THE GOLDEN AGE COMICS OF MLJ

by Raymond Miller

Once upon a time, long, long ago there existed a four-color world of absolute and frenetic excitement. This world featured the constant exploits of a large group of colorfully costumed and upstanding individuals who helped to protect the shores of a mythical America from the ravages of crime, saboteurs and the depredations of the Japanazi menace. Foremost among these were the superheroes of a select few companies. Timely offered Captain America, the Submariner and the Human Torch while National/ American offered the likes of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, Fawcett offered the incredible Marvel Family (including Marvel Bunny and Uncle Marvel) and MLJ brought forth such avengers as the Black Hood, The Shield, the Wizard and The Hangman.

Never before had literature seen the likes of these icons of truth and justice, and truth to tell, never again would their like be seen again, in numbers or in sheer freshness of presentation. Looking back from our jaded present the sparkle seems to be somewhat dimmed but at the time, this was something new, something unprecedented on the printed page. And while there was multitude of four-color heroes only these four companies really led the way.

National merged with American and then in turn changed its name to DC, continuing many of the same characters of that by-gone age, either in identical format or with minor alterations. Timely went through several name changes and finally emerged as the leader of modern-day comic book publishing, Marvel Comics, also continuing many of the same colorfully garbed wondermen. Fawcett became the property of DC and the victim of management unable or simply unaware of how to revive and continue the Marvel Family. MLJ is unique in that it did not continue its strongmen but turned to publishing the exploits of Archie Andrews and teen-age compatriots although not abandoning its offspring entirely. Every twenty or so years the company attempts to re-emerge from the doldrums of obscurity by relaunching its heroes. Twenty years ago it was as Mighty Comics. Today it is as Red Circle, and the jury is still out as to the success of that endeavor.

What is certain is that in the 1940 s, a multitude of colorful, excellently crafted heroes emerged at the forefront of adventurers and it is those days and those stories which concern us here. In the mid-sixties Raymond Miller labored in the fields to bring forth a true history of this colorful period in the history of comics. In 1983 to 1984 The GOLDEN AGE of COMICS reproduced those lost pages of RBCC with very minor revisions. Here they are for an electronic generation that knows that not only did Red Circle not prosper but even DC could not sustain these heroes under the Impact range.

The first title to be published by MLJ was Blue Ribbon Comics, dated Nov. 1939. There was really nothing outstanding about this new comic. It was just another addition to the slowly growing comic book industry and it wasn't even all in color. That first issue was half color with the remaining pages red and white tints.

The lead feature in the first issue and the only strip to appear in all 22 issues was Rang-A-Tang, the Wonder Dog. Looking a lot like Rin Tin Tin, it was no secret that Rang-A-Tang was the main stay even when the book featured super heroes. Rang-A-Tang appeared somewhere on the cover of every issue but #3 and #21, mostly in a circle which was part of the title logo . Inside he mostly had the longest story except for the first issue when the story only contained six pages. With the second issue the story was upped to ten pages and then to 11 with the fourth issue and the stories remained at 11 pages through #18. No other strip in any issue ran 11 pages except for the Captain Flag story in issue #22.

Rang was so popular that the good dog soon had his own club, called the Rang-A-Tang Club...what else? Blue Ribbon was now carrying a club page every issue listing names of new members, letters, information on how to join the club, tips on how to care and train your pet dog and other related items. Charter members of the club included Rang's author Joe Blair and the artist, Ed Smalle Jr. It only cost one thin dime to join and Hy Speed would send you a membership card, a Rang-A-Tang button and a book on "Health and Care of Your Dog and Cat."

Rang-A-Tang's origin appeared in Blue Ribbon #1. As the story unfolds we find Rang has been treated rather cruelly by his master and like most smart animals, decided enough was enough, so he ran away. Being a stray dog means no regular meals, so he had to find his meals wherever he could, such as in an alley. Well, it so happened that one day Detective Hy Speed was attacked by some hoods in an alley Rang was looking for food. Seeing that the Detective was outnumbered, Rang joined the fight and saved Hy Speed. To show his gratitude, Hy adopted Rang and a long partnership was born.

This first story was by Norman Danberg, who may also have done the story in #2. Art in #3 was by Jack Binder and Will Ham. With #4 the team of Joe Blair and Ed Smalle Jr. took over.

But a story about a man and his dog isn't really complete unless a young boy is involved, so a young boy is added in issue #6. Hy and Rang's adventure found them guarding a movie producer from a series of attacks by the Bundonians. (The Wizard had just beat them and kicked them out of Top-Notch Comics). During the action, a young bit player named Richy saved the producer but Hy was shot during the fight. As he left for the hospital, he turned the case over to Richy and Rang and from that story on it was a trio: Hy, Richy and Rang.

In the final story (#22) Hy, Richy and Rang journeyed to the North Woods where Rang saved the life of a small white dog. They became real close companions and roamed the forest together. Meanwhile Hy and Richy hunted for a killer of a trapper. High on a cliff, the killer attacked Richy and when Rang and his new found pal raced to the rescue the killers struck Rang a cruel blow which momentarily stunned the great dog. Then Rang's brave little friend attacked the killer but they were too close to the edge of the cliff and killer and dog both went over the edge to their deaths. It was a very sad ending in more ways then one. Not only did the little dog die, but as it turned out, this was also the end of the trail for Rang, Hy and Richy as well because Blue Ribbon Comics came to an end with issue #22.

I can't help but wonder what all the Rang-A-Tang Club members thought when no more issues came out. There was no hint, except in the Corp. Collins story, that #22 was the last issue, but more on that later. The club was still open for new members in #22. 1 can't help but wonder why MLJ didn't move the strip to another title such as Top-Notch or Pep. With a full-fledged club, Rang must have had a large following.

The other strips that appeared in Blue Ribbon #1 didn't come off as well as Rang-A-Tang. Little Nemo, Burk of the Briny and Crime on the Run (latter drawn by Jack Cole) didn't last past #1 (Crime on the Run did appear once more in #3). Dan Hastings, who would appear late in such Chesler titles as Scoop and Dynamic Comics and Buck Stacey, a cowboy range detective made it to #2 and #3.

The second issue introduced two more winners. The first being Corporal Collins, who would appear in all remaining issues and Bob Phantom who would fight his battles, not in Blue Ribbon but in Top-Notch.

Corp. Collins, Infantryman, was drawn by Charles Biro in the early issues while later stories were by Carl Hubbell. Hubbell, who replaced Biro around #8 had a style quite similar to Biro so the stories didn't suffer by the art changes. Collins and his partner Slapsie (their Navy counterparts Sgt. Boyle and Twerp, also by Biro/Hubbell, were in Pep) were army men, but they never seemed to stick to army rules since they seemed to be more or less loners. Popping up all over the world:-off the Irish Coast in #18 and in a Northern Russian Port in #22. One could also find a number of crossover stories between Boyle and Collins in both Blue Ribbon and Pep Comics. Corp. Collins also made the covers of Blue Ribbon #3-#5, #16 and #20. His stories averaged 7 pages per issue, being upped to 8 pages in #19-#22.

It was in the Collins story in #22 that it was hinted that the end had come. Collins addressed his fans with "Well gang, looks like this might be the end of our adventures together! But I want to say it was swell carousing around with you fellers. I sure hope you'll drop me a few lines sometimes" to which Slapsie added "Gee". Collins and Slapsie did appear in a couple of Boyle stories after that.

Bob Phantom made his debut in Blue Ribbon #2 Dec. 1939, making him MLJ's first costumed hero. He also appeared in issue #3, before moving over to Top-Notch Comics. More on him later.

With issue #4 June 1940 (there were no February through April issues) Blue Ribbon began to take shape adding more permanent features with Hercules, Gypsy Johnson, Tygor, Doc Strong, Loop Logan, Green Falcon and the Fox.

Selected as the number two character was that old stand-by Hercules. As most readers know, Herc was the [censored] of Ancient Greece. In this case, he was sent back to earth to rid the modern world of gangsters, mobs and the like by Zeus. He, of course, had super strength and the other familiar powers. Sometimes he wore a blue business suit and other times white trunks with a red belt and boots. In the stories, he often returned to Mt. Olympus for advice and instructions from Zeus. He never made the cover as the main feature but did rate his picture in a circle near the title logo for a while. Both Hercules and the minor strip, Gypsy Johnson, were last seen in #8 January 1941.

Loop Logan, Air Ace, lasted somewhat longer, through #20. Doc Strong and the Isle of Right, an interplanetary strip with adventures on Mars, made it to #-12. The Green Falcon was last in #15 August 1941. This strip, drawn by Ramona Patenaude, took place in the days of King Arthur. The strip could have been called Robin Hood and one would never have noticed the difference. The Green Falcon's band consisted of Tiny Tunk and Jolly Roundfellow.

Ty-Gor by Joe Blair, art by Mort Meskin, appeared in #4-#20. It was a story about a young boy named Tyrone Gorman who was raised by a tigress in the wilds of Malay. Found, he was brought to the USA by an explorer named Davis and his daughter Joan. Being un-civilized, modern man's ways were hard for Ty-Gor to adjust to and this caused all kinds of trouble, and good deeds such as saving two children from a burning house in #10 or fighting Bundists (Nazis) in #14. By #18 the art was by George Storm and Ty-Gor was on his way back to Malay with his Guardians, to confuse the Japs, no doubt.

