Super Comics #58

(March 1943)

Fun For Boys (Table of Contents: 1) (Expand) /

advertisement / 1 page (report information)

[Tess and John Lavir ends - Natnus, Nat the Fur King begins] (Table of Contents: 2)

Dick Tracy / comic story / 8 pages (report information)

Script

Chester Gould (signed)

Pencils

Chester Gould (signed)

Inks

Chester Gould (signed)

Colors

?

Letters

?

First Line of Dialogue or Text

Synopsis: After the bodies of Lola and Edward are recovered by police, Lola's brother appears.

Genre

detective-mystery

Characters

Dick Tracy; Tess Trueheart; John Lavir; Dirks; Pat Patton; King (guard dog); policeman; Chief Brandon; Natnus; Natnus's chauffeur; Junior Gibbons; Mr. Gibbons; Heinie; Duffy

Synopsis

1) Tess's boyfriend, John, is stealing dogs. Tess is angry. He reminds her she is half-owner, and threatens her life. She takes some of the dogs back at night. He is wise to her, rigs a dog with razor steel fangs bolted to its real ones. He ends dead, hoist with his own petard. Police find Tess holding a piece of glass over John's corpse. Using police science, Tracy exonerates her.

2) Natnus's chauffeur sideswipes a police car, forcing him to ditch a load of furs. His racket: he sells stolen furs, then his crew posing as cops take them back. He starts calling himself Nat the Fur King.

Reprints

• from Dick Tracy daily (Chicago Tribune-N.Y. News Syndicate, Inc.) 1939-xx-xx - 1939-xx-xx

Indexer Notes

John Lavir ("rival" spelled backwards) debuted July 5, 1939.

Natnus ("suntan" spelled backwards) Nat the Fur King appeared from September 27, 1939 to October 23, 1939.

No dates appear in the panels. Page 4 of the feature, top tier, between panels 2 and 3, a plot gap exists which suggests those two panels were from dailies, and the plot gap was filled on (in) a Sunday.

["Bitsy" ends - "Playing the Ponies" begins] (Table of Contents: 3)

Winnie Winkle / comic story / 4 pages (report information)

Script

Martin Branner (signed as Branner)

Pencils

Martin Branner (signed as Branner)

Inks

Martin Branner (signed as Branner)

Colors

?

Letters

?

First Line of Dialogue or Text

Well, Bitsy, your mommy is going to take you away from me.

Genre

humor; domestic; drama

Characters

Winnie Winkle; Bitsy; Will; Mrs. Walker; Dopey Dooley; Boss

Synopsis

Bitsy returns to her Mom. Will starts playing the ponies.

Reprints

• from Winnie Winkle daily (Chicago Tribune-N.Y. News Syndicate, Inc.) 1939-06-14 - 1939-06-24

[no title indexed] (Table of Contents: 4)

Jim Ellis / comic story / 6 pages (report information)

Script

Tom Hickey (signed)

Pencils

Tom Hickey (signed)

Inks

Tom Hickey (signed)

Colors

?

Letters

?

First Line of Dialogue or Text

Duck, Frisco!

Feature Logo

Jim Ellis, Axis Smasher

Genre

war

Characters

Jim Ellis

Indexer Notes

Final appearance

[no title indexed] (Table of Contents: 5)

Stratosphere Jim and His Flying Fortress / comic story / 6 pages (report information)

Script

?

Pencils

Bob Jenney (signed)

Inks

Bob Jenney (signed)

Colors

?

Letters

?

First Line of Dialogue or Text

Say, Rocky, have the men lower my plane...

Feature Logo

The Flying Fortress

Genre

aviation; war

[no title indexed] (Table of Contents: 6)

Moon Mullins / comic story / 4 pages (report information)

Script

Frank Willard (signed)

Pencils

Frank Willard (signed)

Inks

Frank Willard (signed)

Colors

?

Letters

?

First Line of Dialogue or Text

And I had only enough to buy three round-trip tickets.

Genre

humor

Characters

Moon Mullins

Reprints

• from Moon Mullins daily (Chicago Tribune) 1938-xx-xx - 1938-xx-xx

[no title indexed] (Table of Contents: 7)

Smitty / comic story / 4 pages (report information)

Script

Walter Berndt (signed as Berndt)

Pencils

Walter Berndt (signed as Berndt)

Inks

Walter Berndt (signed as Berndt)

Colors

?

Letters

?

First Line of Dialogue or Text

Not me!!

