Number 1401: Blackhawk and Torchy

These two stories are from the next to last issue of Modern Comics. The title had changed from Military Comics, and it was in issue #1 that Blackhawk was born of World War II. The character and his gang survived the war, and became international troubleshooters and soldiers of fortune. [SPOILER ALERT: The Blackhawks also came up against plots where some fantastic trickery is involved, including this one where a spaceship and creatures from outer space are faked. Stories like these ignore the costs of such deception, which include creating and building, and in this one, the technology involved in making functioning robots with built-in microfilm cameras. Even if such a plot were to work the end result could not be worth what has been put into it. We accept the ridiculous flim-flam because it's a comic book. Just sayin'. END OF SPOILER] The artists are unknown to the Grand Comics Database, but William Woolfolk gets the nod for the script.

I’m also including the Torchy story from the issue. It’s drawn by Gill Fox. Torchy is fooled by an antique word and comedy results. The word, “gaiters,” I didn’t know, and I spend a lot of time with my nose in old books. See, comics can be educational as well as entertaining.

From Modern Comics #101 (1950):

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Number 1313: Twenty-three Squidoo

Blackhawk battles the pirate Captain Squidd in this well-drawn tale from Modern Comics #74 (1948). Art is by Reed Crandall, and according to the Grand Comics Database, the inking is supplied by Chuck Cuidera.

The story answers a question about the Blackhawks — boxers or briefs? We see in the panels of them lounging on the beach and swimming in the waters surrounding Blackhawk Island that to a man, Blackhawks wear boxers. Make a note of that in case it comes up sometime as a trivia question.

I’m also including a funny Torchy story by Bill Ward from the same issue. It’s got less glamor than the usual Torchy story; even though she’s hoofing in the hills on her stiletto heels we don’t get any lingerie  or negligee panels (unless shots of stocking tops count). Instead we have a hillbilly setting to provide some comedy.

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Number 1299: Carrying a Torchy

This is the third of our Funky Funnies postings, funny comic book stories from the Golden Age.

Bill Ward (1919-1998) was a very fine cartoonist with an extra-special talent for drawing beautiful women. It was his bread-and-butter for over five decades. When Ward had a character such as Torchy to draw he made her the focus of the panel. The men he drew in those strips, and what must be thousands of gag cartoons done over several decades, just didn't get the attention the girls did. Of course they didn't! We don't look at Torchy to see guys. We want to see beautiful, bosomy, long-stemmed girls strutting proudly in shoes that would cripple most women. (Even when she's getting a treatment at a spa, as in this tall tale, she's wearing stilettos.) No matter that this story is from a long time ago — 1947 — Torchy is as modern in her sexiness as she was when Ward did his lovingly rendered drawings of her.

From Modern Comics #58 (1947):

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Number 739


Crandall and Fine...a couple of originals


These covers, both original art and printed versions, are from Heritage Auctions. I found them during one of my foraging forays into their fantastic archives.

The first impression I have of the covers is that graphically, while all are well drawn, from a commercial standpoint Reed Crandall's Modern Comics covers are much stronger than the Lou Fine National Comics covers, which have too many confusing elements.


The Fine covers are early, from 1940, the Crandall covers from 1948. By that time most comic book publishers had learned what covers sold comic books, and at Quality the late 1940's motto seemed to be, "keep it simple." The less elements, the less time it takes for a person looking at a newsstand to make a decision.


The worst cover is National Comics #9, which is a confusing mess of activity. The next worse would be #5, with that oddball looking skull peering out at us. Why the unusual placement of the skull? Neither illustration looks guided by an editor's hand.



The Crandall covers are just the opposite, with action clearly read. My favorite is Modern Comics #77, with its Beast Men cover, and next to that is #78, the girl with butterfly wings. I've said before that Crandall's action panels look to me like dioramas, people frozen in motion, but from a commercial standpoint these covers are posters which popped out at a newsstand browser.


Considering the auction prices realized for these covers, the buyers of the original artworks disagree with me. The National Comics #5 cover sold for $50,787.50.

The top price for one of the Crandall covers was the Madame Butterfly original, which went for just under half that amount, at $23,900.00.

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