Blue Ribbon's longest-running costumed hero was the Fox. The Fox's origin, if you can call it one, was in issue #4. Paul Patton, who was a photographer for the Daily Globe was always goofing up his shots of crimes, so he rigged up a camera to his belt to take pictures that would convict criminals and put on a fox costume to fight crime. (I wonder if Peter Parker read this story). The artist was Irwin Hasen on the earlier stories with King taking over with #11. Hasen's Wildcat at DC, looked a lot like the Fox at times. Bob Montana was the artist on #18 while Bobby King was back to finish up the Fox's career in #22. Like most hero strips, the Fox also had a girl in the cast. In this case it was Ruth Ransom, Girl Reporter for the Daily Globe.

But it wasn't till Blue Ribbon #9, February 1941, that the book came up with a real winner. It was in that issue that one of MLJ's most popular strips made its debut in the form of the Royal Wraith...Mr. Justice. The story was by Joe Blair, with art by Sam Cooper. Cooper along with Al Camerata and Irv Novick, were MLJ's so-called "3 Musketeers". They certainly carried the bulk of MLJ's art on the costumed heroes, and besides they were three of the best MLJ or any publisher could ask for, so it was only natural Cooper got the Mr. Justice assignment. When he took his time, he could deliver the super-natural with the best of them.

The origin of Mr. Justice was told twice. The first time was in #9 and then repeated (not reprinted) again in the final issue, #22. Both origins are the same although they are different stories. During the Rogers Rebellion in Scotland in the year 1040, the Rogers Clan lured Prince James of England into a secluded tower of the Rogers' Castle where they suddenly turned on him and killed him. The spirit of Prince James rose from his body, in the form of Mr. Justice. Mr. Justice then killed his murderers and his spirit floated off into eternity. Then in 1940, while the castle was being shipped to America for safe-keeping, an enemy torpedo sent the ship and it's cargo to Davy Jones Locker. In so doing, the spirit of Prince James was released from eternity to return to earth once again.

In America, Mr. Justice in his mortal body met Pat Clark and her father and in stories, Mr. Justice and Pat shared many adventures together. One of their most awesome adventures was in the World of the Atoms where they once again did battle with The Green Ghoul. In #13 November 1941, we find that The Royal Wraith and Pat had trailed the Green Ghoul into Atom World where the Ghoul had trapped them in a circle of flames. These were the flames of Purgatory which no spirit or human could pass through and all seemed lost until a large Pterodactyl flew over and plucked both up and deposited them to it's nest. Free of the flames Mr. Justice flew away with Pat in his arms. Meanwhile the Green Ghoul had left the Atom World and had destroyed it only seconds after Mr. Justice and Pat had escaped from it. Back on Earth, in a battle royal, Mr. Justice defeated the Green Ghoul.

Throughout the Royal Wraith's career he had a running battle with the Devil himself and it was the Devil who was behind most of the evil beings Mr. Justice was always doing battle with.

In issue #22, March 1942, we find that one, Harold Rogers had returned to the Rogers' Castle. (No explanation as to why the castle exists is given since it was supposed to have been destroyed in 1940, but such details were not part of the forties). Since a Rogers had returned, it opened the door for a Spirit of Harold Rogers ancestor to return also. The spirit informed Harold Rogers that he must seek out and destroy the body of Prince James by fire. Then a vision of impending danger comes to Mr. Justice and he flew to the Rogers Castle and entered the body of Prince James just minutes before Harold Rogers was about to destroy the body. Seeing the dead body rise caused Harold to become panic stricken and he leaped out of a tower window and was killed. The castle burst in flames as the life of the last Rogers passed away. The Royal Wraith then deposited Prince James' body in his own family's resting place, then returned to his human form in America. A thrilling climax to the end of Mr. Justice's run in Blue Ribbon Comics. Mr. Justice did manage to hang on for another year by being part of Jackpot Comics line up.

Issue #13, June 1941, introduced Penny Parker, a female private eye, who would disappear after #15, and a new superhero called Inferno, The Flame Breather. Inferno had shared some adventures with Steel Sterling in Zip Comics before striking out on his own. He first appeared in the Steel Sterling story in Zip #11. In Zip #12 he went to jail and in #13 was recommended for parole. He was not in costume in these stories, but in Blue Ribbon he was decked out in a bright red and yellow costume. While he was somewhat stronger than the average man, his main asset was that he was able to breath fire. The art on the stories contained some of Paul Reinman's better efforts. Inferno was last to be found in #19, December 1941.

Then came Blue Ribbon #16, September 1941, and the introduction of one of MLJ's best costumed heroes, and one of their most short lived ones as well:-- the colorful Captain Flag. As Howard Keltner once wrote, most costumed heroes start out at the top and then taper off into run-of-the-mill fare, but it can be said of Captain Flag that he was one of the few who improved with each succeeding story. Had he not been snuffed out of existance by the abrupt folding of Blue Ribbon after #22 (which gave him only seven brief appearances) who knows what heights he may have reached as time passed by?

Captain Flag first appeared in the last story in #16, a nine page origin story, „„ and he remained in that tail end spot till #17. With #18, he was moved into the lead spot and with #19, his stories were upped to ten pages as he took over the cover. Since #16 he had shared it with Mr. Justice. With #22, he was upped to eleven pages, so he went out in a flash of glory.

The stories were written by Joe Blair and the art was split betweeen Lin Streeter, who did issues #16, #19-#22, and Bobby King, who did #17 and #18.

In the origin story, a master criminal called The Black Hand had captured an inventor, John Townsend, in order to get certain important plans from him. When he wouldn't co-operate, Townsend's worthless, playboy son Tom was kidnapped so as to force his father to talk. When the father still refused to talk, The Black Hand, in a fit of rage, choked the life out of him with his diseased claw-like right hand. Still in a rage, he turned to the young Townsend, who he had been torturing, with the same thought in mind. Before he could carry out his second murder, a great giant eagle, which had lost it's way in the darkness of the night, crashed through a window into the room, and in the confusion that followed, the bird, in panic, fastened it's talons onto the first thing it touched, which was Tom Townsend's trousers and flew off into the night with him. During the next few days, the eagle brought Tom food and he slowly regained his strength, strength greater than he had ever had before. Then one day the great bird returned, not with food, but with an American Flag. Taking this as some sort of omen, Tom made a vow against evil in all forms, made a costume out of the flag and thus was born Captain Flag. With the giant eagle, whom he named Yank, he set out to seek the Black Hand, and found him in an old shack. During the fight that followed, a lamp was knocked over. Captain Flag escaped, but the Black Hand didn't or so Captain Flag thought, for he returned in the next issue, and the next, before he disappeared, only to return in issue #21 and finally #22. In a battle at sea, on a freighter, The Black Hand finally ended his reign of terror at the end of a rope. What adventures await Captain Flag now?"Watch for him in the next issue of Blue Ribbon Comics" were the words that appeared in the last panel. Readers are still waiting and watching.

Why the editors chose to drop Blue Ribbon after only 22 issues is still a mystery. It had good stories and art, two top notch super heroes in Mr. Justice and Captain Flag and a good dog strip in Rang-A-Tang but looking over MLJ's over-all history at that time it was apparent the publishers wanted to change their image. They either saw no future in the super hero, their books were not selling well, or they preferred a lighter fare. Whatever the problem, the lighter fare won out with the likes of Archie and company because soon after Blue Ribbon was dropped, other MLJ titles started to add more and more humor strips.

One could see Blue Ribbon Comics was in some sort of trouble when issue #20 appeared on the stands. A weird type of tale called "Tales from the Witch's Cauldron" had replaced Inferno. Then came #21 and more cttanges. Now two True Life Stories had replaced Tygor and Loop Logan. But even this change could not save Blue Ribbon and it was only Corporal Collins who realized that he had just appeared in his last adventure and not even Captain Flag, The Fox, Rang-ATang or the Rang-A-Tang fan club hinted that they were on their way to limbo. So with issue #22, March 1942, Blue Ribbon was laid to rest.

Unlike Blue Ribbon, Top-Notch #1 was a full color comic from cover to cover and featured MLJ's first costumed hero, The Wizard, the Man with the Super Brain. As Howard Keltner once said, "even though the Wizard did not wear a costume till issue #7, he still must be classified as a superhero". Starting out looking a great deal like Mandrake the Magician complete with tuxedo, high hat, cape and an added red mask, Blane Whitney was ready to start his career as a crime fighter.

Blane Whitney had inherited a heritage of greatness and had trained himself until he was a mental and physical giant and, in time, he possessed the greatest brain-power on earth. Whitney was the head of a newspaper empire although this was never really played up and in later stories it wasn't even ntioned at all. After a while, the "Super-Brain" was also all but forgotten. During his early days, The Wizard fought international spies but as time went on The Man with the Super-Brain devoted more of his time to fighting domestic crime. Using his Super-Brain, he was able to see visions of things that were happening many miles away. As it was, the strip was definitely going no place, so a change was due and this change started to take place with issue #5, May 1940.

