Golden Age Heroes - Dr. Diamond

 
In my last post I highlighted Strongman from Tem Publishing/Holyoke so I thought I'd stick with that publisher for this post, featuring their short-lived character of Dr. Diamond. Dr. Drake Gorden was traveling on a ship heading for the south seas when it was hit by a typhoon and he was swept overboard. He ends up on an uncharted island and climbs to the top of a high mountain where he meets a Tibetan monk. The monk just happens to have in his possession a black diamond which was used by an ancient Egyptian for good but was later misused for evil until it came to the Tibetan. OK, really now - an ancient Egyptian diamond, found by a Tibetan monk who's living on an uncharted island in the south Pacific. Where did these guys come up with these stories?? Anyway, sensing that Dr. Gorden was a good and honest man, the monk gives him the diamond, which has the ability to grant its possessor the power to rid the world of evil. OK, so why didn't the monk use it to fight evil himself rather than just hanging out on some lonely island waiting for some other guy to come along?? Maybe the monk was a pacifist. Anyway, Dr. Gorden returns to his own world where, now endowed with the power of 50 men, takes on the task of ridding the world of evil, adopting the name of Dr. Diamond. This is another example, like Strongman I featured the other day, where a superhero character is given powers through magic but is apparently not a magic user himself. Dr. Diamond's campaign against evil only lasted for three or four issues of Cat-Man Comics before he disappeared into comic oblivion - from which sometimes even a magic diamond can't rescue you. One of the things that drew me to this character was that he had a mustache. That was not a common feature of superheroes during the Golden Age, although a number of magicians sported them. I may feature more heroes with mustaches in coming days. Anyway, for the action figure I used the body of a Toy Biz Daredevil, the arms and legs of a Silver Surfer and the head from a Tony Stark. I realize that the picture shows Dr. Diamond with blue trunks and a red belt, but the next couple of pages had him in red trunks with a blue belt - a not uncommon phenomena during this period when comic "houses" might have several artists working on stories. I decided to go with the red trunks and blue belt. The little red bib piece was cut from cloth, as was the cape.

Golden Age Hero - Strongman

 
The other day I profiled a Strongman from the early 1950s, but today I'll present his predecessor. From the Holyoke/Tem Publishing comic stable that later made Cat-Man famous, comes Percy van Norton, alias Strongman - the perfect human. Percy is another one of these apparently wastrel rich playboys (ala Bruce Wayne/Batman) who down underneath his polished facade has the beating heart of a superhero. Using knowledge he's gleaned from the secret book of Yogi he now has the strength of a hundred elephants, the speed of a racing car (and the power of flight) and skin as tough as a rhinoceros, he fights for the American ideals. As far as I can tell he appeared in five issues of Crash Comics before disappearing into comic oblivian. He was revived by Marvel Comics as a World War II villain in one of their Invaders story arcs and more recently Dynamite Comics for their Project Superheroes. In the couple of stories I have of his he seems to fight crime and oppression both at home and in fictional overseas countries. For the action figure I used a Super Power Collection Martian Manhunter figure with the head from a Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves Dark Warrior. I had to Dreml the Martian's chest straps off and cut a plastic dowel in half to make his belt buckle.

Golden Age Hero - The Magic of the Red Dragon

 
I've had a little trouble with this blog entry trying to put some of the material together but here goes. The Red Dragon was really Bob Reed, who's parents were murdered by the Japanese. He subsequently goes and studies ancient sorcery in Tibet so that he can develop enough power to seek revenge against the Japanese. He could activate his powers by clasping his hands together and reciting the words, "Po-She-Lo." These powers gave him the ability of flight (for both himself and others), firing destructive beams of energy and generating force fields. Bob has some help along the way in the form of a young Chinese boy named Ching Foo and his pet Komodo Dragon. In one story the Japanese challenge Red Dragon to defeat their champion, the Yellow Dragon. Turns out it's a fire-breathing dragon which is a construct operated by a couple of men. The Red Dragon defeats it anyway and the Japanese soldiers as well. Red Dragon initially appeared in Super Magician Comics #8 by Street and Smith and later got a book of his own so apparently he was a fairly popular character. He ran in print from 1943 to 1949 and concentrated his adventures in the Pacific theatre. One of the reasons I had a little trouble finding information about him is apparently because a lot of the "superhero" related sites don't cover him - maybe considering him more of a magic act than a super guy. As for the figures, Red Dragon himself combined a Toy Biz Savage Land Angel figure and the head from a Playmates young Riker, which is actually a pretty obscure figure. Since he was wearing sandals in the story I had I cut bass wood sandals for him and then glued them to his feet before gluing him to the base. Ching Foo was made using the GI Joe head from their Airborne figure and various body parts from GI Joe and similar action figures. I fished around a while for a good Komodo Dragon but eventually found one at a craft store.