Genre

humor

Characters

Smitty

Reprints

• from Smitty daily (Chicago Tribune) xxxx-xx-xx - xxxx-xx-xx

[Anticipating the Swing Champ Challenge] (Table of Contents: 8)

Harold Teen / comic story / 4 pages (report information)

Script

Carl Ed (signed)

Pencils

Carl Ed (signed)

Inks

Carl Ed (signed)

Colors

?

Letters

?

First Line of Dialogue or Text

Simp's been hangin' on th' phone all day!

Genre

humor; teen

Characters

Harold

Reprints

• from Harold Teen daily (Chicago Tribune-N.Y. News Syndicate, Inc.) 1938-10-5 - 1938-10-15

[Boxing Match Slip-up: George Grunt versus Jones] (Table of Contents: 9)

Tiny Tim / comic story / 4 pages (report information)

Script

Stanley Link (signed)

Pencils

Stanley Link (signed)

Inks

Stanley Link (signed)

Colors

?

Letters

?

Genre

humor

Characters

Tiny Tim; George Grunt; Mom; Jones; Jones' kid; referee; the crowd; George's friends

Synopsis

George trains for the bout. In the ring, Jones has the advantage; until Jones'kid, in his excitement, throws a banana peel into the ring. Upset! Jones concedes amicably.

Reprints

• from Tiny Tim daily (Chicago Tribune-N.Y. News Syndicate, Inc.) 1939-xx-xx - 1939-xx-xx

[no title indexed] (Table of Contents: 10)

Magic Morro / comic story / 6 pages (report information)

Script

Ken Ernst (signed)

Pencils

Ken Ernst (signed)

Inks

Ken Ernst (signed)

Colors

?

Letters

?

First Line of Dialogue or Text

Morro and Oom have been captured by a Jap patrol.

Genre

jungle; superhero; war

Characters

Magic Morro; Oom

Synopsis

Morro and Oom escape from a Japanese patrol and down a Japanese fighter plane.

Keywords

fighter planes; Japanese Imperial Air Force; Japanese Imperial Army; World War II

[Sledding Exhausted] (Table of Contents: 11)

Sweeney & Son / comic story / 1 page (report information)

Script

Al Posen (signed)

Pencils

Al Posen (signed)

Inks

Al Posen (signed)

Colors

?

Letters

?

Genre

humor

Characters

Sweeney

Reprints

• from Sweeney and Son Sundays (Chicago Tribune-N.Y. News Syndicate, Inc.) 1939-02-19

[no title indexed] (Table of Contents: 12)

Little Joe / comic story / 3 pages (report information)

Script

Robert Leffingwell

Pencils

Robert Leffingwell

Inks

Robert Leffingwell

Colors

?

Letters

?

First Line of Dialogue or Text

Hey! Look! A fight!

Genre

western-frontier

Characters

Little Joe

Reprints

• From Little Joe Sundays (News Syndicate Co. Inc.) 1941-xx-xx - 1941-xx-xx

[Cold Cream Caper] (Table of Contents: 13)

The Ripples / comic story / 1 page (report information)

Script

George Clark (signed)

Pencils

George Clark (signed)

Inks

George Clark (signed)

Colors

?

Letters

?

Genre

humor; domestic

Characters

Mrs Ripple; Harvey Ripple; Kitchie Ripple; Mrs Richey

Reprints

• from Our Neighbors the Ripples Sundays (News Syndicate Co. Inc.) 1940-xx-xx

Radium Review (Table of Contents: 14)

text story / 1 page (report information)

Script

Gaylord Du Bois

Letters

typeset

First Line of Dialogue or Text

Excerpts from the Annual Report of the International Research Group

Genre

war

Characters

Dr. Aschenbrenner (Berlin police medical examiner); Anna Muller (German nurse at Bismarck Hospital, Berlin); Herr Kurt Von Zellner (Gestapo Director, Berlin Bureau); Dr. Morris Adelman (famous continental surgeon, an implied Jew)

Synopsis

A group of scientists report that lead provides protection from radium burns. Muller's boyfriend is found dead. Autopsy reveals radiation poisoning. She admits carelessness with radium. Gestapo Director Zellner is diagnosed with a serious throat ailment. Dr. Adelman, deported to Poland by the Reich, is sent to perform surgery to save Zellner, who recovers, relapses, is confined, then transferred to a high post in Argentina. Muller's diary tells of Adelman putting a small vial under Director Zellner's hat band, and her failure to find a tiny bit of radium, enough to kill a man. Heil Hitler!

