DCRO 15- New Comics (1935) #7 [Y Story]

Story title: "The Invisible Empire, Part 4"

DCRO entry

Cover Date: August 1936

By: Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster

Alright, let's see how Steve Carson fares against an army.

Again, Steve is infiltrating the enemy forces by wearing one of their masks. Something tells me this is the whole reason those bad guys are wearing gas masks in the first place. 

The pattern from the previous part continues, because now, Steve is the one in charge of shooting down his captured comrades (or brothers-in-arms, rather, I don't think the word "comrade" would be very well received in old American comics...). However, Steve is having none of that, because he is the one to shoot down the would-be shooters. 

I counted at least six bodies in the next panel, but come on! One of them should've probably been able to shoot back, but I mean, we've seen worse. Also, Tommy guns are cool.

In the meantime, the chaos continues throughout the city: the terrorists are "breaking into banks and emerging laden with booty"

I don't know, that doesn't seem like a remarkable amount of booty to me...

They also break into the treasury, getting rid of its protectors with poison gas. I guess that explains the masks, but I still think it was mostly so Steve could infiltrate the group.

All in all, the criminals just keep coming in and out of their tank and pillaging the city. The situation seems pretty dire... But hey, Steve has a plan!

I just hope this plan doesn't involve every other federal man charging armed people... Not everyone is immune to bullets like you, Steve...

Okay, it kinda does, but it goes well because what follows is a pretty cool action panel.

We haven't seen a lot (if any at all) of these action panels with a lot of things happening yet, so I like this.

Then, they find the scientists that were hiding somewhere in the building (apparently, this is an "experimental science building", whatever that means) and Steve tells them his plan. Later he goes to a vault of another building and takes a box of radium. He probably manipulates it without the appropriate safety measures, but I mean, even toys were made of that stuff back then, so it's no big deal. He replaces the radium with a package of unknown stuff he got from the scientists and hides. 

I guess Steve somehow knew not only that the terrorists needed radium, but also that they were going to steal that specific package in that specific building because that's exactly what they do.

Then they take "radium" to their tank, which begins flying.

Well, not really. It says "flight", which comes from "to flee" but it kind of looks like it is taking off, and that's so much cooler.

Then the tank explodes and floods with some kind of poison gas that penetrates the masks. Just what the hell were the scientists able to concoct in only 30 minutes?

Then, the police come along(apparently there are still some of them alive) and arrest the terrorists, who were apparently only paralyzed (along with their tank) and not killed, by the gas. And that's the end of this second "act" of The Invisible Empire.

Let me remind you that this is an actual event that actually took place in the DC Universe, and I'm 99% it will never be mentioned again (except maybe in the next parts of this story).

Anyway, the ratings:

Quality/Enjoyment: 3/5

I don't have much to say. It was alright. I think this whole thing would've been better as a six-pager, but whatever. 

We still don't know much about this terrorist group: their goals are still unclear. In the previous part, it seemed like they just wanted overall chaos, trying to infect the city and then kill the president. But here, they just wanted money I believe. Anyway, there is still time to find out more about them.

Historical/Cultural/Narrative Significance: 1/5

Okay, that's it for now. We'll get the last parts of the story a little bit later, so, for now, thank you for reading, and have a nice rest of your day.

DCRO 14- New Comics (1935) #6 [Z Story]

Story title: "The Invisible Empire, Part 3"

DCRO entry

Cover Date: July 1936

By: Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster

Today we go back to New Comics to continue the "The Invisible Empire" storyline, but we only get two more parts. Let's get right to it.

Wow! This is what I call not wasting time! Only three panels in, and a big-ass tank is already terrorizing the city. And there's a bus beside it for comparison and everything.

I guess we don't need a lot of context: after their plans to infect the city and to kill the president were foiled, the terrorist group said "Fuck it, get the tank". And now they're headed right to the capitol.

The tank's design is cool and all, but it looks a bit like a really big guy with a disproportionally small head... Kind of like the bad guy from Puss in Boots 2, you know?

Side note: an interesting detail to note here is that Siegel and Shuster are trying a more liberal panel composition, and since comic books were very new and they didn't really know how to guide the reader back then, you can see these little numbers telling you the order of the panels.

Next, more destruction: The tank obliterates the capitol and a fucking army comes out of it, wearing gas masks and all.  They also have a "wierd ray gun" that turns off plane motors. I wonder how that works... Anyway, they have the president at gunpoint, but apparently, first, they need to get rid of the most dangerous Federal Men, which of course includes Steve Carson.

