Master Comics #45 (December 1943) Minute Man

Minute Man first appeared in Master Comics #9 (February 1941) beating his more famous counterpart Captain America by one month. However MLJ's Shield beat both of them as the first star spangled costumed patriotic superhero (Pep Comics, #1, January 1940),  Minute Man was mildly successful as he got his own title for three issues (1941-1943). There is a sense in this yarn that the writer and artist are just going through the paces. While the artist produces dynamic layouts the plot and characterization is so thin that one wonders why Minute Man was given 13 pages— more that twice that of Bulletman. Any real enthusiasm for the character had long since departed. Minute Man had only four more Master Comics appearances before he was dropped in favor of Radar a trench-coated International spy fighter. The artist Phil Bard had a sort of gonzo Simon and Kirby style and even worked on Captain America as well as other strips for Fawcett and DC Comics. In the 1930s he did cartoons for communist publications like the New Masses and The Daily Worker.