 

The series began soon after Ogden Whitney returned from active duty during WWII. While never featured on the covers of Big Shot, this series of stories featuring Skyman going to the Moon where he encounters Martians and Hitler are well paced adventures with proper cliffhanger endings. The series ran for years from 1946 until late 1948. 

In addition to aliens and Nazis, Skyman and his girlfriend Fawn must confront threats such as giant green rats who live inside the Moon. (No reference is made about cheese, but that must've been in the back of Whitney's mind.)

Hitler has a bombastic scheme to conquer the Earth with bombs from the Moon, but of course that goes awry. But when Skyman is able to end that odious threat, that doesn't mean the danger is over. 

Aliens from Venus are the next obstacle facing Skyman and Fawn as well as several Earth people who have been snatched by Venusians. Skyman has to salvage more than one spaceship to get around the solar system. 

But it will come as little surprise that Skyman and his girl do find their way back to Earth, but it's not without more mayhem and death than I expected. This story was exceedingly well told, but waiting for chapters over several years must've been excruciating for readers back in the day. 

On a different note, Steve Ditko drew a Skyman adventure written by Mort Todd way back in the 90's which appeared under the Indy ACE Comics brand. I have the original around here somewhere. 

I don't sadly have this version of the story from Charlton Neo which presented the Ditko story and pencil art for the tale. I'd love to see and compare. 

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Herbie Archives Volume Two!

There have been a lot of weird and oddball comics over the many decades since comic books first flowered on the newsstands of America and across the world. But I daresay none is more purely unrelentingly strange as is ACG's Herbie. Herbie Popnecker is a teenager who has a Dad who is ashamed of him and dubs him the "Fat Little Nothing" on a regular basis and has a loving Mom who seems somewhat more caring but still performs the role of a loyal wife with stalwart consistency. Created by Richard Hughes and artist Ogden Whitney, Herbie is possibly the most powerful living being on the planet Earth, capable with the aid of special popsicles to travel in time, into space, and regularly converses with the top political leaders of the entire world. Animals adore him and monsters fear him, he is indestructible and seemingly unstoppable. That is he's all these things when he takes a notion and not before. 

 

In the cover story for the sixth issue Herbie travels back into prehistoric times to prove that cavemen were not as dumb as his teacher Miss Marleybone insists that they are. Along the way he goes with his Dad to a movie studio and encounters Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner, but does travel back in time where he meets his prefect mate "Ticklepuss", though he says she's "ugly". A caveman named "Bum Bum" takes up with Herbie and travels back to the present day and shows just how smart cavemen were, which as it turns out is not very. The second story has Herbie head into space by getting a job with a scientist named Dr. Dimwit. Herbie sees through the telescope a planet with what seem to be giant popsicles and so off he goes on his super-bike into the heavens where he encounters a comet and hitches a ride on a space taxi. He gets to the planet named Percival and finds it filled with giants and he gets his prizes and heads back to Earth just in time to save his Dad's balloon factory from failure. If much of this makes little sense, then you are getting the point. 

Herbie is reluctant to go to college but his Dad insists and so off he heads to Peepwhistle State after graduating high school and getting a pep talk from former President Harry Truman. But Dad's old fraternity are not impressed and cook up impossible tasks for Herbie to keep out and yet he does them all. When they still won't let him in he destroys the frat house, and later goes literally to Hell to find subterranean indications of oil to help Peepwhistle out of a financial strain. In the second story featured on the cover, Herbie must confront four desperate spirits who have returned to Earth from the Unknown and occupy a house Herbie's Dad wants to buy. Needless to say he is more than a match for a few random ghosts. 

Issue eight of Herbie is somewhat momentous as it contains the debut of Herbie Popnecker's secret superhero identity of "The Fat Fury". A giant villain named "Mr. Horrible" is terrorizing the town and Herbie goes to American Hero School to get properly trained to combat the threat. 

Despite being inspired by Golden Age comics starring Skyman (once drawn by Ogden Whitney), Herbie washes out and has to make up his own super identity which he does. The Fat Fury is indestructible and eventually defeats the villain. The second story is truly strange and has Herbie travel back in time to help win the American Revolution. It seems without the aid of Popnecker we Yanks would all be loyal citizens of the Queen to this day. So in short order we see Herbie make Paul Revere's ride, survive the "shot heard around the world", and set up the surprise attack on Valley Forge by feeding British troops pizza and hotdogs in exchange for info. Later under the orders of George Washington's teeth (yes his teeth), he leads a band of patriotic animals to win the day and America's freedom. You can't make this stuff up, but Richard Hughes and Ogden Whitney sure did. 

