DC COMIC #20: More Fun Vol. 1 #12
DATE: August 1936
PUBLISHER: More Fun Inc.
CONTENTS: Cover by Vin Sullivan; "Easy On The Eyes!" (text article), illustrated by Vin Sullivan, Whitney Ellsworth, Russell Cole, and Joe Shuster; "Sandra Of The Secret Service" by W.C. Brigham; "Spike Spalding" by Vin Sullivan; "Woozy Watts" by Russell Cole; "Jack Woods", written by Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, drawn by W.C. Brigham; "Ivanhoe", written by Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, drawn by Raymond Perry; "Don Drake On The Planet Saro", written by Ken Fitch, drawn by Clem Gretter; "Pep Morgan" by Creig Flessel; "Barry O'Neill And Fang Gow Of China" by Leo O'Mealia; "Talk About Talkies" (text article) by Mary Patrick; "Buckskin Jim" by Tom Cooper; "Pelion And Ossa" by Al Stahl; "Just Suppose", written and pencilled by Henry Kiefer, inked by A.D. Kiefer; "Brad Hardy" by Tom Hickey; "Fun Club" (letters page); "The Three Musketeers", written by Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, drawn by Sven Elven; "Batter Up!" by Vin Sullivan; "Dr. Occult The Ghost Detective", written by Jerry Siegel, drawn by Joe Shuster; "Midshipman Dewey" by Tom Cooper; "Wing Brady" by Tom Hickey; "Along The Main Line" by Tom Cooper; "Magic Crystal Of History" by Homer Fleming; "Sam The Porter" by Russell Cole; "Do You Know?", pencilled by Henry Kiefer, inked by A.D. Kiefer; "More Fun And Magic" (text article) by Graysten The Magician; "Bob Merritt And His Flying Pals", written by Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, drawn by Leo O'Mealia; "Little Linda" by Whitney Ellsworth; "In The Wake Of The Wander" (Captain Grim story) by Tom Cooper; "2023 Super-Police", written by Ken Fitch, drawn by Clem Gretter; "Unc" by Joe Eichberger; "Pirate Gold", drawn by Sven Elven; "Hubert", written by J. Muselli, drawn by Bill Patrick; "Calling All Cars", written by Jerry Siegel, drawn by Joe Shuster; "It's A Fact", maybe by Paul Ferrer. Editor: Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson. Associate editor: Vin Sullivan. Associate editor: Whitney Ellsworth.
SERIES/CREATOR NOTES: Two familiar faces debut recurring features: Pep Morgan by Creig Flessel, and Pirate Gold by Sven Elven. Two familiar faces take over existing features: Tom Hickey on Brad Hardy, and Homer Fleming on Magic Crystal Of History. Al Stahl ends his short stint on Pelion And Ossa en route to leaving National. A mystery man named Joe Eichberger does his first of a couple of Unc features. And some one-offs from some more regulars. This is arbitrarily the final issue of Volume 1.
It's been months since I read the last issue. I don't remember where I left off with anything, but I'm sure that would've been just as true if I'd waited only six hours.
Sandra Of The Secret Service: Sandra thwarts Princess Yonda's guards by claiming to be Princess Yonda, which works until it doesn't. I think. I'm confused and I don't understand how 1930s audiences read adventure serials in two-page installments.
Spike Spalding: Spike's black-caricature friend Pincus has been thrown overboard. But no he hasn't, because some guy secretly hid him and threw over a bag of meat. Then a Chinese caricature sees Pincus and runs away screaming "GLOST! GLOST!".
Woozy Watts: Woozy wanders around an island looking for food and failing to communicate effectively with anyone. Then he meets an Oxford English professor and they bond. I'm not sure what the context is for any of this.
Jack Woods: The bad guys waste a page and a half taunting Jack Woods, then have a horse drag him to his apparent death, pending a cliffhanger.
Ivanhoe: The one thing I find interesting about the literary adaptations is how poorly they use their still largely unexplored medium. Based on plot, this should feel action-packed-- but all the adaptations use illustrated captions instead of word balloons, which creates a dull, flat, matter-of-fact mood:
Right? No excitement. I wonder why they consistently did that for the literary adaptations. Did they think it seemed highbrow and classy? I think it says a lot about how undeveloped comics were: there were barely any conventional norms to adhere to, barely even any successes to emulate. And just a few years before the Superman-led discovery that comics were well-suited for brightly-colored action, we're seeing them fail at just that.
