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Home , Airboy, Heap (comics), Matt Fraction

INTRODUCTION

It is hard to argue that comic books’ Golden Age, which I’m defining as 1935 to 1949, has been neglected. Books like Gerard Jones’ Men of Tomorrow (Basic Books, 2004) do a thorough job of exploring the era’s his- tory, while guides like Jeff Rovin’s Encyclopedia of Superheroes (Facts on File, 1985) and Mike Benton’s Su- perhero Comics of the Golden Age (Taylor, 1992) make decent attempts at describing the major superheroes of the Golden Age. More recently sites like the International Catalogue of Super-Heroes (http://www.interna- tionalhero.co.uk/) and Public Domain Superheroes (http://pdsh.wikia.com/wiki/Public_Domain_Super_Heroes) have done yeoman’s work in describing the secondary heroes of the Golden Age. But there has never been a single, authoritative source for all of the characters of the Golden Age–nothing that covers spies, cowboys, funny animals and detectives as well as superheroes. That’s where this book comes in. I haven’t been able to cover everyone. Some characters–some comics–from that era didn’t survive. Other charac- ters I wasn’t able to find any information on, much less read their stories. But this book covers roughly 98% of the heroic characters of the Golden Age, and those I’ve missed are the most trivial and minor of those charac- ters. Unfortunately, the entries are by necessity on the shorter side, and even those characters I was relatively enthu- siastic about seem to have gotten short shrift. The reason for this is that, at over 2100 entries and 400 manuscript pages, this book couldn’t help but be long–200,000+ words in its final form–and if I’d devoted the space to each character as they deserve, the book would have been multiple times larger. So wonderful oddities like Lion Man will, alas, have to make do with relatively skimpy descriptions. Likewise, a fully-illustrated book would expand not only the size of the book but the cost of production. However, most of the entries on the online version of this encyclopedia (http://jessnevins.com/encyclopedia/characterlist.html) have illustrations of the hero. It might be reasonably wondered–indeed, it has already been–why I spent so much time and effort on these crudely-written, crudely-drawn, unsophisticated, long-forgotten characters. I can only respond with a Grant Morrison quote from Animal Man: “This is fantastic! More! More! You’re all so wonderful! Why did they ever have to remove you from the continuity? You’d have made for marvelous stories!” There are people who can look at Congo Bill, or Lion Man, or Madam Fatale, and fail to see the potential in them. But I revel in their pos- sibilities. me. All of these characters (or mostSample of them, anyhow) file could sparkle, in the right hands. Lastly, I’d like to dedicate this encyclopedia to my wife and son, Henry, who I hope will enjoy comics as much as I have, and to the individuals who over the years have made me feel like a 12-year-old reading superhero comics again, and given me the enthusiasm for comics that Golden Age superhero comics deserve: Abe Binder, , Justin Davis, , Garth Ennis, Matt Fraction, Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Jeff Parker, Walt Simonson, Chris Sims, and . Thank you, one and all.