The first story in the ninth issue gives a world filled with lots of Herbies. Professor Flipdome (who lives next door to Herbie) makes a machine that manufactures plastic duplicates of anything, and it ends up making a bunch of extra Herbies. These become a boon and nuisance but are handy when Herbie must field a football team made up of just him. Later he stops a prison break before getting shed of his other selves. Then he's off into history again to get Robin Hood's bow so he can become a capable archer to please his Dad. Before it,s over Maid Marian is in love with him and Robin Hood loses his pants, among other things. 

The Fat Fury returns in the tenth issue just in time to battle the "Black Whack", a villain who uses bowling balls to hypnotize his victims into giving up their wealth. Herbie's Dad is suspected of the crime but at the behest of FBI Director Hoover, the Fat Fury finally breaks the case and retrieves a stolen bomb as well. In the second story Herbie's prehistoric girlfriend Ticklepuss returns and for a time it seems that Herbie will have to get married. But he dodges a bullet when she takes a shine to a swindler who had sold Herbie's parents a crummy house next to a building site. 

Herbie is on the prowl for spies in the first story in issue eleven, but he has a hard time finding the identity of "Secret Agent Z-4131/2". Called on by both Adlai Stevenson and LBJ Herbie suspects a woman named "Lovely Horowitz" and follows her relentlessly, but it turns out there was more to the story when they end up in Paris. Then it's back in the grandfather clock that lets Herbie travel back in time so he can get the autograph of Christopher Columbus, and it will shock no regular reader that Herbie then has quite a bit to do the success of the mission. I never knew the Nina and the Pinta were along on the famous expedition only to haul lollipops. 

The Fat Fury returns again and this time the threat is a strange giant gorilla which is menacing the Chick Beeple Circus in Herbie number twelve. Herbie owes a debt to Chick Beeple (he gave him a lollipop when he was a baby) and so the Fat Fury investigates and finds a carnival full of suspects. The second story is the idea of a fan who won a contest, and his story has Herbie's Dad become a private eye trying to stop a series of thefts of fat. This seems right up Herbie's alley and he as usual helps his numbskull Dad save the day and the fat. 

In lucky issue thirteen the first story has Herbie travel back in time to get real pirate gold so his Dad can have a successful booth at a fair and so be elected President of the Men's Club. Herbie has to fight not only pirates but an octopus and a few mermaids as well before he prevails. Then we get a cute two-page story about "Murgatroyd Minch" who wants to be like the Fat Fury, but is stymied because he's too skinny and he has no powers. To get his Mom a new coat for winter Herbie heads North and becomes a Mountie so that he can hunt the proper animal to make it happen. But he instead breaks up a theft ring run by a giant penguin. (Some of the sentences I write to explain this comic...Oy Vey!) 

And to wrap up this archive edition of ACG's Herbie, we get a real treat when the Fat Fury teams up with ACG's other heroes Magicman and Nemesis. The Fourth Wall is shredded as the heroes leave their comic book domains to confront a mad scientist named Roderick Bump. He makes a machine that manufactures lousy superheroes (Moronman, Garbage Man, Halfaman, Pizzaman, etc.) and sends them off to instead do crimes. Nemesis and Magicman prove unable to stop him but when the Fat Fury joins them they are triumphant of course and the two heroes are in awe of Herbie's alter ego. The second story is appropriate for the holiday as it sees Herbie help out Santa Claus when the latter is held up by robbers. After Santa is injured Herbie steps in to deliver the toys and finds it is a much more difficult task than he'd imagined. In a surprisingly heartwarming note for this comic book, Herbie gives his own present of a box of lollipops to a neglected kid. It's not a bad way to wrap it up. 

I've long heard great things about Herbie but now having read substantial issues in the run, I can safely say it's among my favorite Silver Age comics. Richard Hughes writes a funny script, at once bizarre and unpredictable. And Odgen Whitney's artwork is key, so realistic and bland in places that it punches up the weirdness. This was a very enjoyable experience. 

Note: This wraps up my look at the ACG Silver Age comics. I don't have the third volume in the Dark Horse Archive series alas and prices I've seen make it prohibitive. The regular Dojo feature starring Turok, "Sundays of Stone" will return in the New Year. 

