Stupid Comics

Edward Albert Bushell joined the Canadian comics publishers of Maple Leaf during WWII, took up the pen name of Bert Bushell, and later went on to work for American publishers like Lev Gleason and Harvey Comics. One of the earliest properties he worked on in Lucky Comics that he eventually became the writer and artist on was first titled Ether Escapades featuring Phil Dauntless, a Canadian air force pilot ace that waged war against the Axis Powers in his prototype amphibious aircraft that he called the Fish Plane. The Axis got back at Phil by framing him for espionage, so Mr. Dauntless then became a masked avenger calling himself Black Wing. Wearing a cowl over his head and the occasional cape, Mr. Wing became a full-time mystery man never taking his disguise off, even when he went on vacation. Taking a cruise ship to the fictional South American country of Argentango, Black Wing makes his way to a cabaret and is greeted by the dancing girl Carmelita who automatically knew who his was, ...

Vernon Miller headed up Maple Leaf Publishing which was the first comics publisher in Canada which opened its doors during the Golden Age, the majority of which were called Canadian Whites because they were mostly all done in black and white to save money. One of Maple Leaf's titles started out being called Name-It Comics which they allowed the readers to vote on the ongoing name for that eventually became Rocket Comics. One of the regular features in this anthology was by Spike Brown titled Cosmo And His White Magic about a rich scientist named Cosmo Grant that used his parents' old creations to fight evil as a freelance defender alongside his partner Captain Tom Hadden with the nickname of Hoot, so Cosmo and Hoot where the Dynamic Duo of their time. Similar to Batman, most of Cosmo's arsenal of freedom were given his own personal branding often referred to something with moniker of "Cosmo-" at the beginning of it. One of Cosmo's cases in Issue 9 had him thwa...

Aside from its hit Vampirella magazine, Warren Publishing also had a few other horror anthologies. The creators of Famous Monsters Of Filmland had a comics publication titled Creepy hosted by the ghoulish Uncle Creepy, and there was a sister title called Eerie with the equally cryptic Cousin Eerie as its acting emcee. Russ Jones acted as the first editor after convincing publisher James Warren to come out with its first horror compilation in the spirit of Tales From The Crypt while avoiding the highbrowed Comics Code by printing the stories in black and white magazine format. One short but memorable story in Issue 35 got right to the point that many comic fans look for, zombies vs. Nazis! Army Of The Walking Dead came out over thirty years before Robert Kirkman's iconic urban horror comic and was drawn by former Captain America artist Syd Shores. Taking place during WWII, Nazi egghead Dr. Tumbler has developed a way to reanimate dead soldiers as zombies with augmented strength much...

Atlas/Seaboard Publishing was a rival company to Marvel Comics that was established in the early 70s set up by Chip Goodman whose papa Martin sold Marvel with Stan Lee acting as head editor and would hand the position over to Chip when Martin retired. Lee of course became the Grand Poohbah instead and dismissed Chip, so Martin set up Atlas as Marvel's archenemy with Chip at the helm along with several other Marvel artists who jumped ship to go to Atlas. Much of Atlas' titles were slight rip-offs of Marvel, although Tiger-Man might be an exception as he made his premiere in Atlas' Thrilling Adventure Stories in early 1975 in a black-and-white story fast forwarding the character's career as an already established superhero taking on a white slavery ring. Following that, Tiger-Man got his own series in color that only lasted three issues written by Gabriel Levy who did several other Atlas titles and drawn by former Harvey Comics artist Ernie Colon. Beginning in the wilds o...

Dick Tracy might heighten the concept of the wristwatch radio, but only the Honor House Products Co. had the coconuts to really try to make a working one for fans of the comic strip detective. Edwin Wegman's mail order company ran from the 1950s-80s that was responsible for some of the biggest scams in comic book ads including Sea Monkeys, X-Ray Specs, and the outdoor child-sized Polaris Nuclear Sub, so their place in exaggerated advertising is cemented in infamy. Their "Amazing Wrist Radio" was not really a watch, but a miniature radio receiver that was powered by a germanium diode which does emit low level radiation, so hopefully nobody actually got cancer from this little doodad. It comes with a private earphone which probably could get lost really quickly in the bustling era of the Space Age. The $2.98 price wasn't much for when this ad ran in the 1960s, which nowadays would be around $30.00, even though the plus is it had a broadcast range of at least 50 miles. H...

Steve Ditko was one of the undisputed masters of the comics craft, especially in his more than underappreciated efforts during the Bronze Age. Yes, he designed Spider-Man and Doctor Strange, but he did some of his best work for less renown publishers like Charlton in Issue 106 of their horror anthology Ghostly Tales. Mr. Dedd hosts this terror tale about Marilee who is a rather attractive blonde reporter for a movie magazine determined to interview the reclusive old horror film actor Anton Corvu, so after watching one of Corvu's old werewolf flicks she and her boyfriend Josh head towards his estate where they are denied entry by Corvu over the speaker phone. Not giving a tinker's cuss for private property, Marilee hops over the mansion wall while Corvu decides to pull a Scooby-Doo by putting on his old werewolf makeup to spook his trespasser. Marilee is chased by a hairy lycanthrope inside Corvu's house where she finds his monster makeup room where she's convinced the c...