Number 1396: An innocent man in prison stripes

In casting about for ideas for a new comic book character someone at Harvey Comics decided a man wrongfully convicted of murder would be a good candidate to join the costumed hero ranks. In 1941 his origin was presented in Pocket Comics #1, and I’m showing it to you thanks to the folks at Heritage Auctions who scanned it. You can see the Zebra was a prisoner framed for murder who escaped two days short of his execution date, and set about to clear his name.

Huh. Well, if we accept that then we can accept that his costume, derived from his prison garb, gave him his name.

My usual source for credits, the Grand Comics Database, has no information on the artist for this story. Later the Zebra was put in the hands of artist Bob Fujitani. The costume was modified (stripes on shirt only), as shown in an April posting, Pappy's #1354.

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Number 1354: The homicidal maniac

Looking at this Zebra story from Green Hornet Comics I asked myself, “Superhero or crime comic?” Since the subject of the story is a crazed killer with a female accomplice, it seems more crime comic. I counted the panels (yes, I have been known to do things like that), and found that of 63 panels, the Zebra appears in only seven, including the splash. It fits into my Crime Wave series.

If serial killers looked like Maurice they’d be easier to spot. Maurice’s tongue lolls out and he giggles. He doesn’t care who (or what, check out the bug squash) he kills. It was not untypical for a Zebra story to regularly feature some grotesque villains. With Bob Fujitani's deft drawing in an Eisner-style, the killer is portrayed in all his psychopathic fury.

From Green Hornet Comics #26, 1945:

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