In Top Notch #5 a new threat to the USA is uncovered. As the story opened, Blane Whitney was shown being blown up as he lifts a phone. With his Super-Brain he sees a plot against the USA. A group of plotters called the Mosconians are planning to attack Washington DC. In a vision, The Wizard sees his brother Grover in trouble after the plotters house is bombed by mistake by their henchmen. Blane wants to go to his rescue, but Grover transported a message to him to move onto Washington and forget about him as the plotters are ready to attack the Capitol. The Wizard then races to the FBI and there meets MLJ's number one star, The Shield. The Shield had not been around as long as The Wizard because Pep Comics started later than Top-Notch but The Shield, like Superman, Batman, Captain America and others before and after him, proved to be a best seller from the start. It never hurt to guest star your #1 hero in the revamping of a less popular hero, so it was only good business to bring The Shield in at this point. After this historic meeting, The Wizard is sent off to Annapolis and West Point while The Shield remained in Washington. The Wizard proceeded to break up the plot at Annapolis, then moved on to West Point where he and Cadet Keith Kornell (another character appearing in Top-Notch, better known as The West Pointer) broke up a bombing attack and saved General Woods. After this, The Wizard's Super-Brain gets a new vision of his brother Grover being gassed by the Mosconians. Racing to his aid, he rescues his brother and pulls the plotters house down.

In issue #6, The Wizard and his brother talk over the spy activities. In another vision he sees new plans by the Mosconians to attack. The rest of the story reads like a full scale war with The Wizard fighting Mosconians everywhere and saving a city and the army. He then sends his brother a message to have the US Fleet go to the Pacific coast to meet the Mosconian's invasion forces, heading for the coast himself.

In Top-Notch #7, August 1940, the full change in The Wizard begins. The Wizard encountered the invasion plan of California in still another vision. He saw the Mosconian headquarters, which were in Canada near the Washington state line. He attacked the head quarters and for the first time came face to face with the Mosconian leader known as the Master Mind. Caught off his guard, The Wizard is blinded when the Master-Mind escaped. Then, as Blane Whitney, he goes back and has an operation on his eyes. It was touch and go as The Shield takes up the battle in The Wizard's place. Meanwhile, the Master-Mind, thinking The Wizard is out of the fight for good, starts plotting anew. Now recovered, The Man With the SuperBrain sees the new plot. This time he wanted to be prepared before the battle. Returning to his lab, he invented a costume (much along the lines of Superman's) which would make him invulnerable against any new threats. With The Shield at his side, he prevented the new invasion of California and captured the Master-Mind. The Shield and The Wizard then shook hands as the Mosconian threat was at last over.

There was to be one more major change in The Wizard's career. In #8, September 1940, the story opens as a young shoeshine boy sees come crooks run down a man. The crooks spot the boy and go after him in order to shut him up. The boy puts up a pretty good fight and is rescued by The Wizard who sort-of adopts the boy and trains him as his aid, revealing to him that he is really Blane Whitney. The boy was then given a costume and named Roy, The Super Boy.

If any of these changes in The Wizard's career, the new costume and a young helper, were good enough to save Top-Notch Comics, it would never be known because with issue #9, MLJ introduced their most popular hero next to The Shield, The Black Hood, Man of Mystery.

Most of the Wizard stories were written by Harry Shorten and Bill Woolfolk while the art was by Edd Ashe, Al Camereta and Paul Reinman. Unlike most of the MLJ heroes, The Wizard and Roy had no recurring villains. They and their friends Jane Barlow and Moe the cabbie fought a so-called vampire in #14, The Purple Mafia in #19, Voodo in #21, Nazis in #22 and The Jingler in #26, before finally leaving the pages of Top-Notch with #27, May 1942.

It was with Top-Notch #9, October 1940, that the real star was introduced. "The Man of Mystery," The Black Hood, not only made his debut in #9 but took over the lead spot and the cover as well. He only appeared solo on two covers, #10 and #27. All other covers he shared with either The Wizard or Ray or both up to #27 and after that issue he shared them with Pokey Oakey and the other comical characters through #34, #41 and his last cover #43. The stories were credited to either Editor Harry Shorten or Cliff Camp bell while all the art was done by Al "Camy" Camerata. The stories in Top- Notch 9-27 were all 14 pages except for those in #19, #26 and #27 which were 13 pages. The most pages The Wizard ever had was 13 in #7 and #8.

The Man of Mystery had much going for him. Al Camy's art, story plots far above the standards for 1940 and a variety of villains. Foremost on this list was The Skull. The original Skull, since The Black Hood started some six months before Timely's Captain America. The Black Hood, in other words, had it made. He was a hit at the time MLJ was reaching its highest point of production.

The story began, where a million others had begun, on the streets of New York. A few minutes before midnight found patrolman Kip Burland checking the Woodrow Mansion before finishing patrolling his beat for the night. Arriving at the mansion, he spotted an intruder and discovered that the intruder was not just a man, but more like a skeleton, which was the first meeting between Kip and The Skull. Seeing a man who looks like a skeleton is enough to stun anyone and The Skull made good use of Kip's sudden shock by slugging him and placing stolen jewelery in the unconscious patrolman's hand. He then blew Kip's police whistle and beat it. Shortly, two of Kip's patrolman buddies found him and seeing the jewelery, had to turn him in. Kip had been framed, but good. The Chief of Police believed him, but the newspapers blew the thing all out of proportion. Kip's badge was taken away, he was arrested and let out on bail.

Out on bail, Kip decided the only way to clear himself was to find The Skull, which he did one night during a warehouse robbery, a meeting that ended with Kip being taken for a ride, and his body riddled with bullets as he was dumped out of the car. Nearby, an old man known as The Hermit, heard the shooting and discovered Kip's body.

During the next few months, The Hermit nursed Kip back to health, tells him that he was once a sheriff, but The Skull had also framed him. He tells Kip everything he knew about The Skull. Kip also went into training, training his mind and building his strength for beyond what they had been. Then, with a costume, The Black Hood was born. Later, The Black Hood is living in New York under an alias, since Kip was now wanted for both larceny and bail jumping. In New York, The Black Hood met Barbara Sutton when he battled The Skull at a masquerade party held by the Suttons.

The battle between The Black Hood and The Skull continued in #10 and in five more stories, the final meeting taking place in #19, September 1941. The Black Hood finally accomplished his mission. The Skull was finally captured, but it wasn't easy, as he had more than one trick up his sleeve. In #19, the old Hermit paid The Skull a visit in prison and told him he would help him to escape if he would sign a confession that would exonerate Kip Burland. The Skull agreed and once freed turned on The Hermit giving him a mild injection which turned The Hermit into The Skull's double. Finally The Black Hood catches up with him and The Hermit gave The Black Hood the confession which exonerated Kip Burland.

Around this time, the role Sarg. McGinty was starting to be given a bigger build up. McGinty was starting a one man vendetta to capture The Hood. In issue #24, McGinty actually put The Hood behind bars, which was more than Barbara Sutton could put up with. She started writing an expose on The Hood, which more or less made The Hood a hero to all but McGinty.

Being MLJ's second most popular hero, The Black Hood was not dropped after #27, the final issue of the original Top-Notch Comics. When #26 appeared, the whole comic book was revamped. The title was now Top- Notch (in small letters) Laugh Comics (in bold letters). Gone were all the costumed heroes except The Hood. Instead of an adventure comic, it was now a humor comic. Still this did not effect the Black Hood stories. The mundane and eerie settings were still there, although The Hood had lost both the lead story and Al Camy's art. Camy was replaced by Sam Cooper who was no stranger to The Hoods eerie atmosphere having done the equally weird Mr. Justice stories in Blue Ribbon Comics. By now, The Black Hood was appearing in both the pulps and on radio. Later artists were "Red" Holmdale and Clem Harrison. The original Dark Knight was last to be found in Top-Notch Laugh #44, February 1944, before moving into Pep Comics.

The character who appeared in more issues of Top-Notch than any other character was Kardak, The Mystic Magician. This strip appeared in #1 and #2 as The Mystic, missed #3 and returned in #4 as Kardak. Kardak not only made it through #27 but through Laugh #29 as well. Kardak was from the same mold as Mandrake, Zatara and the rest of the magicians. Like Mandrake, Kardak had a giant size friend and his power or magic came from hypnosis. Many artists worked on the strip including Ed Smalle, Paul Reinman, Bob Montana George Strom and Lin Streeter.

Two long running strips were Wings Johnson in #1-#27 (called Air Patrol in #I and #2) and Keith Kornell also in #1-#27 (called The West Pointer in 1- 6). Wings Johnson of the Air Patrol and his pal Henry Higgins was a pretty good air strip because it's artist Ed Smalle knew how to draw airplanes and knew which planes were which as many of the planes he drew are listed somewhere in the strip. Drawing good aircraft was a problem many artists, and that includes some of the best, were not able to lick, but a few guys like Smalle, Al McWilliams and Lee Elias were really good at it. Wings Johnson was a pilot in the RAF so most planes were either British or German. Keith Kornell spent most of his time fighting on the home front. While he was in the army, his role seemed more like that of a National Guardsman in all the stories. The art was by Nick Zuraw with Bobby King taking over shortly after #14.

MLJ's first "real" costume hero was Bob Phantom who made his debut in Blue Ribbon #2 December 1939, a month before The Shield and The Comet started in Pep #1. After appearing in Blue Ribbon #2 and #3,Bob Phantom moved into Top-Notch with issue # 3, February, 1940.

