Not A Dream! Not a Hoax! Someone DIES!

Had an interesting situation come up:  I didn't have access to Pep Comics #17, so I used the image at comics.org as I often do because this was the first appearance of the Hangman character and I wanted to at least see what the issue looked like.

Well, imagine my surprise when I open up Pep #19 and learn that I had missed the final fate of the Comet!

I begged and cashed in some favors to get some images.  Sorry they're in black and white, but think of them as being all tragic and Sin City-esque.

Why is it that I all the holes in my collection are when something huge like that happens?  Am I right?  Am I right?

Anyway, we segue right into the origin of the Hangman:

Criminals are a suspicious, cowardly lot... I mean, criminals are all cowards!  I am not a Batman rip-off in any way, shape or form!

All kinds of scary... except the "gallows" are those that come about by the legal system after he catches them.  He doesn't actually throw a noose over a tree limb and save the taxpayers a lengthy trial and appeals process.

Two issues later, readers got a direct response for the change:

Of course, the Comet killed the officer while he was under the hypnotic control of Doc Zader so he really didn't have any retribution coming to him, neither legally nor morally, but the Shield isn't exactly Matt Murdock in any sense of the word.  Basically, the Comet is dead, kids.  Get over it.

Until the character was revived 25 years later, and then again in the Impact comic line back in the 1990s.

So... dare we say that the Comet is only visible about every 20 years?

Get it?  A little Astronomy humor there.  No extra charge.

See you tomorrow!

Got Him! Ugh!

Still perusing Pep Comics #11, I check out the Comet story for this issue and notice for the first time the saturation of primary colors this feature uses.  I kid you not, it's page after page of blue, green and red buildings, joined by bright red streets.  It reminded me of that old Dick Tracy movie that had Warren Beatty back in the 90's.

Anyway:

The Daily Blast?  I hate to blame the victim, but working for a place called The Daily Blast is just asking for trouble.  

Along those lines:

Okay, things you never want to say within earshot of a guard while you're inside a bank vault?  Anything that could be mistaken as a reference to an explosive device.

Hey!  Let's check in on (T)(t)he Press Guardian!

Yeah, nothing but good things come when a government requires a certain demographic to register.  Nothing. But. Good. Things.

Actually, I was more noticing that he had a bad habit of wearing the same suit in both his civilian and his secret identities.  I've mentioned this several times, but his disguise continues to be only slightly more effective than that of the Phantom Lady.  Green suit, yellow shirt, red tie... that's a rather loud fashion statement to make for someone who doesn't want to call attention to himself.

Then again, it does save us awkward moments like I saw back in the Comet story:

So, if you were ever wondering why heroes tended to wear their costumes under their clothes, wonder no more.

See you Monday!

A Mess of Mulligatawny Worthy O' St. Patrick Himself!

Okay, so we're at the sixth issue of Pep Comics, and the Comet still hasn't cleared his name.  Everything was okay when he was just executing suspects left and right, but... you know.

Anyway, the Comet has come up with a new plot device mission:

Of course he has a plan: He puts on a civilian disguise.  I'm kind of surprised that his new sidekick Thelma didn't figure that one out on her own, but... you know, she's a woman and all.

Yes, those mobile plans can be difficult. They give you that free phone and then...

Oh, wait.  There were no mobile phones back then.

It turns out Mrs. O'Hara doesn't read things before she signs them, because.... well, she's a woman.

Really?  I'd like to think that if I were murdered, Beloved wouldn't be so quick to call it even for a financial windfall.  But... well, she's a woman.

Anyway, the Comet hires a crack legal team to establish contractual fraud  finds the guy and threatens him:

Oh, yeah.  Whatever he writes under the threat of death will totally hold up in court.  This will solve everything.

And, as a random aside, I think this officer has pooped his pants:

I mean, there's really only one reason to take that kind of stance if you're standing.  You know what I'm saying.  Don't act like you don't see it.

And Mrs. O'Hara is happy and stereotypically Irish:

Keep in mind, this is the guy who killed her husband, and no one knows that the Comet was hypnotized.  But now she's practically set up a room for him in her house.  I guess people just didn't hold a grudge for that sort of thing back in the day.

Ah, well.  See you tomorrow!

Yay! I Cut Off a Man's Leg! I'm the Best Hero EVER!

Following up with yesterday's teaser, Pep Comics #4 did indeed have a cross-over between the Shield and the Wizard.  Or is it The Shield and The Wizard?

Anyway, here it is:

And they exchanged info and went their separate ways.

I'm not picking on this story for going in that direction.  Heck, the Justice Society spent 80% of their time on solo missions before actually teaming up.  Remember how many issues of World's Finest it took before Superman and Batman actually got together aside from the covers?  That was just how they rolled back in the Golden Age.

