The Saint-Allen Ulmer-1947

"Simon Templar," see? "ST." Same initials as me. You'd think I would have realized long before now that "ST" is the abbreviation for "Saint." Thus when he signed hs initials to something, Simon Templar became known as "The saint." Only took me 45 years to figure that out! Yeesh! Some good mystery novels, great B movies, a fun TV series and later features and revivals but people tend to forget the comics such as the newspaper strip drawn by former Eisner assistant John Spranger and comic books such as this one by Allen Ulmer, itself with an Eisnereque splash page.

The Two-Way Time-Traveler-Infantino/Giella-1962

As we close out our year, here's a strange adventure from long ago 1962 in which a hapless man is transported into the then-far-flung future of 2007! Wow! Things are so...different in 2007!

Buster Crabbe-Ed Martinott-1953

Actor Buster Crabbe played Tarzan, Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon and then became a comics character himself with not one but two series named after him and then a third based on his TV series!

Lucky Byrd-Harry Francis Campbell-1940

Interesting artwork and some clever special effects techniques are on show in this aviation tale, one of many, many such stories in the Golden Age of Comics.

Volton-Joe Kubert-1942

One of the biggest losses to pop culture in 2012--and to comic books in particular--was artist/writer/editor/teacher/mentor to so many, Joe Kubert. Here's another episode of his very early superhero character from CAT-MAN COMICS, VOLTON. Rather Eisneresque.

Joe Palooka-"Ham Fisher"-1946

It's Boxing Day so logically we present the most famous boxer in the history of comics, Joe Palooka! Of course, since Boxing Day isn't really about pugilism, neither is this particular adventure, part of a long, involved wartime story with some wonderful art and continuity by creator Ham Fisher's ghost of the moment. Note the female lead's NUDE SCENE!! Not something one sees everyday in a Harvey comic! This series reprinted the newspaper strips so these probably saw print originally a year or two earlier.

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