The Golden Age Comic Blog (Hawkman page 32)

[John Moores]

Comic Cavalcade #13 is another Liars Club tale, and once again all ears are on Jay Garrick and one of his tall tales about the Flash. Since it's Christmastime, Jay has a yarn ready to go about Flash discovering Santa Claus!

Here's how the story goes:
Jay is in his lab one day, when the Dimwits burst in, eager to help; but their clowning around soon means they get short shrift. Jay is searching for the cure for the common cold and mustn't be disturbed. Meanwhile, mobster "Soft-Hearted" Sam Snark is listening to his gang complain about being roughed up by the Scarlet Speedster; however, soon enough Sam gives up listening to take a look at his toy collection, which is his pride and joy.

Later, Sam and a couple of his mob are taking a walk when the Dimwits overhear him being referred to as "Soft-Hearted" and so they accost the mobster, hoping to interest him in financing their inventions. Sam recognises the idiots, knows of their friendship with the Flash and so agrees, putting them to work toot sweet. Sure enough, Noddy, with his somewhat subconscious genius, soon invents a time machine of sorts. Sam is intrigued, and resolves to try it.

Jay finds out upon leaving his lab from the friendly beat cop that the idiots were seen with Sam, which sets the alarm bells off, and soon the Flash is at the crooks place, prankishly giving the gang a hard time, until Sam with the Dimwits and two of his own henchmen, activates the machine, disappearing immediately.

As Flash investigates the machine, he accidentally activates it, and so also disappears. Turns out everyone (including Flash, who is a little bit behind Sam and co.) is in a snowy environment, due to Sam's designs - as a toy collector, he's travelled back in time to the early eighteenth century, the days of the most famous toymaker of all!

Sure enough, Sam bursts in on the kindly, white-bearded toymaker, because the toys the toymaker shapes would be worth thousands back in the mid-twentieth century. Alas for Sam, soon the Flash, with his tremendous speed, has zoomed around and spotted the time-refugees, partly due to their outlandish (for c. 1700) clothes.
Once again, the JSAer goes All Flash on the crooks, and Sam makes his escape again, through the window this time. Flash is introduced to the toymaker, Nick, but apparently doesn't yet know he's in the past.

Nick relates his sadness that the poor children are deprived of toys, and Flash hits on an idea; whilst he searches for bad old Sam, Nick can distribute presents! Why, they could put them in this sled, and Flash could pull it at speed, although it looks like reindeers are doing it. And the Dimwits? They could be elves. Or gnomes. Shortly, Nick is ready for action, dressed in a familiar red suit with white fur trimming, and then, even the Dimwits catch on...

And so, while keeping an eye for Sam, the unseen speed king transports Santa around whilst he distributes presents with the help of his "gnomes", making kids' wishes and dreams come true. And when all is done, there's one last "present" in the sack: a hiding Sam Snark! No wonder they couldn't find him.

Back at the Liars Club, the members listen, and reject Jays story; after all, the Flash has done so much incredible stuff, there's a kind of logic to the tale. The real irony: Jay actually DID make the story up! Ah, well!

[SDcomics]

Comic Cavalcade number 13 was published in the Winter of 1945.  The cover was penciled and inked by Everett E. Hibbard.

"The Story of the First Santa Claus" was written by Garden Fox and penciled and inked by Jon Chester Kozlak.

[John Moores]

Comic Cavalcade #14, and more Liars Club! Man...

Anyway, Jay is at the club meeting, and has to top, apparently, a tale about a dancing fish. So here goes:

The Flash Gang (Jay, Joan and the Dimwits - who Jay refers to as "[his] nitwit friends") are sunning themselves at the beach, with the Dimwits intending to build a beachhouse, for parties and stuff. While the standard slapstickery (including Winky attempting carpentry whilst standing on a horse - don't ask!) transpires, we switch to a group of crooks who have recently moved into the same seaside town. It turns out that one of the gang has a perfect hideout from the law - a fourth dimensional house!
Mushmouth - the member of the gang in question - doesn't accompany the gang on that night's heist, presumably because he was mocked for his alleged refuge from justice. However, Jay has invented an electric eye alarm to indicate that the bank the gang are robbing is indeed being looted (and the Club don't even believe this!) In the blink of an eye, The Flash is speeding through the streets, and begins to rout the would-be thieves in his usual manner. Some escape, however, and soon are waking Mushmouth up to take advantage of his alleged hideout.

