Number 1155: Star Spangled Tomahawk

 

There isn't a lot of information available online about artist Edmond Good. He was born in 1910 (no death date listed; is he still alive at age 102?) Worked in Canadian comic books during WWII, then came to the U.S. to work on the comic strip, Scorchy Smith, and then comic books. He was the first artist on "Tomahawk," which began in Star Spangled Comics in 1947.

Tomahawk's first appearance was shown in Pappy's #985. Good worked for Fox, doing Dagar, Desert Hawk, and also at ACG in the 1960s, doing supernatural stories for editor Richard E. Hughes. He had a very pleasing style, which once identified, becomes immediately apparent when spotted.

In the answer to a question in Adventures Into the Unknown, Hughes further identified Good as a member of the Woodstock, N.Y. art colony.

 Joe Samachson wrote this tale, the second-ever Tomahawk story, in Star Spangled Comics #70 (1947):

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Number 1052


Subhuman giants, ghouls, Bigfoot and Sasquatch...


...are all the same, or at least according to these two stories, both of which are about Bigfoot, under different names.

"Do They Exist?" is from Adventures Into the Unknown #137, 1962 (probably a reprint from an earlier issue with a different title), and "Return Of the Ghoul" comes to us via a reprint in IW's Daring Adventures #9, 1958. It was originally from Blue Bolt Weird Tales of Terror #115, and according to the GCD, was a sequel to "The Ghoul Of the North" from Avon's Eerie #15. Got all that? There will be a quiz.

The first story is drawn by Edmond Good, an artist we have featured here before, in Pappy's #985 and Pappy's #994. Jay Disbrow does the ghoul story. I believe he wrote it (he could be wordy, perhaps graduating from the Al Feldstein School of Comic Book Writing). His Bigfoot is more of a shape shifter than the traditional hairy giant of the woods. This is the first story I've shown by Disbrow.

Which reminds me. I sent my son a scan of the cover of the above book, showing Bigfoot in Pennsylvania. I sent it as a joke, telling him to "watch for Bigfoot in the woods when you drive through them." At the time he was commuting to college in Western PA via a two-lane road through a heavily wooded area. After I sent it he told me one morning in winter, very early in the morning, he saw a large, manlike shape between two trees just off the road, as if waiting to cross. I don't believe in Bigfoot, although a lot of people do. I don't think my son believes in Bigfoot, either, but he saw something, and his story gave me a shiver.

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Number 994


I dream of mushrooms...


If I'd seen the story, "He Pierced the Unknown," in 1968 instead of when it was published in 1958, I'd have had a different interpretation of young Albert Huraki's dreams. Instead of just interpretive drawings of Albert's gift for precognition, I would have seen drug references, especially with the big mushroom. I shamelessly use that panel above in order to provoke knowing readers to nudge the person next to them, then point at it and snicker.

Sorry to disappoint. There are no drugs involved. The story, presumably written by editor Richard E. Hughes, is well thought out. Albert can see the future in his dreams, couched in mystic, almost biblical, symbolism. Artist Ogden Whitney did a fine job interpreting the dreams.

I have one more observation about this story: the description of Albert, especially in the early panels, seems to be describing what we now know as an autistic child. I wonder if the writer knew someone who fit this description...?

From Adventures Into the Unknown #101, 1958:








This is a letter (from "Alfred E. Neuman") with a response from editor Richard E. Hughes in that same issue of Adventures Into the Unknown:

Hughes answers the question I've had about the artist of "Space Adventurer," who I now know is Edmond Good. A couple of weeks ago I showed the origin of Tomahawk from Star-Spangled Comics, drawn by Good.

"Space Adventurer" is more typical Hughes: guy is a failure, makes good, impresses girl. In this case the story, published in 1958, takes place in 1991, one of the future-in-the-past stories I love. The future it describes is in the past for us, so we can see how it stacks up against the reality of 1991. Um, not so well, but I enjoyed the part about the hero buying a used rocket ship for $416. That's about what my first car cost in 1963.

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Number 985


Tomahawk begins


For a non-super character, Tomahawk lasted a long time for DC Comics. He was featured in Star Spangled Comics as a back-up strip, but soon took as cover feature. His own comic book lasted over 20 years, until the early '70s.

I liked the idea of Tomahawk set in a time frame of the American Revolution, a white man trained by Indians. But as we've shown before, DC Comics, who never met a wild concept it didn't like if it involved dinosaurs or gorillas, went far afield of the original frontier concept. A typically wild Tomahawk tale of the Go-Go Checks DC Comics of the 1960's was shown in Pappy's #848.

But this is the original Tomahawk tale, shown in Star Spangled Comics #69, from 1947. It's written by Joe Samachson and drawn by Edmond Good. Later on Tomahawk was taken over by writer France "Eddie" Herron and artist Fred Ray, but this first story paved the way, establishing Tomahawk for the next 25 years.

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