2 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book began as a Kickstarter project, and without the kind folks who pledged money to it the book would never have bn finished. I’m indebted to the following for their financial faith in the book: Daniel Aberg, David H. Adler, Jason Aiken, Edward Ainsworth, alant, Alhazred, Mo Ali, Allison, Rich Amtower, David Anaxagoras, Paul Andinach, antony, Jen Aprahamian, arandhawa, Arc Dream Publishing, ArdRhi, Josh Atkins, James Atkinson, Aaron Atwood, Mark Atwood, Jared Axelrod, Cesar Azuaje, Tom B., Scott Baker, Paul Allan Ballard, Benjamin Bangsberg, Joe Bardales, Michael Barenberg, Michael Bast, Simon Batistoni, Kyle Baxter, Bob Beamon, Michel Bélanger, Daniel Berg, Heidi Berthiaume, Ross Binder, Tim Bishop, Blake, Pierre Blanchet, Alan Blank, Jayme Blaschke, Blue Tyson, bookbuster, Ian Borchardt, Monty Bouvart, Mark Bowers, Terence Bowlby, Michael Bowman, Jordan Boyd, Shay Brog, Dave Brzeski, Saxon Bullock, Steve Burnett, Andrew Burton, Christopher Burton, Andrew Byers, Andrew Caicedo, Brian Calvary, Nick Caldwell, Andrew Callovi, Neil Campbell, Shay Caron, cbyknight, cdthomas, S.J. Chambers, ChaosClockwork, Jeffrey J. Chaves, Ray Chiang, Terence Chua, Kevin Church, Aaron Churchill, Jason Ciaramella, Cathy Clark, Robert Clark, Ryan Closs, Kimberly Clutter, Karen Collins, Lee Cooley, Bill Crider, Joshua Cupp, Scott A. Cupp, Brian Curley, Rod Currie, DaChamparooni, Kirt Dankmyer, David, Christopher Day, Jennifer Day, Sarah Deaton, Ed Delaney, Joshua Delaney, Mike DeLisa, Kim De Malp- ertuis, Joshua Diaz, Alexa Dickman, Jim Dirig, Abby Dover, Ryan Dunlavey, Bryant Durrell, Ecksearoh, Teddy Eddy, Matthew Edwards, Sigrid Ellis, Susanna Eng-Ziskin, Eric G. Englert, Ryan W. Enslow, Eric, R. James Evans, Edwin Falter, Jesse Farrell, John Farrell, Howard Fein, Michael Feldhusen, Max Fenton, Jason Fetterley, Fred Filler, Filthy Monkey, Jennifer Fisher, Jason Fleshman, Jason Fliegel, Tom Floyd, Elizabeth Flynn, Casper , Kara Y. Frame, Lowell Francis, P. Frank, Evan Franke, Judah Freed, fulldam- age, Gabriel, Arslan Ildarovich Galeyev, Tom Galloway, Pat Gamblin, Alan Gandy, Antonio Garcia, Kevin Garcia, George Gatewood, Jim Genzano, Sean Gerlach, Louis Gill, , Duncan Gillis, Joshua Gillman, Robert Gilson, Randy Golden, K. Gong, Paul Goodwin, Damian Gordon, Government Spy, Erin Grady, Philip Graves, Richard Green, Dave Gross, Grubnash, alex T. Guerrero, Peggy Hailey, Marc Kevin Hall, Sean Hamilton, Matthew Happen, Charles Hargrove, John Harrison, Frank Hart, Chris Hartjes, Greg Hartman, Brendan Harris, hassanchop, Peter Hawkins, Martin Hayes, Jennifer Heddle, Sarah Heiner, Steven Henderson, Douglas Herring, Tony Heugh, SampleFred Hicks, Derek file Hiemforth, Tanner Higgin, Dan Hill, Michael Hill, Tony Hirt, Gary Hoggatt, Paul Holmes, Larry Hosken, Michael Hoskin, Robert H. Hudson Jr., Dennis Hughes, Jon Hughes, Brian Huizingh, Christopher Hull, Robert Huss, Gage Hutchens, Ryan Hyland, Chris- topher Ivey, Joe Izenman, Gwenaël Jacquet, Joy Jakubaitis, Jason, Renaud Jeanmenne, Joe768, John, Dan Johnson, Seth Johnson, Wright Johnson, Michael M. Jones, Salome Jones, John Kane, R.J. Karol, Katkat, Matthew Katz, Andrew Kelly, Dan Kelly, Adam Kempa, Steve