Episode 23: The Man of the Hour

Simon Carver

Welcome to the show everybody! I am Simon Carver, broadcasting to you once again from a cold, damp, and completely blacked-out London. It is Tuesday, June 10th, 1941. If you step outside our temporary shortwave transmitter room tonight, you can hear the faint, distant hum of the civil defense wardens patrolling the foggy streets. Just nine days ago, on June 1st, the government instituted clothes rationing across the United Kingdom, and the Manchester Blitz left seventy dead and eighty-six injured. But we are keeping our spirits high, sending our signals across the cold Atlantic to find some light. Joining me from our warm, fully illuminated New York studio on KDCR is my pragmatic partner, George Wilson. George, how are the shores of New York Harbor looking tonight?

George Wilson

Well, Simon, New Yorkis bright and loud, though we are keeping a close eye on the shortwave reports coming from your side of the water. Over here, we are trying to keep our focus on the ballgame. The Dodgers are fighting for the pennant, the jazz clubs on 52nd Street are packed, and the smell of cigar smoke is heavy in the air. But hearing about Manchester... it really makes you think about how we measure time. An hour over there, huddled in a shelter during an air raid, must feel like a lifetime. Over here, an hour at a ballgame goes by in a flash.

Simon Carver

The subjective weight of sixty minutes -- that is exactly the theme of our broadcast tonight, George. An hour can be an eternity, or it can slip through your fingers like sand. And that brings us directly to our subject: the ticking clock of All-American Publications. Tonight, we are opening up the files on Rex Tyler, the brilliant chemist who gains the strength of, as the text says, "chained lightning" for exactly one hour from a miraculous chemical pill of his own invention. We are talking, of course, about the Hourman!

George Wilson

Hourman. Now, he is a character who lives and dies by the clock. No alien heritage, no magic rings. Just a man, a chemistry lab, and a little pill called Miraclo. If he does not finish the job in sixty minutes, he is just another guy in a bright suit. It is a brilliant, stressful premise for a mystery man, Simon. It gives every single panel an automatic deadline.

Simon Carver

It really does. And to bring this time-sensitive hero to life in the pages of Adventure Comics, it took the exceptional minds of writer Gardner Fox and artist Bernard Baily. Our technical producer, the mysterious Mr. Moore, who claims to be transmitting to us from some electronic lounge in the twenty-first century, tells us this will be a particularly interesting run of comics to cover tonight: Adventure Comics numbers forty-eight through fifty-seven, All Star Comics numbers one and two, and the grand New York World's Fair Comics 1940!

George Wilson

That is a heavy stack of dimes, Simon. And a lot of Miraclo pills to swallow. Let us roll up our sleeves and dive straight into where it all began: March 1940, Adventure Comics number forty-eight.

Simon Carver

Let us open up Adventure Comics number forty-eight, cover-dated March 1940. The splash page introduces us to Rex Tyler, a young chemist at the Bannermain Laboratories. The caption tells us he has discovered "Miraclo," a powerful chemical that transforms him from a mild scientist into the underworld's most formidable foe. But we start with a very human piece of business: Rex has placed an anonymous ad in a metropolitan daily paper that reads, "To the oppressed: Young man anxious to help the oppressed, offers services free to all who need him. Apply Box 21, Post Office."

George Wilson

An anonymous classified ad! That is some real, low-rent detective work. But it pays off! He gets a letter from a Mrs. J. Kennedy. She writes that her husband lost his job, grew desperate, and has fallen in with a dangerous gang of thieves. They are planning a massive robbery at the upcoming Beaux Arts Ball that very night.

Simon Carver

Exactly. And Rex realizes he has to act fast. In his laboratory, we see him mixing a vial of "the precious fluid" that will make him invincible. He pours it into a small pill mold. He says, "The grand march is at eleven -- I'll take this one minute before eleven!" He also fills a special ring on his finger with a powerful tear gas concentrate.

George Wilson

A tear gas ring! Now that is a gadget I can get behind. Simple, mechanical, and highly effective. But that countdown panel -- "One minute to eleven. Miraclo, do your stuff!" -- that is where the tension starts. He swallows the pill, slips into his costume, and sneaks into the ball just as the clock strikes eleven and the lights are mysteriously cut!