Strongman and the General

 
 
I mentioned a couple of posts ago under Captain Flash another character from the 1950s called Strongman so I thought I'd go ahead and feature him this time around. Some of these characters were kind of interesting and this is one of them. Strongman is just that - basically a circus strongman, so there's an element of showmanship about him. He is advertised as the strongest human being alive who has also trained in judo, performs feats of prestidigitation and is an expert trip roper - all skills he uses to help the helpless and overcome the wrongdoer. He does this without the benefit of superpowers or some magic word that turns him super - he has trained himself to a level of physical perfection through hard work, exercise, clean living and eating the right foods. Of course other heroes - Batman springs to mind - are also not super powered, but I suppose I'm being picky. He seems to wander around and has a lot of friends who keep getting themselves into jams so Strongman can get them out. He has a short side-kick, but this is not some kid buddy, but an adult short person named The General. They also drive around in some hot machines, one of which (Jaguar XK120) I customized, which came out pretty well. Strongman only lasted four issues of his own comic in the mid-1950s published by Magazine Enterprises. The action figure of Strongman was made using a Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves Dark Warrior body and the head from a Cadillacs and Dinosaurs Jack Tenrec. The General was made using an approximate 75mm figure in a line called the Mask, which was about the right scale. The car is a Matchbox approximately 1:64 scale Jaguar XK120.

American Crusader Revisited - From AC Comics

 
I'm sure none of you remember this but way, way back in the early days of this blog I presented the American Crusader from the Better/Standard/Nedor publishing house. At that time I mentioned that the character had been revived by AC Comics and given a revamped uniform that I might present at a later date. TA DA - that date has come!! Can't say I'm not a man of my word. I rather liked this version because the original, while it was red and blue, left out the white, with only a slash of yellow around the waist. Red, blue and yellow - blah - not very patriotic. The newer version from AC Comics really was red, white and blue - so American flag-like. In the AC Comics universe a number of superheroes and heroines from the 1940s and early 1950s were flash frozen in the Vault of Heroes with the intent of later revival when a bunch of real heroes were presumably needed once again. Some of them kept their Golden Age outfits and some of them - like American Crusader - were updated. I may feature more about the Vault of Heroes at a later date - and we know I keep my promises. Once again I used a Toy Biz Captain America body with the star on his chest and the head, arms and legs from a Toy Biz Daredevil. While it was handy to use the Captain America body, that doesn't mean it was easier. I had to Dreml all the plate armor from the uniform just to get the star on his chest, but I think it made for a nice appearance.

Silver Age Heroes - Captain Flash and Ricky

 
The Silver Age of comics followed the Golden Age and started in the mid-1950s. The real resurgence of the super hero genre actually didn't start until the early 1960s with the new and improved Flash, Green Lantern and Hawkman from DC and the invention of the Hulk, Iron Man, Fantastic Four, etc from Marvel. This mid-1950s period saw characters like Fighting American, Strong Man and the character I'm featuring today - Captain Flash. He was really Professor Keith Spencer who, as the result of radioactivity, could clap his hands together and create a miniature atomic explosion inside his body that, rather than spreading his atoms all over the walls, endowed him with super powers. He had a non-powered kid sidekick - just can't get rid of those pesky side-kicks now can we - named Ricky Davis. Ricky went by the superhero side-kick name of - are you ready for it - Ricky!! That's OK, they only had to worry about secret identities and such for a total of four issues before Captain Flash and Ricky faded into comic oblivion. I've actually read a couple of the stories and overall they aren't bad for the period, being published out of a one room comic company called Sterling comics that only had a couple of other (horror) titles. Captain Flash was their most successful book. As for the figures, Captain Flash was made by repainting a Toy Biz Daredevil figure. Ricky was a little more complex and I actually did him twice. The first go-around I used a Mattel Marvel Secret Wars Dr. Doom and the head from a Toy Biz Robin figure, but it looked a little too mature. So I went back to the drawing board and used a Star Wars (General Madine I think) which I had to use putty on for the tops of the boots. Then I married that figure with the head from an old Voltron figure and painted to match. Even the kid's outfit was kinda lame - yellow, red and lime green - worse than Robin the boy blunder, as the Joker would say.

Supersnipe - the comic book kid

Published by the publishing house of Conde Nast/Street and Smith, Supersnipe was actually an outgrowth of the popularity of comics in the early 1940s. He was Koppy McFad, reputed to be the kid with the most comic books in America. He loved his comics and the superheroes who battled baddies across their pages. It was probably not unexpected that he would want to emulate his heroes and not surprising that he would dress in a pair of red flannel long underwear with a cape and a mask and haunt the neighborhood looking for evil doers - who he actually used to find. Later he apparently created an inflatable costume filled with helium that would allow him to fly and make him at least appear to be as superheroic in proportions as he was in intention. Along with some of the other kids in the neighborhood he actually fought and defeated some bad guys, undoubtedly fueling his ego and imagination. I decided to do both versions of Supersnipe, using a Tonka-type guy in coveralls for the long underwear and a Toy Biz Superman body with Captain America arms for his inflated persona. The heads are from Jurassic Park Tim Murphy II figures.