At the bank, Flash is just about to blindsided by a thug with a cudgel. And at the beach, the Dimwits have finished their (strangely elaborate) beach-house. As they banter, first a caveman, then a long necked dinosaur appear at the windows. Say what? As other weird things appear, the panicking Dimwits make an escape, only to run into Mushmouth Macroon. Here, of course, after Mushmouth checks it out for himself, is the fourth-dimensional house. Noddy agrees to rent the house to Mushmouth for a thousand dollars and therefore, Mushmouth has gathered his fellow fugitives there to get "lost" in there. Time really is messed up in this story!

Flash appears soon after, having canvassed the surrounding area for the fugitives. He hypothesises after seeing the house that the trio have warped time and space, the house design being "cosmic keys" to open up the space-time continuum. Okay, Jay.

After finding out that the crooks are in the house somewhere (as if that phrase has any meaning), the Flash speeds in after them, only to find a massive desert. Eventually, Flash discovers a tower in the unearthly desert, filled with bizarre, human-shaped statues...and the crooks, hiding behind them. Flash sets to work when the crooks tip their hand, but soon there's another concern, as it turns out the statues are actually sentinent men of marble. The marble-men begin to pursue Mushmouth, so Flash attempts to rescue the crook, even though the statue men are mighty tough. The marble-men give the crooks a hard time, but Flash saves the human fugitives with his mighty speed.

As the group escape the tower, they are battered by a mighty desert wind, but the scirocco luckily carries them all (with the exception of the wily Mushmouth) out of the escape window of the 4-D house. Covered with sand, Flash nonetheless brings the gang to justice - and they're glad to be safe in jail. Flash boards up the windows and doors of the house, and Mushmouth is left in there, propelled up by a spring of water!

And so ends the story, and through Jay protests it's true, the Club once again refuse to believe him. Thanks for that.

[SDcomics]

Comic Cavalcade number 15 was published in June-July of 1946.  The cover was penciled and inked by Frank Harry.

"Spend Till It Hurts" was written by Gardner Fox and penciled and inked by Jon Chester Kozlak.

[John Moores]

^This cover really ups the ante as regards to the danger our heroes face.

Seriously though, I would love to see a modern cover with Flash, GL and Wonder Woman doing the spring cleaning.

[John Moores]

Poor old Jay, pulled into a family argument in Comic Cavalcade #15 - it's a garden party at the Merritt mansion, and young Johnny Merritt is embroiled into a disagreement with his moneybags uncle - that a man couldn't spend fifty thousand dollars in a day. To prove his nephew wrong, Merritt Snr. resolves to give the young man the cash, but he HAS to spend it.

There's a method to the elder Merritts madness, as he explains to Jay - the wealthy man doesn't want an irresponsible playboy inheriting the family plane business, and hopefully this will teach Johnny a lesson. Can he spend the cash by six that evening?

So to begin, it's off to the most expensive restaurant in town, to run up a huge bill and enjoy some wonderful food at the same time. Alas, here's where it starts to go wrong, already, because the waiters in this exclusive place are...yes, it's the Dimwits! (How did they get employed there?) After some standard sub-Stooges tomfoolery, the trio (of course) are hired by Johnny as guides to help spend the cash. It doesn't take a genius to see where this is going...

Meanwhile, Jay is of course concerned, what with the desperate underground characters who'd kill for less than fifty grand. And this is before he knows the Dimwits are involved!
Johnny has already hit a spot of bad luck, because it turns out Merritt senior owns the restaurant, and therefore they couldn't think of charging his nephew. There's time for the plot to thicken further, though, because the Merritt butler owes some shady characters two hundred dollars, and they've come to collect. To remove this threat, the gentleman's gentleman tells the crooks about Merritt's endeavour. Of course.

At the high-end stores, the Dimwits and Johnny are running through a little more chaos, when the thugs enter, waylay Johnny and attempt to frisk him. The Flash, of course, shows up in the proverbial nick, and gives the crooks the benefit of his usual pranksterish "it's a hurricane!" routine. This done, the Flash makes his presence known to Johnny and the Dimwits. Who, as it turns out, are the millionth customer, so they get everything for free, because it's this type of story.

Meanwhile, Muggsy and Sluggsy, the two thugs have recovered and have met a friend, who puts them on another tack - getting underworld lookouts together to find an apposite moment wherein the Flash isn't around. As Johnny laments his non-spending ability, Flash takes this opportunity to give the Dimwits some light-hearted guff about their non-helpful brand of assistance.

