Number 1269: “Nuts to you, Super-Brain!”

This posting begins another theme week, specifically costumed heroes of the early days of comics. It was brought to mind by seeing the name of old friend Raymond Miller pop up on Wikipedia. The article quoted Ray on Fiction House comics. Ray and I corresponded for a time in the sixties, when we traded some comics. Ray wrote me then that he considered the comics up to 1943 to be the best comic books. Ray, born in 1931, would have been about eleven or twelve-years-old in 1943, and, as someone once observed when asked the question, “So when was the Golden Age?” shot back the answer, “Twelve.”

There is truth in that, and I'm a good example.

First up in our theme week is Rangers of Freedom #2, a Fiction House comic from 1941. A couple of months ago in Pappy's #1248 I showed you the lead story from issue #1, which told us that a group of young boys were chosen to lead the fight against America's enemies. Now doesn't that sound like a twelve-year-old's fantasy? The Rangers of Freedom didn't last long, only seven issues. The lead feature was dumped and the comic became just Rangers Comics. Yes, the story is silly. Something that isn't silly is the beautiful artwork by Joe Doolin, another fantastic Fiction House artist.

Come back tomorrow for our second entry, a Captain America copycat, Lone Warrior.

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Number 1248: Rangers of Freedom and the Super-Brain

Some planning was done at Fiction House's comic book line in 1941. War was coming, men were being conscripted, so how to involve the kids and entice them to buy their comic books. In Rangers of Freedom three boys, “the best specimens of American youth,” get the opportunity to battle America's enemies.

The comic's creators probably figured it was a good idea to leave out any parents, because this was fantasy, after all. Many a child may have dreamed of kicking enemy butt in World War II, but their real-life tasks were simple yet important: collect scrap, newspapers, grease and fats, and buy war stamps every week. Use those dimes for defense instead of comic books.

The boys calling themselves Rangers of Freedom are sent to fight an internal, not external, enemy. Some mind force is turning Americans into lunatics. It turns out to be a guy with a really big head called Super-Brain. The artwork on this story is excellent, some of the best Golden Age art of that era I've seen. It's by Joe Doolin, who worked for Fiction House during the 1940s, and whose distinctive covers sold millions of comic books.

Someday I'll show episode two in this story. Rangers of Freedom didn't last long, just seven issues. The name was changed to Rangers Comics, a name it kept until its demise a decade later.

From Rangers of Freedom #1 (1941):

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