Billed as "The Scourge of the Under. world, Bob Phantom had no origin, His secret identity was that of Broadway columnist Walt Whitney, who was always ribbing Captain Casey, a local Police Officer, both as Bob Phantom and Whitney. Whitney was always getting booted out of Casey's office, but the heckling kept up. The so called feud was a friendly one. Bob Phantom's powers were much like Timely's Vision. He appeared and disappeared for good after Top-Notch #25, March 1942, making him one of MLJ's first costumed heroes to be dropped in 1942. More artists worked on Bob Phantom than on any other MLJ hero. Irving Novick did him in #4, Gerry Thorp in#5 and #8, Bernie Klein in #9, #10 and #12 and Bobby King in about every issue after #12 with Romana Patendue in #18.

Top-Notch's fourth costume hero and one of MLJ's more popular second string heroes was The Firefly. Harley Hudson was a chemist and a biologist who spent a lot of time studying insects and their muscular coordination, such as ants carrying great weights and grasshoppers jumping great distances. After two years of study and research, Hudson masters these feats himself, even to the point of staying under water for long periods of time. He then decided to become a crime fighter. When he saw a firefly he said he would become a Firefly and light up the darkness of the underworld. So the Firefly was born.

Many of his stories bordered on the macabre. In #14, he fought a mad doctor called "The Cat". in #19, he fought a mad scientist who injected a growth serum into birds and animals causing them to grow to enormous sizes. The Firefly had his hands full with larger-than- automobile-sized rats. in #22, he pitted his wits with The Shark-Man and in #26, it was a scientist who could shrink humans. It was in #24 that we find the weirdest story of all. The story is reminiscent of the story, "Three Skeleton Key" better known as "The Rats". A freighter on which Harley Hudson was a passenger came upon a weird looking deserted vessel at sea. Pulling alongside, the ship's crew prepared to board the vessel when suddenly, thousands of ferocious rats raced across the gangplank, overrunning the freighter. The rats were controlled by The Pied Piper, a bizarre murderous creature who played a pipe or flute. The rats attacked, but The Firefly spotted The Pied Piper and his music that controlled the rats. In the fight that followed, The Piper lost his flute and the rats attacked him, but The Firefly threw kerosene on the rats and set them and the deserted ship afire. The Pied Piper and his rats went down in flames with their ship.

Art on The Firefly was by Bob Wood in #8-#11. When Wood left MLJ, along with Charles Biro, for Lev Gleason and Comic House, the art was taken over by Bob King, who did most of the remaining stories. The Firefly vanished with the rest of the serious strips after #27.

Other strips appearing in Top-Notch #1-#27 were Scott Rand, "On the World's of Time" and Swift of the S.S in#1-#3; Lucky Coyne in #1 (who later appeared in the Dynamic group); Dick Storm #2-#8; Stacy Knight, MD #3,#4; Galahad, the classic Galahad from King Arthur's time in #5-#11; Streak Chandler and Shanghai Sheridan in #5-#8. Fran Frazer, Girl Reporter for the Picture Magazine Strife and her partner Newspaper Reporter Hal Davis appeared in #9- #25. The St. Louis Kid, a boxing story starring Jim Jennings, was in #l2-#27 with art by Bob Montana and George Storm.

The route of Top-Notch seemed destined to follow that of Blue Ribbon. Just as Blue Ribbon started to change it's line-up with issue #20, Top-Notch started the same thing with #26, April 1942. Gone was Fran Frazer and Bob Phantom and in their place, True Life Stories and the first humor strip Snoop McGook, the Soupy Sleuth. No further change came about in #27, but there was to be a big change with #28. A new hero, The Web, was to make his debut, but this never even came about. Instead there was almost a completely different book. The new issue, #28, July 1942, had a new title logo, Top-Notch in small letters and in large bold letters Laugh. Gone were all the serious strips but The Black Hood, Kardak (who would last through #29), and Hall of Fame (from Blue Ribbon would appear in #28-#32) and in their place appeared a bushel of humor strips led by the Don Dean creation, Pokey Oakey of Catfish Creek.

Pokey was the Sheriff of this hillbilly settlement in a strip right out of the same mold as Lil' Abner. Pokey Oakey was now the main character and the main part of the cover as well, although The Black Hood did appear on the covers of #28-#34, #41 and #43 with the rest of the humor characters and it was a far cry from the covers he appeared on in issue #9-#427. The Black Hood even lost the lead story to Pokey; although he did lead off in issues #28, #30, #32, #35, #37, #40. For the most part, the Black Hood was lost in the middle of a slap stick magazine. This was almost the same as finding an EC story in the middle of Millie The Model. Still, his stories seldom went under 9 or 10 pages, even up to his last story in #44, February 1944.

The other humor strips besides Pokey Oakey, were Senor Siesta, South America's screwiest citizen by Don Dean; Gloomy Gus The Homeless Ghost by Red Holmdale; The 3 Monkeyteers who were Yehuda, Small Fry and Sassafras; Percy; Dotty and Ditto by Bill Waggon; and one of MLJ/ Archie Publications most popular humor strips, Susie. Susie was the forerunner of such strips as My Friend Irma, Millie the Model and Torchy.

After issue #44, the words "Top- Notch" were dropped and the book ran through #48 as Laugh Comics. Then with #39, Spring of 1949, the book once again changed titles, this time to Susie Comics and ran till #100 in 1954. A new incarnation is still published.

The Shield was by far the most popular superhero MLJ ever produced and one of the all-time most popular superheroes of the '40s. Between the time he first appeared in Pep #1 and his last appearance in Pep #65, The Shield had appeared in a total of 99 stories. The only MLJ hero to come near that record was The Black Hood with 82 stories. No other MLJ hero even reached the 60 mark. The G-Man Extrodinaire had his origin told twice. The first time was in Pep #1.

Joe Higgins had sworn himself to a lifetime career of shielding our government after his father was killed in a run-in with foreign spies. Joe constucted a uniform which looked a great deal like a shield. With this costume he possessed the powers of super strength and speed and it also made him invulnerable to bullets and flame. After about six months, the origin was retold, revamped and went into much more detail.

The new origin was told in the first issue of Shield - Wizard Comics. Lieutenant Tom Higgins of the US Army Intelligence, received orders from his superior to supervise the loading an ammunitions ship and to be on me look out for sabotage. It seems that Higgins was also an amateur research. scientist who had experimented for years in search of a chemical which, if absorbed in the proper parts of the. body, would transform an ordinary person into a super-human being. Working with his son, Joe, he at last found the right mixture, but had to postpone any new experiments until. his current assignment was completed.

This he was not destined to do. The ammo ship to which he had been assigned was destroyed in an act of sabotage and Lt. Higgins mortally wounded. Later, in a hospital room in the presence of his son and his best friend, J. Edgar Hoover, Higgins gasped out his anatomy formula, a code combination of letters in this order: S-H-I-E-L-D.

Young Joe didn't understand the formula but filled with grief and an intense desire to serve his country in his father's stead, he devoted himself to a deep study of chemistry. He finished college with the highest rating ever achieved in the subject, and then spent several more years completing his father's experiment. He perfected every part of it except the most important; the meaning of the anatomical formula s-h-i-e-l-d. Then one day, quite by accident, as he was leafing through a medical book, Joe found it; a drawing of the human body that revealed the important parts to which the letters of the formula referred. Interpreted, it read thusly:

S-Sacrum, the spinal center of the body.

H-Heart, the pump of the body.

I-innervation, the nerve center of the body.

E-Eyes, the power of sight.

L-tungs, the control of respiration.

D-Derma, the skin covering of the body.

Joe hurried back to his laboratory and donned a special skin-tight fibro- metallic suit, an invention of his own which was designed to help his pores absorb the chemical. He rubbed the parts of his anatomy the formula specified, then lay perfectly still for 12 hours as fluoroscopic rays forced the chemical into the particular organs. The result; one of the most powerful and formidable forces for freedom this country has ever seen, The mighty Shield.

Joe revealed his secret to his father's old friend, the chief of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, who granted him a G-Man commision, and thus was begun an arrangement by which The Shield, through special assignments, cavorted through pulse-pounding adventures to the delight of comic fans of the early forties.

The Shield proved so popular that his stories were upped to 13 pages each issue starting with #6, July 1940. The artist who was selected to do the Shield was one of the best, and still is, Irving Novick. Novick had a very tight style during 1940-41. Figures were drawn to near perfection. People looked like people. There was no crudeness in the art like many other artists suffered. Bodies, faces, everything was well drawn. Novick swiped from no one, a rare thing in itself, since at that time, even the best artists were not beyond swiping from Foster or Raymond.

In Pep #4 The Wizard/Mosconian battle found it's way into The Shield story. Soon supporting characters began to appear. The first was Betty Warren, whom The Shield rescued in #6 after her father, a US Senator, was murdered by enemy agents. She became Joe Higgin's sweetheart. Next came Ju Ju Watson in #9 as the comic relief (MLJ may have been one of the pioneers in providing humor in a serious strip) In #18, Ju Ju's dizzy girl friend Mamie Mazda joined the group. These three, getting into all sorts of trouble, really kept The Shield moving.