Off to the casino, a surefire waste...except for once, the Dimwits are lucky! Bursting in, here are the crooks again, and Flash, still there but invisible, has to stop laughing at his "sidekicks", and spring into action. One super-speed defeat of the criminals later, Flash tells Merritt Senior that his nephew couldn't spend the money, and couldn't help making cash, which pleases the rich man no end. This happy ending turns out happiest for the Dimwits, as they're given the fifty grand plus! Will this state of affairs endure and continue into the following tale? Probably not, but on the other hand, it IS the Dimwits; they could easily lose fifty grand and more pretty easily with some patented idiocy!

[John Moores]

And so to Comic Cavalcade #16, and the story of Curt Ronald, an aspiring piano player whose main ambition is to play in the number one band in the country, which is led by Barry Brown. To this end, Curt constantly practices; his need to be the best leads him to take piano-playing jobs in less than salubrious places. Gaining an audition with Brown in a swanky restaurant / casino, the bandleader is impressed, but not enough to give the young piano player a job, saying that there's a touch that the big bands have that Curt doesn't quite have.

Disconsolate, Curt leaves, and decides to have a small gamble. In the game room, Curt passes Jay Garrick and Joan Williams, who are taking a leisurely look round (Because JSAers don't gamble, of course!), and our focus therefore moves onto them for awhile. It turns out that this place (Joan is told) loses money every night, because of its scrupulous honesty etc. However, as Jay sees a city swell drop something - a cigarette case - from his pocket, our focus moves again, and we find that the casino is NOT honest at all, and the winning customers are later robbed outside the premises.

Jay attempts to return the case to its owner, and in doing so, stumbles upon the hijacking. Switching to the Flash, Jay gives the criminals the usual hard time and returns the would-be victims case. Meanwhile, Curt Roland has resolved to give it another chance, and to be in the right place at the right time, applies for (and gets) a job as waiter.

The following day, Jay does a little research about the casino, and finds a high number of "coincidental" robberies having taken place after big winners have left. And so Jay and Joan hit the premises again that night, and predictably, gain a big win, and just as predictably, their car is waylaid on the way home. Of course, Jay soon "disappears" from the drivers seat, and pranksterish mishaps begin occuring for the would-be hijackers.
After Flash has his fun, he trails the crooks back to the casino, and begins interrogating the crooks' boss. Hearing a commotion, Curt sneaks up and knocks Flash out with a bottle, thinking that Flash is the criminal in this instance. D'oh!

Flash recovers, and leaves, resolving to stake out the casino invisibly. This he does for the next two weeks, but finds no foul play, as the place is keeping its nose clean. Meanwhile, Curt asks for another audition from Barry Brown, but is, alas, refused. But the plot thickens: Barry Brown is behind the crooked scams, and gaining possession of the company ledgers on the advice of an anonymous letter, Flash confronts the bandleader, and defeats both him and the entire gang. And so, Curt bursts in at the end, demanding to be arrested! Why? Because he sent the anonymous letter and claims to be one of the gang. Because...once in the big house, Barry Brown runs the prison orchestra, and Curt is definitely a shoo-in as the 88 keys player in the less selective prison environment! And so, Curt is happy at last shooting the keys, but this whole story is somewhat strange, although it's a nice turnabout from the usual happy ending, isn't it? And was Curt simply not good enough after all at piano?

File this one under "bizarre". Seriously, it's like the writer just got bored halfway through. Then again, at least it wasn't in any way predictable.

[SDcomics]

Comic Cavalcade number 16 was published in August-September of 1946.  The cover was penciled and inked by Everett E. Hibbard.

"Pound the Ivories, Pal" was written by Gardner Fox and penciled and inked by Martin Naydel.

[John Moores]

Comic Cavalcade #17. Oh yes. Our story begins as Flash is running some crooks out of town in the usual style. Meanwhile, the Dimwits are checking their mail, and it transpires that Noddys uncle, "Moneybags" Hezekiah, has died, leaving his nephew his estate. Noddy dreams of being a gentleman farmer and sipping mint juleps, but it turns out that the estate is, shall we say...a tad run-down. After some standard issue slapstickery, the estate blows down (yes!) leaving not much but a tractor. And so, the Dimwits seek to make the best of the bequest, with their savant-like skill with mechanics, and spend thirty hours fixing up the vehicle.

