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Flash Comics Journal
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316 posts in this topic

Issue #56August 1944Rating: 4photo flash56001_zps8eae3155.jpg

The Flash story in this issue feels like a rush to meet adeadline submission. The Martin Naydel art is rough and looks cartoonish.Peachy Pet gets another lead in the Johnny Thunderstory. Johnny only makes a cameo. The Hawkman story is typical formula.

Page count has been reduced. The Whip didn’t make the cut.The Minute Movie utilizes a mysterious Japanese drug that fakes death.photo flash56005_zps1e3f9967.jpg The best strip is the Ghost Patrol battling Nazis in Holland. photo flash56003_zpsd26685eb.jpg
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Issue #57Sept 1944Rating: 4photo flash57001_zpsbbb12649.jpgThe Ghost Patrol find themselves off the battle front and inan art gallery. Martin Naydel art for the Flash is still challenged by adjusting his cartoon style art to suit the superhero genre. This issue would be Ed Wheelan's penultimate Minute Movie strip which began in 1921 in newspaper form and ran in all Flash Comics thru issue #58. Below follows the typical format of a silent film parody. Most of which I found very entertaining.

photo flash57009_zps54bef4d3.jpgphoto flash57008_zps58b2037f.jpgphoto flash57007_zps6a0d625b.jpgphoto flash57004_zpsa0c19245.jpgphoto flash57005_zpse8057691.jpgphoto flash57003_zps5e47594a.jpgphoto flash57006_zpsca0fc0d1.jpg

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Issue #58October 1944Rating: 5photo flash58001_zps734ec4f1.jpg


When ‘The Creature From The Black Lagoon’ was matinee gold in 1954, Gardner Fox must have been saying to himself, ‘Yeah, I did that ten years ago’.  The murky green bog that the Merman lives in works well with Jon Chester Kozlak art

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The story begins with a Moses like origin of the Merman. Ashe becomes an adult his duel nature finds that he is not accepted as a man. Themissing link between fish and man turns to a life of crime and has to swimupstream when the Flash is in pursuit.

 

Hawkman and Hawkgirl serve up the corny jokes with their punches.

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This issue is the correct end of the run of 'Minute Movies' strip.Overstreet and CGC Labeling mistakenly cite the next issue.

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Issue #59November 1944Rating: 4
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The Flash story may hint to Gardner Fox’s boredom withwriting mobster yarns and his need for a vacation. The John Chester Kozlak artin the story is ok.

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Peachy Pet, along with Johnny’s help, continues to have fun in Hollywood.

"The Story of Leif Ericsson and the Norsemen" by M.C.Gaines and Don Cameron, doesn’t seem to transition well with the other stories.

Although credited as the last Minute Movie strip inOverstreet and CGC Labeling, it was replaced by Ed Wheelan’s 'Fat and Slat' one pager.

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DC begins adding the title of the series to the top of thepage.

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Edited by tabcom
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Anyone know when Hawkman got his new look? When he got rid of the bird head and wings and donned a simple yellow mask? I seem to remember it being rather late in the Golden Age

 

I believe it was FLASH #98, August 1948.

 

15299887805_5a8c42eb3f.jpg

 

mm

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Anyone know when Hawkman got his new look? When he got rid of the bird head and wings and donned a simple yellow mask? I seem to remember it being rather late in the Golden Age

 

I believe it was FLASH #98, August 1948.

 

15299887805_5a8c42eb3f.jpg

 

mm

 

Nice book, Marty! You hardly ever see that one around.

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Anyone know when Hawkman got his new look? When he got rid of the bird head and wings and donned a simple yellow mask? I seem to remember it being rather late in the Golden Age

All Star Comics #42 also shared an August 1948 cover date.

 

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So it comes down to whom ever hit the newsstand first. hm

 

Here is the splash page from The Flash Comics #98. The play on words sort of alludes to this being the first appearance of Hawkman (and Hawkgirl) in his new costume.

