#Golden Age Crime

[kaggsy59]

"...books, though full of words, are silent things; they have no tongue." #deathofmrdodsley @BritLibPublishing @medwardsbooks

It’s been a little while since I covered a British Library Crime Classic on the blog, but today I want to share my thoughts about the first of two I’ve read recently (the second will follow soon!). Today’s book has a very appealing title – it’s “Death of Mr Dodsley: A London Bibliomystery” by John Ferguson; with that kind of subtitle I was going to be predisposed to like it, and indeed it turned…

[mahoganyrust]

“Dreams of the Empire”

My boyyyyyyy. My sonnnnnnnn.

(Comms open btw <3)

[oakendesk]

All True Fact Crime Cases Mar 1953

Howell Dodd

[shih-coulda-had-it]

ok one more deaged at dagobah doodle

Torino: WHAT DID I TELL YOU BOYS ABOUT CHASING LEADS ON YOUR OWN?!

Izuku: Sorry, Torino-san.

Toshinori: We won’t get caught next time.

[chernobog13]

Stardust had more wacky crime fighting devices than the entire 1966 Batman television series.

[mainalias]

thinking about compiling screenshots of golden/silver age batman exclusively calling dick his ward to combat the allegations that it was “initially a father-child relationship”

[pulpsandcomics2]

Daring Mystery Comics May 1940 cover by Alex Schomburg

[makeoutstopcrime]

we really are living in a golden age for chenford right now

[comic-covers]

(1948)

[comicsart3]

Phantom Lady, the costumed crime fighter who, with her black light ray and jiu-jitsu skills, was the nemesis of gangsters and villains everywhere, had two main incarnations. The first was as a sleekly, if very revealingly, drawn yellow-clad and elegant figure, who featured principally in Police Comics and was often illustrated by Arthur Peddy. Her second version was a rather more camp and sexualised character, in a blue all-in-one shorts number, cascading dark locks and curvaceous figure, illustrated in characteristic style by the prolific Matt Baker. This latter portrayal, that appeared in her own title, Phantom Lady, did not feature more light-hearted stories particularly, but certainly had a more cartoony and fantasy aspect than her predecessor. The “yellow” Phantom Lady looked more severe, adult and intimidating, perhaps pre-figuring more mysterious female comic book characters such as Batwoman. I prefer it.

In the panel featured above, Phantom Lady is on the trail of a desperate Japanese spy and assassin who, although he comes within an ace of overpowering our heroine, surprisingly being able to withstand the black light ray, eventually succumbs and is left bound and gagged by the female crime fighter, even providing her with a signed confession. Whichever version of the character you prefer, one is still left with the mind-boggling proposition that no one seems able to realise debutante Sandra Knight is actually Phantom Lady, despite her absence of a disguising mask, wig or veil - not even Sandra’s own father!

The above panel appeared in the Phantom Lady story The Japanese Assassination Plot and featured in Police Comics #9 (May 1942) and in The Phantom Lady Archives, Volume 1.1, the Quality Years (1941-43).

Source: comicbookplus

[kryptonbabe]

Welcome to Madam Brawn's Crime School for Delinquent Girls

A review of Plastic Man's story in Police Comics #4 (1941) by Jack Cole

I've been working my way through Plastic Man's early comics, and this was the first one that stood out to me. The story had my attention from the beginning for the early introduced character of Madam Brawn is just so magnetic, her morals so complex, her ways so compelling. She runs her school for delinquent girls, accepting women fresh out of prison with nowhere else to go.

Things were hard enough for male ex-cons, I can only imagine the stigma women had to face after getting out of prison in the 1940s. In Madam Brawn's school they must go through intense physical training and practice shooting (using cop manequins as targets), the group is also forbidden to smoke, only Brawn is allowed that.

However, there is a price for Brawn's protection and the day her group of women "graduated" from her teachings, Madam Brawn sent two of her "dames" to take over the protection racket going on in the city nearby. She was so confident in her training only two women were necessary for the take over, and they succeed, sending a message to Lefty, the leader of the rival gang.

This is still pretty early in the story and, noting Plastic Man's overall absence of it, I felt myself rooting for Madam Brawn's gang of delinquent women, and I think that is the intention of the writer and artist, Jack Cole. Later in comic book history this kind of sympathetic criminals would not be possible anymore, that's one of the reasons the golden age has such a different tone, when the Comics Code Authority censorship was established it changed everything, a context that makes this story even more interesting.

Brawn's gang had to face the consequences of their takeover and later that day the whole rival gang went to Brawn's farm, even their leader, Lefty, tagged along to threaten her in person with a pistol. Brawn's response to that came very naturally: she broke his arm and sent her dane dogs after the rest of the gang. They fled, but Lefty's pride was injured.

