Number 1540: Headless but well-dressed

This is day three of our Week of Quality, featuring popular characters from Quality Comics of the forties.

“The Dress Suit Murders” from Doll Man Quarterly #9 (1946) is intriguing to me because we have what looks like a headless man committing murders, and because he is in evening wear, he is called not “the headless killer” (which would be my choice if I were writing the newspaper headlines that would accompany the lurid stories of his murder spree), but “Dress Suit.” That’s about as unlikely a name for a killer as any I can think of, but the name also provides a clue to the murderer.

The story is well-drawn, according to the GCD,  by Dan Zolnerowich, who also did superior work for Fiction House. The cover illustrating the story is by Al Bryant.

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The origin of Doll Girl, from Doll Man #37 (1951):

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Number 1539: Blackhawk and the hatchets of Hongo

This is day two of our Week of Quality, today featuring Quality’s long-running and successful leatherboys, Blackhawk and his gang.

Sinister “orientals” who use hatchets for murder (shades of the lurid tales of Tong wars and hatchet killers from tabloids and pulps of the first half of the twentieth century!), and who extort honest silk dealers are the villains. But unlike the grotesque stereotype of Chop-Chop, the comedy relief of the Blackhawk team, these Asians are at least presented as looking human. Or at least more human than Chop-Chop (or the stereotyped Connie or Big Stoop from Terry and the Pirates.) The Chop-Chop caricature was later toned down, but when this story was published in Blackhawk #15 (1946), he was a clownish and freakish little fat man speaking pidgin English. My apologies to those among you who may be offended.

The Grand Comics Database credits Harry Harrison for the pencils, but doesn’t make a guess as to an inker.

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Number 1538: Kid Eternity: Rembrandt and the stolen “Night Watch”

Kid Eternity exists in an afterlife called Eternity. Kid Eternity can travel back and forth to Earth and correct injustices by shouting “Eternity!” and having the manifestations of deceased persons with the proper credentials (except when calling in a fictional character like Inspector Javert, as in this story) help him do his good deeds. In this story from Kid Eternity #3 (1946), K.E., and his buddy, Mr. Keeper, help Rembrandt Van Rijn bring back a hijacked painting, “The Night Watch,” by the old master,  

This is the first day of a theme week, our second Week of Quality.* We will feature characters who did well for Quality Comics during its own Golden Age of the forties, including Blackhawk, Doll Man, and Plastic Man.

Quoting the Grand Comics Database:  “Pencils tentatively credited to Pete Riss through consensus art identification on the GCD-Main discussion list (September 10, 2013).” Cover is credited to Al Bryant.

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*More Kid Eternity from our first Week of Quality last November. Click the thumbnail:

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Number 1537: The Invisible 6

This is an oddball tale from the first issue of Hillman’s Crime Detective (1948). Along with more traditional crime stories about crooks who end up in the electric chair, we have this silly science fiction story. I assume it was an inventory tale, and in spite of the plot about a robber gang it doesn’t fit the rest of the comic at all.

The gaudily-dressed, hooded men use a concoction of “infra-red liquid” to render themselves invisible. I wonder if I could find a bucket of that on Amazon.com? I have a Christmas gift certificate I want to spend.

P.S. Make sure to look for the injury-to-the-eye panel

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