It's time to WHOOSH! some living things into skeletons somehow, which means it's also time for another half-baked Captain Battle horror adventure bonanza, via the December 1941 issue of Silver Streak Comics #17! This time Cap and his trusty sidekick Hale take on Dr. Dracula (lol) and his dingbat death ray. And if you think you've seen the last of death rays this week-- think again! I've got another one aimed at you up next for March of the Mummies Monday, in fact... yes, we must not forget the monthly themes that I tend to flimsily throw together here at the last minute. WHOOSH!
The art is a lot darker and scratchier in this one, but it's still pretty good. The action is really solid, and we get some actual air battles!
ReplyDeleteHow many scientists are inventing deadly weapons all alone and being watched by bad guys in the 40s? They are just legion! "Vampires as large as men!" I guess I'm not that up on vampire legends!
Another fun one, it jumps from scene to scene and there actually is some pretty good suspense here (when cap is caught in the net) and hoping Hale sees through his phone call. He doesn't. Kids a dope. But he got cool bat wings out of it!
I love every articulated skeleton. "Whoosh!" Smoking skeletons! Train driver skeletons! Sleeping skeletons! This must have been a blast to draw.
"Vampires! Vampires as large as men!" Did he think vampires were the size of bats?
ReplyDeleteI have a feeling the scriptwriter of 'Teenagers From Outer Space' (1959) had seen this comic as a kid.
So now there are two instant skeleton tales here on THOIA, this one and Garden of Horror. At least the people into skeletons didn't suffer or feel any pain, at least I would hope so.
These Captain Battle comics are wild but fun! Thanks as always for the posts.
It's funny how much Panel 2 of Page 8 looks like an anti-smoking PSA.
ReplyDeleteDoc Drac and his rainbow color-coded vampire henchmen! I honestly can't detect a single thing to differentiate this story from some spoof the National Lampoon might have written. "I, Dr. Dracula, will be governor of America!" This is already just brilliant satire. I can't believe the panels at the bottom of page two have existed this long without going viral.
ReplyDeleteMeaningless little detail: I'm intrigued by Hale's use of the phrase "on the bunk." I know the expression as "on the blink", and generally think of the slang term "the bunk" to mean something else. At the same time, I am aware of a longstanding rule of thumb against using words with "LI" in hand-lettered media because they can bleed together into a U, sometimes with embarrassing results. This has not happened here; the letterer clearly meant to write a U. Or did he just get confused by the blurry "LI" of his own pencil guides? Or the blurry typewritten script he was transcribing? Why am I writing a paragraph about this?
Anyway, super fun story. I love page four. My pick for best Captain Battle page yet.
I really enjoyed the art in this one, especially the part of page 4 where the professor gets "boned" by his own death ray, and Captain Battle breaks out of the otherwise fairly commonplace panel grid. Captain Battle is pretty lackluster as far as superheroes go, even golden age ones, but I wonder if he provided any inspiration for Nick Fury?
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting, usually the adventures of costumed heroes with boy sidekicks highlight why the kid sidekicks are more an annoying liability used to draw in younger readers than anything else, but Hale actually seems to be doing a lot of the heavy lifting here.
The all-seeing curviscope reminds me a lot of Fletcher Hanks's Stardust and his similar device.
I do enjoy when golden age superheroes cross paths with pre-code horror trappings, even it turns out to be just set dressing for saboteurs or spies. If nothing else it generally provides some great imagery. Thanks for sharing!
Professor Fosdick. As in "Fearless Fosdick" from L'll Abner? But this one came first?
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