Number 1304: Headlights on full beam

With the 1948 cover of Phantom Lady #17, artist Matt Baker helped give us comic book fans a code word we've used now for decades: “headlights”. It happened when Dr. Fredric Wertham, M.D., published his book, Seduction of the Innocent, which pointed out how murder, crime and sexual perversion were all part of the comic books kids loved. Wertham used the cover to point out that children called big breasts on comic book women “headlights”. (This page has been razored out of some of copies of SOTI I've seen. By headlights fans, no doubt.)

I've pointed out before that Wertham’s book is a good example of the Law of Unintended Consequences. It was used at the time to condemn comic books, but is used now to identify comics that belong on a special list of desirable collectibles. Interior art on this story is also by Matt Baker, and the whole issue was prepared by the Jerry Iger comic book shop, where Baker was a star. The publisher was Victor Fox, and the blobby printing was by some fast and dirty web press printing company of the 1940s, which didn't care that they were printing one of the most iconic covers and collectible comic books of all time.

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The Marvel Covers

The Marvel covers did not start out all that different from the DC covers, although that soon changed.  The early Fantastic Four covers featured the characters demonstrating their various powers:

The characters are so iconic to us these days that it can be hard to remember that back in 1961, kids had no idea who the FF were, or what they could do, so it was important to give them an idea quickly.  As I have mentioned in the past, this may be the real reason the early FF issues started out with them squabbling; so that they could demonstrate their powers early in the comic.  It's also why the early X-Men stories opened with them in the Danger Room.

Spiderman's powers were a little less interesting visually, and so the early covers often featured the villain's unique abilities:

This is very much like the situation with the Flash, where the rogue's gallery became the focus of the covers.  And, of course, Daredevil:

At first, the Iron Man covers in Tales of Suspense featured his powers:

But that pretty quickly changed and the covers became another "villain of the month" gallery.

A similar thing happened with the early Thor issues; at first there seemed almost an "isn't he gorgeous" aspect to them:

There are two very big differences between the Marvel covers and those of DC.  First, the Marvel covers were much less likely to have speech or thought balloons on them; even as early as FF #2, Stan was content to let the picture tell the story.  In fact, there is not a single speech balloon on a Daredevil cover until #34; the next one appears on DD #57.

However, they had oodles of the Lee hyperbole.   The other difference is that the Marvel covers often featured the hero beaten:

Although the DC covers often featured the hero in a death-trap, implying they had been previously beaten, they seldom featured him prone and apparently lifeless.  One of the few exceptions I can think of is this cover:

Actually there are a couple other Flash covers like that, but they came towards the end of the 1960s.

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Bondage in Stone / No Grave to Hold Him

The two remaining illustrated tales from the November 1953 issue of Web of Mystery #21 means another full issue presentation for you full mag completists! (Check the archive for Dick Ayer's Ghoul's Gold, and the batshit crazy horror-larity of Chic Stone's Meet the Cowled Lady!) Today though we have a frightful French ghost story from Ken Rice, followed by a Frankenstein inspired tale of brain transplantation gone wrong (of course) with Sekowsky pencils.

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Number 1303: More Wild West Woody

I promised this to reader Darci back in November. It's another of the Western tales Wally Wood did for Western Crime Busters. This is from issue #9 (1952). It's the first of two stories he did for that issue. Jim Vadeboncoeur Jr. attributes the art on “Tex Gordon” to Wood and Joe Orlando.

Schoolmarm Kathy Butte (who is a beaut, all right), dresses provocatively for the time. Wood and Orlando miss no opportunity to have her show some leg, even when nobody's looking (page 4 panel 5). Tex is a fast worker. He admits it. When Kathy asks, "Who’s the fastest, Tex?” He says he is, then demonstrates. Between the next to last panel and the last he’s got Kathy’s dress down off her shoulder and is moving in for more. Yeeeee-haw!

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