Perhaps it was a little bit more than one guy, even a super guy, could handle because when Pep #11 January 1941, hit the stands, the first thing the readers saw was the cover and on it was a young boy in costume fighting side by side with The Shield. A cover blurb read: EXTRA!! NEW!! Dusty the Boy Detective with The Shield. Inside, FBI Agent Joe Higgins, Ju Ju and Betty were investigating a sabotage case in an airplane factory when a plane blew up on take off. A young red-headed boy rushed to the burning plane only to find that one of the dead victims was his father. Joe comforted the boy. Later, as the boy was strolling into a hanger, he came across some men beating up on Betty and forgetting his own grief, rushed to her aid. Then Joe, as The Shield, joined the fight. Later we learned that the leader behind the sabotage is a robed figure called The Vulture. After that run in with The Vulture, Dusty tells the Shield he wants to fight crime and be like him when he grows up but The Shield told him he thinks they would make a great team right now. Going to the Shield's laboratory, they made a costume for Dusty. So entered The Boy Detective. Needless to say, The Vulture and his gang got their just reward in the end.

While Dusty was the Shield's partner, he never had any powers of his own, nor did he ever have a last name. His familiar red and blue costume was yellow and blue in that origin issue. Over the next few issues, the superpowered Shield, his pal Dusty and friends Ju Ju, Betty and Mamie went about their business fighting crime, meeting up with The Vulture again in Pep #18.

As the number twenties rolled by, a big change was about to happen in The Shield's way of life. Minor changes in costume had started to appear around #27 and #28. With #28, Betty, Ju Ju and Mamie made their last appearance and finally in #29 July 1942, it happened. First of all, the reader noticed right off that The Shield was wearing blue trunks for the first time and that the art had the swinging free-for-all, Kirby effect. In the story itself, the reader found The Shield and Dusty approaching a deserted shack by the waterfront, looking for a Japanese spy Nest. Discovering a secret room, they attacked and a shot rang out. But something then happened that never happened before. After 28 issues, the incredible happened, the bullet struck and The Shield cried out, "Oooh--l've been hit-every-everything is going black." Yes for the first time The Shield was stunned by a bullet. Dusty asked what had happened to which the Shield replied, "I'm not sure myself, but I suspect that the formula of my father's which gave me my strength is wearing off." Rushing back to his lab, The Shield tells Dusty his origin which marked the third and possibly last time the origin was ever told. After going through a number of tests, The Shield learns the truth: all his superpowers are gone. But there was little time to do anything about it, the Japanese Spies had to be stopped, superpowers or no superpowers.

Losing his powers was not the only change to take place. Irving Novick's art had made a drastic change also. Gone was the tight detailed art of 1940- 41 and in its place a new fast-moving style in the Simon and Kirby tradition. During the change-over in #29 and #30, Novick's name was missing from the stories but it was back with #31.

Now The Shield had to go up against a Japanese costumed hero known as The Fang, who feared no one. Even without any of his powers, The Shield was more than a match for The Fang as he and Dusty and the Police cleaned up the spies. Back at his lab The Shield once again went through the steps to regain his powers. In #30, the experiment was completed, but it was a failure and The Shield was still powerless. The Shield wasn't licked, the fight would be tougher but he and Dusty vowed to fight as long as there was a spark of breath left. In #30 they met The Strangler for the first time. The Strangler was a German costumed character as ruthless as they come and a great painter as well. After his first real test without superpowers, The Shield defeated The Strangler and turned him over to the police.

In #31, The Strangler joined forces with a tommy gun artist named The Snowbird and escaped prison. The escape was soon discovered. After a number of battles between the Shield and Dusty and The Strangler and Snowbird and his tommy gun, The Strangler plunged to his death into the ocean and The Snowbird was returned to prison.

In issue #33 November 1942, The Shield's superpowers, temporarily returned when at the end of the story he and Dusty and a professor and his daughter are about to be tor tured by Germans. The Shield, exert ing superhuman strength, burst his bonds, smashed into the Germans, broke Dusty's chains with his bare hands and then picked up both the professor and his daughter and crashed through the wall of the burning building. Was it just a flash or had the Shield's superpowers returned? That was the last time his superpowers ever returned although they were mentioned by The Shield from time to time in later. stories.

By issue #34, the words "America's Fastest Growing Comic Magazine" began to appear on the covers and these words continued to appear on' most covers for the next ten issues.

But, as each issue passed, it was becoming more and more apparent that The Shield was no longer the real star. He was slowly losing ground to the freckle-faced teenager, Archie Andrews.

Archie Andrews and The Gang made their debut in Pep #22, December 1941. -1 don't think anyone needs to be in troduced to Archie and his friends Betty, Veronica and Jughead. This was the first and best strip of its kind, and still is. Archie got more popular as each issue came out. Originally drawn by Bob Montana and later by "Red" Holmdale and then Harry Sahle, Archie started to make his move with issue #36, February 1943, when he appeared on the cover for the first time. It was a beautiful cover with Shield, Hangman and Archie hand and hand in a winter scene. He didn't appear on the cover again till #41, August 1943, and now he was there to stay. Gone were the great Shield and Hangman covers of 1940-42. Now Archie was front and center with The Shield playing second banana on all the covers. The Shield was able to hang onto the covers till #49, which was his last cover appearance.

Inside Archie was not able to dislodge The Shield from the lead story till #49. With #49, Archie took over the lead story for good although The Shield still hung in there with longer stories from time-to-time until he finally had to call it quits after #65, January 1948.

The Shield was drawn mostly by Irving Novick but for a while during 1944-45, the art was by Clem Harrison and Sam Burlockoff. Other artists over the years were Al Camerata, Harry Sahle (mostly covers) and Bobby King. Most stories were written by Harry Shorten.

The inside front cover of every issue of Pep starting with #15 was devoted to The Shield G-Man Club where Joe Higgin's always had Bulletins printed telling news, listing new members and such. You could join the club for one thin dime which would get you an Identification Card and a metal pin- button badge. After issue #65 The Shield G-Man Club became The Archie Club.

Also appearing in Pep #1 were The Queen of Diamonds with The Rocket which was shortened to The Rocket, from #2-12. This was a Flash Gordon type strip by Lin Streeter which found a huge rocket ship crashing within the barriers of the Diamond Empire. The pilot, known as The Rocket, had become a friend of the Empire's lovely Queen. The stories were even close to that of Flash Gordon's adventures complete with a City of Hawkmen in #4. By #11 The Rocket and The Queen of Diamonds had built a large wooden schooner with the help of the Pigiodgeons,- a race of Lilliputians, and set out for new adventures on the ship which they called the Rocketeer. The stories then became more like Eisner's Hawk strip.

An oriental strip along the lines of Charlie Chan, appeared in issues #1-11. Fu Chang, International Detective and Chinese Scholar, was educated in America and was the heir to the Magic Chessmen of Aladdin, with whose aid he combated the forces of evil and oppression. He had organized the Ti Yan Tong as a Secret Society, along with his fiance Tay Ming, to fight Princess Ling Foy and her evil creations. Lin Streeter drew many of the stories.

Kayo Ward by Phil Sturm and Bob Wood was a prize-fighting strip that appeared in #1-28. Also in #1-16 was Lee Sampson, The Midshipman. This was Pep's answer to Top-Notch's Keith Kornell.

A Green Hornet-type hero called The Press Guardian appeared in #1-11. This is one of those oddities of the comic book industry. Starting in #1 the strip is called The Press Guardian but in the story the character wears a costume, has no secret identity and was called The Falcon. Then in #2 he is The Press Guardian and wears a green business suit and red mask. He was really playboy Perry Chase, son of the publisher of The Daily Express. In secret Perry becomes The Press Guardian, foe of all enemies of the Press. In issue #3 Perry rescued Cynthia Blake from the Moroniabund and she becomes his assistant and the only one, besides his valet, who knew his secret. The stories were drawn by Mort Meskin and weren't bad at all especially the earlier stories when Meskin used a fine line effect.

Bentley of Scotland Yard was MLJ's longest running detective strip starting in #1 and running through #41 August 1943. Inspector Bentley was featured in some very weird and off beat adventures like battling The Hunchback in #4, "The Riddle of the Whirring Wings" in 11 or "The Case of the Armless Corpses" in #23 and a murderer known as Mr. X in #29. Most stories before #19 were drawn by Sam Cooper while most after #19 were by Paul Reinman.

Perhaps one of Bentley's most puzzling cases was in #31's "The Church Steeple Murders". The story opened with Bentley spotting the body of a man on the top of the church steeple. With the help of the church sexton and his brother Dr. Tagg, Bentley removed the body from the steeple and discovered that it was Jim Crivet's butler and he had been clubbed to death. Sodn Bentley, along with the sexton, Dr. Tagg, Jim Crivet and Crivet's wife, Anne, was examining the belfry. He bent over the rail to examine a clue just as the great bells began to ring knocking him over the rail. Desperately he grabbed and hung onto the bell and was almost impaled on top of the sharp point of the steeple which he discovered could be raised and lowered lower than the bell, which explained how the butler got there...he was knocked onto the steeple by the bells, then the steeple was raised. Part of the mystery was solved, but who was the murderer? The reader had all the clues and Bentley asked the reader if he could now identify the killer. And if the reader were as smart as Bentley. As it turned out, the killer was Anne Crivet who was a bigamist. She was married to both Crivet and the butler and one had to go. So for once the butler didn't do it, he was the one done in.