Simon Carver

The lights go out, and in the blackness, we hear the screams: "My pearls! They're gone!" The thieves have snatched the famous Van Shelton pearls. But with the extra-normal sight granted by the Miraclo, the Hourman can see perfectly in the dark! He spots the thieves escaping in a red sedan.

George Wilson

And he chases them on foot! Think about that -- a car speeding down the street, and this fella in a hood is keeping pace, leaping into the air, and landing right on the roof of the sedan. But then, a screaming police car coming from the other direction hits the getaway car, throwing Hourman clear off the roof!

Simon Carver

He gets knocked flying, but he recovers instantly, shouting, "Wow! That had almost as much kick as Miraclo!" He tracks the gangsters to their brownstone hideout on Tenth Street. We look at the clock on the wall inside the hideout: it is eleven-forty PM. He only has twenty minutes left!

George Wilson

Twenty minutes to bust up a gang of armed robbers. Hourman crashes through the door, releases his tear gas from his ring, and completely blinds the thugs. He grabs Kennedy, the desperate husband, and carries him up to the roof. Now, here is where George's gray worldview comes in: Hourman literally holds Kennedy over the edge of the building, threatening to drop him thirty floors to the pavement unless he promises to go straight!

Simon Carver

It is a brutal, terrifying lesson! Kennedy is screaming, "I'll go home! Only don't throw me off!" Hourman drops him safely back on the roof, but then we see a dramatic panel: "I'm growing weak! This stuff is wearing off!" The clock strikes twelve, the sixty minutes are up, and Rex Tyler is instantly turned back into his meek, tired civilian self.

George Wilson

And the next morning, his boss at Bannermain Laboratories is yelling at him for being a "timid soul" who does nothing but dawdle over test tubes. It is a beautiful contrast, Simon. But we have to talk about the confusion in this early run regarding his name. In the splash, he is introduced as "Tick-Tock Tyler, the Hourman." Some of the characters literally ask him, "Tyler? Say, you don't happen to be Tick-Tock Tyler, the Hourman?" It is like his secret identity is barely a secret, or they are mixing up his superhero name with his actual civilian surname!

Simon Carver

It is incredibly messy, George! In these early issues, Gardner Fox is clearly playing with the nomenclature. Sometimes he is Rex Tyler, sometimes the criminals refer to the mystery man himself as "Tick-Tock Tyler." And his costume has this striking, gothic look -- a full yellow cowl that drapes over his shoulders like a medieval executioner's hood, paired with a black long-sleeve shirt, yellow trunks, and a miniature hourglass hanging around his neck. It is dark, theatrical, and completely different from the sleek, athletic outfits we are starting to see elsewhere.

George Wilson

Well, that yellow cowl certainly stands out on the newsstand. But let us move on to Adventure Comics number forty-nine, where we get a story about a crooked horse racing syndicate. A gangster named Nick Bates wants to buy into a dark horse named Blue Bell, owned by James Carren. When Carren refuses to sell, Bates's thugs beat him within an inch of his life.

Simon Carver

They leave him for dead on a Long Island road, George. Rex Tyler hears the news over the radio in his lab, takes a Miraclo pill, and races to the Manhattan Derby. He confronts Bates's thugs at the track, but one of them sneaks up behind him and knocks him cold with a lead pipe. Here we see the limits of his power -- Miraclo makes him strong, but he can still be caught off guard by a simple, blunt instrument.

George Wilson

A lead pipe to the back of the head -- that will put anyone down, chemist or not. But he recovers, saves Blue Bell from being shot during the race by a gangster posing as a track photographer, and delivers the syndicate to the police just as his hour runs out. Then, in issues fifty and fifty-one, we get a truly bizarre two-part saga involving Silo's Wax Museum.

Simon Carver

The wax museum! A mad scientist named Dr. Morté is using an "artificial heart" and a chemical called "plastick-skin" to literally bring statues of dead historical criminals back to life! He revives Alvin Kartis and Two-Gun Carmody, two notorious killers who died in a gun duel with G-men, and sends them out to rob banks and do his bidding.