Kenson, Jack Kessler, Keyes, Abhay Khosia, James King, kjgrant, Rick Klaw, Sean Kleefeld, Komainu, Jim Kosmicki, Sonia Koval, Ed Kowalczewski, Jeff Kromer, Stefan Krzywicki, Andrew Kunka, Steven Kwan, J.P. LaFond, Ann Larimer, Chris Larkin, Henri Laupmaa, Steve Leahy, Jenn Manley Lee, Jon Leitheusser, Steven Leung, Karin Levenstein, Ryan K. Lindsay, Lionheart, Joe Littrell, Alex Livingston, Steven S. Long, Ken Lowery, Raymond Lui, Lukas, Edward Lukman, Johnathan Lyon, Alex Lyons, Jay Mac, magnumt, Mangetout, Andrea Manghiuc, Zach Mann, Kevin J. Maroney, Alex Martinelli, Randi Mason, matthurlburt, Karl Maurer, John Maynard, Gor- don McAlpin, M. Casey McCarty, Maitland McDonagh, Brian McDonald, Mike McGee, Clay McGovern, Kevin McHale, Chris McLaren, Guy McLimore, Meff, James Meiers, Jeremy Melloul, Patrice Mermoud, Metz77, Jeff Metzner, mfks, A.J. Michel, MightyHunter, Greg Miller, millibeau, Tom Minton, Andrew Monk, moofkenubi, Michael Moreci, Steve Morey, Morgan, Jason Peter Morris, Jon Morris, Scott Morrison, Greg Morrow, Diego Navarrette, Jason Nebergall, Andrew Newton, Norimitsu Kaiho, Patrick Nork, Bran- don Oakley, Drea O’Dare, Kevin O’Donnell, Padraig O Mealoid, OmegaBahamut, Robert Orth, Owlglass, Thomas H. Padgett Jr., Patrick, Henri Patricio, Justin Peck, Stephen Perkins, Blake Petit, Evan Pettit, Steve Pheley, Andy Podell, Steven Politzer, James Poplawski, John Post, James Powell, Richard Powell, Tim Pratt, Rrai Prior, David Rapp, S. Jessica Ray, Benjamin Read, Jay Reid, Ricky Reilly, Patrick Rennie, Mi-

3 chael Rhode, Joshua Roye, Rusti, Bailey Shoemaker Richards, Carl Rigney, Chris Roberson, Alan Robert- son, Robstu, John Romkey, Shana Rosenfeld, Marcus Rowland, Daniel Rubenstein, Cathy S., Sam, Steven Schend, Marc Schiermeier, Frank Schildner, Schleproque, Michael Schiffer, Jeff Schultz, Daniel Schwartz, David Schwartz, Scott, Joe Sergi, Gopakumar Sethuraman, Pam Shafer, Patrick Sharp, Steven Shaviro, Hal Shipman, Ashtara Silunar, Silverback Press & Legendsmiths, Chris Sims, Noah Singman, Gareth-Michael Skarka, Nathaniel Skiba, JRD Skinner, Small Demons, Benjamin Smith, Jason Smith, Nathaniel Smith, Stephen Smoogen, Brian Smyth, snell, Felipe Sobreiro, Tony Solomun, Jeremy Southard, Cat Sparks, Mark , Daniel Stack, Ginger Stampley, Stephan, Igor Stephens, Steven, Richard Stevens, Bruce Strong, Robert E. Stutts, Subterranean Press, David Sweeney, Ryan Swift, John Taber, Nick Tangborn, Moises Taveras, Mark Teppo, Adam Thibault, Josh Thomson, Timothylegion, Paul Tobin, Dylan Todd, Schaeffer Tolliver, Torqumada286, Heather Ross Towers, Liza Trombi, Jeff Troutman, John Troutman, William Turk, Chrysoula Tzavelas, Derek Upham, Jason Urbanciz, Jason Uresti, Lee Valentine, Darren Vallance, Dave Van Domelen, Kelley Vanda, Patrick Vaughan, Emma Vieceli, Victor, Andrew Volpe, Larry B. Vossler, David W., Johnny Walker, wallred, Matthew Wang, Alasdar Watson, Ben Welch-boln, Karl Ruben Weseth, David Westbrook, David Whelan, Mark D. White, Alec Whitford, Wilder, Ian Wildman, Bob Wilkins, Charles Wilkins, Bill Williams, Mads Winther, Andrew Wilson, Lorena Wolfe, David Wolkin, Elizabeth Woodward, Jonathan Woodward, Meredith Yayanos, Darcy Yarrow, Jonathan Young, Nida Zada, Roy Zemlicka, Zizi.

