Episode 31: Blue Beetle and the Rise of Fox Feature Comics

Simon Carver

The short wave hum is... er, it is crackling across three thousand miles of dark ocean tonight, folks, but if our transmission holds, we are broadcasting live on Thursday, September 25th, 1941. I am looking out a pitch black window here in London. Just two weeks ago President Roosevelt issued that monumental shoot on sight order to the United States Navy after the destroyer USS Greer was targeted by a German submarine off Iceland. And across the continent, the newsboys on the corners are shouting about the brutal siege of Leningrad where over three million citizens are trapped under terrible pressure on the Eastern Front. It is a world on the razor edge of machine age conflict. But back in America, the printing presses are churning out high energy paper dreams at a feverish pace. Welcome to the thirty first episode of Distinguished Comics Radio. I am Simon Carver, broadcasting from our short wave station here in the United Kingdom, and joining us from the KDCR studio in New York is my partner George Wilson. George, how are things looking on the streets of Manhattan tonight?

George Wilson

New York is humming, Simon. The neon is bright, the Dodgers are battling for the pennant, and the newsstands are stacked three feet deep with colorful quarter books and ten cent slicks. And tonight we are stepping for the very first time into the wild, high pressure stable of Fox Feature Syndicate. Victor Fox, the man behind the operation, used to be an accountant for National Comics. Legend has it he looked at the sales receipts for Superman back in 1938, saw the mountain of green folding money coming in, and decided he wanted a piece of that meat pie immediately. So he set up shop at 480 Lexington Avenue, hired the Eisner and Iger packaging studio, and started pumping out comic books on a relentless, frantic schedule where quantity mattered a whole lot more than neat little artistic polish.

Simon Carver

Lexington Avenue! Oh, I, I know that building well, George. Victor Fox was notorious in publishing circles for his... er, his sheer brass neck and loud suits. And in August of 1939, right on the eve of war breaking out in Europe, Fox launched Mystery Men Comics number one, featuring the debut of a brand new character created by Charles Nicholas Wojtkoski, who signed his work simply as Charles Nicholas. That character was the Blue Beetle. Now, while Superman was leaping over skyscrapers with alien strength and Batman was brooding in a Gothic manor, the Blue Beetle started out as something much more grounded, a hard nosed rookie patrolman pounding the pavement in a dingy urban precinct.

George Wilson

That street level beat is precisely why he caught fire with working folks in August of 1939. We were still dragging ourselves out of the tail end of the Great Depression back then, Simon. People were tired of grand, high falutin speeches. They wanted a guy who knew what a wet cobblestone felt like at two in the morning, a cop who faced down loan sharks and extortionists using his fists and a heavy nightstick before he ever put on a fancy blue suit.

Simon Carver

It, it is fascinating to trace his evolution across those first six issues of Mystery Men Comics, George. In issue number one, Dan Garret is a plainclothes officer wearing an ordinary suit and fedora, running around town with a heavy, bulky wireless telephone box strapped to his belt so he can call police headquarters. But by issue number two in September of 1939, he makes a radical shift. He visits his friend Dr. Franz, a brilliant apothecary, who gives him Vitamin 2 X, a special chemical compound that grants Dan temporary super strength and bulletproof stamina. And along with that pill, Dan puts on a blue chainmail tunic and shorts that totally change his silhouette on the page.

George Wilson

That blue tunic design stirred up plenty of talk among the kids in my neighborhood, Simon. Some folks called it a skirt, but if you look at Charles Nicholas's line work, it is clearly inspired by ancient Roman gladiators and medieval chainmail armor. From a practical studio perspective at Eisner and Iger, drawing a flexible mail tunic over shorts was a smart shortcut for fast moving inkers. They did not have time to render intricate muscle anatomy like Fred Ray or Lou Fine. They needed a slick, recognizable shape that could be inked in three minutes flat while the printing presses were already rolling downstairs.

Simon Carver

That tight schedule produced some extraordinarily fast paced four page stories. In Mystery Men Comics number three, published in October 1939, Dan Garret tackles a ruthless loan shark ring that forces desperate, shabbily dressed men to pay double interest or face a brutal beating. Dan disguised himself as a borrower named John Blake, took the beating himself, and then smashed into their secret lair through a glass window to deliver a crushing right hook. And at the end of every case, he leaves a small signed beetle note taped to the precinct door or pinned to a bound gangster, leaving Chief Burke and Officer Mike Mannigan completely baffled.

George Wilson

Issue number four from November 1939 hit even closer to home. A mob boss named Bull Blackart sets up a five hundred dollar protection racket targeting young newsboys on street corners. Blackart's thugs drive a heavy automobile right onto the curb, knocking down a paperboy and leaving him in the hospital. Dan Garret visits the kid in his ward, hands out special Blue Beetle signal whistles to all the newsboys in the ward, and tells them to blow hard whenever trouble shows up. When Blackart's goons try to shake down another kid, the whistle sounds, Blue Beetle drops off a fire escape, and he uses a heavy wooden ladder to scoop up four gangsters in one glorious sweep.

Simon Carver

Oh, those newsboy protection stories bring back such vivid memories of my early reporting days in New York, George. I remember standing outside the old Sun building on shivering November mornings, watching those tough twelve year old kids hustling in thin cloth caps just to bring home forty cents for their mothers. Seeing a comic book hero stand up specifically for those vulnerable working street kids made Blue Beetle feel like a genuine guardian of the neighborhood. And by issue number five in December 1939, the traps get even crazier. A gang drops a solid steel cage over him in a back room, but Dan opens a secret compartment in his belt, pulls out a set of master keys and tiny steel picks, escapes into a closet trap door, and leaps through a third story window right onto the roof of the getaway car!

