Top-Notch Comics
Entry updated 17 September 2024. Tagged: Comics, Publication.
US Comic (1939-1942). 27 issues (#1-#27). M.L.J. Magazines Inc.. Artists include Al Camy, Warren King, Ed Smalle and Lin Streeter. Scriptwriters include Jack and Otto Binder (see Eando Binder), Joe Blair, Bob Montana and Harry Shorten. 68 pages. Usually 9 long strips, early issues also had a short text story; plus occasional short strips and non-fiction pieces as filler. Became Top-Notch Laugh Comics (1942-1944), 18 issues (#28-#45), discussed below.
Top-Notch Comics was a mixed bag of strips, mainly action-oriented – Superhero, Crime and Punishment, War, sports and so on; early issues featured some humour, which would return to dominate when the title became Top-Notch Laugh Comics.
#1's lead strip was The Wizard, "the man with the super-brain": this is Blane Whitney, a descendant of George Washington's chief aide during the Revolutionary War, the Whitneys having played crucial roles throughout American history; also, we later learn, one of his ancestors was burnt as a witch in New England. A genius (see Intelligence), Scientist and athlete, Blane assists the US Government using his wits and Inventions, including a car that can travel at 500 mph (see Transportation) and a Ray Gun; his brain is so powerful that he also has Psi Powers. In his first adventure (in 1939) he foils a Jatsonian (ie. Japanese) plot to blow up Pearl Harbor, which here involves planting a bomb. Conrad's psi powers enable him to envision their plot. The Wizard goes on to defeat other threats to the US, which reveal that he also has super-strength, being able to lift a house, and Invisibility. From #8 he is joined by Roy the Super Boy. Aside from his own abilities, Wizard stories are usually mundane though #11 has plastic surgery accurate enough for impersonation and a quick-acting flesh-rotting Drug; #16 has a scientist who creates "a beast with the intelligence of man" (who turns out to be friendly); and in #23 another scientist tries "to breed giants from blood of the men he killed", though the story is dominated by Roy's incoherent dream about the scientist inventing a "Spaceship" (looking like a canister) that he says sends people back in time (see Time Travel), though it sends Roy and The Wizard to another planet where they fight Androids. In #26 a poet finds the only way he can get his work published is by becoming the serial killer The Jingler, who leaves his victims clutching a brief poem, which the press inevitably prints.
Also in #1 is Scott Rand "in the worlds of time" (written by Eando Binder), Scott being the pilot of Dr Joel Meade's "Time Car" (see Time Machine): in this issue they go to Ancient Rome, saving a Viking called Thor; next to Ancient Egypt, saving princess Elda; then, having taught both English, journey to the age of the Dinosaurs. Scott Rand and his three friends have one further Time Travel adventure, a two-parter, going to New York in the year 2000 in time to foil a Martian Invasion, ending up on Mars for their last appearance in #3. In #2, in the first of only two appearances, Rex Swift of the self-explanatory Swift of the Secret Service uses lifelike face masks. Longer lasting, Bob Phantom (#3) is a wind-based Superhero who can deflect bullets and create cyclones; but save for appearing in a puff of wind and smoke, he usually relies on his fists. Normally his tales are mundane, but in #12 his antagonist is a Mad Scientist with an explosive light beam (see Rays): at one point Bob is tied to a chair which moves slowly towards the beam, but fortunately the Villain then decides to leave the room (see Clichés). Bob last appears in #25. #4 introduces Streak Chandler on Mars, Streak being a footballer kidnapped by gangsters to fix a game: they force a scientist and his daughter to fly Streak to Mars in the former's Rocket; as it is incomplete they can't turn back (the gangsters have not gone with them). Streak initially has Planetary Romance adventures on Mars, then elsewhere in the Solar System; his final appearance is in #8. Kardak, the Mystic Magician (#4), uses Magic and is different from the nonfantastic The Mystic who appeared in earlier issues; in his first story the inhabitants of the sunken lost continent of Anderras (see Atlantis; Under the Sea) kidnap a woman to make her their queen; she accepts the role and Kardak helps fight the spider-people that threaten the Anderrans and their new queen. Later, Kardak travels through various fantastic lands seeking that of the evil Brahmins who plan to rule the world. After this serial ends his adventures unfortunately become very dull, usually using illusions to teach lessons to selfish people such as a boy who sets off fire alarms for fun. These lack dramatic impact.