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Herbie Archives Volume One!

There's no doubt about it. Herbie is weird. This oddest of comic books was the product of ACG Comics, a small outfit that specialized in genre comics such as mystery, horror, and romance. And editor and main writer Richard Hughes concocted a "Little Fat Nothing" and brilliantly conspired with artist Ogden Whitney to bring this lollipop-loving "hero" to the comic book page. It all started  on a quiet Saturday afternoon. 

It all started in a little yarn inserted into Forbidden Worlds #73 from 1958. It's titled "Herbie's Quiet Saturday Afternoon" and in the story we meet Herbie Popnecker (his hair a bit more unkempt than it will become in future) and frustrated Father and put-upon Mother who only want a son they can be proud of and not the "fat little nothing" that fate seems to have thrust upon them. The order Herbie to get out of the house and shove him into the world, but we soon learn that Herbie is a  chap with vast powers and an immense imagination as he glides around town dealing with problems of the day. 

It's two years later until the world is treated to Herbie's return in Forbidden Worlds #94 in 1961. This time the "Little Fat Nothing" has to contend with a gang of spooks who travel into the world and decides a grand idea to start scaring folks as much as they desire in a story called simply "Herbie and the Spirits". While Herbie doesn't rate a cover image as yet, he does get a mention at the bottom touting his return. 

Two years later in Unknown Worlds #20 when Herbie returns in a cameo of sorts in a wild and weird science fiction yarn titled "1000 Years Ago in 1962" about a ruthless chap from the far future who wants to kill off all of the people in the modern world of 1962 to make room for immigrants from the aforementioned overcrowded future. Herbie is a boy scout who pops up to assist the miscreant to bring an end to the threat when the reformed villain falls in love and regrets his plot. 

Then in his next adventure in Forbidden Worlds #110 Herbie seeks out the mysterious powers of salad dressing in "Herbie and Sneddiger's Salad Oil". When his Mother runs out it falls to Herbie to get more and his trip to market is like no other when he ends up on another planet to discover  why all the oil has been stolen. Turns out the aliens need it to fend off deadly "Lionosaurs" who run amok. Herbie saves the day and the oil and returns home, his Mom none the wiser. This one also has the ghost of Frankenstein and a sentient sun in it for good measure. 

At long last the feature Herbie gets the cover by Ogden Whitney it deserves on Forbidden Worlds #114 and the universe will shake and shiver as the lollipop-licking Popnecker takes on all comers. Whitney's artwork might well be described as utterly professional but a bit lackluster. Ironically that style of ho-hum realism proves ideal for the wacky misadventures of the teen called Herbie. In this story Herbie goes on a mission for JFK in Africa and also impresses Jackie with his charisma. 

In this issue #116 Herbie makes a deal with Satan himself who offers the "Little Fat Nothing" a endless supply of lollipops when his father is made rich. He is also presented with Liz Taylor/Cleopatra as a romantic offering but of course spurns her. Most folks who make a deal with the Devil come off losing but not Herbie. Satan is so overwrought with his feckless shenanigans that he tears up their contract and orders him out of Hell. 

And that brings us to the debut of Herbie #1. Finally Herbie has his own comic book and it only took six years. Herbie joins the space race and at the behest of LBJ goes back in time to get some "Dragon's Tears" which will fuel the winner of the race to the stars. Later he heads to Cuba where he "beards" Castro as the title of the story says. Herbie is a one-man as he rips through the tiny country's defenses. All of this and mermaids too. 

In the second issue Herbie becomes a sleuth to track down a man in a cloak who steals lollipops. He is later accused of the crime but uses his mighty nigh unlimited powers to prevail. Then using time lollipops Herbie travels back in time to look for a girl. He starts with Cinderella and lays low a giant in the land of fairy tales and later goes to the guillotine for Marie Antoinette. But he learns that girls are fickle and prefers his lollipops. 

In his third issue Herbie tackles the two-headed Loch Ness Monster on the behalf of Winston Churchill and defeats the mighty beast sending it into outer space. Later he is knighted by Queen Elizabeth, but later when he returns home his Dad thinks he is a "Fast Little Nothing" as always. In a second story Herbie tackles the concept of charity when his Dad is caught up in a scam making money for the poorhouse by traveling all across the land and even into outer space. He even gets Cary Grant to contribute from the silver screen. His Dad is saved from ruin and the poor have a palatial estate but as usual Herbie gets little love from his Pop. 

