Subject: TOOT for 11/28/05: Comic Cavalcade Archives | Author | Messages | 
Tony Isabella
Posts: 1710
 | Posted: 11/27/2005 5:51:47 PM | TONY’S OTHER ONLINE TIPS
for Monday, November 28, 2005
Veteran “Tony’s Tips” readers know I am fond of DC’s ambitious line of hardcover archives editions. While their typical $49.95 cover price make them something far less than an impulse buy, few volumes in the series haven’t been worth every penny of that price and then some.
Case in point: COMIC CAVALCADE ARCHIVES VOLUME ONE. This handsome book reprints the first three issues of the legendary comic title from the 1940s and does so in fine style. Even assuming you could find those issues in good condition, they would likely set you back a thousand dollars or more. Compared to that, fifty bucks doesn’t look so pricey, does it?
COMIC CAVALCADE was something special from the get-go. For his or her fifteen cents, a nickel more than almost all other comic books, the reader of 1943 got a 100-page squarebound anthology featuring the three biggest stars of M.C. Gaines’ All-American branch of DC - Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and the Flash - along with supporting features like Wildcat, the Black Pirate, Minute Movies, Sargon the Sorcerer, and others.
Wonder Woman’s popularity earned her the lead-off spot in each and every issue. But while Green Lantern and Flash mostly dealt with homegrown criminals and even - gasp! - romance, the Amazing Amazon beat down Nazis in her adventures. Oh, sure, they managed to tie her up at least once (and sometimes more often) in these tales, but that was practically the signature of William Marston, her creator and writer until his death in 1947.
Some items of interest from this volume:
“The famous House of Seven Gables [19th century American novelist Nathaniel] Hawthorne wrote about” is a major setting for the Wonder Woman story in the first issue.
Ed Wheelan’s “Minute Movies” are terrific fun. The same company of actors appeared in each new “film” with the war and western genres represented in CC #1 and #2.
The Black Pirate and his son appeared in stories in both of those issues as well. Written by Ted Udall and drawn by Sheldon Moldoff, the adventures are more than just swashbuckling action. In the first, it’s clear that prim and proper Queen Elizabeth has the hots for the Pirate. In the second, the Pirate and his son must travel the seas because their women want new dresses. The conclusion of the latter story had me chuckling out loud.
Gardner Fox was in top form for his three Flash tales reprinted in this volume. The first has the puzzle of criminals giving birthday gifts to cops and other upstanding citizens and the third is based on the silly laws still on the books in a small town. My favorite, though, was “The City of Wheels,” a thriller built around the lives of people who ride a certain subway and how those lives intersect with a criminal scheme. It’s the kind of story Batman co-creator Bill Finger excelled at, but Fox was also quite capable of playing that tune.
Noted illustrator Frank Godwin drew the Wonder Woman story in COMIC CAVALCADE #2 and, though he tried to imitate the clunky figures of the regular WW artist (Harry G. Peter), Godwin’s superior ability shone through from start to finish.
COMIC CAVALCADE #2 may have been something of a shock to its young male readers. While Wonder Woman was bashing Gestapo agents, the Black Pirate, Green Lantern, and Flash stories were all driven by romance.
Here’s a trivia question for you: when did “the haunted tank” first appeared in a DC comic book?
The answer: It’s the title of the Ghost Patrol story which ran in COMIC CAVALCADE #2, though the German vehicle, a combination tank and submarine, bears no resemblance to the spirit-guided tank which would headline G.I. COMBAT in the 1960s.
Getting back to Green Lantern for my final note, I’m becoming more of a fan of sidekick Doiby Dickles with each Golden Age GL story I read. The feisty cab driver was darn near fearless, good with his fists, and was surprisingly charming with the ladies. I’m not at all surprised he ended up married to the gorgeous queen of another planet. Then and now, he was quite a catch.
COMIC CAVALCADE ARCHIVES VOLUME ONE earns the full five out of five Tonys. It’s worth fifty bucks, but it won’t be hard to find it on sale at generous discounts.
© 2005 Tony Isabella
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