I love how Jack Cole portrays the movements in his panels, there's a dynamic flow to his art that makes the action in the comic stand out, which combined with his talent for drawing face expressions and gestures, makes it for a very fluid reading experience.

And that's where Plastic Man comes in! All this time Plas was infiltrated in Lefty's gang in his criminal persona, Eel O'brian. At this point in continuity he is an undercover cop while also maintaining his criminal connections, a double agent of sorts. He was hanging with Lefty's men and keeping an eye on this gang war situation, that was until Lefty proposed to invade Madam Brawn's farm with WAR TANKS. Escalating things in an insane proportion. Where did he find war tanks? Brawn only broke his arm... what a sensitive pride Lefty must have had.

So Plas goes straight to Brawn's farm to warn her and her gang of the danger they're facing, their response is to torture Plastic Man and have much fun while doing it. Meanwhile Brawn prepares for war, quite literally, she had an arsenal of guns and what I believe were grenades in her farm. Good for her.

"Ain't had so much fun since I poisoned granma!"

This is no morally ambiguous group of women, they are unapologetic vicious and I love them for it. Especially thinking how it must have been for their community to develop in that farm and how accepting they must have learned to be of one another in order to live and thrive together.

That being said, they basically kill every single one of the goons that tried to invade Madam Brawn's property, including the leader Lefty, that must've been so upset about being hit by Brawn that he could not resist the temptation to destroy her place himself.

After things calm down it's time for Madam Brawn vs. Plastic man, and she's really not a suitable opponent for him, at least without the rest of her gang. She loses the one-sided fight against Plas, who let's her go free despite several murders she and her delinquent girls perpetrated that night, all in self-defense so it's cool, different times you know?

I loved this little tale of female empowerment and gang war, it was an unexpected story for sure and even though Madam Brawn's gang of delinquent girls was very obviously not heroic, they were not really portrayed as absolute villains either. They train and seem very professional and prepared compared to Lefty's gang, the men are only shown playing cards and drinking.

I'm aware Madam Brawn is possibly more appealing to modern audiences than in her own time, however I do wonder if the public was not even a little charmed by this female gang leader even back then, she got another story in the sequence (I'll make sure to check that out), but sadly those were Madam Brawn's only two appearances. She remains an obscure oddity and the reason I decided to write this, thanks for reading!

[frkdoll]

Fyodor Dostoevsky Unofficial Reading List

( ྀི ◞ ◟ )ᰍ The Short Stories (12/19)

Mr. Prohartchin

A Novel in Nine Letters

The Christmas Tree and the Wedding

The Heavenly Christmas Tree

The Crocodile

Bobok

A Gentle Spirit

The Dream of a Ridiculous Man

The Peasant Mary

The Little Orphan

A Faint Heart

White Nights

Polzunkov

A Little Hero

The Honest Thief

The Landlady

An Unpleasant Predicament

Another Man’s Wife

The Grand Inquisitor

( ྀི ◞ ◟ )ᰍ The Novels (6/15)

Poor Folk

The Double

Netochka Nezvanova

Uncle’s Dream

The Village of Stepanchikovo

The Insulted and Humiliated

The House of the Dead

Notes from Underground

Crime and Punishment

The Gambler

The Idiot

The Permanent Husband

The Possessed/The Demons

The Raw Youth/The Adolescent

The Karamazov Brothers

( ྀི ◞ ◟ )ᰍ The Non-Fiction

A Writer’s Diary

Letters of Fyodor Dostoevsky

Winter Notes on Summer Impressions

The Notebooks for The Idiot

The Notebooks for Crime and Punishment

( ྀི ◞ ◟ )ᰍ About his Life / Criticism

Dostoevsky in Love

On Russian Novelists

(update)

[batbabydaily]

detective comics #68: the man who led a double life

[oakendesk]

Women In Crime Jan 1953

artist unknown

[callmebrycelee]

MAN CRUSH MONDAY

CLIVE OWEN

Clive Owen was born October 3, 1964 in Keresley, Coventry, Warwickshire, England. The 59-year-old is best known for his performance in the drama Closer. Clive has had roles in film and television including Andy Robson in A Murder at the End of the World, Sam Spade in Monsieur Spade, Bill Clinton in Impeachment: American Crime Story, Robert Parks in Gosford Park, The Professor in The Bourne Identity, Arthur in King Arthur, Dwight McCarthy in Sin City, Theo Faron in Children of Men, and Sir Walter Raleigh in Elizabeth: The Golden Age. Clive is 6 feet and 2 inches tall.

[chernobog13]

Sandman and Sandy meet up with the Crime Carnival!

From Adventure Comics (vol. 1) #84 (March 1943), by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby.