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Black Venus, Showgirl Turned Fighter Pilot

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There were quite a few female aviators during the Golden Age, but one of the few to actually have their own semi-secret identity was Black Venus. Captain Midnight artist Charles Tomsey was the original creator of the pretty pilot who went through many redesigns in her short stint from Aviation Press' Contact Comics which ran for the first nine issues. Starting off in Burma in WWII, USO hostess Mary Roche dances with the pilots, but when its closing time she goes to her secret hangar and changes clothes to be the leg bearing Black Venus who sets off in her fighter plane to take down the nearby Japanese forces. Mary didn't wear a mask or anything in her alter ego but put a hot lady in a tight or revealing outfit and your average onlooker seems to block out their secret identity. Her second adventure had an even skimpier outfit more resembling a leather bar leader as she took down the cross-dressing Agent X. In her third story, Black Venus moved to Australia and began wearing the ...
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South Sea Girl, The Non-Jungle Girl

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Leader Enterprises, also known as Universal Phoenix Features, had a brief time as a comic book publisher starting in 1946. Since this was post WWII, most of their content was adventure and comedy titles. One anthology was Seven Seas Comics telling tales of pirates, sea voyages, and the compelling Tugboat Tessie, plus a character featured in each issue was South Sea Girl who was created by graphic novel progenitor Manning Lee Stokes and drawn by the groundbreaking black artist Matt Baker who most comics fans are familiar with his cheesecake style on characters like Phantom Lady and Tiger Girl. The title character of these tropical tales was Alani who was referred to as South Sea Girl because white tourists weren't very good at remembering the names of natives in the South Pacific. Taking place in the Vanishing Isles, Alani wasn't just some island princess who only knew how to do the hula, but was in fact the queen of her people and very knowledgeable of the outer world who had d...
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Bike Windshield For Only $1

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Honor House strikes again. The dispensers of x-ray specs, wrist radios, sea monkeys, and nuclear mini-subs also tried to sell this totally unnecessary bicycle accessory. Honor House Production Corp. created a half-page ad for a scant few comics during the Silver Age that was supposed to fit most of your average bikes at the time, a full-sized windshield that you could get for only a dollar. Intended to be a wind deflector for the casual neighborhood bike rider, this transparent vinyl layered bird poop projector was made with modern "trampoline construction" which would be great if you were using a trampoline and not buying this flimsy thing. Intended to act similar to a windshield for motorcycles, this one for bikes comes only with a pair of brittle clamps to hold it in place, even though it does have the bonus of a pouch in case you wanted to keep your car keys in it. There's a 10-day free trial, but no word if you get your quarter for shipping back. The ad claims the wi...
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That Darn Monster God!

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Before his Wizard King Trilogy, Wally Wood had another otherworldly outing in a one-shot story from the first issue of Captain Science by Youth Publications which was one of their few sci-fi titles as they specialized in westerns. In a story not connected to the title character, Wood's The Monster God Of Rogor has archeologist Tayne Whitney investigating the markings on an ancient crystal orb which transports him to strange realm of Banthu, like all crystal balls are known to do. This mysterious land is ran by the luscious high priestess Maryl and the inhabitants see Tayne as your standard savior sent from another world to light their darkest hour. The ones threatening the lively Banthu lifestyle are the forces of Rogor, a monster god whose priests shove their doctrine into those who don't give generously to their chosen deity. Rogor's main rep is Sek, a frog-faced freak who doesn't buy into Banthu's messiah prophecy, and leaves Tayne alone in a cell with Maryl wher...
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The Great Canadian Drawing Contest

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Triumph Comics, also called Triumph Adventure Comics, was published in Canada by Hillborough Studios in 1941. Most comic historians are familiar with their premiere character of Nelvanna of the Northern Lights who was the first Canadian superheroine, but they also managed to have one of those, "we're too lazy to finish the artwork, so you do it for us" drawing contests. Once Bell Features bought out Hillborough, they changed the title to just Triumph Comics, and one of their ads was for a free event where they drew out the bodies of three separate characters but expected the rank amateurs to fill in the rest. The characters were supposedly a flamboyant sailor, a standard comics good girl, and person of short stature who most would probably picture as being a food mascot or a Mr. Monopoly clone. While the effort put into this is minimal, it included ripping out a page from a Golden Age comic book and sending it to the publisher which critically devalues the price for any f...
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Miracles Inc., The Original Dispatch

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Just after Super 6, and several decades before the Dispatch video game, the idea of part-time heroes came from Miracles Inc. thought up by Wally Wood who first introduced them in the second issue of Harvey Comics' Unearthly Spectaculars in 1966. Wood wrote and drew the introductory chapter for this, but the next issue containing the more feature-length story was written by Joe Simon and drawn by Spirit artist Jerry Grandenetti, but why Wood wasn't available for the second installment is one of the great mysteries of our time. Coming out during the height of the campy hero craze thanks to Adam West, Miracles Inc. was a cacophony of Silver Age comic cliches which sprung up more superhero team spoofs than actually legitimate teams made of mismatched crimefighters. Set in a bustling midwestern town, the bewildered scientist and non-time lord Professor Who assembled his empowered employees to greet their unbeatable guest who manages to get passed all the other heroes to earn a spot ...
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Pickwick Books For All Trades

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There was a whole ocean's worth of how-to books that were advertised in Golden Age comics, but the central node for most of these were published by Pickwick Company. They printed everything from books on martial arts, speaking foreign languages, and dancing. One of their most infamous ads tried enticing people by yelling, "don't be a left-over", urging the reader to teach themselves to dance or they'll end up as a sad single girl sullying on a giant dinner plate with chicken bones and unchewed peas. So, unless you get a book about tap dancing or swing steps, then your entire social life is doomed to be stranded in the tremendous aftermath of an unsuccessful Thanksgiving party. The amount of books they offer differs between each ad as you could get up to three for a buck, or later on an entire instruction course for about two bucks, so it varied over time and they weren't always specific with how many books you might get in separate promotions. Pickwick's a...
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