Zip Comics
Entry updated 9 December 2024. Tagged: Comics, Publication.
US Comic (1940-1944). MLJ Magazines Inc (see Archie Adventure Comics). 47 issues. Artists include Charles Biro, John Cassone, Mort Meskin, Irv Novick, Ed Smalle, Lin Streeter and Frank Volpe. Script writers include Otto Binder (see Eando Binder), Joe Blair, Ed Goggin, Mary Goss, Harry Shorten, Lin Streeter and Abner J Sundell. Initially 68 pages (#1-#37), then 60 (#38-#45) and finally 52 (#46-#47); each issue usually having 7-8 long strips (6 in #46-#47) and a short text story, plus short fiction and non-fiction strips as filler.
Zip Comics' stories were a mixed bag of genres, with sf and Fantasy being the most common; until #35 this is mainly due to Superheroes, though a couple of these were merely costumed and had no Superpowers or gadgets. From #36, though two superhero strips continued, Humour dominated, some involving such elements of Fantastika as talking animals. One was named Woody the Woodpecker, though not the Walter Lantz animated cartoon character. Strips often display the racial stereotyping of the era (see Race in SF).
The opening story in #1 has John Sterling concocting a formula that gives him "the resistance, the magnetism and the strength of steel", and so is born superhero Steel Sterling (appearing in #1-#47) "the man of steel" (predating the use of the phrase for Superman). In #3 he fights an evil Scientist who attempts to take over a South American country: flying tanks and alligator men make an appearance. Aside from Steel himself, the stories initially tended to be light on genre elements, but #9 has villain Twisto, whose rubbery body enables him to Shapeshift; #22 features Hawaiian Zombies; #25 sees Sterling Time-Travel (by magical means) back to ancient Greece. He acquired two comic sidekicks, but the series becomes less light-hearted from #27 as Steel is increasingly involved in World War Two, battling Nazis such as Baron Gestapo (#28), who is a borderline Supervillain; Der Hyena (#29), a green-skinned demon-like creature with a cape, a swastika on his forehead and whose victims die laughing, is undeniably so; as is the The Creeper (#31), a costumed saboteur who can climb glass walls. #33 has the Nazis after "The Curse of the Orient", spectacles originally given to Marco Polo by "the Khan of the Orient" that allow the wearer to hear what the duplicitous are really thinking; #38 has "The Mirror of Death" which strips a body's flesh to leave only a skeleton (it turns out the frame is infested with meat-eating insects). As the war in Europe drew to a close the tone became lighter again: #38 has Yehudis, Invisible people who know everything; in #40 Steel faces Amazons; #42 a Ray Gun that can grow or shrink objects (see Great and Small; Miniaturization); #43 an Invention that brings shadows to life, with our hero's turning out to be evil; #44 an artist whose paintings show future events (see Precognition); in #46 a crook gets hold of Merlin's magic wand. The Scarlet Avenger (#1-#17) is a crime-fighting Scientist whose face muscles were paralysed in an accident, so he never smiles: his inventions help him capture criminals; aside from assorted Rays they include the Truth Machine, which writes down people's thoughts. In #3-#5 he fights Texa, a scientist and "queen of crime" – pterodactyls and giant magnets (see Magnetism) are also involved. Kalthar, King of the Jungle (#1-#9) (see Tarzan) is a white man raised from infancy by "savage blacks" whose witchdoctor gave him red and green grains, – the former making him tall and muscular while the latter return him to normal; he can also talk to animals. Wealthy playboy Dudley Bradshaw's alter ego is the costumed Mr Satan (#1-#9), "international detective and soldier of fortune". Zambini the Miracle Man (#1-#35) uses Magic to fight crime. In #2 an astronomer learns the approaching burning planet Inferno will destroy the Earth in 48 hours (see Disaster), and is happy for it to do so: Zambini creates and climbs aboard a giant palm tree that grows to meet Inferno, where the inhabitants are made of heat resistant glass; despite their resistance he creates rain that cools the planet down. He also fights Satan (see Gods and Demons) (#3), merpeople (#4) and an evil lama who tries to sacrifice a baby to Buddha (see Religion) (#9). Later stories involve him using his magic to teach people lessons (Kardak, the Mystic Magician was doing much the same in Zip's sister publication Top-Notch Comics). The strip War Eagles (#1-#27) concerns US pilot twins in World War Two, usually with no genre elements; but in #22 they meet French scientist Professor Crackpotte who has invented an Airship tank.
#10 introduces Dicky in the Magic Forest (#10-#26): the City of Panora is surrounded by a forest full of mythical creatures (see Mythology), Monsters and magical objects: but of the two thousand men who have ventured into it over the last five years to search for wealth, only three have returned. Ten-year-old Dicky regularly enters the forest and has fantasy adventures: dangers are overcome – perhaps too easily – using the objects he finds, such as a watch that turns back Time; a Telepathically controlled Robot appears in #15. The self-explanatory Red Reagan of the Homicide Squad's (#10-#19) first adventure has a Mad Scientist inventing radio waves that disintegrate their victim's brain. In #11 a scientist temporarily petrifies thieves into statues as a means of gaining entrance to the homes of the wealthy. Black Jack (#20-#35) wears a full superhero costume but has no superpowers or gadgetry; in #22 he faces a reincarnated Cleopatra (see Ancient Egypt in SF) who wants to create a new empire, beginning with America. Starting in #26 are the Stories of the Black Witch (#26-#29, #34), who mainly tells supernatural Horror tales. #27 introduces The Web (#27-#38), a green and yellow garbed superhero with a web-like cape (it's shadow on criminals represents their capture): out of costume he is Psychologist and Professor of Criminology, Professor Raymond. Like Black Jack he relies on fitness and strength. #28 has him fight the fanged Count Berlin, a costumed Nazi supervillain; he time-travels in #35 (through the intervention of the "Dame of Fate") to the French Revolution; in #36 Hypnosis and Drugs are used to make a man believe he committed murder. #39 introduces Red Rube, a runaway orphan whose ancestors gift him their virtues – strength, brains, stamina, wisdom and so forth – which he can invoke and so become the titular superhero; #46 has a misanthropic scientist with the power to make himself insubstantial by entering the "fourth dimension" – where apparently dragons live – and is thus able to walk through solid objects (see Matter Penetration). In #47 Nazis fake a Invasion from Mars (see Scientific Hoax) to lower America's morale prior to their own attack.
Zip Comics was most interesting when its plotlines veered into the absurd, such as Zambini's interplanetary travel on a palm tree that stays rooted on the Earth; sadly his tales became dull fairly quickly, though the baby-sacrificing Buddhists in #9 are memorable. Steel Sterling and The Web are the best of the traditional superhero strips, with their Nazi supervillains being the highlight. Most of the art is at best functional, but John Cassone's work for The Web's earliest stories is good, whilst the otherwise unremarkable Dicky in the Magic Forest is helped by Lin Streeter's improving artwork from #23. [SP]
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