Rip Regan the Power Man-John Celardo-1940

Fairly standard early superhero fare here but some good art from the just recently deceased John Celardo. Celardo would become known eventually as the artist on the TARZAN newspaper strip for fourteen years as well as the final illustrator of Roy Crane's BUZ SAWYER.

The Last Televison Broadcast On Earth-Bill Finger/Sid Greene/Joe Giella-1955/1971

For a writer who was rarely given any print credit in his lifetime. Bill Finger was quite prolific. Here he turns in a fascinating prediction of the future in 1955, as reprinted 16 years later, by which time some of the things he predicted came true or pretty close. Finger, for whom the San Diego ComicCon Finger Award was named, SHOULD be best known as the co-creator (if not MAIN creator) of Batman. For more info, check out Marc Tyler Nobleman's just published book, BILL THE BOY WONDER at the link below. 

Daredevil-Norman Maurer-1947

One of my favorite Golden Age artists, Norman Maurer, usually gets his comics career swept under the rug since he married Moe Howard's daughter and went on to manage the career of THE THREE STOOGES, producing and/or directing their feature films of the 1960's. Here he is on the original Daredevil strip, just as that character started to take a back seat to his own supporting characters, The Little Wise Guys. Eventually, the hero would be completely forced out of his own strip!

Tomahawk (and Miss Liberty) Fred Ray-1962

I've never been a big fan of DC's Revolutionary War era hero Tomahawk. I have, however, long been fascinated by the attempts in the early to mid-sixties to cross-pollinate if you will the series with the tropes of other DC titles--giant gorillas, evil masterminds, monsters and, seen here, a masked and costumed super heroine. This was Miss Liberty's debut. She would return several more times before TOMAHAWK took a turn for the more "relevant" and serious.

Congorilla and Janu-Howard Sherman-1961

DC's fascination with gorillas in the Silver Age is well-documented. Supposedly it grew out of the fact that someone noticed that gorillas on the cover tended to sell more issues of a comic book. In perhaps the ultimate distillation of the gorilla theme, the company took its innocuous Jungle Jim clone, CONGO BILL, and gave him the ability to turn into a gorilla. Then, as far as I know...they never actually put him on a cover!

Samson and David-Alex Boon-1941

The underdressed SAMSON wa s apopular Fox feature appearing in several mags over time. Said to have been created by Will Eisner, the original artist was Alex Blum as "Alex BOON." The latter name may well have become just a house name (as did "Charles Nicholas" in spite of the fact that there was real Charles Nicholas drawing comics). If that's the case, this particular story may or may not be by him.