Perry Chase, aka The Press Guardian was yet another of the many fun, but largely forgotten 1940's back-up filler hero features from the early days of the ever popular Pep Comics series, via Archie. And while he doesn't really possess any SUPER hero powers, --as we'll be seeing in some of our other featured hero posts all this month, --he is one terrifically tough, masked reporter with those fists, threatening the bad guys with strangulation and torn throats, all the while saving the lovely damsels in distress in his endless pursuit of justice, and truth. The two stories I have for you today are unique to the series, because it appears to be the few horror themed examples of Press G encountering his nemesis "The Claw" in a pair of adventures where old house mad science and subtereanean monsters fit THOIA's bill rather nicely. Not to mention, Mort Meskin's old school art style really lends a wonderfully surreal, eerie quality to the all-out scrappy, beast battle action. Enjoy! From the Nov. / Dec. 1940 issues of Pep Comics #9, and Pep Comics #10.
4 comments:
These were some wild comics tales. Mad scientist master criminal, beast men a la Island of Dr. Moreau or The Mad Monster, A newspaperman/superhero as a pre-code pre Ditko Mr. A, wild things happen-just because.
I wonder if Fletcher Hanks wrote the script.
Press Guardian has the look and feel of a wild B movie serial that should have been but never was.
Thanks for posting these wild comics.
I love a villain who is just ... random. Mining radium! Making animal monsters to terrorize for what seems like no personal gain! It's really like he's just being an ass hoping that the Press Guardian shows up so he can get the only thing that excites him anymore - a battle of wits!
Give Cynthia some credit, she saved the day on the second story while being a damsel in distress!
I like the art. There's weird perspective problems and the paneling is cramped, but the action is good and the guy can draw a haunted house and a beast man, and I like the big head look of the Claw.
Good coloring in the water sections!
Never would have recognized Mort Meskin. Very nice.
It kind of cracks me up when these guys rush into danger--but first they have to put on a mask. I appreciate the convention, but I feel like hampering your vision right as it's about to become crucial is hubris of the highest order. Especially when it can do nothing to hide your identity. At least he changes his suit between panels in the second story. Somehow.
I like that one a little better I think. The art feels bigger in the frames, and the lighting is prettier. I dearly love the swirling water and colorfully lush exterior at the bottom of page four. I'm delighted by the notion that newshounds might become masked heroes to protect their paper's circulation, but it seems like a stretch when the cops at the bottom of page three seem to pin the blame for those disappearing village women on the Daily Express subscriptions.
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