Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Golden Age Superheroes - Mirror Man


Tip Top Comics, published by United Features Syndicate, was a product of the late 1930s - essentially a compilation of Sunday funnies like Fritzi Ritz and Nancy, Tailspin Tommy, Li'l Abner, Tarzan and a number of others. But with the rise of the superhero wave in the late 1930s there was apparently a move at United Features to add some original material. Thus were born a couple of superhero strips for Tip Top - the one I'm featuring today being Mirror Man. Dean Alder operates the Alder Academy for Boys (I guess his first name is Dean but he must also be the dean of the school). At any rate, he discovers a mysterious garment that allows him to pass through a mirror and become invisible. He can go where he wants and spy on people and even beat the crap out of them unseen, but must pass back through a mirror in order to be seen again. That would actually be a pretty handy capability. Anyway, as Mirror Man he engages in various crime-fighting activities including battling a fellow who was making devices that could be exploded by remote control that he was sending to the nation's leadership. Mirror Man began in issue #54 of Tip Top Comics and in #73 joined the war effort, finally ending his run in #99. The action figure had the body and arms from a Toy Biz Silver Surfer and the legs from a Daredevil, while the head is from a Toy Biz Superman. The hood I sewed from T-shirt material. The other superhero characters from Tip Top were the Triple Terror, which I plan to feature next.

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