#police comics

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Vintage Comic - Police Comics #023

Pencils: Jack Cole

Inks: Jack Cole

Quality (Oct1943)

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The year was 1942 and this is how Jack Cole was paneling his comic book stories, it's so dynamic and interesting to look at, highlighting different aspects of the scenes using different angles and paneling designs. Plastic Man as a character is pretty strong as well, playing with the moral ambiguity of being both a criminal and a cop, using both sides to accomplish what he believes is right, turning his criminal expertise in investigative abilities. It's no wonder from issue #9 onward his stories went from the middle of the book to the opening pages, also gaining a 3 extra pages upgrade to develop more complex narratives, and consistently featuring on the cover.

American war propaganda was starting to seep into the comic book medium, so the stories were getting progressively more anti-fascist and more racist against Asian people, especially the Japanese. It can be uncomfortable to read (probably not as uncomfortable as more nationalist superheroes and books from the time), but it's a glimpse into the way of thinking of the status quo in that moment and an interesting perspective into our shared history.

Either way, Plastic Man stories were getting better and better structurally as Jack Cole seems to find his own pace and style.

From Police Comics #9 (1942) by jack Cole

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Police Comics #40 March 1945

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Plastic Man

Police Comics #40: Who Put the Overalls in Mrs. Murphy's Chowder?

by Jack Cole

[comic-covers]

(1943)

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Will Eisner “The Spirit” Original Art splash page for The Haunted House, Police Comics #19 (May 1943) Source

With colors by Joe Kubert (per GCD)

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Phantom Lady is featured here in her Police Comics incarnation. I have covered Sandra Knight’s origins and back story in an earlier blog, but her original appearances are distinctive for her, less face it, extremely skimpy yellow attire. When Sandra transitioned to her own title, she took on the look of a 1940s Hollywood starlet but her costume, while hardly modest, wasn’t quite as sexualised as in her earlier appearances. This early overtly voluptuous look of Phantom Lady was not simply a product of mid twentieth century sexism, although that certainly played a part, it was also a genuine attempt to attract the interest of male readers, who it was hoped would be interested in the heroine’s curves, while also retaining the original target fandom of teenage girls and young women, genuinely inspired by this intelligent and fearsome super heroine who always seemed to be one step ahead of the (male) cops, typified by the page featured here (interestingly inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s gothic novella, The Black Cat).

What I also like about the Police Comics version of the character is her look - Sandra appears older and more mature in her Police Comics adventures, making her exploits seem rather more convincing than in her later incarnation where the bored-little-rich-girl aspect of her character predominated.

The page featured above is from the Phantom Lady adventure Mystery of the Black Cat! published in Police Comics #17 (March 1943).

Source: comicbookplus

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Too much perfume in Police Comics #66

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Hmmmmmmm this looks like a case for the Phantom Lady, if ever I saw one!

[browsethestacks]

5 Random Crime Comics

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Today in 1941, Plastic Man debuted in Police Comics #1!

Created by Jack Cole, Plastic Man lived a double life as the criminal Eel O'Brian to aid his super-stretchy crusade against crime.

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I read way more DC comics than Marvel usually, I like reading both, but boy how I envy Marvel's sweet sweet Epic Collection books, there are modern stories, silver and golden age stories (their Human Torch, Namor and War comics from old times), even less popular titles and runs like bronze age She-Hulk and Spider-Woman (I like them both ok?) are all collected and published... Why would DC not go the same route and publish their silver age Legion of Super-Heroes, Superman, Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen comics (that were hugely popular back then), the golden age Police Comics (with all the classic Plastic Man material), Alan Scott's Green Lantern, Jay Garrick's Flash, Captain Marvel comics, some of these are so good, but I have to read them in potato quality in shady websites, at least make digital files of these runs, you don't need to publish them all, but make them accessible, this is your last warning DC, I'm keeping the Bat-family hostage and I'm not afraid to hurt them, make your old stuff accessible!

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Police Comics #98 February 1950

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