Debuting in Pep #1, was one of MLJ's better early superheroes, "The Most Astounding Man on the Face of The Earth", better known as The Comet. The main thing The Comet had going for him was the art of Jack Cole. The stories Cole did were great but he didn't stay with the strip long enough to make it as popular as other MLJ characters. After #6, he was replaced by Bob Wood in #9 and 10 and by Lin Streeter in #11-16.

John Dickering, a young chemist, had discovered a light gas which he injected into his blood stream. It made it possible for him to leap thru the air in great leaps a'la Superman although The Comet looked more like he was flying then just jumping. Dickering also found that the gas had settled in his eyes and that he was able to throw off a powerful disintegrating ray that only glass would stop. Since the ray would not pass through glass he wore goggles to prevent the ray from destroying anything. To use the ray he simply raised the glass goggles and poof, he would destroy whatever he pleased.

...cont'd

In Pep #2 The Comet saved Florida from a villain who called himself Satan. In issue #3 Satan and his assistant Doc Zadar captured The Comet and using hypnotism, forced him to become a criminal. He went about destroying things and killing many policemen. Then in an argument with Satan, Doc Zadar turned The Comet on Satan and he killed him. After killing Satan, The Comet returned to Zadar but, accidently, he had left his visor up and the rays from his eyes struck Zadar, killing him. The Comet then came to himself, read in the newspapers what he had done and vowed to clear himself, which he never completely did.

In #5 The Comet met Thelma Gordon for the first time. Thelma was a reporter who believed he was innocent and wanted his story. In #6 while trying to plan a way to clear him, The Comet went out and then returned in regular dress and said to Thelma: "How's this for a disguise? Nobody knows me as plain John Dickering. " This was the first mention of her knowing his identity.

He never really cleared himself. Although Thelma's stories always played him up as hero, he was always regarded as a criminal-at-large by the police. While the stories after #7 tend to deal with his fight against crime, rather than running from the police and trying to clear himself, each time he met up with the police they went after him. Even at the start of the story in #17 when he delivered Big Boy Malone's mob to the police he leaves in a hurry in a hail of police bullets. He then returned to Thelma who pleads with him to give up and become plain John Dickering as he has atoned for accidentally killing police. He says no, his conscience would never allow him and he must go on making amends. He then returned to his own apartment and as he was changing clothes, his brother Bob walked in and discovered his secret.

A few days later, two thugs, friends of Big Boy Malone, laid in wait for John but way-laid Bob by mistake and as they tried to force him into their car, The Comet flashed onto the scene. Turning toward the intruding Comet, the thugs opened fire and The Comet went down in a hail of bullets. Before the police arrived, Bob was able to get him to Thelma's apartment . The Comet was dying. His last words to Bob and Thelma were: "My turn nowYou two stick together-Kind of a memorial to me-Good bye Bobby-Bye Thel-- Aahh!"

Bob swore, "I'll carry on for him Thel! I'll bring his murderers to the hangman. I'll be their Hangman!" And he was.

This was a first for comics. No one actually killed off a superhero but MLJ proved it not only could be done, but the character that replaced him was far more popular than The Comet ever was.

The Hangman made his debut in Pep #17 July 1941. The origin story was written by Cliff Campbell and the art was by George Storm. Storm was okay on humor strips, but his art on a serious strip like The Hangman was not only atrocious but about the worst of any MLJ hero. Storm remained on the strip thru #19 and one would wonder why the strip clicked, but it did and became another MLJ instant hit.

If it wasn't bad enough that The Comet was a wanted man, The Hangman almost met the same fate. In Pep #18, a master criminal called The Jackal decided to get rid of The Hangman by posing as him. His plan was to hang some innocent people and place the blame on the real Hangman. Not many heroes ever had anyone out to ruin their career in such a short time. The Jackal started to plan his downfall in the third panel of the second page. But The real Hangman finally caught the fake one and thanks to Thelma Gordon, her newspaper cleared him. No two heroes ever had the same loyal girl in their corner like John and Bob Dickering had in Thelma Gordon.

By Pep #23 the art had improved. By now both Bobby King and Harry Lucey were doing the art. Now the stories were written by Bill Woolfolk. Then came issue #28 June 1942 and for the first time in his career, The Shield did not appear on the cover of Pep. Instead the cover featured only The Hangman and a costumed villain known as Captain Swastika and inside for the first time, The Shield gave up the lead spot as well to the Hangman. On the inside front cover, on The Shield G-Man Club page, The Shield announced that he and Dusty were playing second fiddle to The Hangman this issue. Dusty agreed. He was fighting Captain Swastika and this was the greatest issue of Pep yet. Captain Swastika was back in #29 to steal a U.S. Battleship. In a fight Captain Swastika proved he could defeat The Hangman in hand-to-hand combat and he did it every time they met. At the end of the story in #29, Swastika is almost killed when he accidentally hung himself in a noose he had rigged to trap The Hangman. In #30 The Hangman met up with a weird witch-like character called Mother Goose. All her crimes were commited using nursery rhymes as clues. The story had a weird night setting complete with a castle, an old windmill, an old well (which almost became The Hangman's grave) and eerie goings on. In #31 The Hangman journeyed to Germany to fight a Nazi called The Hunter.

Issue #31 or 32 was Harry Lucey's last. The art in #33 was by John Cassone and with #34 Bob "Fuji" Fujitani would become the artist for most, If not all, the remaining Hangman stories. In the first Fujitani drawn story, Captain Swastika returned. He was supposed to have been killed off in Hangman #3 but in Pep #34 he told The Hangman "it is not so easy to kill a man of my strength." Again the Hangman was no match for Swastika and in the end Swastika was killed by his own henchmen with an icepick meant for The Hangman. He stumbled in front of The Hangman and took the icepick in his back.

In issue #32 The Hangman appeared once again in the lead story, "The Bullfrog Strikes Again". The Hangman would appear on all covers from #17-42 except for #41. He and The Shield may just as well have been missing from the cover of #42 since Archie and Jughead had the spotlight. Both The Shield and The Hangman were colored dark blue on the cover and at first glance one almost missed them.

With Pep #47 March 1944 in a story called "The Noose", The Hangman's career finally came to an end. Since #41, The Hangman's stories had been reduced to only 9 pages after having appeared in 13 page stories since #28. For the most part his stories had been averaging 1-2 pages more per Issue then The Shield's stories.

In Pep #48 May 1944 The Hangman was replaced by The Black Hood. (The Hood had already replaced The Hangman in his own book in the Fall of 1943). By now all of MLJ's heroes were running out of steam and it seemed that all the heroes left, from The Shield on down and including The Black Hood, were drawn by Clem Harrison. The Black Hood had just finished his run in Top-Notch Laugh #44 April 1944 and moved to Pep the following month. But unlike his previous long run he would last only four issues (to #51 December 1944) in Pep. In 1946 he would return for two more issues #59 December 1946 and #60 March 1947, but these were after he gave up the Black Hood costume. By now, only The Shield was left and he would vanish after five more issues.

Next to the Shield, the longest running strip in the old Pep was Sergeant Boyle. As mentioned in the Blue Ribbon chapter, Charles Biro did a character called Corp. Collins and his sidekick Slapsie, Infantrymen in the U.S. Army. Not to be out done, Biro introduced almost a carbon copy of Collins and Slapsie in Pep, called them Serg. Boyle and Twerp, put them in the British Armed Forces and had an even bigger hit than Collins' was. Before long Boyle and Twerp were popping up all over the globe fighting the Japanese and Germans for the U.S.A. Just what part of the service they represented was not really clear. They were more-or-less happy-go-lucky trouble-shooters. Many stories teamed them up with Collins and Slapsie. Both writer Harry Shorten and artist Carl Hubbell were written into the story in #31. Boyle remembers that he had forgotten to send in that months story so they pay a visit to the MLJ offices where they find Shorten and Hubbell trying to think up a story without much luck. After a meeting between the four, Boyle and Twerp decide they could work up a story better alone so they go out and round up some Nazis.

The stories were played for laughs and there was a lot of fun in them. Biro did the stories thro #10 while Hubbell did the rest through #39, which was the last Boyle story in Pep.

A minor super-hero made his debut in Pep #12, February 1941. Ted Tyler, a young fireman, had entered a burning laboratory which was fired by a pyro-maniac known as the Bug. Inside the building. The Bug had knocked out Tyler and tied him in the lab. While tied up, a chemical spilled all over him and he came out of the fire alive. Later he found out that his body was now able to absorb fire. Bullets would melt when they hit him. He then added a blue costume, called himself The Fireball and went about destroying The Bug. His costume was brief for a superhero, in that his legs were bare and he wore no mask. His costume was blue with a yellow belt and wrist bands. The art was by Paul Reinman. The Fireball appeared last in #20, October 1941.

In issue #16, June 1941, throu #21, November 1941,- one would find a somewhat offbeat strip in the form of Madam Satan. Madam Satan was the Devil's ally and she was sent to Earth to do his bidding. A beautiful girl named Tyra was going to marry a young man but his parents disapproved of the idea so she poisoned them and put them in their car and caused it to crash into their son's car. After pulling them out of the wreck, the son discovered that his father was still alive and he told him what Tyra had done. Returning to Tyra, he killed her, but she was so beautiful, even in death, that he just had to kiss her. As it turned out, hers was the kiss of death and he died. Her evil spirit was then drawn to Satan and he returned her to earth to do his evil work as Madam Satan. The artist on most stories was Bob King.

