Monday, April 30, 2012

Captain Marvel Jr. #86 June 1950 (The Golden Egg)

The World's Mightiest Boy seems a bit dumb or at least unobservant in this story. The Blue Boy does comment (p. 4) that Professor Ellis (actually Doc Dugan) changed his clothes. However he doesn't notice it is the same green suit (with yellow polka-dot bow tie) the crook Dugan was wearing. This tales has some educational value as Captain Marvel Jr notes, "Tiny flecks of gold exist in the dirt! And all the birds eat a certain amount of dirt for rummage! Thus the gold flecks they gobble up get into their shells!"  Art by Joe Certa. Script by Otto Binder (GCD).








Monday, April 23, 2012

Captain Marvel Jr #86 (The Defender of Time) June 1950

The Defender of Time

This story is one that shows that even a good cause—"the productive use of time" can be perverted by a person who has been mentally traumatized. This is one of those CapJr yarns where the "moral of the story" drives the tale. It is almost as if the editors decided they needed to teach their readers about the proper use of time by exaggerating the point. The victims in the end get the point, "Even if you didn't mean to, you've taught us a valuable lesson! It is wrong to kill time! Why, time is what our whole lives are made of!"  Art by Joe Certa.







Monday, April 16, 2012

Captain Marvel Jr #86 (The Medical Menace) June 1950

The Medical Menace (7 pp)

This story shows that a group of common criminals can give CapJr a good workout for 4-5 pages if they take endurance enhancing drugs. This episode has some educational value in that it speaks about the importance of penicillin and other then current wonder drugs. It seems a bit odd that Dr. Penrod would be talking to himself about a great medical discovery and doing his lab work on scene rather than taking samples to a lab. Again coincidence strikes as Freddy is on scene when the Crimicillin-powered crooks make their first robbery. Well drawn by Bud Thompson.
 (Note: My copy of CMJ #86 is coverless.)