Turns out the tractor can now fly.

And of course, once it does, and erratically too, it's spotted by the trio of crooks the Flash had run out of town. Sure enough, the crooks are able to talk rings round the Dimwits, fooling them into a "business partnership" using the supercharged tractor.
When the nitwitted trio touch base with Jay Garrick and Joan Williams, Jay suspects that the crooks' story is suspect after checking the alleged "buried treasure" the crooks claim to have uncovered - a seemingly newly minted coin. Jay vows to investigate, and next moment the Flash is streaking along the road. Finding a department store in town which has a massive hole drilled in the floor, having been robbed, Flash heads down the long tunnel until he catches up with the tractor and its unlawful drivers. The Fastest Man Alive gives the villains / drivers of the super tractor/mole yet another hard time in the usual style. Alas, a large branch is dislodged in the turmoil, rendering the Flash unconscious.

An hour later, when the Flash revives, the crooks are of course long-gone, and the Dimwits are angry having been played for idiots (although, of course, it's not inaccurate...) and the three, especially Winky, want revenge. (Also, fun fact about Winky: he used to be an elevator operator!) Finding the crooks, the trio confront them with the shiny new quarter evidence. Unfortunately, the Dimwits are held hostage as the crooks attempt another daring theft.

As this happens... Jay and Joan are having a bbq! But the ground shakes as the tractor moves underground elsewhere, allowing Flash to zoom off and track them down. Heading for Olinville, the Flash manages to get there before the crooks and Dimwits. We know this because when the crook / Dimwit party reach the actual underground "buried treasure" with the super-tractor and open a chest, out pops the Flash with a haymaker. Flash takes out the crooks, then tells the Dimwits to wait whilst he runs the villains into custody. Blinky, however, argues that they don't need to wait for the Crimson Comet; "Let's beat it and surprise him and see Joan!"

On the way though, they crash the tractor, rendering it useless. By the time they've got there, walking ten miles lugging the tractor, their steaks are ready, yes, but they won't be eating them... as they've fallen asleep!

[John Moores]

It's Comic Cavalcade #18, and the gang have gone mountain climbing. Oh, Jay and Joan are pretty good at it, but the Dimwits, not so much. After some preliminary slapstick, the guys encounter an incredibly sure-footed old guy, standing on a ledge. However, the old geezer gets real angry when someone incidentally mentions money. Running away from the cranky old guy, the Dimwits soon become a huge, rolling snowball, and it's up to Jay, of course, to switch to Flash and save them before they roll over the edge. After everyone is safe, the old guy appears again, and we hear his story: He hates money, but when he needs some, he just goes into a trance, and finds some! Scared that something criminal is happening, the old guy made his way into seclusion to avoid money. The Dimwits have the answer though; they have no money (despite having fifty grand at the end of issue 15) and are happy. They convince the old fellow to join them and see how it's easy to get along without cash, and once down the mountain, go to eat in town.

While the Dimwits and their new friend are enjoying their jelly sandwiches and chocolate ice-cream, we find that two city criminals are hiding out in the secluded mountain town too.
When it turns out the Dimwits haven't the cash to pay for their repast, the old guy, as good as his word, suddenly appears with lots of cash out of nowhere, sparing the Dimwits dishwashing duty. Interested, as you can imagine, the two criminals confront the old man, telling him his story of just coming up with cash in a trance is baloney. Stung, the old fellow does it again, but this time, we, the reader, follow him. Turns out he's getting rolls of cash he sniffed out from under a mattress; he feels bad about "swiping [someone's] life-savings, but..."

As Jay and Joan enter the cafe, one of the crooks produces a fake badge, and tells the old man, who we find is called Old Josh, he's under arrest. Jay smells a rat, and this is confirmed when the other crooks reflexively runs in fear upon sight of Jay in his Flash garb. Sure enough, Flash starts in on the criminal duo, but alas, Winky, attempting to help, ends up smacking the wrong combatant (i.e. the Scarlet Speedster) by accident.

