Number 1442: Shanghai Chicken

The Grand Comics Database credits Wallace Wood with penciling and inking the lead story from Fox’s Inside Crime #3 (1950). Even before I read the story I saw that Wood had done the splash page, the inside front cover, pencils, inks and lettering, but his familiar style only pops up occasionally in the nine pages to follow. Fox was notorious for either slow or non-payment, and my guess is it was a story done quickly, probably by at least one other artist than Wood, and maybe even more. Wood worked with several other artists during his career. At one time his main collaborator was Harry Harrison, although I’d have to depend on someone else to tell me if Harrison worked on this story.

Johnny Devine, the “Shanghai Chicken” was a real person, an Irish immigrant who became a crimper, a man who provided men for ships’ crews by the practice of shanghaiing (kidnap). The story, set in the 1860s, has anachronisms, and very little or no research was done for the drawings. So far I haven’t been able to track down the origin of a nickname like “Chicken”, which in context of the times doesn’t mean a coward as it does today. When I googled “Shanghai Chicken” I came up with some tasty recipes for a Chinese dish.

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Number 1441: “You in a Heap of trouble, boy!”

In 1971 I bought Skywald’s black and white Psycho #2, which had the origin of the Heap, drawn by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito, and written by Chuck McNaughton. You can read that version in this 2010 posting at the Diversions of the Groovy Kind blog.

Surprisingly, a few months later along came a Comics Code-approved 25¢ color comic called The Heap #1,with the lead story drawn by Tom Sutton and Jack Abel, and written by former DC editor and writer Robert Kanigher! Both stories showed how the Heap was created from a plane wreck into some chemicals, but the stories surrounding the origin were different. The color Heap was the only issue, although its indicia claimed it to be a bi-monthly. Artistically, the character is drawn a bit differently: this version of the Heap, unlike the black and white version, does not have the long lolling tongue hanging out of the creature’s mouth. That might have been too gross for the Code, or maybe just the artist.

Knowledgeable fans know that the Heap was also a shambling monstrosity from the old Airboy Comics, and also a classic Mad comic book story by the one-and-only Will Elder. I'm sorry I can't show you the whole hilarious story featuring the Heap, “Outer Sanctum” from Mad #5, but here’s the Kurtzman-Elder version of...HEAP!

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Number 1440: Be he Red...or be he Fed?

On Monday I showed a 1946 superhero story featuring a hidden communist city of gold. Here's a love story about a girl who falls for a Red.  “I Fell For a Commie!” is from Quality Comics’ Love Secrets #32 (1953). I posted this story a few years ago, but these are new scans.

Gladys Lynn is very dumb naïve. She falls in with a communist cell, complete with posters on the wall proclaiming “Stalin Wants Peace” and she doesn’t realize where she is until page 5. Her naïvete is all because she is blinded by love. Things are not what they appear to be with her commie lover, Tom, but I don’t want to give anything away.

Comic historian Jim Vadeboncoeur gives Charles Sultan credit for the pencils, but gives Dick Beck a ? as inker.

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Another Superpower that Time Forgot?

Mark Engblom had a lot of fun with these a few years back but here's one he missed.  Apparently Superman can shrink or expand his muscles at will:

In the story, Superman is supposedly out of town and so Lois hits on the bright idea of having Clark dress up in a suit to foil some gangsters.   Incidentally, it is often mentioned that DC took Siegel & Shuster off the comics when they filed their copyright claim in 1947; this (April 1948) issue appears to be the first without their credits on the title page, and the artwork is definitely sub-standard.

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Number 1439: Tomahawk under the black flag

Tomorrow is the annual Talk Like A Pirate Day, so practice your best Robert Newton Long John Silver impression, and holler “Yarrrr!” and “Arrrrr mateys!” at work or school tomorrow. Everyone will love it. NOT.

I never need a reason to show a story about pirates, but it seems more appropriate today to feature Tomahawk and Dan, the buckskin Batman and Robin, and their encounter with buccaneers. Pirate Cap'n Henry Gannon makes Tomahawk walk the plank! Yarrrr!

From Star Spangled Comics #80 (1948), with artwork by the fabulous Fred Ray. To demonstrate how fabulous, look at that splash panel.

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Clicking the thumbnail will take you to Tomahawk’s first appearance in Star Spangled Comics.

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