And get this! Steve was hiding there the whole time and when the soldiers leave, he beats down the leader. 

Will Steve be able to defeat an entire army that possesses a big ass tank, a "wierd ray gun" and as masks? Probably yes, the man is immune to explosions and bullets anyway. So, let's turn the page and...

Oh no, not again! That's it... and there's not even a "to be continued". I guess at least this time I know what happened. Anyway, let's get to the ratings.

Quality/Enjoyment: 2/5

This one was kind of a mess. The destruction was pretty cool, but even with the context of the previous parts, it kind of feels like it comes out of nowhere. Also, there's almost no story, and it's "wierd" that the MC only shows up in one panel. All in all, it suffers from the same issue as the first part: it feels unfinished.

Historical/Cultural/Narrative Significance: 2/5

I'll give it an extra point for the panel composition. I don't know if it was the first comic to do it, but it's the first in the order. Also, big tanks and cities burning are always cool to see! (That's right,  I have the same taste in comic books as a 10-year old)

Anyway, that's it for now. The next part and I think every part after that, is four pages long, so maybe this story will improve. For now, thank you for reading, and have a nice rest of your day!

DCRO 13- Popular Comics (1936) #6 [Y Story]

Story title: "Lucky For Scribbly it's the Last Day of School!"

Cover Date: July 1936

By: Sheldon Mayer

DCRO Entry

Hey. Today we have a new magazine, and with it, a new character!  The magazine is Popular Comics. It was a little hard doing research (obviously, a 1936 newspaper strip reprint magazine is not the first thing that pops up in Google when you search "Popular Comics") but from what I could gather, Scribby was something Dell Comics mostly used to fill up a couple of pages and is not a reprint. 

Anyway, Scribbly is about the titular character: a boy who gets in all sorts of trouble because of his interest in drawing. Interestingly enough, this whole strip is loosely based on Sheldon Mayer's (the creator) life. You can see the resemblance between creator and creation in the pictures below:

So, why is this in the order? Well, Scribbly's strips were initially published by Dell Comics, but eventually, DC acquired the character and started publishing their own version of him (you'll notice this is a common occurrence as the order moves forward). However, this is not a reading order of everything ever published by DC, but of everything in the DC Universe. Then, how does this character connect with Superman? We'll get into that later, but for now, without further ado, let's get to the story.

Look at that, the title of the story is actually there!

The story begins with Scribbly's old teacher complaining about how he wouldn't stop drawing in class, but the new teacher, who will henceforth be referred to as Miss Mussolini, says the boy is now in Her class, so she can handle it. Then, Miss Mussolini walks into the classroom, and asks the children if they're ready for the "morning song"... That doesn't sound good at all.

Indeed, those don't look like "Sun-Shining Faces". But to be fair, my face wouldn't be "sun-shining" either if I had to sing that bullshit song every morning. There's someone who's not singing though, but drawing instead, of course, I'm talking about our hero Scribbly Jibbet! 

Miss Mussolini spots the non-conformist, and of course, he must be dealt with

This part really annoys me. Some teachers being assholes and abusing their power is to be expected (though never respected), but the other kids laughing? That I just can't understand.

Later, Miss Mussolini, as the proud member of the thought control committee she is, gives Scribbly the task of writing the phrase "I must not draw pictures in school" a hundred times. I see my initial instinct of calling her Miss Mussolini was only a slight exaggeration. 

Scribbly finishes the task and goes home. Miss Mussolini obviously doesn't bother checking the paper sheet, and later she's showing it off to the other teacher. Sooner rather than later though, she realizes she's been had because this is what's on the other side of the sheet:

Ha ha nice! Bully for you, Scribbly! I wish I had had the balls to pull off stuff like that during my school years.

Anyway, that's the end of the story, and we don't get a "to be continued" nor a "the end" so here's the author's signature I guess.

Also...

Good to know, but isn't this the July issue? Oh right, Comic-books have that weird thing where the cover date and the actual date of release are months apart. To this day, I still have no idea why that's a thing. Anyway, to avoid confusion, we'll use the cover date every time for the blog.

Well, onto the ratings!:

Quality/Enjoyment: 3/5 

The joke itself wasn't that good, and with a 1-page comic strip the joke is usually everything, but I did enjoy the story. I sympathized with the main character immediately and I also liked the art! In general, it's nice to read something that's not from Siegel and Shuster (don't get me wrong, the duo is legendary, I just think we need some variety). Also, I love the Slice-of-Life sort of genre this could maybe fall into, and I think it's great to have something like that in the order, as a break from the constant superhero-crimefighter-pulp (which I also love, but again, it's nice having variety).

