Number 1523: No animals were harmed in the making of this comic book

Two stories from ME’s Ghost Rider #8 (1952). The longer story, featuring the Ghost Rider, has a panel where a dog gets killed. This is not to rile up any animal lovers who read this blog, but the dog is not real. Nor is his hunchback owner, nor the villain of the piece, nor the Ghost Rider. And while we’re at it, how can you be sure I’m real?

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For real, more Ghost Rider. Just click on the thumbnail.

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Number 1516: Avenger’s scarlet “A”

 Casting about for new ideas to fit into the post-Comics Code era, ME Comics came up with superheroes The Avenger and Strongman. Neither of them made it past four issues, but they were an interesting experiment to see if new long underwear characters (beyond the lone remaining, still popular heroes like DC’s Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman) could still be viable despite having been a near-dead comic book genre for several years.

It would take just a few months longer until DC reintroduced the Flash and superheroes began their climb back into comic book supremacy, but before then ME’s contributions to the genre came and went.

These two stories are from The Avenger #1 (1955), drawn by Dick Ayers, with scripts attributed to Paul S. Newman. Last May I showed stories one and four from the issue (including the origin story), and these are stories two and three. So if you want to read those others first you should go to the link below and click on the thumbnail of the cover to see them.

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 Click on the thumbnail to see the other two stories mentioned above:

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Number 1423: “A thirst for blood!”

On the occasions I’ve shown an original Ghost Rider — not the Marvel Comics motorcycle guy with the flaming skull, but the original Western character with reversible cloak, riding a horse — there has been a bit of grousing because the Ghost Rider stories usually turn out to be tricks that look like supernatural. So here you are, supernatural fans. A “Tales of the Ghost Rider” seven-pager from Ghost Rider #8 (1952) that features a “real” supernatural being, a vampire.

Art by Dick Ayers.

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Number 1404: The terror at the castle

Bobby Benson was a popular radio character from the series Bobby Benson’s B-Bar-B Riders. The show originated in 1934. It went off the air after a time, and was resurrected in 1949, where it was broadcast until 1955. ME Comics picked up the licensing for a comic book which lasted 20 issues. Some of the stories had horror elements, not unlike the Ghost Rider series appearing simultaneously for ME, and drawn, as is this story, by comic book journeyman Dick Ayers.

The show is well known to old time radio enthusiasts. Nineteen episodes are available on archive.org here.

From Bobby Benson’s B-Bar-B Riders #18 (1953)

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Number 1365: Big red guy fights Reds

The Avenger was really “millionaire scientist” Roger Wright, who apparently had nothing better to do than run around in a bright red skintight costume with hood and mask, fighting commies. That’s the premise of both of these stories, taken from The Avenger #1 (1955), published by ME Comics in the wake of the Comics Code. ME (Magazine Enterprises) had been publishing Ghost Rider, drawn by Dick Ayers, but GR didn’t fit into the new Code-world, so they tried a couple of superhero comics. The Avenger (four issues) was one, and Strongman (also four issues) the other. The Avenger #1 was drawn by former Ghost Rider artist Dick Ayers for issue #1, and Bob Powell for subsequent issues. In an unusual twist, the origin story of The Avenger is held until the last story of the issue, after we've already seen what the guy can do in action. Another unusual twist is that The Avenger is inspired partially by a Ghost Rider mask (!!) Roger bought for his nephew. Those masks were sold in ads from ME. So it’s an early example of product placement.

The Grand Comics Database gives veteran comic book scripter Paul S. Newman credit for the writing.

[SPOILER ALERT] Comics Code influence shows significantly in the origin story, where Roger’s brother and sister-in-law have been killed by the commies in East Berlin. Yet even though Roger has the guy responsible for the deaths, he leaves without doing any avenging. Before the Code I believe he would have taken him up in his autogyro and dropped him out, or some such vengeful act, but after the Code, nuh-uh, nope. If anything happened to the bad guy, it isn’t shown, and we have to use our imagination. [END OF SPOILER]

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