Number 1309: Taking Hitler to hell

I don't think I can adequately describe this incredible, crazy tale from the obscure Great Comics #3 (1942). The best I can do is say it's beautifully illustrated, but it’s like a fever-dream. An invisible man from the future, Futuro, guides his fellow invisibles to Bavaria to kidnap Hitler, then take him to “Hades.”

“I can eat toads and Japs, but...UGH!! Not that rotten dictator!” proclaims a winged demon. Everyone involved with this story certainly made their feelings about Hitler known. The artist is unidentified.

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Number 1163: The Secret Fate of Adolph Hitler!

I've shown several stories over the past couple of years showing what "really" happened to Hitler. Because his body was recovered near his Berlin bunker by the Russians there was always a suspicion that Hitler had gotten away from the allies, and was still alive somewhere. If he was alive, he might be plotting a comeback. And so it goes. It was a perfect theme for postwar fiction, including comic books.

This particular tale, written by Horace Leonard ("H. L") Gold, was drawn by Curt Swan and inked by Jon Small. I don't know about your sense of fictional revenge, but the ending just doesn't seem either ironic nor punishment enough. Hitler was, after all, someone who enjoyed the sound of his own voice.

Gold did scripting for DC from 1942 to '44, went in the Army, and did some more comic scripting for a few years. He also wrote science fiction and fantasy prose, and is probably best known for founding and editing Galaxy Science Fiction, beginning in 1950 (the year this story was published). Here's a scan of the cover of Galaxy #1, which I picked up in a used bookstore a few years ago.

According to biographical information, Gold, who was born in 1914, suffered later in life from agoraphobia, and became reclusive. He died at age 81 in 1996.

From Strange Adventures #3 (1950):

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I'm debuting a new masthead next Friday, June 1, and here's a preview.

I've adapted the cover of Red Seal Comics #14, published by Harry "A" Chesler in 1945. The hero barging in at just the nick of time, the Black Dwarf, wasn't black, and he wasn't a dwarf. He was Shorty Wilson, an ex-pro football player without super powers who hated crime. He put on the cloak and hat and strapped on a gun.

I looked at hundreds of covers and panels and settled on this one. The cover is reminiscent of great pulp magazine covers with similar themes: sex, bondage, a mad doctor and a hip-shootin' hero! Paul Gattuso, the artist, isn 't a household name, but he was one of the journeymen comic book artists of the era.

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Number 1002





When Hitler came back!





Adolf Hitler was a caricature: the Chaplin-style mustache, the distinctive hair, made him easily recognizable, perfect for editorial cartoonists, animated cartoons, comic strips and comic books. His image still has a lot of villainous appeal, even after his real-life villainy had ended with a bullet in 1945.



"When Hitler Came Back," a Boy Commandos story, is from Detective Comics #125, 1947, and features a fake Hitler. Credits from the Grand Comics Database tell us it's drawn by Curt Swan and Steve Brodie. The story is written by George Kashdan.



We've seen several Hitler in stories on this blog in the past year, including those in Pappy's #900, Pappy's #862, and Pappy's #851.

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Number 900


Watts this? Sparky Watts hits the hay with Hitler!


Part 2 of Sparky Watts #1 from 1942 finds Sparky deep in Germany and deep in trouble. You know you're in trouble when you wake up in the morning and the face you see next to you on the pillow is Adolf Hitler.

See yesterday's posting for the first part of the story, and more about Sparky Watts.

On Wednesday I'll show you the Skyman strip by Ogden Whitney from this comic book, and on Friday we'll wrap it up with The Face by Mart Bailey. Columbia Comics, which published Big Shot Comics, Sparky Watts, The Face and Skyman, had a trio of winners with those characters, at least for the better part of the 1940s, because they were all gone by 1950.

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