 

Flash98003_zps8c10dad8.jpg

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Issue #60December 1944Rating: 3
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Regretfully, this issue has to rank as one of the worst ofthe series.

Not only is the Martin Naydel artwork flat (his treatment ofJoan is unforgivable), the Fox Flash story reads like an Angela Lansbury'Murder, She Wrote' vehicle – YUK!

Ghost Patrol, Johnny Thunder – painful to read. The three page'Picture Stories from History', "The Story of Ferdinand Magellan"just doesn’t feel like a good fit for the series.

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The Hawkman and Hawkgirl story is well done. Shelly’s art is top notch. The Humming Bird makes another appearance. If only Sheldon Mayer would have picked-up on the value of having super-villans oppose the heros earlier, it would have made for more interesting stories. It wasn't until Julie Schwartz took over before the appearance of super-villian became mandatory in the later issues of the first series.

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This panel is a rare acknowledgment by Hawkgirl that  the world was at war.
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Issue #61

January 1945

Rating: 5

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The brilliant run of 61 issues of Sheldon Moldoff’s Hawkman art has

reached its finale – along with it an end of what I consider to be the first phase of the Golden Age of Comics.

 

The gangsters are set aside for a fantastic story of men

from Saturn preparing for their invasion of Earth. Fox’s eloquent story

foreshadows much of his work to come during the Silver Age of Comics.

 

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Joan’s great idea for Jay to become a Magician to aid sick

kids leads to more trouble then they counted on. 

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Full page ad for the one shot 'The Big' All-American Comic Book. I plan to review it as a supplemental entry after the 104 issue series has been completed.

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Issue #62February 1945Rating: 5

photo flash62001_zpsaff71f3d.jpgphoto flash62002_zps500fe7ba.jpgphoto flash62003_zps919baf4d.jpg

With the page count reduced to 48 pages for a few issuesnow, this era of Flash Comics have a standard line up of the Flash, JohnnyThunder, Ghost Patrol, and Hawkman. The Hawkman continues with itscrime themes. The other three titles have plenty of zany comedy and actionthat makes them a fast and enjoyable read.

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I wonder what the editor of the splash page thought when he saw the misspelledHawkman headline? A simple cut-n-paste can mask a multitude of errors.photo flash62005_zpsf5bef011.jpg

Joe Kubert’s first work on Hawkman. His early style looks like a continuation ofthe Moldoff setups; as seen in the ‘sock’ of the fight scenes. What strikes meimmediately with the new look is the attention to detail that was missing inthe past. By the start of 1945 a new era of the Golden Age of Comics isstarting to take form.

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Issue #63March 1945Rating: 4photo flash63001.jpgphoto flash63003.jpgThe splash page to the Flash story hints to somethingspooky. However, it turns out to be a tame formula tale more fitting for thenow cancelled ‘Minute Movie’ strip.

Johnny Thunder story foreshadows the returning GI’s and need for new housing.photo flash63004.jpg

This Volto ad is strikingly similar to the Joe Kubert workon Volton in Cat-Man Comics.

026+JVJ_CatC_011+Page+24.jpgLink courtesy of fourcolorshadows.blogspot.com

It is the dawning of a new era in comic book layouts:photo flash63005.jpg Edited by tabcom
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Issue #64April 1945Rating: 3
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 Of all the artist to draw the Flash, Martin Naydel's cartoon style doesn't transfer well to the superhero genre. Furthermore, he commits the unforgivably insult of drawing the vivacious Joan in a manner fitting fora spinster school teacher (panel withheld out of respect for Ms. Williams). The art and stories are formula phoned in service of no importance to be memorialized. The only redeeming story in this issue is the Hawkman, presented here in its entirety.photo flash10013_zps8034f122.jpgphoto flash10014_zpsf89b9a59.jpgphoto flash10015_zps42150f11.jpg

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