DCRO 10- More Fun Comics (1936) #11 [L Story]

Story title: "The Werewolf, Part 1"

DCRO entry

Cover Date: July 1936

By: Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster 

Let's do one more entry today, why not? I'm feeling motivated.

Doctor Occult is back again, this time with a brand new monicker. I guess they realized "The Ghost Detective" was a bit misleading given that he isn't a ghost nor has he fought any ghosts thus far.

The story begins with a man barging into the Doc's house just before midnight, there seems to be an emergency, but the butler, Alfred Jenkins, sends him off. Ok, first, I didn't know the Doctor had a butler, apparently fighting vampires and psychotic killers pays well. And second, shouldn't Jenkins alert the Doctor if a man comes at midnight desperate for his help? I mean, given his profession, it's very likely that there's an actual emergency.

And indeed, there is an emergency, because the man begins transforming into something else... 

As you can probably guess from the title, he's turning into a werewolf. Although, it looks more like just a wolf.

Occult wakes up from the howl and immediately recognizes it as a werewolf. Weird, I´ve never heard of their howls being any different from regular wolves, but I guess "The Mystic Detective" would know.

Ohh, nice! That's definitely not a werewolf and I don't know what the hell it is, but it's a really cool transition panel so I'm not complaining. Great drawing, very eerie.

The Doctor grabs his (sometimes) trusty Magic Symbol and heads out the window to find the creature, which he finds about to attack a random passerby. He springs into action and a fight ensues, but the Doctor has something the beast doesn't have: The script is in his favor, so he takes out his Magic Symbol and defeats the werewolf. I guess at least we now know he's not a "Monster of the Mind". 

Oh but wait! That's a different Magic Symbol.

Actually, now that I think about it, they said he grabbed his Mystic Symbol, not his Magic Symbol, so I guess they're different things.

That person in the background doesn't look a lot like a "girl"...

Oh god! please tell me the Doctor isn't going to experiment on this poor guy who was unlucky enough to turn into a werewolf near him...

Well, whatever, that's the end of this first part.

Now, the ratings: 

Quality/Enjoyment: 3/5

I quite liked this one. It's as good an introduction to a larger story as the first part of the vampire master. The thing with the butler sending the werewolf off was kinda weird, but it wasn't a big deal, and we've seen far worse. I just hope the Doctor doesn't get too used to using magic and mystic symbols to deal with everything, and that it makes sense when they don't work...

Historical/Cultural/Narrative significance: 2/5

It's just one more Doctor Occult story, but I'm giving only this first part an extra point for having the first werewolf in comics!

Before I go, as always, you can read all of Golden Age Doctor Occult here.

Alright, that's it for today, no way I'm doing a third entry. Thanks for reading and have a nice rest of your day!