Indexer Notes

Du Bois authorship i.d. by David Porta, August 2019, based on Du Bois markers (below), and Michael Barrier's assumptions (page 123, paragraph 4) in FUNNYBOOKS (UCPress, Oakland, 2015).

The story is told in the form of excerpts from various sources: a research report, police reports, dated newspaper clippings, an official confidential communique issued by the German High Command, digest of an American correspondent's radio flash, a BBC radio flash, dated record of the Asylum for Incurables, official communique to all newspapers, and Muller's diary. The implication is that Zellner has died or is terminal, and that the official communique about his transfer to Argentina is a lie, a cover-up which Muller swallows whole.

Du Bois markers:
• It's a text war story (WWII), a staple of Du Bois at the time.
• It invokes race/ethnicity and bigotry, both common Du Bois themes.
"Dr. Morris Adelman, famous continental surgeon, has been deported to Poland."
"The Nazis forget racial prejudice to save the life of a member of the high command."

[Aztec Safari, Episode 1: How Beatty Met Gaywood] (Table of Contents: 15)

Clyde Beatty / comic story / 4 pages (report information)

Script

Gaylord Du Bois

Pencils

Jim Chambers

Inks

Jim Chambers

Colors

?

Letters

?

First Line of Dialogue or Text

Finding a queer-looking pin of native design in the elephant's tent, Clyde is puzzled.

Genre

adventure; jungle; animal

Characters

Clyde Beatty; Mayor; Gaywood; Wig Wong; native porters

Synopsis

Clyde recalls a safari of several years before, to the Yucatan to find Aztec artifacts. He notes a labor shortage. The local mayor cannot help. Enter Señor Gaywood, who procures porters, on condition he accompany the expedition. Beatty agrees, but demands to know why. On condition of secrecy, Gaywood reveals a map of the sacred temple of Ichtitual, where the last Aztec chief left a treasure in gold. Gaywood attests its authenticity, but hems and haws explaining how he came by the map from a native friend who died. Jim is suspicious.

Keywords

Aztecs; gold; Mexico; Temple of Ichitual; treasure maps; Yucatan

Indexer Notes

Du Bois authorship i.d. by David Porta, November 2019, based on Du Bois markers (below), and Michael Barrier's assumptions (page 123, paragraph 4) in FUNNYBOOKS (UCPress, Oakland, 2015).

Notable editorial pattern: when Du Bois's contribution to a comic book series consisted of a single feature (often a backup feature) and a text story, the feature would immediately follow the text story, as is the case here in Super Comics (also in Popular Comics, Red Ryder Comics, The Lone Ranger, etc.).

Du Bois markers:
• animal reference ("the elephant's tent")
• accents, dialect, foreign language ("It's the bad season, Señor"; "There is nothing I can do, Señor"; "Pardon me, bud"; "Yes, yes, Señor. Señor Gaywood is the only one"; "Anyway, Missy Beatty, we going, too, and that's what count, eh?")
• jungle location (a mainstay of Du Bois's work: compare Tarzan, Korak, Jungle Jim, Young Hawk, Korak, the Lassie African settling, Elephant Boy, Jon of the Kalahari, Mabu Jungle Boy, Two Against the Jungle, Brothers of the Spear, Andy Panda's origin, Ringy Roonga's origin, etc.)
• foreign religion ("That's a map of the sacred temple of Ichtitual")
• foreign culture ("Aztec ruins in Yucatan"; "I am on this expedition to procure relics of the ancient Aztec civilization for my museum"; "The X marks the spot where the last Aztec chief left a treasure totalling millions in gold")
• word play ("Gaywood" is a play on "Gaylord Du Bois": the writer's last name is French, meaning "of the wood," as "bois" is French for "wood." Du Bois used wordplay on his name previously for the creator credit on the SKY RANGER feature he and aviation cartoonist Bob Jenny produced, crediting it to "Bob Gaylord," a mashup of their first names.)

[no title indexed] (Table of Contents: 16)

Little Orphan Annie / comic story / 8 pages (report information)

Script

Harold Gray

Pencils

Harold Gray

Inks

Harold Gray

Colors

?

Letters

?

Genre

adventure; children

Characters

Little Orphan Annie

Reprints

• from Little Orphan Annie daily (Chicago Tribune) xxxx-xx-xx - xxxx-xx-xx

Webster's Complete Reference Dictionary and Encyclopedia (Table of Contents: 17) (Expand) /

advertisement / 1 page (report information)

American Seeds for Victory Gardens (Table of Contents: 18) (Expand) /

advertisement / 1 page (report information)