Golden Age Characters - Blue Bolt and the Green Sorceress

 
Blue Bolt has the distinction of being the first comic book character that was collaborated upon by the team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, one of the most celebrated pairings of the Golden Age of Comics. Blue Bolt was created in 1940 by Novelty Press - the comic book subsidiary of Curtis Publishing, which was responsible for the Saturday Evening Post. He began life as football star Fred Parrish, who crash lands so hard that he burrows into an underground world. He's nursed back to health by Dr. Bertoff, who treats him with radium which - as is typical in the world of comics - rather than killing him, bestows great powers on the young man, now known as Blue Bolt. But the underground world - like the one above - is at war and the forces of Dr. Bertoff are under attack by the Green Sorceress and her Green Army. Blue Bolt of course thwarts her at every turn, and a strange love-hate relationship develops between them over time a little like the relationship that emerged between Batman and the Catwoman in later years. Eventually the stories moved above ground, the Green Sorceress even taking up with Hitler at one point, and Fred's brother Kit appearing as an American pilot flying for the RAF. By issue 27 Blue Bolt disappears from the pages of his own magazine, which continues on with adventure and horror stories for a while until the book and Novelty Press fade into comic oblivion. The character of Blue Bolt was revived by Dynamite Comics for their Project Superheroes. As for the action figures, Blue Bolt was made using the body from a Toy Biz Daredevil and the head from a Kenner Jurassic Park Muldoon figure. I sculpted the helmet from epoxy putty and the little top-knot was made from card stock. The holster at his belt was also from the Muldoon figure. As for the Green Sorceress - she was made using a Toy Biz Dagger figure which I repainted appropriately as she is on the cover of the magazine in the background. I should point out in most of the adventures she wears a mostly dark green outfit, but I rather liked the contrast of the red and used that instead. Call it artistic license.