Issue four finds Herbie traveling back in time again to help out at the O.K. Corral. His mission is to see to it that Doc Holiday is on hand at the might gunfight despite that western hero's reluctance. As usual Herbie prevails. In the second story Herbie must deal with Professor Flipdome's shrinking machine which makes people (Herbie's Dad included) into tiny folk who must deal with tiny ants and other strange things. Herbie must even confront himself. Weird. 

In the final issue in this volume Herbie travels to the country  of "Hanki=Panki" at the request of the United Nations to attempt the Red Chinese from working their will. Even Mao Tse Tung is no match for Herbie who battles elephants and even the mythical Roc to win the day as usual. In the second story Herbie gets hooked up with The Beetles (fooling no one with that spelling) when he becomes a literal mop-top and drives the girls mad. Even Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra are no match for the power of Herbie. 

I've really only scratched the weirdness in these stories that relentlessly change the pace the scene and even the point on a whim. It's sheer lunacy but done in a manner that fascinates the reader. Grand stuff! 

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SHIELD - Taking AIM At THEM!

The saga of SHIELD and Nick Fury takes a detour when Nick shows up at Avengers Mansion in Tales of Suspense #78 to have a chat with his old WWII comrade Captain America. The two of them come under attack by a deadly android from the DNA-rich vats of the super-science organization dubbed "THEM'. (I was reminded of "The Evil Factory" from the earliest issues of Kirby's Jimmy Olsen)This android can combine chemicals in his body to create all sorts of deadly effects but together Cap and Nick bring him down eventually. At the end Nick gives Cap a SHIELD security badge and we realize we haven't seen the last of him.

Over in Strange Tales #147 the battle continues as Nick and SHIELD track down where the android came from and discover an underwater laboratory lair occupied by two of THEM's agents. Previously he had learned that the attack of Mentallo and the Fixer had been at least partially financed by THEM. Dressed in the now familiar yellow radiation-suit inspired togs of A.I.M. these two scientists appear to be a criminal branch of A.I.M. which at that moment is represented by Count Bornag Royale as a legit think tank which is offering high-tech weapons to the world if they will remove Nick Fury as commander of SHIELD. So it seems that THEM and  A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics) are two arms of the same outfit, but it gets more complicated yet.

During a hearing to possibly remove Fury, he abruptly takes a header out of the window of the awesome helicarrier. Thought dead he then leads a counterattack against the forces of A.I.M. who have shown up in force at SHIELD headquarters to try and take control of LMD technology. The attack is foiled and eventually Count Royale is revealed. Followed by Jasper Sitwell, Royale appears to be killed when A.I.M.'s main secret base is exploded by forces unknown.

The long missing Gabe Jones reappears in the garb of the Secret Empire, as it was shown in the pages of Tales to Astonish where that secret criminal outfit had been giving both Hulk and Sub-Mariner problems. Infiltrating their ranks Jones was able to remove the threat for the moment. But now Fury and his agents begin to suspect that THEM, A.I.M. and The Secret Empire might all be merely "arms" of a larger and more deadly enemy - Hydra!

These are some fun issues and the shifting back and forth of the enemy does really have an espionage feel, though it does seem that the writers lost track of what they were all called. The artwork though suffers a bit as Odgen Whitney steps in to handle the pencils on the last chapter of the story, his work is developed but lacks that Marvel energy and punch. One notable event was that one chapter of his run was written by Jack Kirby (and credited as same) before Denny O'Neil stepped into take over from Stan.

The attempt to blend all of these secret organizations in sundry comics really amps up a feeling of paranoia and a larger world threat worthy of the heroes.

More next time when finally Hydra returns!

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Bursting With Entertainment!

One of the tried and true types of comic book covers is the one which seemingly breaks through the meager confines of the paper cover itself. I love visual gimmicks which toy with the very notion of the form and this 4th-world breaking technique is at the top. Perhaps the single finest example of this approach is the Atom cover above by Gil Kane. Not only eo we have two heroes involved in the break out, but one Atom is seemingly punching the other, but the Silver Age Atom might actually be in scale. The same hold true for the Doll Man cover below.  Here are a cavalcade of these dandy covers. Enjoy!

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