Number 423


The Photo Phantom


The Human Torch and Toro flame on, from Marvel Mystery Comics #83, July 1947.


The postwar period was a tough one for those two hot-heads. They no longer had America's war enemies to give the hotfoot. How do you follow that act? By solving mysteries, apparently. This particular story involves some blackmail and a masked photographer who pulls a few camera tricks. In these days of Photoshop, where no one can trust a photograph, it's hard to remember when a picture was worth a thousand words, or in this case ten thousand dollars.

The Grand Comics Database gives us a couple of names with question marks for credits. They throw out Al Fagaly? and Carl Pfeufer? for artwork chores, so take it for what it's worth. The cover they credit to Al Avison and Syd Shores. It's a pin-up style, not unlike the kind Alex Schomburg was doing in that era when like Torch and Toro, he had to give up wreaking havoc on the Axis powers.