Indie Squid Kid

Slam-Bang Comics #4 (June, 1940)

Slam-Bang Comics was a short-lived anthology series published by Fawcett Comics in 1940. It ran for only seven issues, and, as the title suggests, it featured two-fisted action stories with characters like: Diamond Jack (and his magic gem), War Bird, Tom Swift and the Time Retarder (the first time traveler in comics), Lee Granger, Jungle King (often with Eric, the Talking Lion), and Hurricane Hansen, Sea Adventurer.

I haven’t been able to find a whole lot of information about Hurricane Hansen online, other than that he was an American who joined the British Navy, eventually attaining the rank of Captain and given the command of a sea raider. There were Hansen stories in all seven issues of Slam-Bang, but he only got the cover of a single issue, #4. Here we see Hansen saving a diver (or is it a beekeeper?) from the clutches of an octopus that seems more like an alien from Invasion of the Saucer-Men than any actual earthly cephalopod.

All Top #16 (March, 1949)

All Top was an anthology series published by Fox Features Syndicate between 1946 and 1949. Some featured characters, such as Blue Beetle and Phantom Lady, would eventually be acquired by DC Comics and are still around today. Others, like Rulah, Jungle Goddess, seen here fighting an octopus and wearing her signature giraffe-skin bikini, have faded into comics obscurity.

Rulah was created by artist Matt Baker and an uncredited writer, and she debuted in Zoot Comics #7 (June, 1947). She was similar to Sheena, the orignal female Tarzan clone, but instead of being raised in the jungle, Jane Dodge (changed to “Joan Grayson” in a later retelling of her origin) was a thrill-seeking socialite aviatrix who crashed her plane into the uncivilized African interior. Tragically, her clothes were destroyed in the crash, as was a passing giraffe who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Clad in the giraffe’s hide, Jane saves a local tribe from an evil white jungle queen, and Rulah, Jungle Goddess was born.

I’m not sure if the cover of All Top 16 is supposed to depict some sort of African Jungle Octopus, or if Rulah’s exploits occassionally took her to the beach. (I suppose that wouldn’t be out of the question considering that she wore a bathing suit everywhere she went.) Either way, this is one handsy cephalopod!

Adventure Comics #227 (August, 1956)

ISK will be taking the rest of the week off as we recover from the Fabulous Festival of Food that is the American Thanksgiving holiday. If you celebrate, I hope it’s not alone on some fishy reality show like our pal Aquaman here.

Also, an octopus wearing a bow tie…not something you see every day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The most famous hero of the pulp era debuted on Street & Smith’s Detective Story Hour radio show in July 1930. Through radio dramas, pulp magazines, and comic books (penned largely by author Walter B. Gibson), The Shadow would become the archetypal masked vigilante.

Street & Smith’s original Shadow Comics ran for 101 issues between 1940 and 1949. During this time, The Shadow encountered everything from mobsters to mad scientists, criminal syndicates to supervillains, and yes, even the occasional sinister cephalopod!

Shadow Comics Vol. 3 #6 (September 1943)

He’s attacking that octopus WITH A LIVE SWORDFISH! That is hard core.

Shadow Comics Vol. 4 #10 (January 1945)

Is this octopus made out of old white men, or does it just have really bad taste in tattoos?

Shadow Comics Vol. 5 #5 (August 1945)

Again, The Shadow tries to teach an octopus that crime does not pay…if by “crime” he means “dating human females” and by “teach” he means “shoot in the face.”

More Fun Comics #44 (June, 1939)

More Fun Comics (1935-1947) was the original publication of the company that we know today as DC Comics. It was also the first comic to publish original material rather than reprints of newspaper strips. Issue #6 introduced Doctor Occult, a supernatural detective created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster (who would later become famous as the creators of Superman), and who is often considered one of the earliest superheroes in comics. During its twelve year run, More Fun debuted several other notable characters including The Spectre, Doctor Fate, Green Arrow, and Aquaman.

Of course the stories in More Fun weren’t all about superheroics. They were also about swashbuckling, manly adventure, daring-do, and, of course, axe fights.

Welcome to the first installment of Wednesday Comics, the newest Indie Squid Kid weekly(ish?) theme day! You may not know this, but all across this great land of ours, Wednesday is New Comic Book Day—the day that comic shops get their weekly shipments of new titles. Cephalopods have been a mainstay of comic books pretty much since the beginning of the genre, as demonstrated in the following images from DC Comics’ Golden Age that all feature classic superheroes battling giant octopuses.

The Flash vs. octopus: Flash Comics #44 (1943)

Via Poulpe Pulps, an impressive archive of vintage covers of comics, pulp magazines, and sci-fi novels that all feature cephalopods.

Captain Marvel vs. octopus: Whiz Comics #115 (1949)

Via Everyday Is Like Wednesday, the home of the occasional Monday Morning Man vs. Cephalopod.

Starman vs. octopus: Adventure Comics #65 (1941)

Via The Absorbascon, your online source for sweet, sweet octopus love.