Believe in fairy tales? Pep had one in a wonderful fantasy strip called "Danny in Wonderland" which started in Pep #12 and was last seen in #39. As it happened in #12,. Danny was visiting his Uncle's ranch and one night he was reading a book called "Stories of the Land of Wonder" and he wishes that he was there. A fairy then appeared and told him if he really wished it, to go outside. Outside, he and his dog Snapper were caught in a tornado which carried them to Wonderland a' la Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. In Wonderland, Danny met the dwarf Kupkake (Kuppie) and the two and Danny's dog had all kinds of adventures. In #23 they meet the Mad Hatter and in #29 everyone in Wonderland celebrated Danny's birthday by showing flashbacks of his adventures since he arrived in Wonderland. In #30 he saved Alice from the land of Nightmares. In #31 the story took on a sad turn of events. While Danny and Kupp1e were swimming they were attacked by an alligator which killed Snapper when he tried to save them. All through the forest the trees and animals cried, when suddenly Mother Nature appeared and told Danny that Father Time could restore Snapper but he may not be easy to find. Through the Fiery Caverns and the Cave of Monsters they went until finally they reached their objective, the mountain of Father Time. But they learn that he is unable to help them because he was some 500 years behind his schedule and didn't have the time. One place called Sleepy Town was almost 1,000 years behind time '- they even used square wheels. But he agreed to help get Snapper back if Danny and Kuppie would go to Sleepy Town and bring them up to date. All turned out well and other adventures followed. Many stories were drawn by "Red" Holmdale during 1942.

With Pep #30, MLJ produced what would be their last attempt at a major costumed hero when they introduced Captain Commando and the Boy Soldiers, a strip that would outlast all their costumed heroes except The Shield and The Black Hood. In fact, he outlasted all but The Shield in Pep Comics.

The first three stories had beautiful art by Alex Blum and it was some of the best he ever did. But after #33, under others, the art became just run of the mill fare and when Irv Novick finally took over it had become almost a copy of DC's Boy Commandos strip.

"This is a tale of four average boys like you or you, or you - somewhere in England. Although they come from many lands, they are united in their love of freedom! And their hero is freedom's foremost champion, the world renowned fighter against tyranny CAPTAIN COMMANDO". Thus read the splash page of #30. The four boys were Billy Grayson, American; Gerald Sykes, English; Armand DeLatour, free French; and Erik Jansen from Norway. The boys hoped to join up with the Commandos but Billy's Dad didn't believe in fighting, or so he let on. Billy thought he was a coward but the fact was, he was really Captain Commando himself.

When the boys tried to join the Commandos they were refused because of their age but were told they could use Erik, the Norwegian boy, for a guide. Putting on uniforms, Erik helps the other three boys slip on board the ship which was also the same ship Captain Commando was on on a mission to Norway to free prisoners and destroy oil wells. The boys were soon discovered but when Captain Commando went to see them he saw his son and he couldn't meet them as Captain Commando because his son might recognize him. He finally faced them as Billy's father. Again he gives Billy a lecture against fighting and a brokenhearted Billy is about to give up. After the mission into Norway where Captain Commando and the Boy Soldiers fought side by side, Captain Commando stood alone on the deck when Billy asked if he could speak to him. Captain Commando says, "I'm pretty busy" to which Billy replied, "Too busy to even talk to me, DAD." The secret was out and Billy was now proud of his father, and Captain Commando and the Boy Soldiers became a team.

The art was even better in #31 but by #33 other artists took over and the strip really suffered. The relationship between father and son was gone but the art did improve with #34 but the stories just didn't seem serious enough without Blum's art.

There was nothing new in Captain Commando and The Boy Soldiers. It had been done many times before with strips like Captain Freedom and the Young Defenders, Daredevil and the Little Wise Guys, Guardian and the Newsboy Legion and Rip Carter and the Boy Commandos. Within a few issues Irv Novick took over the art and brought a vast improvement, except for the fact Novick chose to follow Simon & Kirby's Boy Commandos as a pattern. The Germans now looked like they had stepped right out of a Boy Commandos story and to make things worse, Gerald and Erik were replaced by Percy and an almost exact copy of The Boy Commandos Brooklyn in Flatbush, complete with red hair. After Novick left, the stories became no more than fillers, a far cry from the first three stories. But as bad as the strip became, it did manage to reach #56, March 1946 before it was finally dropped. In all Captain Commando was in #30-52 and #54 and 56.

Other short lived strips in Pep were Lucky Larson in #13-15 and Jolly Roger in #21-27. This latter strip was drawn by Ed Smalle and featured Jolly Roger and his Sky Pirates. Issue #28 had Wings Johnson who had been in Top Notch #1-27, but his appearance in Pep was just a one shot.

While Pep outlasted both Top-Notch (as a serious comic) and Blue Ribbon, it was also written in the cards that changes were due here as well. With #40 July, 1943 the first change came. Long running strips Serg. Boyle and Danny in Wonderland were replaced with humor strips Catfish Joe and Little Chief Bugaboo. Catfish Joe was another Li'l Abner type drawn by Larry Harris while Little Chief Bugaboo related the comic adventures of a little Indian boy and his dog Fido. Joe would last be seen in #48 while Bugaboo vanished after #47. With #42, September 1943, a take off on Marco Polo, called Marco Loco, was introduced and ran through #52. With #53 June, 1945 the reader would find this line-up: Archie, Shield and from the old Top-Notch Laugh Susie, Twiddles and Pokey Oakey. Captain Commando was back for #54 but the lineup for the years to come was pretty well set up with Archie, Katy Keene, Twiddles, Gloomy Gus and Li'l Jinx. Pep had run its course and MLJ was now officially dead as far as the superhero was concerned. Pep would last into the 70s with Archie and his gang.

After introducing Blue Ribbon, TopNotch and Pep Comics, MLJ decided to give it one more go. So one month after Pep Comics #1 hit the stands and just four short months since Blue Ribbon Comics first appeared, their fourth title, Zip Comics #1, dated February 1940 was on the stands. Now MLJ had four monthly titles going for them.

Charles Biro had been with MLJ since the start and had been drawing both Serg. Boyle and Corp. Collins, but he had yet to have a crack at a super hero. That would all change with Zip #1. He would not only do a super hero, but it would be a first rate hero to boot. On the cover of Zip #1 was a new red and blue costumed hero--Steel Sterling, Man of Steel. Yep, there was now another Man of Steel. Superman didn't have a monopoly on that slogan.

John Sterling's father had been killed by gangsters and John had vowed, as all good guys do, to right the wrong. So young John went about studying chemistry in order to. find a protection for himself when he would be ready to begin his battle with the underworld. After months of work he finally developed a chemical formula. He then made a cauldron of molten metal, covered his body with the chemical, posed a few moments above the molten metal, then plunged into it for the realization of his greatest ambition.. .or death. He survived the ordeal and Steel Sterling was born. A man with the resistance, the magnetism and the strength of steel. John Sterling was now ready to crush out crime.

Unlike most superheroes who had two separate identities, John decided to be two people at once, Steel Sterling and his twin brother John Sterling. As John he opened up his own Private Detective Agency. By issue #4 Steel was joined by Dora Cummings who later would know John and Steel were the same person. Unlike most female characters, Dora was not a regular except for a few appearances, and she would all but vanish from the series after 1940.

Clancy the Cop started appearing in the. Steel Sterling strip around #6 and was soon joined by Alec (looney) Lumar in #9. Clancy was the typical short, fat cop with an oversized nose which seemed to be the type of policeman most artists of the forties enjoyed drawing. On the other hand Looney was the thin, stupid type which made them a perfect Laurel and Hardy type and a headache for Steel in many of his cases. Looney and Clancey even rated their own starring series in Jackpot Comics 6-9.

Around #19 Steel, Clancey and Looney began a good will tour of South America and were still there in #20. By #23 they were in Hawaii. Even as early as #20, November 1941, months before we entered World War 2, Steel was fighting the Germans. In fact, Hitler was on the cover of #20. More Germans appeared on the cover on #23.

Shortly after #9, Steel gave up his double identity bit and by #12 he was Steel in or out of costume. Issue #27 was the first issue Steel Sterling did not appear in the lead story. In fact he was regulated back to the third spot with The Web and Blackjack in the number one and two slots but didn't hurt much in a book with three top strips and he would miss the lead spot in 29-32 as well but never again.

But when the reader came face to face with that Steel Sterling splash page in #27, they would meet up with a menace so gigantic, that his very name would strike terror into the bravest of hearts, the dreaded Baron Gestapo. Baron Gestapo was a monster dressed in a blue/black tight costume with gray trunks, boots and gloves. On his chest was a flaming red swastika emblem. His face was one you would not easily forget--a large mouth with fang-like teeth, monocle in his right eye and short yellow hair. He wasn't beyond killing anyone, not even his own men. But he was never a match for the Man of Steel. He was back in #28, this time helping the Japanese. In #29 a new German costumed menace. named The Hyena appeared to battle Steel. Dora Cummings was in this story and she almost met her death at the Hands of The Hyena, but he met his death instead.