Historical/Cultural/Narrative Significance: 2/5

Going back to the reason Scribbly is in the order in the first place, note that it's kind of a spoiler. The problem is I can't tell you from what because that might be a spoiler in itself, so I guess just know that you'll find out eventually if you continue moving forward through the order. I'm gonna write it in the next paragraph, and since the blog app doesn't have a "mark as spoiler feature" I'll make the text purposely hard to read, so if you're interested, probably just highlight it.

Ma Hunkel, a side character from the strip who to my understanding is the mom of one of Scribbly's friends, had a brief superhero period as the red tornado, and would later even join the JSA as an honorary member. In the modern day, she's still around helping out the JSA with her worldly wisdom and more mundane tasks. 

So, I might give a Higher rating to the story in which that character actually gets introduced, but for Scribbly himself, a 1/5 is probably enough. However, since this is the first comic (as in actual humor) strip of the order, I'll give it an extra point.

One more thing: similar to Doctor Occult, someone uploaded a full* collection of Golden Age Scribbly to comicbook+. It's public domain, so you can read it legally and free of charge here.

*Not actually full, it's just the Dell era. The DC stuff is not public domain. 

That's it for today. I've been rambling for a while, so thank you for reading, and have a nice rest of your day!

DCRO 12- More Fun Comics (1936) #13 [R Story]

Story title: "The Werewolf, Part 3"

DCRO entry

Cover Date: September 1936

By: Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster 

Alright, let's finish this story up.

That, again, is not Doctor Occult in the logo. Or maybe he is and that's a clue that he will die in this issue. Nah, they probably just wanted to add some variety to the logos. 

Also, we're back again to color. I'm not too sure how I feel about that. The coloring is very basic, so it kind of takes away from the eerieness and vintage feeling of the black and white without really adding too much... It's no big deal though.

Anyway, the Doctor, as we left him, is fighting a bunch of dudes, and losing, as usually happens when someone fights a bunch of dudes.

Then, Mrs. Daniels points a gun at the Doctor. Is he about to pull a Steve Carson? 

I guess not, because in the next panel, he's being carried into another room and there's some trash talk that ends with the Doctor telling Mrs. Daniels that she should stamp herself. I can see trash talk hasn't changed a lot from the 1930s...

Next, the Doctor is tied to a "rude altar".

Great, you get sacrificed to some evil god, and through the whole thing the altar is insulting you. Just perfect.

What's up with those robes though? Why do they have horns? Do they sacrifice people to Batman or something? More importantly, the skull and bones on their chests make it look like they might be pirates. 

So, the plan is apparently to inject the Doctor with some substance that will turn him into a werewolf. I guess that explains the "horns": they must be wolf ears. Also, if the transformation occurs after an injection, does it count as "occult"? Maybe it's just really advanced science, but I don't know the criteria.

Anyway, Mrs. Daniels is about to inject the Doctor but one of the cultists stops her. A struggle ensues, and it ends with the hooded figure shooting Mrs. Daniels down, ending her reign of terror. 

Why hasn't this happened before? Did they want to be wolves or something? I guess there was also some kind of mind control involved, but then why didn't it work on Westley?

Doctor Occult's savior takes off his hood, revealing he was Mr. Westley, the original werewolf from the first part. He unties the Doctor, who then proceeds to explain to everyone else that they should be alright now and that they won't turn into wolves again. I wouldn't be so sure about that... 

And that's the end.

I was a bit disappointed that the Doctor didn't wait in a closet in this story. I guess at least we got the night-long staring contest with a dog from the first part...

There's also a preview for the next issue.

Sounds interesting, but wait! "Dr. Occult leaves this mortal world..."? Is that the second clue that the Doctor will die? I hope not, these stories are pretty entertaining.

By the way, as always, you can read Doctor Occult (only from the Golden Age), here.

Now, the ratings:

Quality/Enjoyment: 3/5

A nice ending to the longest (6 whole pages!!) and probably the best story in the order so far. As always, there were a lot of little conveniences involved and it doesn't end up making complete sense, but that's to be expected at this point. I just hope we start getting longer stories soon.

Historical/Cultural/Narrative Significance: 1/5

And that's the end of this story. Next time, we get a new character, so look forward to that I guess. In the meantime, thank you for reading, and have a nice rest of your day!

DCRO 11- More Fun Comics (1936) #12 [N Story]

Story title: "The Werewolf, Part 2"

DCRO entry

Cover Date: August 1936

By: Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster 

Let's continue this werewolf story...