Sample file

4 Sample file

ENCYCLOPEDIA 5 A use technologically-advanced armored cars, and a hid- den city in the Grand Canyon. Abdul the Arab. Abdul the Arab is a young Arab : Crown Comics #4 (McCombs), Winter 1945. 6 appearances, 1945-1947. Created by warrior who is the son of chieftain Ali Bey. Abdul gets Matt Baker and ? involved in fighting for freedom and against other, evil tribes, thus proving himself a help to British Intel- Addin, Al. Al Addin, fan, travels in time ligence. Abdul solves crimes, frees captured English- and space when he accidentally knocks over an old men and captured Chinese princesses (Princess Mu- hour-glass. He visits old Araby and Cleopatra, among lan), and fights villains like the Yellow Peril Sunyan others. Tse, the English criminal The Masked One, and the First Appearance: Cat-Man Comics #7 (Holyoke), Feb bloodthirsty island native worshipers of the Sun God. 1942. 3 appearances, 1942. Created by Saul Rosen and Abdul appears in stories with titles like “The Arabec ? Oil Mystery,” “Nurse and Spy,” and “The Capture of Princess Bardia.” Adventure Incorporated. John Pierce and his friend First Appearance: Smash Comics #1 (Quality), Aug. and partner Bud are “Adventure Incorporated,” an out- 1939. 24 appearances, 19391941.­ Created by Vernon fit that will do “any job, anywhere, any time. We spe- Henkel. cialize in work others cannot do, in work others fear to do.” This brings them around the world and into all Ace and Deuce. Ace and Deuce are a pair of cowboys sorts of interesting situations, such as Latin American on a dude ranch in the American West in the present revolutions. John and Bud have no powers but are day. Occasionally this brings them into conflict with good with their fists, crack shots, and top pilots. They criminals, as when two gangsters from New York try appeared in “The Adventure of the First Client.” to use the ranch to hide out. Ace and Deuce appear First Appearance: Bang-Up Comics #1 (Progressive), in stories with titles like “Star Performer” and “Bill Dec 1941. 1 appearance. Created by Ed Moore. Buster Visits.” First Appearance: Star Ranger #1 (Chesler/Dynamic), Air Man. Professor Claude Stevens, a renowned Feb. 1937. 14 appearances, 1937-1939. Created by ? ornithologist, is senselessly murdered. His son Drake is outraged and gets no justice from the police. So Ace of Space. “Young millionaire sportsman”Sample Ace Drake file puts together a costume consisting of a pair Egan discovers a crashed alien spaceship. The dying of gas-filled wings, a jet-pack, and some bombs, and alien inside gives Ace a power belt and warns him of goes hunting for criminals. He has no superpowers, the imminent invasion of the Slogons. Ace uses his but between his wings (the gas filling them is lighter- new powers and his space ship to defeat the Slogons. than-air) and his jet pack he can fly, and his bombs Later Ace fights German spies and the Mad Scien- and guns allow him to kill most anything. His enemies tist Dr. Devlin, whose serum gives his gang of thugs include pirates who use a “ Ship.” Air Man ap- super-speed. At length Ace’s identity becomes known pears in stories with titles like “On the High Seas.” while he is serving in the Army Air Corps. Ace ap- First Appearance: Keen Detective Funnies #23 pears in stories with titles like “The Phony Foreign (Centaur), Aug. 1940. 3 appearances, 1940. Created by Committee,” “Speed, Inc.,” and “The Ace in the George Kapitan? And Harry Sahle. Army.” First Appearance: Feature Comics #38 (Quality), Nov. Air Patrol. The Air Patrol, led by Lieutenant Ted 1940. 4 appearances, 19401941.­ Created by H. Weston Thomson, are active along the U.S. border with Mex- Taylor and Harry Campbell. ico, fighting criminals like Yellow Peril immigrant smuggler Quan Sing. Thomson and the Air Patrol Ace of the Newsreels. Ace Williams, “crack camera- appear in stories with titles like “The Quan Sing Mis- man,” and his sexy female reporter Foggy sion.” (a.k.a. Jessica Frances Gibbons), the “Queen of First Appearance: Star Ranger #1 (Chesler/Dynamic), Hearts,” cover the Hopeville-Circleville-Capital City Feb. 1937. 6 appearances, 1937-1938. Created by ? beat. They also fight crime: Yellow Perils (Ling Ti), foreign spies who steal atomic secrets, thieves who 6 Air Rover. “When Johnny got home from the war he in stories with titles like “The Machine Man,” “The wasn’t satisfied to sit around. Instead, he rigged up Living Statues,” and “The City of Glass.” a special plane and went out looking for adventure!” First Appearance: #60 (DC), Feb He appears in “Sword Women” (a group of misandrist 1942. 