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Cat-Man

Entry updated 28 April 2025. Tagged: Comics, Publication.

US Comic (1941-1946). Temerson, Helnit, Continental (#1-#5; #18-#32) and Holyoke (#6-#17). 33 issues; numbering is confusing, but #32 is the 33rd issue, there being two separate issues considered to be #26. Artists include Jack Alderman, L B Cole, Alan Mandel, Rudy Palais, Charles Quinlan Sr, C R Schaare and Allen Ulmer, with at least one cover by Alex Schomburg. Script writers include Herman C Browner, Charles Quinlan Jr, Don Rico and Horace Wallace. Originally 68 pages, reducing to 52 by the final issue. 8-10 long strips and a short text story each issue, with shorter fiction and non-fiction strips as filler.

The strips were a mixed bag of genres, mostly Superhero though many of these qualifying only by the protagonist being costumed; antagonists were usually gangsters or the Axis powers. Overall, sf or fantasy elements were occasional rather than regular, particularly after the US entry into World War Two; the editor stated in #12 that they wanted characters who strengthened the morale of their readers, so "heroes of a too fantastic nature and super human qualities are out" (though there are still some colourful Villains and Horror). Rarely, other strips would include fantastic elements: a cursed jewel, costumed villains without superpowers and suchlike. In terms of artwork and story, despite repetition in the wartime plots, Cat-Man was above average, though marred by its depiction of people of African or Asiatic descent; this racism is typical of the era's comics and Cat-Man was no exception (see Race in SF).

First appearing in the last two issues of Crash Comics (1940), Cat-Man (sometimes Catman) was now given his own comic (with better artwork and a better costume). In #1 we are told the Merryweather couple were murdered by Burmese bandits (in Crash Comics it was "jungle wild men" in India, and India is mentioned again in Cat-Man #8), with their baby David raised by a tigress and "by constant association, he acquires all the attributes of the Cat family! He can see in the dark, leap many times his length, climb anything with amazing agility ... [and] is endowed with the fabulous nine lives!" With regard to the latter, he sometimes dies (for example in #1 and #8, though later this is dropped), but the spirit of his tigress foster-mother resurrects him (see Reincarnation). As an adult, back in the USA, and "attired in a weird cat-like costume", he becomes the superhero Cat-Man. In his first adventure, criminals – bent on destroying the US travel infrastructure for an unnamed foreign power – melt bridges with an ornate Ray Gun the size of a cannon. In #5 orphaned child acrobat Katherine Conn becomes his sidekick after Cat-Man sends her dishonest uncle to prison and she shows her worth by identifying then helping him capture some spies: she makes her own costume and becomes The Kitten; her age seems to fluctuate, sometimes in the same strip. On occasion an adventure is deemed to dangerous and Cat-Man attempts to leave her behind, but she invariably stows away. #7 has an Aztec tribe who fled Cortez and ended up in the Southern US swamplands (see Lost Races); they now try to sacrifice Cat-Man. In #15 a Mad Scientist invents a gas that disintegrates bodies into dust; the fourth wall is also broken in one scene when a passer-by addresses David as "Cat-Man"; initially puzzled, David realizes it was "Chas M. Quinlan, the man who writes this strip and draws the pictures" (nothing comes of this). In #21 a villain is able to Hypnotize several people at once. In #23 a Nazi Scientist attaches four volunteers to a machine that turns them into the "Four Horsemen of Doom ... War, Famine, Death and Pestilence" and they are sent to France to frighten the peasantry. Though physically changed, what powers they possess are only vaguely conveyed: War seems able to set brother against brother, but we merely see Famine stealing a ham.

In #27 we get a new Cat-Man and Kitten origin story: his mother was shot by a man "under the delusion that all jungle animals should be free! He shot my mother because she was the greatest animal trainer at that time and her hated her", whilst the child David had an affinity for cats, particularly leopards: he took over as the circus animal trainer but years later the same man stole an orphan baby and left her in a leopard cage – but a female leopard protected the child, who became Kitten. From this issue Kitten is a young woman and is noticeably less pugnacious than her more youthful incarnation (see Women in SF). In #28 Dr Macabre becomes their regular antagonist: in #29 he steals the Z-Ray from a Scientist, but after handling its container his touch kills and his hands can burn through wood; quite sensibly, rather than rejoicing in these Superpowers, Dr Macabre seeks the antidote; in #30 he teams up with his aunts and some trained gorillas and in #31 acquires a hypnotic serum (Hypnotism is a regular trope in this comic). Later issues' stories include some Humour.

The only other character to appear in every issue is The Deacon: a petty criminal who saw the error of his ways and, when fleeing his gang, found a deserted church and some unused Deacon's clothes – which he wears and now fights crime. In #2 an immigrant scientist refuses to sell his remote-controlled, doll-sized Robots to the "Fatherland", so his spy brother shoots him and uses them to sabotage US industry. In #6 a villain hypnotizes people into signing over their wealth to him, then has them commit Suicide. In #9 frogs are fed a solution to make them explode, whereby distributing a gas that when inhaled by humans causes temporary paralysis of all the senses, enabling criminals to ransack their homes undisturbed. In #24 a scientist's secret formula "plus the blood plasma of the real Nazis" turns his victims into a "race of super-Nazis" (see Superman), who are dressed as Vikings. The Deacon tale in #29 is narrated by The Zombie Master from beyond the grave (see Eschatology); dressed like an Indian mystic, he could revive the dead (see Zombies), but is killed by a blow from the Deacon's young sidekick Mickey. The Deacon and Cat-Man are friends, whilst Kitten and Mickey would have adventures together in a strip called The Little Leaders (which has no fantastic content).

