And as the final day of September 2025 winds down, so does THOIA's lurid 'n lovin' look at superhero horror this month. And we're closing it out right where we started it all at the beginning of September-- with another Lash Lighting and Lightning Girl adventure! This one's a whopper at 16 pages, but it's fast paced and full of great dialog and action (though if you're tired of young men with firearms in our daily news, we've unfortunately got that covered as well.) And it's all credited to Harvey Kurtzman-- yep, you read that right-- story and art! Dig that splash, (and the cute cobra!), and then keep with it because the last half of this story goes underground and really picks up speed! And because I had some other hero horror stuff already pulled, (but not enough time to post it all), we might see a few more caped tales in October during our Halloween 2025 Horrorthon. I have some extra creepy cool stuff lined up, so please stay tombed as ever! From the December 1942 issue of Four Favorites #8.
5 comments:
I would have absolutely never guessed Kurtzman and in 42 that had to be at the near start of his career. This sadly doesn't have as good of art as the other tales and is a bit primitive, but as early Kurtzman it's still worth it.
Primitive art aside, Kurtzman knows (even this early) how to layout a story, how to keep the action and the panel to panel movement going. It's a great little superhero story, and you can really feel the action. Lash looks like he's about to fry an entire cave worth of bad guys.
This is another Lash story where, frankly, I just don't get why he doesn't sling bolts right at the start, he could have wrapped this one up quicker. He moves as fast a lightning, too! I guess he just likes punching people.
Lightning Girl, geeze, she more of a determent to Lash in this one. Not a good look, 1942!
"You like mud so much, try eating it!" is a pretty vicious panel!
I really enjoyed super September!
"Retreat into the mud!" is one of my favorite lines in a long time. Lightning is one of those early heroes who was not afraid to go a little farther than we are used to see now, threatening to snap Dr. Diablo's neck like a pipestem, and forcing him to eat mud. I am reminded of another early hero, Red Panther, who punished two criminals by dragging them through radium and then letting them die of radiation poisoning.
This reminds me of the old movie serials broadcast on TV back in the 1980's and the 1990's- action, adventure, a mystery to solve, a damsel in distress, the kid getting into trouble and the hero saving the day. Replace Lash Lightning with the likes of Roy Rogers, The Lone Ranger or some other silver screen hero of the 1930's and the story still works.
I liked this superhero vs spooky looking bad guys type tale. Great post as always, Karswell.
In Panel 7 of Page 2, it looks like the cord for the blinds is holding up the word balloon. Is that a coincidence or some kind of wordplay joke?
It really is hard to detect the Kurtzman in this (well, in the art. The writing sounds like Harvey here and there to me), but I think those dirt clods when the cemetery caves in--see the last panel on page eleven--look just like his later work. That's a pretty small detail, I know. The rest of this is a pretty sweet imitation of the usual look of early forties super hero comics, just like a kid getting his start in the industry would have to do to make his bones. Wikipedia actually cites this as his very first penciling job (after a couple of studio assists). He was eighteen years old.
I like how the story gets wilder and wilder. Eventually we get to the last panel, in which the exposition dump is the wildest thing yet. I like to think Dr. Diablo passed the MCAT and successfully worked his way through medical school just to implement his illegal scheme.
"They laughed me out of the evil mining establishment, but I showed them! I became an evil human-trafficking physician! Muah--Ha Ha Ha!!"
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