Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Dan Hastings-Dynamic Comics-1944


Not quite to the level of wackiness of some of our recent offerings here, this DAN HASTINGS episode--from it's off title logo to its throwaway ending--is nevertheless a good example of early comic book silliness. How early? Unsure, as GCD doesn't even list this story as being in the book where I found it at DCM!






3 comments:

Daniel [oeconomist.com] said...

Of course, this story looks to be from years earlier in the golden age than 1944.

In any case, allow me to draw attention to some of the features here:

[•] Radium is treated as a particularly desirable substance.

[•] The ships are along the lines of those drawn and painted by Frank R. Paul.

[•] The cabin crew are dressed like 1930s aviators. Other garb looks as if modelled after that in Buck Rogers.

[•] The warden uses dip pens. The telephone subscriber set on his desk looks like the sort than needed a separate wall box for condensors, an induction coil, and bells.

[•] The room in 3:1 has various pieces of equipment that look as if from the 1920s or '30s.

[•] 4 and :7 are inconsistent about who's driving the car; but, in any event, it appears to have been manufactured in the 1930s. The traffic light in 4:7 is the two-color sort, suggesting installation before 1930.

[•] The contact lenses in the final panel are the sort that cover the entirety of what would normally be the exposed eyeball. In 1948, lenses that covered on the cornea were developed.

[•] In the panel before that, Dan looks rather sad to get a handshake from his alleged sweetheart.

Joseph Hinman (Metacrock) said...

I agree tis' earlier than 44. You can't go by clothing style or the general style of equipment. Lars of Mars (early Murphy Anderson, published Ziff-Davis) 1951 is very flash Gordon in terms of clothes and equipment. The cars are a dead give away. The cars in Lars of Mars are late 40's early 50s. The car in our story here is clearly 30s.

wmeisel said...

Steve - another request. I've read the King Faraday tales from Danger Trail because they were reprinted in those two Showcase issues. But, the internet claims that many of the non- Faraday stories from Danger Trail are also excellent. I'd love to see some; I leave it to you to choose.