Other characters introduced in #1 include "Soldier of fortune" Lance Rand: here he finds an ancient map that shows the location of Atlantis, so – seeking treasure – travels with his pal Tubby in a submarine that contains an undersea tank enabling them to explore the seabed. After killing a Dinosaur-like sea Monster and an aggressive fish-man they enter the ruins of Atlantis where they find an immense idol with a diamond set in its forehead. It is duly prised loose and, after fighting off more fish-men the pair depart. In #2 Lance and Tubby meet a scientist who, by electrically stimulating the human pituitary gland, has created a giant about 18 feet tall (see Great and Small) and now plans to build an army and take over the world. In #6 Lance faces a mad hypnotist who can affect people's perceptions without verbal instructions (for example, a brief glance convinces policemen there is an elephant in the road). Lance's final appearance is in #6. "Blaze" Baylor's Fire Chief father was killed in a fire, so his son – dressed in a fireproof costume and wielding a chemical spray that enables him to cut paths through fires – dedicates himself to battling arsonists (final appearance #4).

Shipwrecked Dr Gordon is carried by a giant bird to an island whose sole inhabitant dresses him in a superhero costume, gifts him a black diamond which gives the owner the strength of 50 men and asks him to fight crime. Dr Gordon agrees and renames himself Dr Diamond. In #3 he fights a mad scientist and his giant robot; #4 features an airship fitted with an Invention that fires thunderbolts to destroy buildings; the villain also has an artificial island that can sink beneath the sea (final appearance #4). The Rag Man (sometimes Ragman) is a non-costumed crime fighter (though he briefly wears a small mask) whose tales are normally not fantastic. #6 has an anti-death formula, though an executed criminal learns it staves off death only temporarily. In #10 a scientist discovers a shrinking formula (see Miniaturization). #15 has a giant "thirty stories tall and the strength of ten thousand men" fired in a rocket from a Pacific island to land in the US, whereupon it goes on a rampage; but Rag Man puts a rock on a bent sapling, then releases it to fell the giant. In #17 a mad scientist has apparently invented an Immortality formula, but this is only a background detail. Rag Man has an African-American sidekick named Tiny who is sometimes portrayed better than other African-Americans in Cat-Man, but sometimes not, and suffers from typically clumsy attempts to convey accent (final appearance in #23).

The Pied Piper first appears in #3: he plays a flute whose Music variously forces criminals to confess, weakens people and destroys buildings. In #5 he faces a Werewolf; #6 has him dealing with voodoo and #8 fighting The Green Vampire (a green humanoid bat). He last appeared in #9, suddenly dressed as a medieval piper (albeit not pied). #5 introduces The Hood, the secret identity of an FBI agent: in #6 he fights a head in a box, who explains to surprised onlookers that "Our civilization of the East is far beyond your understanding. In India where I was beheaded I was given life by a great mystic. But enough of this." With his ability to control minds he plans to rule the world. In #14 a Nazi pilot who loses a hand has a giant "vulture's claw" grafted in its place: it can punch through steel. In #24 The Hood faces Lady Satan, who – by scientific means – emits fatal bursts of electricity. In #26 a man sells his soul to the Devil (see Gods and Demons) (final appearance in #26).

#7 includes a couple of the comic's occasional one-off strips. In King Billy of Ainbrit the boy Billy and adults Mike and Betty are castaways on an island named Ainbrit, inhabited by Monsters and a tribe who use English, but speak sentences with the word order reversed. Their aged king is friendly, but a tribe on a neighbouring island kidnap Betty, so Billy and Mike go to rescue her. They find this tribe to be half beast, with a ruler named Lirhit (see Satire). Betty is saved and the trio return to Ainbrit where the dying king makes Billy the new monarch. "Al" Addin stars a city boy given an hourglass that contains a genie (see Supernatural Creatures).

#8 has the debut of Volton "the electric man" (not the Volton who appeared in Cyclone Comics), who has the powers of electricity, including the ability to travel through telephone lines or burst out of light bulbs. In #11 a scientist develops a lightning gun. His final appearance is in #12, doubtless a victim of the editorial policy mentioned in that issue (see above). #10 introduces superhero Blackout: a US war correspondent in Berlin blinded by the Nazis is given lenses that restore his sight by a sympathetic German scientist; he dons a costume and works with the German underground to sabotage the Nazis. There are few genre stories, though in #23 flamethrowers are attached to a plane, the overall design looking futuristic (final appearance in #24). #25 introduces another costumed crime fighter, The Reckoner, who has no super powers and whose first case involves rare stamps. A one-off strip features Andre DeLeBoef, an overdressed fop in sixteenth-century France who becomes swordsman Leatherface to fight evil, donning a mask and superhero-style costume with little resemblance to the fashions of the period.

During World War Two an Australian publisher received permission to produce its own version of Cat-Man (as Catman), but with a male sidekick, Kit. [SP]

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