George Wilson

Resurrecting dead gangsters to rob banks! That is some proper, pulp-fiction weirdness. Hourman tracks Morté to his secret lab, but because his Miraclo wears off, he is captured. Dr. Morté actually forces Hourman to assist him in his experiments, but Rex secretly concocts a fresh batch of Miraclo using the lab's chemicals, swallows it, and smashes the revival machinery, melting the animated wax gangsters back into puddles of grease!

Simon Carver

It is a fantastic, macabre visual by Bernard Baily. The gangsters literally melt away like candles. But speaking of recurring villains, let us look at Adventure Comics number fifty-two. This issue features the second appearance of Dr. Snegg, a brilliant but twisted hypnotist who uses a double named Wallace to frame the Hourman for bank robberies.

George Wilson

Snegg! Now, he is an interesting case. He is one of the very few villains in this entire early era to actually make a return appearance. Most of these doctors -- Dr. Morté, Dr. Togg, Dr. Slight -- they show up for one story and are never heard from again. It is surprising, because a recurring rogue like Dr. Snegg really helps build a hero's world. If you do not have a regular antagonist, you are just fighting the flavor of the month.

Simon Carver

That is a great point, George. And it makes us think about how Hourman's relationship with time compares to someone like the Flash, whom we discussed in our last episode. The Flash's relationship with time is fluid, almost infinite -- he can vibrate through walls, run backward through seconds, and outrun light itself. But Hourman's relationship with time is mechanical, strict, and completely unyielding. He is a prisoner of the clock. Every second he spends searching a room or talking to a witness is a second of super-strength he can never get back.

George Wilson

It is a tax on his heroism, Simon. Every time he takes that pill, the sand starts running. He cannot afford to be elegant. He has to be direct, brutal, and fast.

Simon Carver

And that brings us to the summer of 1940. In All Star Comics number one, Hourman joins several other mystery men to swap stories, and then in the New York World's Fair Comics 1940, we get a delightful story where Rex Tyler is representing Bannermain Laboratories at the Flushing Meadows fairgrounds. He ends up saving a little girl named Rose and her father, Gerald Rochester, from a gang of tire thieves who are trying to sabotage a fox hunt on their country estate.

George Wilson

A fox hunt! That is some high-society business for a kid from New York. But the big shift happens in Adventure Comics number fifty-three, cover-dated August 1940. This is the first appearance of Jimmy "Minute Man" Martin and the creation of the Minute-Men of America!

Simon Carver

Yes! The story deals with the Tareff Factory, a terrible sweatshop where children are being overworked and undernourished. One of the boys, Billy Martin, actually collapses and dies of heart failure at his machine. His brother, Jimmy Martin, vows to expose the factory owner, Tareff, but Tareff's thugs kidnap Jimmy to keep him quiet.

George Wilson

Child labor in a New York factory -- that is a dirty, real-world crime. Hourman rescues Jimmy, smashes Tareff's operation, and forces a local politician to sign over the business to a reformer. But after the battle, Jimmy reveals he is an amateur radio ham. He suggests that he could organize a club of boys all over the country, using shortwave radio sets to act as Hourman's scouts.

Simon Carver

The Minute-Men of America! It is a brilliant, highly practical concept for a hero whose power is time-sensitive. If Hourman only has sixty minutes of strength, he cannot spend forty of those minutes riding the subway looking for the crime. He needs scouts to find the trouble, verify the details, and then call him in via shortwave radio so he can drop in, take his pill, and clean house in a matter of minutes.

George Wilson

It is a great mechanic, Simon. In Adventure Comics number fifty-four, we see it in action. A wealthy banker's son, Rodney Morvan, is kidnapped by a ransom gang. Rodney's father wants to pay the ransom, but Rodney's mother refuses, claiming the Minute-Men perform real service. Jimmy Martin uses his portable radio to coordinate with other boys, tracking the kidnappers' car by looking for unique, crescent-shaped tire treads!