What I noticed was how civilized everyone was in their first meeting.  If this had been a Stan Lee comic, the two would have beaten each other half to death and caused at least a couple of million dollars in property damage before declaring a draw.

Anyway, the Shield story was pretty weak, so on to the Comet.  Or is it The Comet?  There has to be a rule here, but dang if I know what it is, and I have a degree (cum laude, no less) in English.

The Comet, you may recall, is on the run after going on a killing spree whilst under the influence of hypnosis. So, he finds himself out in the sticks where some kind of mining is taking place.

So he amputates that poor guy's leg and is actually feeling pretty good about it.  The camera cut away from the poor guy languishing in pain, clutching his stump in agony while the Comet flew off in a moment of self-congratulation.  Of course, one wonders why he didn't try to disintegrate the ground under the guys leg to try wriggling it out, but I'm not the guy with the lifty visor.

The bottom line: The Comet gives up fighting crime to work for the Occupational Health and Safety Administration:

No, not really.  But wouldn't that have been hilarious?

See you Monday!

Visor-Lifty! Melty-Melty! Willy-Nilly! All in One Post!

And we're back!  Hope everyone had a great holiday!  Let's check out the Comet story from Pep Comics #3:

Okay, I have a question....

... does everyone just know who the Comet really is?  I ask this because at the beginning of the story, a cop addressed him by his real name.  And it wasn't some big-wig muckety-muck cop, either.  So I thought that maybe his identity was common knowledge by law enforcement.  But as you can see, he's an easy man to find by pretty much anyone with a phone book.  If it were me, I certainly wouldn't just live in a regular house if I were out beating up criminals.  That's why you have caves and your fortresses in the Arctic and such.  I mean, the Fantastic Four were pretty easy to find, but they had all kinds of security measures Reed Richards came up with.  It seems that someone is a little too confident in their abilities.

Especially for a guy who is helpless in a glass tube:

WHAT IS WRONG WITH HIS LIPS???

I don't know whether the colorist thought suddenly the Comet had ingested Joker toxin or what, but that is really creepy.

And it didn't stop there:

Or there:

So, putting aside the "everyone in this story is wearing really bright lipstick for no discernable reason" issue, the Comet is hypnotized and no longer limits his homicidal rampages to bad guys.

And, as one might expect of a fellow name "Satan," he cheated his partner, who then returned the favor by siccing the still-hypnotized Comet on him:

That's a pretty pitiful death scene for someone named "Satan," but it is what it is.

Unfortunately, as he seems wont to do, the Comet left his shield up:

Visor-lifty, melty-melty... you get the idea.

The Comet then comes out of the spell for no reason in particular:

I don't think that if you're hypnotized to that level that the death of your hypnotist is going to just undo everything.  I'm just saying.  I mean, I know we couldn't have him flying around melting people willy-nilly indefinitely, but ...

Oh, and that was the last panel.  We have an actual cliffhanger!  I don't know if it's going to be an ongoing thing or if he's going to clear his name in the next issue, but that's kind of a rarity for your Golden Age stories.

See you tomorrow

Reefer and Satan, Together Again

Since we looked at the Shield story on Friday, you knew we just had to check out the Comet story from Pep Comics #2.

You know how when you were a kid, you used to think you could write comics?  You could have written this one.  Guaran-dang-teed.

Ooooooo!  Scary!  But the Comet will not abide it!  HE SHALL NOT!

I think if the monster has a "headquarters," we're kind of giving something away here.  Anyway...

The man's name is "Reefer."  Okay, that was awesome.

THE TRUCK APPROACHES, MY DARK LORD!

Now I realize I don't always read things that carefully, but there is nary an origin story for Satan, so I can only assume he's the Biblical version.  

I wonder if it's any coincidence that "Reefer" works for "Satan."  The Devil's Parsley shall not pass mine lips, it shan't!  

Anyway, the Comet gets himself caught, because we've got to fill up a page, and he breaks his visor:

Okay, so you recognize that the visor is the only thing that keeps those disintegrating rays from dissolving anything he looks at, right?

Except when it doesn't:

Now, we're either glossing over the fact that his eyes should have taken out the blimp on sight (not to mention his right hand there), or he's flying with his eyes closed and is just a very good guesser.  Frankly, I think it would have been very entertaining if he'd had to fly with his eyes closed, running into things like birds into windows:

I wonder if they have any radio towers around here... ZZZZAP!  THUD!

Did you make those sound effects in your head?  Because you were supposed to.

Anyway, now that it's convenient to the telling of the story, the beams do their "visor-lifty" thing:

And, without any real explanation of who was responsible for it, the story just... well, it just comes to an end:

I guess that settles that.

See you tomorrow!