Number 1508: Scarlet Arrow makes his “bow”

If this Scarlet Arrow origin story was a 1947 movie instead of a comic strip it would be a programmer, a B-movie. It would be a made on a low budget without “A-list” actors. I'd give it credit for good costume design for the hero, but the unimaginative script would doom it to the bottom of a double bill at a neighborhood theater. Since it’s a comic strip and not a movie, I’ll give it credit for being drawn well by artist Bob Powell and his studio assistants.

The Scarlet Arrow didn’t make the comic book world “quiver” (ho-ho); he lasted for a couple of issues of Black Cat. This story is from Black Cat Comics #5 (1947):

More about →

Number 1382: Atom bomb in a box

Although signed Simon and Kirby, the Duke of Broadway story, “My City Is No More!” is written, penciled and inked by Joe Simon. There were only about five stories about the New York-centric His Highness, the Duke of Broadway, divided into three stories for Black Cat Comics, and one each from Stuntman #2, and Boy Explorers #1, all of them published in 1946 and '47. This story is from Black Cat Comics #5 (1947), and it looks like a finale...not only for the Duke of Broadway, but for New York City! However, the Duke was back in Black Cat #'s 6 and 7 going about his business as usual.*

The most fearsome weapon ever built by humans, the atom bomb, caused a lot of postwar jitters, both in the U.S. and around the world. There was fear that someone could build a bomb, pack it in a suitcase and detonate it in a city. We still worry about that, but nowadays we have all kinds of terrors to worry about. Nuclear devices are amongst our list of fears, but not like they were in the late '40s and early '50s.

*I showed the Duke story from Black Cat #8, with a bonus story, in Pappy's #875. Click on the picture to see.

More about →