Who's that in the logo? That doesn't look like Dr. Occult...

Also, we're back to "The Ghost Detective" monicker. I guess it's two steps forward and one step back with this guy. Or, well, one step forward one step back.

So, after taking the (were)wolf to his laboratory, the Doctor doesn't experiment on him (thank god) but instead, they have a staring contest that lasts until morning.

At dawn, a "loathsome" transformation occurs and the wolf is turned back into a human. The man then asks for help and we find out the Doctor is an optimist because apparently, he is "beyond help". According to him, there's some kind of evil magic that's turning the man into a wolf, and they need to locate the source. Well, that doesn't sound like "beyond help" to me...

Next, they go to a boarding house where the werewolf guy lives and the woman from the logo answers the door.

Kinda suspicious... I'm sure she's not the villain here...

They go in and at one point the Doctor looks at a mirror that happens to be reflecting Mrs. Daniels, the owner of the boarding house. What he sees in the mirror is a wolf.

Does that mean she's a werewolf? I've never heard of this particular piece of lore, but it's not like I'm an expert so...

Anyway, she notices that he notices and screams for help, and of course the residents of the house answer...

At least we know the Doctor can't get rid of them with his magic/mystic/whatever symbol... Unless they also turn into werewolves.

Well, in any case, that's how this part ends, with another cliffhanger.

Let's get right to the ratings:

Quality/Enjoyment: 3/5

I don't have much to say, it's a good follow-up to the first part. I do think, however, that it is notable about this story that it didn't have any major leaps in logic or conveniences. Or at least I didn't notice any. 

Historical/Cultural/Narrative Significance: 1/5

Well, that's it for now, only one more part to go and I'm curious to see how this story ends. But for now, thank you for reading, and have a nice rest of your day!

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!

DCRO 9- New Comics (1935) #5 [AE Story]

Story title: "The Invisible Empire, Part 2"

DCRO entry

Cover Date: June 1936

By: Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster

So, let's see how The Invisible Empire continues...

We're right where we left off: Steve has infiltrated a submarine that's about to torpedo the president's yacht. For no apparent reason though, he gets caught. I guess you can kind of see people's faces through those old-fashioned diving helmets if you pay attention.

A fight begins and Steve is doing well, but apparently, not even he can't take on three men at the same time, so two of them hold him still while the third one points a gun at him. I think I know how he's gonna get out of this one...

Whaaat? I guess this was hilarious in 1936, but to me, it just sounds like nonsense.

The terrorists want Steve to activate the torpedo that'll kill the president. Oh, how devious! I'm sure that will turn out fine for them. Before seeing how this tense situation gets resolved, a commercial break:

"100,000 members" sounds like a pretty bold number for a character that has four appearances at this point and only gets two or four pages in an anthology magazine. Also, I'm sure the FBI is very concerned with whether or not kids join this fan club. 

Anyway, continuing with the story, Steve pulls off his usual maneuver:

Then he hides behind a metal partition and starts shooting. Of course, the terrorists charge an armed man who has a perfect cover like complete idiots and get shot. Then Steve has a great idea! He shoots at the fucking torpedo...

This results in a huge explosion, instantly destroying the submarine and killing all the terrorists, but somehow Steve is fine... I'm starting to think this man is immortal and that's why he is able to charge armed people without worrying. 

After the explosion, the present sends a boat after Steve "The sole survivor" and that's how this story ends (For now)

And now, something I actually liked:

We're left with a lot of questions, but this last panel addresses them, and from the looks of it, we're probably going to get answers soon.

That's how you end a story! My guess is that Siegel and Shuster had written these four pages to be published in one issue of the magazine, but then the editor decided that Federal Men wasn't popular enough or whatever to get four pages, so they cut it in half... At least they should've put a to be continued though...

So, the ratings:

Quality/Enjoyment: 3/5 

This is much better than the last entry, mostly because this time it doesn't feel like it's missing pages. The story functions by itself, and even though it leaves a lot of loose ends, it's fine because it promises to tie them in the future. The only thing I didn't really like was the explosion (or more accurately, the fact that Steve survived). I know there were a lot of conveniences in the Golden Age, but this one is a bit too much.

Historical/Cultural/Narrative Significance: 1/5

Just one more Federal Men.

So, this story still has four more parts to go, but we'll get to them later. I can see why they divided the story in the order: this one is a nice cutoff point, almost like an arc within the arc has ended and a different one is about to start. So next time, Doctor Occult comes back for a three-part story! Thanks for reading and have a nice rest of your day!