Simon Carver

Crescent tire treads! That is some classic schoolboy detective work. But we have to contrast Jimmy Martin with Robin, the Boy Wonder, who debuted in Detective Comics number thirty-eight just a few months earlier. Robin became an absolute sensation because he was a partner who shared the panels, shared the danger, and had a deep, emotional, surrogate-father relationship with Batman. But Jimmy Martin is... well, he is more of a dispatcher. He stays at the radio, or he coordinates other kids from a distance.

George Wilson

And that is why Robin works better, Simon. Robin is in the room. He is swinging from the rafters. Minute Man Martin is a smart kid, but these six-page anthology stories in Adventure Comics are just too short to build a real, emotional partnership. Robin has the luxury of twelve or fifteen pages to let the relationship breathe. Jimmy Martin is a plot device to save Hourman's sixty minutes. It is clever, but it lacks the heart.

Simon Carver

It really does. Let us look at the final run of our stack. In All Star Comics number two, we see Hourman teaming up with the other mystery men to stop a ring of international saboteurs. Then in Adventure Comics number fifty-five, we get a story about a "Youth Government Week" in the city of Cosmos, where Jimmy Martin is appointed police commissioner, only to stumble upon a massive bank robbery plot involving a shipment of sleeping gas.

George Wilson

Sleeping gas at the Apex Theatre! Hourman has to chase the crooks' car, gets knocked out by a smoke gas device attached to their exhaust pipe, but the Minute-Men drop a message from the window of the getaway car to guide him to the next robbery at the Lyceum Theatre. It is a fantastic, high-speed chase. But my favorite has to be issue fifty-six, with Dr. Slight and "Castle Doom."

Simon Carver

Castle Doom! Dr. Slight has built this massive medieval castle on Lonely Island. He is using a secret chemical to bring plaster statues of circus performers and animals to life, including a giant strongman named Sandow and a literal flying pegasus! The pegasus is actually used to drop bombs on a local munitions plant!

George Wilson

A flying pegasus dropping bombs! That is pure, golden-age fever dream territory, Simon. Hourman gets trapped in a steel coffin by Dr. Slight, but he uses his tear gas ring to melt the lock, smashes the machinery, and defeats Sandow with a right cross to the midriff. But then we hit Adventure Comics number fifty-seven, and we meet Dr. Togg.

Simon Carver

Dr. Togg! This is one of the most memorable, bizarre stories of the entire run. Togg is a mad geneticist operating out of a secluded lab on Wide Island. He is creating "Gombezi" -- monstrous, half-man, half-bird hybrid beasts that he has trained to fly around and rob banks, blinding the guards with chemical gas.

George Wilson

Half-man, half-bird monsters robbing banks! That is some heavy, gothic horror. And we have to talk about the artist, Bernard Baily. Baily brings this incredible, thick, dark line to the page. His work on the Spectre is legendary for its atmosphere of dread and menace, and you can see that exact same heavy, shadow-draped ink style in these Hourman pages. The Gombezi monsters look genuinely creepy, flapping their wings in the dark.

Simon Carver

They really do. Baily and Gardner Fox created a character who is constantly racing against his own human limitations, George. And as we look ahead to our next standard broadcast, we will be diving into the grand, winged debut of Hawkman in Flash Comics numbers one through thirteen and All Star Comics numbers one and two!

George Wilson

Hawkman! Now there is a hero with some real, ancient pedigree. I cannot wait to sink my teeth into those wings.

Simon Carver

Before we sign off, friends, our technical producer, that mysterious Mr. Moore, insists we remind you to send your letters, your questions, or your favorite panels to our shortwave mailbag at distinguishedcomicsradio@gmail.com.

George Wilson

That is distinguishedcomicsradio@gmail.com. Write in, folks. Tell us if you think Miraclo is a good idea or if Rex Tyler should just stick to standard calisthenics.

Simon Carver

Keep your dials tuned, keep your courage high in these uneasy times, and from a resolute, blacked-out London, this is Simon Carver saying good night.

George Wilson

And from New York, where the studio lamps are warm and the Dodgers are still in first place, this is George Wilson. Good night, folks, and keep your eyes on the clock!