Henrietta-"Carl Anderson"-1949

Not sure who did this but it was probably NOT Carl Anderson, creator of the HENRY strip. This comic book spinoff of same has kid of a John Stanley feel to it.

Spy Smasher-Whiz Comics-1945

Although it's there on Page one, our hero's cape seems to disappear for the remainder of the story. This comedically drawn tale is a far cry from the cool, dark Spy Smasher stories of just a year or two earlier! Mac Raboy, where ARE you?

Little Sneezer-1943

Nobody was better than propaganda than Fawcett Comics, offering up pages and pages of war bond ads and anti-Nazi pages but also incorporating it regularly into stories with Spy Smasher, Minute man, Captain Midnight and, here, Little Sneezer!

Daredevil Barry Finn-Tarpe Mills-1939

Here's comics original Daredevil--predating even the Lev Gleason hero--drawn by the great pioneering female artist Tarpe Mills, who is seen here in all-out, full-on Alex Raymond/Flash Gordon mode!

The Web-Clem Weisbecker-1943

I grew up with the blond Web of the 1960's Mighty Comics, retired and henpecked, living with his mother-in-law, and with a cape just screaming that it was going to get caught on something! Well, here we see his original incarnation--dark hair, no wife, no mother-in-law, no angst...but still with that cool looking but ridiculously impractical cape!

Sleepy Slade-1952

Some Al Capp-like art in this silly little filler from the back of ELLERY QUEEN.

The Black Hood-Sam Cooper-1942

The recently revived and revised version of The Black Hood is decidedly grim and gritty but if you go back far enough, he wasn't exactly all sweetness and light and robot pony in the first place, either.