By issue #35 Looney had become a member of the US Army, but was still a vital part of the stories, but Dora had once again vanished from the stories and by issue #39 Steel was the only character in Zip worth buying the book for.

The longest running strip in Zip Comics, except for Steel Sterling, was Zambini, the Miracle Man by Ed Waxler and Joe Blair. Zambini got his magic from the Magic Amulet he wore about his neck. A gesture, or words and a rub of the amulet and he could perform all sorts of tricks of magic. After Waxler other artists like Bob Montana, Paul Reinman, J. Phillips and Sam Cooper did the art. Zambini was in Zip #1-35.

Zip was still lacking from the start what the other three titles had all along and that was a solid back up feature. Blue Ribbon had Mr. Justice and Rang-A-Tang, Pep had The Shield and The Hangman and Top-Notch had The Wizard and Black Hood, so with #10 January 1941 MLJ introduced what they hoped would be a good number two strip in Dicky in the Magic Forest, the adventures of a young boy named Dicky Farenwell who lived in an imaginary world. The Magic Forest surrounded Panora, and Panora surrounded an independent city called Madowa, and Madowa was rotten to the core. That's where Dicky has his adventures. But the strip was not a success' as a second feature so the call went out for a new costumed hero and that call was answered in the form of Black Jack.

On the cover of Zip Comics #20, November 1941, one would see Steel Sterling with his arm around a new red clad crime fighter and introducing him to the readers as Black Jack.

Lucky Lavitto was King of the Underworld and was always calling on a fortune teller to hear what he had heard year after year, that he was still Boss of the. town, but this time fate had shuffled the cards and a warning in the cards told him his days as the gang Chieftain were numbered. The Jack of Spades card had appeared and warned the Blackjack was coming into his life to ruin him. Lavitto laughed it off and he and his gang went out and robbed a bank, killed a cop and made their getaway, leaving behind one of their own men shot in the robbery. Later, at Detective Headquarters one Jack Jones was playing his favorite card game which was "Blackjack" when another Detective named Baxter came in and started horsing around, kidding Jones about his silly card game. Because of this game Jones was nicknamed "Blackjack" Jones. This kidding was interupted when the Chief entered and sent Jones, Baxter and another Detective to the bank to question the wounded robber. Before the gangster died he told the Detectives that the gang was hiding -out at the old Larson Mansion. When they arrived they discovered it was a trap and Baxter was a member of Lavitto's gang. Jones was slugged and tossed into a hole in the wall with a Jack of Spades card, and the hole was cemented over. The other Detective was dumped into the river. An hour later Jack Jones awakened only to find himself sealed in and fast running out of air. He was too weak to break out. Discovering the card that the gang had left he slowly worked the card edgeways through the cement till it fell through leaving a crack that let in enough air for him to breathe for awhile. Later an old man entered the Mansion and spotted the card and the slit in the wall and saved Jack. The man was Larson, and he was born in that Mansion and he wanted to make a suggestion to Jack, which was: Since the gangsters and even the world at large believed Jack was dead, why not take advantage of that belief. Criminals were afraid of the Unknown so why not become a crime fighter using the nickname Blackjack? So adding a red and gray costume, Jack Jones became Black Jack.

Black Jack made his first appearance at a time when the costumed hero was just coming into his own and with the art of Al Cammarata who had brought The Black Hood to such great heights, it was only natural that Black Jack would be an instant hit also. While he would be co-featured on the covers of Zip from #20 thru 27 and 31, he was the only major MLJ hero never to appear in the lead story in a comic. In the case of Zip Comics that spot was always taken by Steel Sterling and for a while by The Web.

Black Jack's most renowned adversary was a weird figure with a spinechilling mask like face that told nothing and gave no quarter and he was as cunning as a fox and as ruthless as the devil himself. His name was Poker Face. Black Jack came up against him for the first time in Zip #23. In #27, which was the last Black Jack story with Camy art, Black Jack met up with Black Seven, a villain who had the devilish luck with the number 7. Bobby King took over the art in #28 as Black Jack continued his fight with Black Seven. He finally defeated him when Black Seven fell into a pit full of spikes. "Red" Holmdale was the artist in #29 and by Black Jack's final appearance in #35, March 1943, Sam Cooper was doing the art.

Not to rest on their laurels with two hits, MLJ decided to try their luck again with #27, July 1942. There on the cover of 27 were Steel Sterling and Black Jack introducing a new hero - called The Web. The Web was one of the last costumed heroes MLJ would introduce (only Captain Commando and Red Rube followed) in any of their books.

When the reader flipped open the cover he or she would look upon a new green and yellow clad hero sporting some of the best art to ever grace the pages of any MLJ comic book. Yes, it was The Web. The Web was originally created to become the new strip in Top-Notch Comics but when that book changed it's format and became T-N Laugh, The Web was put in Zip Comics. John Cassone was at his best on the first Web story. He had been doing art for both Fiction House and Hillman prior to this. Here was art one would expect to see in a Quality comic, in fact the story looked as if Quality's Al Bryant could have inked it. When one started to read the story the first thing they read was: "Spin your web of crime you creatures of evil! Yes...spin it strong, spin it cleverly, spin it any way you will! But this is your warning...You are weaving about you a mesh from which there is no escape. ..A trap of your own making. You Can't Escape The Web!"

The first story dealt with The Web and Rose Wayne fighting the ruthless Jap agent The Black Dragon of Death. After the adventure was over Rose told The Web she knew who he really was, and she promised she would keep his secret a. secret if he told her how he became The Web. So the reader was advised not to miss the next issue for the secret of The Web.

The Web made his second appearance in Zip #28, August 1942. The story opened with Prof. Raymond explaining to Rose how he became The Web. The art was by Irving Novick and had a chilling resemblance to the art of Simon and Kirby. Prof. Raymond told Rose that many years ago there were two brothers named Tom and John. Tom was a rough neck, while John was just the opposite. One day John was returning home from school and ran across Tom (who was almost a double for The Boy Commandos' Brooklyn) who had just robbed a store. John tried to beat some sense into Tom and later that evening the police came and took Tom away. This turn of events made John resolve to study the criminal mind and as years passed, he became an authority and lecturer on criminology. Years later, Tom escaped from jail and went to his brother for money only to be recaptured in John's home by the law. Then and there John made up his mind that criminals can't escape their own web of crime, so he became The Web. After John Raymond finished telling Rose the origin of the Web, the readers were introduced to a gray and purple clad villain known as Count Berlin who sets out to kill Prof. Raymond. Attacking the Prof. in his home, Count Berlin sets fire to the house and leaves Raymond trapped in the inferno, only to be saved by Rose who had returned for something she had forgotten. As the Web, Raymond went out and rounded up Count Berlin and his gang of Nazis.

The art of John Cassone was back with Zip #29 when the Web battles the Nazis to save the life of Poster Michel in Nazi occupied France. After #29 Irving Novick became the regular Web artist. In #35 The Web brings a killer to justice who went about killing people in search of a book which had stolen money hidden inside it.

The Web made his last appearance in Zip #38, July 1943 in a story called "The Man Who Went Nowhere", a fitting title since The Web also went nowhere after that.

Zip's version of Archie Andrews was Wilbur Wilkin. Looking a lot like Archie, Wilbur was one of MLJ's top sellers during the forties and fifties appearing in 90 issues of his own book as well as in other titles, Wilbur started in Zip #18, September 1941, and was in all issues through #45, April 1944.

A flood of humor strips began with issue #36 April 1943 with the arrival of Senor Banana, a south of the border comedian; the Applejacks, a pair of Slaphappy twins; Woody Woodpecker (no relation to the Woody) and Joe Edward's Chimpy.

Issue #39, August 1943, introduced what must go down in comic heroes history as the most unoriginal and poorest drawn of any super hero from a major company (as well as any minor) in the form of Red Rube. This was MLJ's last attempt at a costumed hero and they should have stopped when they were ahead. One does not try to introduce a new hero when you are trying to phase out the few remaining ones you already have. Young Rueben Rueben, a runaway orphan, had been endowed by his ancestral Ghost with the Greatest of Powers. By merely calling the words "Hey Rube" these forces became his. With these powers he dedicated himself to fight for what was right in the world. Billy Batson calling Shazam and becoming Capt. Marvel was first and by far better than anything this strip had going for it. Bill Vigoda's art was uninspired and was very cartoonish and the panels were almost void of any background at all. Vigoda was a much better artist than he was on Red Rube and one could see what he could really do, such as on the strip called "The Flying Dragons" in Zip #46, February 1944. But with the Red Rube stories he used so few lines that it looked like he could have finished a ten page story in just a couple hours. But as bad as the strip and character was, he managed to appear in all issues of Zip from #39 through the last issue which was #47 summer 1944--and to end his career he was given two stories in #47. He also shared the covers with Steel Sterling on #40, 41, 46, 47 and was solo on #42-45.

So came to an end, MLJ's fourth title.

The history as reprinted stops here but other MLJ hero comics of the forties include;

Jackpot 1 to 9

Shield-Wizard 1 to 13

Special 1, Hangman 2 to 8, Black Hood 9 to 19.