Captain's Library: Christmas Comics: CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT "Sergeant Twilight Writhes Again"

Captain Midnight enjoys celebrating the holidays, whether it's Thanksgiving or Christmas...

...in one of the last comic stories based on the radio show's format.

The comic book began to diverge from the radio show about this time.
Ichabod Mudd, who was Midnight's primary aide in all his media incarnations was already being modified with the addition of the comic-relief "Sgt Twilight" identity.
Cap himself would soon abandon the modified military flight suit seen in this story and adopt a skintight ensemble with built-in glider wings.
(It had the same color scheme, so many thought the new ensemble was just the old outfit with wings attached.)
We're taking a break for a week, but we'll be back right after New Year's Day.

Merry Christmas

and

Happy New Year!

Captain's Library & Theatre LONE RANGER "He Finds Dan Reid" Conclusion

When Last We Left The Masked Man and His Indian Companion...

(Don't worry, you didn't miss an entry!
The first part of the story appeared HERE at Western Comics Adventures™!)
After a wagon train is ambushed by Apaches, The Lone Ranger learns his sister-in-law and her infant son have gone missing.

The Ranger infiltrates the Apache camp, but doesn't find any prisoners.

The Army arrives and the Ranger joins forces with them to capture the Indians, but the raid turns deadly and the Ranger is forced to fire, off-balance to save the unit commander...

Adapted from a radio show episode of the same name, this story from Dell's Lone Ranger Golden West #3 (1955) was pencilled by Tom Gill, but the inking looks a lot like John Severin, not Gill himself.
Here's a link to the actual radio show!
Besides being The Lone Ranger's nephew, Dan Reid is also The Green Hornet's father and appeared in both characters' radio shows and comic books, making Dan one of pop culture's first "crossover" characters?
(Thus, the Green Hornet is the Lone Ranger's grand-nephew!)
An older Dan Reid appeared on several episodes of The Green Hornet radio series.
Dan was a feature player in a four-episode arc (also adapted into comics form) where he learned his son was The Hornet as shown HERE and HERE.
Remember, The Green Hornet was set in the "present" of the 1930s-1940s, making the adult Dan Reid (in his late 60s-early 70s) a teenager in the late 1880s, the time of the Lone Ranger!)

This entry is part of our Retroblogs™ Masks Marathon, celebrating the new Dynamite comic series Masks which combines, for the first time, the major masked mystery men of pulps and comics including The Green Hornet, The Shadow, The Spider, Zorro, The Black Terror, The Green Lama, and Miss Fury (ok, a masked mystery woman), among others.
Though The Lone Ranger hasn't been listed as participating, The Green Hornet (and by extenssion, Dan Reid), are in the story.
(Besides, Zorro is making an appearance, so there's always a possibility...)

We'll be presenting more stories featuring these characters throughout the month of December.

Visit our 

Western Comics online store...
...for duds and provisions!

Captain's Library: THE SHADOW "Shadow in Danger" Conclusion

When Last We Left Our Hero...

A number of people, including police Sgt Cardona, Lamont Cranston, and Margo Lane, are targeted by a mugger who hypnotizes his victims so they don't remember being robbed!

Police Commissioner Weston suspects The Shadow (who can cloud mens' minds), but Cranston knows The Shadow is innocent, since he's The Shadow (but can't tell Weston)!

When the mugger's moll demands a bigger cut of the loot, or she'll go blab to the police, the criminal silences her...permanently!

This never-reprinted cover story from Shadow Comics V8N7 (1948) was adapted from the 09/09/45 Shadow radioplay of the same title by Stedman Coles.
Regrettably, there are no surviving recordings of this episode. 

While Bob Powell (with aid from his comic studio assistants) did the artwork, the script adaptor is unknown, but believed to be either Bruce Elliot (who had taken over the "Maxwell Grant" byline from Walter Gibson on the Shadow pulp stories) or Powell himself.

You'll note the "color hold" technique, taking artwork that normally would be black-line and making it one of the color plates (in this case, blue) to show The Shadow while he's invisible.

It was a very tricky thing to do back in those days since the interior pages were almost never proofed due to time and cost restraints.

But, Powell does some amazing things with the holds, making them line up exactly almost all the time!

He also uses "color holds" to great effect on the cover at top, but that, at least, was proofed (and, if needed, corrected) before printing.

This entry is part of our Retroblogs™ Masks Marathon, celebrating the new Dynamite comic series Masks which combines, for the first time, the major masked mystery men of pulps and comics including The Green Hornet, The Shadow, The Spider, Zorro, The Black Terror, The Green Lama, and Miss Fury (ok, a masked mystery woman), among others.

We'll be presenting more never-reprinted stories featuring these characters throughout the month of December.

And, now a word from our sponsor (us)...

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Atomic Kommie Comics™

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Pulp and Comic Collectibles

Captain's Library & Theatre: GREEN HORNET FIGHTS CRIME "Desperate Gamble"

Not a dream!

Not a hoax!

Not an imaginary story!

The Harvey Comics series had been adapting radio show scripts for years, but cramming a status quo-changing four-episode arc into only two eight-page chapters took a lot of modifications...

Here's a link to the October 28, 1947 Green Hornet radio show episode "Exposed" that most of this comic story is based on.

There are some interesting differences, such as Clip Phelan being the murder victim in the radio episode, but Phelan's the murderer in the comic story and the murder victim is "Frankie Striker", a reference to Hornet co-creator Fran Striker!

The art on this lead tale from Green Hornet Fights Crime #43 (1949) is presumed to be by Al Avison, but I believe he only did the pencils.

The inking looks a lot like Lee Elias, who was doing, among other things, The Black Cat for Harvey.

The writer of the comic adaptation is unknown.

This entry is part of our Retroblogs™ Masks Marathon, celebrating the new Dynamite comic series Masks which combines, for the first time, the major masked mystery men of pulps and comics including The Green Hornet, The Shadow, The Spider, Zorro, The Black Terror, The Green Lama, and Miss Fury (ok, a masked mystery woman), among others.

We'll be presenting more never-reprinted stories featuring these characters throughout the month of December.

Join us on Tuesday at 

Hero Histories™

for the astounding conclusion!

And don't forget to visit...

The Classic Green Hornet Store

Captain's Library: TOM CORBETT : SPACE CADET "Spaceship of Doom"

We're introducing the only major 1950s space hero we haven't covered...

...with his first appearance in his second comic series!

So, let's join the crew of the Space Academy ship Polaris...

Besides being the longest-running tv/radio show of the genre, Tom Corbett had the longest run of any of the comics adaptations...fifteen issues with two different publishers!

The second series was published by Prize Comics and packaged (as were a number of Prize titles of the period) by the Simon & Kirby studio.

The primary artist was Mort Meskin, but there are apparently other artists doing layouts and inking including Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko.

This tale from Prize Comics' V2N1 (1955) was penciled by Meskin and inked by several different artists.

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Captain's Library: MYSTERIOUS TRAVELER "Escape"

Though his radio show had been off the air for several years...

...the name-value of the Mysterious Traveler had enough cachet to keep this comic book series going for years after!

This story from Tales of the Mysterious Traveler #4 (1957) was illustrated by the legendary Steve Ditko, who would later create or co-create Spider-Man, Dr Strange, The Question, The Creeper, and a number of other unusual characters.

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