Don Drake On The Planet Saro: Don is about to fight a monster. Everybody else escapes. Don continues to be about to fight the monster. Why do so many of the adventure serials have so many filler episodes? It's not like they have a time quota.
Pep Morgan: In this first installment, Pep convinces his baseball team's coach to put him in a game, where he makes a big catch and sets himself up for greatness, I guess. I'll bet next month, he gets a hit. Part three: rounds a base. Part four: runs home. A few hundred installments and we've got a game.
Barry O'Neill And Fang Gow Of China: Barry and Le Grand defuse Fang Gow's dynamite, before coming face to face with Fang Gow himself. I guess that's a relatively worthwhile cliffhanger. Sets up a huge confrontation between archenemies. Last story was a guy catching a ball.
Bucksin Jim: Some people fight? This whole thing looks like Tom Cooper woke up, drew the two pages in five minutes while he was still groggy, and then went back to sleep.
Pelion And Ossa: The duo get locked out of their house, so Ossa goes down the chimney, only to discover the door was unlocked all along. Isn't it ironic?
Just Suppose: If the Chinese had been more military-driven in ancient times, Napoleon hypothetically might not have ended up as a big deal. Just Suppose/Imagine That always works best if you imagine it in a Drunk Uncle voice.
Brad Hardy: A dude steps out of a fireball and is like "go away" and then climbs back in his fireball and leaves. Then a high priestess leads Brad and Prince Kardos to rescue a white girl.
The Three Musketeers: Again, an action-packed excerpt is portrayed in the most boring way possible.
Batter Up!: A bunch of gag panels with a common theme of baseball. Did you know single-panel gag comics from the 1930s aren't funny?
Dr. Occult The Ghost Detective: Having been rechristened Ghost Detective instead of Mystic Detective for some reason, Dr. Occult brings the werewolf he's captured to the boarding house he's staying at, only to find that the lady who runs it is a secret werewolf who controls all the derelicts that stay with her. Decently creepy cliffhanger. I'll take it.
Midshipman Dewey: Our hero's battle against pirates continues, with the pirates making moves to blow up his ship.
Wing Brady: Another ruggedly handsome action hero gets captured by exotic non-white bad guys. This time he's imprisoned in a reptile chamber.
Along The Main Line: Our heroes thwart a mail robbery and then get fired. I'm a little lost.
The Magic Crystal Of History: A couple of kids stare into the magic crystal and watch an ancient Greek battle. Feels like an attempt to take the boring storytelling style of the literary adaptations and add audience surrogates to make it more palatable. Still isn't working.
Sam The Porter: A floor is dirty and everybody yells at everybody else about it until the one black guy gets stuck having to clean it:
Do You Know?: Sort of like fun facts, except more like fun... musings? Speculations? Or Henry Kiefer's drunk.
Bob Merritt And His Flying Pals: Everybody flies around being boring.
Little Linda: The mayor tries to convince a grouchy old man named Flint to adopt everyone's fourth or fifth favorite Little Orphan Annie knock-off. Flint angrily refuses, then responds to Linda's spunk by shouting that he'll revenge-adopt her whether she likes it or not. Flint's nephew worries about this because it might block his inheritance; nobody worries about the severe emotional abuse Linda's about to face.
In The Wake Of The Wander: Captain Grim leads yet another white-people-versus-natives battle, and then signals for help by using Morse code on a gong.
2023 Super-Police: Rex Cosmos almost goes through with his forced wedding to a hag queen, until he sees something weird on the ring and elbows her in the face instead.
Unc: A hunter sends his talking dog to chase after a rabbit, but the rabbit pulls a gun on the dog.
Pirate Gold: In this first installment, a bunch of fancy sailors find an uncharted island that seems to have pirates on it. I foresee a series of slow-moving, unrewarding sword fights.
Hubert: Hubert sees a store that's on fire and tries to help it by bringing over a sign from a fire sale.
Calling All Cars: Officer Sandy Kean tries to track down the girl who's been kidnapped by the mysterious Purple Tiger gang, whatever that is. Keen gets a good lead, but a Purple Tiger guy spots him. Cliffhanger.
It's A Fact: Standard fun facts, instead of weird drunken rambling fun facts.
Still years away from Superman.