#8 introduces superhero The Firefly: here young scientist Harley Hudson discovers "the secret of the tremendous strength of insects", gaining this and other insect talents for himself, such as leaping like a grasshopper and surviving underwater for a long time. Needing to support himself, he seeks a job; the first he applies for turns out to be as assistant to a mad scientist planning to create a master race to conquer the Earth. He is duly foiled. Later The Firefly fights Zombies, twice;, a mad scientist whose formula causes animals to grow huge; and several issues later, a mad scientist whose formula causes animals to shrink (see Great and Small). Further villains include The Mummy, who wants to rule Egypt again; "a Pied Piper" (who is not pied but does controls rats, though the indefinite article suggests he is not the one from the tale). In #27 Sheba, Queen of Ethiopia – who is white, was born 3,000 years ago and has wandered the Earth since she lost her throne – takes the Firefly back in time to restore her Empire and rule the planet (see Imperialism). Here Time Travel is achieved by reversing a giant hour glass whose sand "has been sifting time forward for centuries". The story is unfinished: The Firefly did not appear in the next issue (see below), nor did he move to another comic.
In #9 police officer Kip Burland is framed for a crime and, though they doubt his guilt, the authorities decide to prosecute because of media pressure. Out on bail, Kip is trained by a hermit and becomes The Black Hood, whose name would now dominate the comic's cover, appearing above the title until #27. The police (normally portrayed as comic Irishmen) consider him a villain but on one occasion concede "what's the use of shootin' at him! We never hit him anyway!". The Black Hood often battles The Skull, who framed him, and seems to have no superpowers but like a true Supervillain has a preference for the dramatic over the practical. Other opponents include The Mist, who can dissolve himself into that substance; a character clearly based on Mr Hyde (see Robert Louis Stevenson), here his non-monstrous form is a renowned criminologist; The Animal Man who can speak the language of animals, ordering them to kill big game hunters, and Scorpio "the Astrologer of death" (see Pseudoscience), who provides advice to gangsters.
From #28 Top-Notch Comics became Top-Notch Laugh Comics, reflecting an increase in humour content, with antagonists who are stereotyped hillbillies, Mexicans and blondes; some include genre elements (talking animals, ghosts, time travel). Gloomy Gus features a man who dies before his time so is seeking a new body for his ghost to inhabit (see Eschatology); on one occasion he tries a Robot. The Wizard and Firefly have gone, whilst Kardak only survives two more issues. At which point only The Black Hood remains, jarringly out of place for most of the time; in #29 he faces The Mold, who has a chemical the afflicts people with a flesh-eating fungus; other broadly genre stories include a Tibetan book that makes spoken wishes come true (#37) and a puppeteer whose marionettes need blood to come alive (#44). More frivolous are the villains in #38 and #43, respectively the food-loving but murderous The Gourmet and A. Bookworm, who seeks a specific Treasure Island first edition (published 20 years earlier) in which a bandit called Long John Silver had written the location of his stolen valuables. The Black Hood does not appear in #45, but went on to star in Black Hood Comics (1943-1946, 11 issues). The title of Top-Notch Laugh Comics always had "Laugh" in much larger font, and with #46 "Top-Notch" is dropped. The all-humour Laugh Comics lasted only three issues, #46-#48.
For most of its run Top-Notch Comics had five superhero strips: The Wizard, Bob Phantom, Kardak, The Firefly and The Black Hood. The Firefly regularly fought powerful enemies, but the others spent most of their time fighting mundane criminals such as gangsters; to prevent these conflicts being too one-sided our heroes' talents tended to take second place to using their fists. The stories often reflect the attitudes of the time (see Race in SF). The artwork is generally poor to competent, with occasional spikes in quality: one of Firefly's opponents, The Mummy, is poorly drawn in his early appearances but on his return in #17 looks more impressive. The stories are largely forgettable, but there are some nice touches and possible self-Parody; aside from the police's admission about their inability to hit The Black Hood, Roy's dream in #23 might be a Satire of haphazard plotting. [SP]
links
- Comic Book Plus
- Grand Comics Database
- Comic Book Plus – Top-Notch Laugh Comics
- Grand Comics Database – Top-Notch Laugh Comics
previous versions of this entry