Great Comics

Entry updated 3 November 2025. Tagged: Comics, Publication.

US Comic (1941-1942). Great Comics Publications Inc. Three issues. Artists include S M Iger, Pagsilang Isip, Bob Kane, Rudy Palais and Chuck Winter. Scriptwriters include Jean Press. 68 pages, with 6-7 long strips plus several shorter ones, some non-fiction.

The Great Zarro was once a trapeze artist, but when racketeers kill the circus owner and his daughter – whom Zarro loved – he eats the herbs provided by a gypsy fortune-teller (see Precognition) who had prophesied tragedy (but provided no specifics) and discovers he can now fly (see Superpowers). He and his beloved's kid brother, Rags, vow "To the death! We destroy crime", which mainly involves fighting Axis spies (see World War Two). In #1 and #2 Rags is a child who offers very little, save for exclamations such as "Gee willikens" and "Aw, shucks"; in #3 he is suddenly old enough to be a pilot in the Army Air Corps and is joined by Zarro, who changes his costume for a uniform and now seems to lack any powers. Guy Gorham the "Wizard of Science" (see Scientists) is the "world's greatest chemist"; in #1 he uses a "televisor" to spy on Mad Scientists he suspects of having evil intentions and sees one create donkey-sized dragons by merging four germs "under electronic pressure so they become one beast". Guy puts a stop to this; the dragons prove to be not particularly formidable. In #2 a German agent is training bats to rip out people's throats. Guy does not appear in #3. Madame Strange is a costumed Superhero who fights Japanese agents in the Pacific: though without superpowers she is strong, determined and a skilled knife-thrower (see Feminism). In #3 her opponent is The Octopus, a Japanese agent with a metal claw on his right hand and one-man submarine that can shoot down planes; some of his followers have green or red skin, for reasons unexplained. Futuro appears in #3: "ageless through the centuries, Futuro's unworldly brain can reveal the destiny of the oppressed world" (see Immortality). We see a group of his US Futurians, with names like Faith, Justice, Truth etc., who are "Invisible for they are of the future" and fly using "Aerogene tanks" fuelled by "cosmic gas"; they kidnap Hitler – though not without a casualty; Truth dies – and Hitler is given a tour of Hell. Each issue has a section of humorous short pieces (including, in #1, a couple by Bob Kane), some of genre interest: in #1, Snarzan the Ape, a simian Tarzan, deals with a Hitler ape who has decided to "rewrite the ten commandments and add a few of his own".

#3 also has the first part of a comic strip adaption of the Serial Film The Lost City (1935), which has many sf elements. The second part appeared in #3 of Great Comics' sister publication, Choice Comics (3 issues, 1941-1942) but remains unfinished, as that comic was equally short-lived. Choice Comics' most notable strip was Kangaroo Man, about a man with a kangaroo named Bingo; though he cannot speak, Bingo's thoughts indicate human-level Intelligence, an Uplift apparently achieved by training. Other genre-related strips (appearing in #1 and #2 only) featured the strongman Atlas ("springing from the pages of ancient history into the world of today", suggesting he is the Atlas of Mythology), and superheroes: Fire-Eater, who can exhale flames and is impervious to heat, and a trio of athletic brothers, The Secret Circle (costumed but without superpowers). There was also Zomba, a white man in Africa: in #1 he wears western clothes and believes boxing is the best way to settle disputes, but in #2 he is a Tarzan-like character.

Both Great Comics and Choice Comics were largely forgettable (unless the death of Truth in the Futuro tale was intended to make some Satirical point about wartime propaganda), though Madame Strange was a tough female lead and Kangaroo Man had some reasonable artwork in #1 and #2; in #3 it is poorer, as is the storyline of fighting villainous Native Americans. Both comics frequently reflect the racial stereotyping and attitudes of their times (see Race in SF). [SP]

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