As Old Josh makes his way back to his mountaintop refuge, he's trailed by the crooks, who've made an exit while Flash is recovering. Still thinking that the criminal duo are police, Josh worriedly agrees to accompany them, because they'll let him go if he sniffs out some money. Sure enough, Josh actually DOES seem have the power to find money, but whilst engaged with his bizarre ability back at the same house he ransacked before, he's unknowingly trailed by the invisible speedster, who plants some cash to trap the old recluse. Sure enough, Josh takes the cash, and brings it back to the two crooks. However, of course, he's also brought the Crimson Comet with him, and without - as Flash says - "That dope Winky [to] conk [him] on the head!", the super-hero can give the criminals his usual pranksterish cyclone treatment. In the midst of this, however, Josh gets accidentally hit by a flying foot belonging to a hapless criminal, and this, of course, frees him from his current mental state; his memory is returned.

As it turns out, he once fell off a ladder and lost his memory, which triggered off his strange mental state - he literally forgot himself. And as you've no doubt deduced, the money and house he ransacked were, of course, his own. All's well that end's well once again!

[SDcomics]

Comic Cavalcade number 18 was published in December-January of 1947.  The cover was penciled and inked by Everett E. Hibbard.

"The Galloping Greenbacks" was written by Gardner Fox and penciled and inked by Everett E. Hibbard (signed as E. E. Hibbard).

[John Moores]

It's the Liars Club again in Comic Cavalcade #19. Yet again, Jay is sharing a story, claiming it really happened:

Tag Madden, number one gangster, breaks into a reclusive old scientists' house; he has heard that the scientist has invented a speed serum (shades of old Prof. Gill's Johnny Quick serum, perhaps?) and taking said serum, gains super-speed to rival the Flash. Ironically, the Flash is at that moment in pursuit of Madden, but obviously the equally speedy gangster soon turns the super-speed heat back on the hero. Travelling back in time through sheer velocity, Madden attempts to delay the Flash by placing an innocent in danger for the JSAer to rescue; said innocent turns out to be the legendary Pocahontas. Through the speedsters intervention, the Indian maid saves Captain John Smith.

Hurtling back further, Flash encounters Shakespeare, swaps small talk and introduces the famous scribe to the concept of shorthand (!) and next trails his quarry to the Battle of Jericho. As the walls come tumbling down as legend decrees, the chase continues into prehistoric times, with Flash knocking his foe through a tree in the straw/hurricane paradigm. A further speed battle concerning large rocks seems to build the Alps (!) and shuttling back and forth throughout time, the duos speed makes an ordinary carpet in ancient Mesopotamia appear to "fly".

Switching methods, Tag suddenly veers off to the far future, but both runners are snatched up by advanced being requiring their help: the earth is dying, and super-speed would power a machine that would transport the inhabitants of the planet to safety elsewhere in the solar system. Tag and Flash help, but soon enough Tag reverts to his regular moral code and attempts to betray the Flash whilst the duo are helping save the human race. Using both his skill and scientific know-how however, Flash averts this tragedy, saves himself by travelling back up the pipe the duo are implanting, in time to finally down Tag with a super-speedy fist. Back in the present after the fate of the futuremen is vouchsafed, we find that the serum is only temporary and wears off, leaving Tag once more a normal human.

Jay walks away with the Liars Club prize trophy once again, but did it all really happen?

[SDcomics]

Comic Cavalcade number 19 was published in February-March 1947.  The cover was penciled and inked by Everett E. Hibbard.

"The Race Through Time" was written by Gardner Fox (I think) and penciled and inked by Everett E. Hibbard.

[SDcomics]

Comic Cavalcade number 5 was published in the Winter of 1943.  The cover was penciled and inked by Frank Harry.

"The Plant That Challenged the World" was written by Gardner Fox and penciled and inked by Martin Naydel.

This issue contains ads for the Junior Justice Society of America and Hop Harrigan's All-American Flying Club.



Comic Cavalcade number 6 was published in the Spring of 1944.  The cover was penciled and inked by Paul Reinman.

"Topsy Turvy Town" was written by Gardner F. Fox, penciled by Stan Aschmeier and inked by Jon Chester Kozlak. 

"Wonder Woman for Paper Salvage" was a one page public service announcement. It was penciled and inked by Harry G. Peter. 

This issue contains an ad for Hop Harrigan's All-American Flying Club.

[SDcomics]

Comic Cavalcade number 9 was published in the Winter of 1944.  The cover was penciled and inked by Everett E. Hibbard.

"The Tale of the Winged Horse" was written by Gardner Fox and penciled and inked by Jon Chester Kozlak.

This issue contains an ad for the Junior Justice Society of America.

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Mess member Jim Beard helms new Batman TV book!!

Nine Questions with Pamela Des Barres

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