Number 1574: Stuntman doubles down

The origin of Simon and Kirby’s post WWII hero, Stuntman, was presented in Stuntman #1, published in 1946, and as the blog Kirby Museum explains, “. . . Stuntman and Boy Explorers [another S and K title for Harvey Comics] were caught in a post-war comic book glut. With the end of paper rationing, publishers and printers went wild and an over abundance of comic books hit the newsstands.” Stuntman stories showed up in a couple more issues of the title, and then some inventory was released in Green Hornet Comics, but Stuntman himself was done.

The comic has one of those Prince and the Pauper plots, where two people who have never met are so alike they can pass for one another. I have always found this sort of thing even more unbelievable than grown men putting on costumes and masks to fight villains, unless they are identical twins separated at birth. It is because of my “comic book mind,” as Mrs. Pappy calls it. I can suspend disbelief when superheroes do their superheroics, while rejecting other plot devices in comic book stories I consider impossible in real life. In addition, Don Daring, when meeting his lookalike, acrobatic Fred Drake, proclaims, “I’m Don Daring the movie star and amateur detective!” Yeah, Don...sur-r-r-r-r-re you are. Only in this case it turns out to be true.

The dwarf character “Ian Spine” is repulsive. Simon and Kirby, like many other producers of popular culture years ago, used real-life physical defects to create a cruel stereotype of a character who is invariably ugly and abnormal.

I love the classic faux book cover. I also like the header on page one, “Save this first issue of STUNTMAN comics...it will be a valuable souvenir someday...” “Someday” is here, and yes it is valuable.

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Number 1505: Gypped while talking to the dead!

Do you believe in mediums? Do you believe you can communicate with dead loved ones through a third party? Then you could be easy prey for swindlers.* All you have to do is read this cautionary tale from Joe Simon and Jack Kirby from Headline Comics #27 (1947) to see tricks of the phony spiritualist trade to separate you from your all-too-real cash.

For some reason, Jack and Joe liked stories featuring women who had learned hard lessons in life. In this tale the woman tells her story from prison, where she is serving a stretch for ripping off the gullible.

*I guess to minimize the risk of offending “real” mediums, the author tells us right at the start, “A great many spiritualists in this country are on the level...”

This is a chance for me to plug the book, Simon and Kirby Library Crime, published in 2011. It is still available. Ask your local comic book retailer to get it for you, or order it from an online retailer like Amazon.com. The story I have posted today does not appear in the book.

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Number 1489: Stuntman stunted

After the war Joe Simon and Jack Kirby came up with the character, Stuntman, for Harvey Comics. The problem with introducing a masked crimefighter/superhero at the time was that the fad for those characters had peaked, and many of them introduced before and during World War II simply disappeared. As did Stuntman, who had a short career.

This story, made to hype the Stuntman comic (see the ad that precedes the story), appeared in All-New Comics #13 (1946). The advertised Stuntman #3 did not make it to newsstands, but a “stunted” edition of 24 pages, printed in black line, was mailed to subscribers.

I give Jack and Joe credit for trying. Up until the late fifties they periodically introduced superheroes, including Fighting American, the Fly, and a revival of the Shield, only to find they all had shortened careers. After that, especially for Jack in the sixties, the rest is history.

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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.

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