78 appearances, 19421948.­ Created by Mort Amazons) and “The Valley of Ten Thousand Devils.” Weisinger, Harris Levy, and Charles Paris. First Appearance: Golden Lad #1 (Spark Publications), July 1945. 2 appearances, 1945. Created by Walker . Davy Nelson is a boy pilot. Nelson’s father is Gardner and James Dell. a scientist with the government and Nelson’s friend, Martier the monk, designed a special, bat-winged Air-Sub ‘DX’. Air-Sub ‘DX” is a flying submarine of plane. The friend died when the plane crashed. Davy extremely advanced design. It can achieve unheard- inspects the wreckage, discovers what went wrong, of speeds underwater and in the air and is also armed fixes it, and then, wearing the costume of Martier with a “dissolving gun.” It is so powerful fact, that (which was handed down through generations since “Curley,” the ruler of an undersea country in the future the French Revolution) uses the plane to fight evil world of Air-Sub ‘DX’, wants to own the air-sub, so and the Axis threat during World War Two. After the that he can become “headman” of the entire universe. war there are Communists and other monsters to be Luckily for everyone involved Professor Gray, the fought. Airboy has no powers, but he is a skilled pilot inventor of Air-Sub ‘DX’, pilots the ship, along with and his plane, “Birdie,” is the superior of any other in his young assistant Tim and his daughter Rita; together the world. Airboy is sometimes helped by the the trio repeatedly defeat Curley and save the universe. and the . Airboy fights everything from Germans Air-Sub ‘DX’ appears in stories with titles like “The and Japanese to alien invaders, encounters Lost Race Professor’s Enemy” and “The Conqueror!” Mayans, Mad Scientists, the Mechanical Pirate, the First Appearance: Amazing Adventure Funnies v2n3 Living Fuse, giant insects, and the occultist Zzed (a (Centaur), Mar 1939. 10 appearances, 1939-1940. recurring villain) along the way. He appears in stories Created by Carl Burgos and ? with titles like “The Four Horsemen,” “The Crabmen of Paris,” and “The Viking Chief’s Hydro Sub.” Air Warden Cadets. The Air Warden Cadets are a First Appearance: Air Fighters Comics #2 (Hillman), group of American boys, including Hank Prelton and Nov 1942. 100+ appearances, 1942-1953. Created by Biff Morgan, serving as air warden cadets. In this , Dick Wood and Al Camy. capacity they find adventure, whether from JapaneseSample file spies being caught in the fishing nets of a rural village Airmaidens. The Airmaidens are the beautiful, elite or, as with Biff, gaining the Chronogen Belt and trav- German pilots who are assistants to and wingwomen eling through time. They appear in stories with titles of the Valkyrie. They began as German patriots but like “Nazi Invasion” and “Alert!” switched sides during World War Two thanks to First Appearance: Army and Navy Comics #3 (Street Airboy. The Airmaidens appear in “Airboy Meets and Smith), Dec 1941. 11 appearances, 1941-1941. Valkyrie,” “The Death Lights,” and “The Return of Created by ? Misery.” First Appearance: Air Fighters Comics #14 (Hillman), . Larry Jordan, a District Attorney, gets Nov. 1943. 3 appearances, 19431946.­ Created by Fred frustrated with the slowness of due process and de- Kida and ? cides to fight crime “on two fronts,” as a D.A. and as a costumed hero. He develops electrical gear, makes Airmale. Kenneth Stevens, a biology professor, is a costume, and begins fighting crime. His partner is trying to perfect a “flight fluid,” but is in a hurry to a Static, an unusually intelligent talking parrot designed costume party and accidentally spills some of the fluid to annoy the reader. Jordan has no super-powers, on his hand. This makes him lighter than air, and he but his costume has radio communicators in it and uses his new power and the costume he was wearing the skates in his boots allow him to glide along high at the time of the accident to fight crime as Airmale. wires. Most of his enemies are ordinary criminals and He is assisted by Stampy. Stevens is always lighter Nazis, but he also fights sound-related super-villains than air, but he wears a “gravity belt” which regulates like the Talker, the Parrot, and Dr. Silence. He appears the flow of gravity around him, so that he can fly or

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