George Wilson

That brings us straight to the big main course, Simon: the standalone sixty four page giant, Blue Beetle number one, published in March of 1940. The lead story, Blue Beetle 1a, gives us the comprehensive, panel by panel origin story of Dan Garret. Let us walk through these original newsstand pages step by step. Page three opens on a squalid tenement apartment near a rumbling elevated train track in a large eastern city. The date is explicitly given as December 6th, 1916. Inside, patrolman Michael Garret is pacing the floor in a nervous sweat while a stocky doctor delivers a newborn baby boy. Michael smiles and says, sure and he will be the finest man you will ever see.

Simon Carver

It, it is a classic melodrama setup, George. But the tragedy lands almost immediately on panel four. A bold newspaper headline reads Daily Dispatch, December 20th, 1919, Flu Epidemic Spreads. Young Danny Garret is standing in a parlor filled with weeping relatives, asking where his mother is, and his father tells him, Danny, the angels grew lonely and took her to heaven, so be a brave little boy. That loss forces Dan to become fiercely self reliant. On page four, we watch Dan growing up through the 1920s, working odd jobs to help his dad, and stepping in on street corners to protect smaller kids like Billy from neighborhood bullies like Butch.

George Wilson

Page five moves fast, Simon. Dan studies hard, earns a full athletic scholarship to State University, and arrives on campus wearing a modest suit. The rich fraternity boys in tweed coats sneer at him because he is a scholarship kid rather than a banker's son. But Dan stays undaunted. He moves into a cheap boarding house, makes friends with a fellow outsider named Nick Collins, and goes out for the varsity football team. Even though he had never played organized ball before, Coach puts him in at wingback against Cordell Prep. State is down fifteen to zero in the fourth quarter, but Dan receives a handoff on a beautiful reverse, breaks three tackles, and scores the winning touchdown, leading the team through an undefeated season.

Simon Carver

The sports montage on page seven is marvelous, George! We see newspaper headlines screaming Garret Scores, Garret Wins Game! Dan becomes a boxing champion in the ring, a hockey star on the ice, and soon all the top fraternities are sending him formal dance invitations. But just as he is dancing with a lovely girl in his senior year, a telegram arrives from his old family friend, Officer Mike Mannigan. It reads: Your father wounded in line of duty, come at once. Dan rushes to the hospital room, but patrolman Mike Garret dies in his arms, whispering, Danny boy, thank heaven you came in time, I am going to join your mother.

George Wilson

That murder is the core engine of the whole series, Simon. Dan vows right there over his father's bed that he will track down the dirty rats who shot his dad in the back. After graduation, Dan joins the police force and gets assigned to a patrol car with Mike Mannigan. Mannigan tells Dan that right after the shooting, an ace reporter named Karen Dobbs left a sealed letter with the police chief containing the names of the killers, to be opened only if Karen disappeared or died. But the chief locked that letter inside the high security vault at police headquarters, and not even the Mayor can open it without official cause.

Simon Carver

Meanwhile, on page nine, we cut to the plush home of Chick Alonzo, a notorious mobster and gambler. Karen Dobbs is standing in his office, confronting him directly. Alonzo sneers, pulls out a cigarette, and says he has sweet tortures planned for her before he flees over the border. That night, a dark figure in a blue mask picks the high security lock on the police vault, opens the box, and reads Karen's letter. It says Chick Alonzo murdered Mike Garret! The figure replaces the letter, leaves a blue beetle insignia behind, and dashes out into the night to avenge his father.

George Wilson

Page ten delivers pure action, Simon. Alonzo's thugs are binding Karen Dobbs to a chair while Alonzo threatens her with a flashing blade. Suddenly, Blue Beetle drops down from the ceiling rafters, hanging by his knees, and shouts, take your hands off that girl! He crashes into three gunmen, sending them sprawling across the carpet. Karen unties herself, runs to a telephone, and calls police headquarters while Alonzo jumps into a high powered red touring car and speeds toward the state line at ninety miles an hour.

Simon Carver

That chase sequence on page twelve is so wildly dynamic, George! Alonzo is roaring down a winding mountain road, laughing that no one can catch him, when suddenly a small blue beetle alights on the windshield. Alonzo panics, and in the next panel, Blue Beetle smashes right through the canvas roof of the speeding car, grabbing Alonzo by the throat while the automobile veers wildly over a cliff! Blue Beetle controls the wheel, crashes the car safely into a ditch, and drags the unconscious mobster all the way back to police headquarters in the middle of the night.

George Wilson

Page fourteen wraps up the origin with absolute perfection. Blue Beetle cuts the lights at headquarters, drops Chick Alonzo right in front of Sergeant Mannigan's desk with a signed note, and vanishes before the lamps come back on. The next morning, newsboys are crying, Extra! Blue Beetle aids in capture of Alonzo gang! Dan Garret walks his beat in uniform alongside Mike Mannigan. Mannigan says, I would like to catch this Blue Beetle and see what he is like. And Dan smiles under his police cap and says, maybe you will, Mike, maybe you will. It allows Dan to deliver justice while protecting his position as a rookie cop.

Simon Carver

That origin issue set off an absolute explosion of Blue Beetle material in 1940, George. Starting in Mystery Men Comics number seven, published in February 1940, Fox expanded the Blue Beetle feature from four pages to eight full pages. That extra page count completely transformed the storytelling rhythm. Charles Nicholas and the Eisner studio suddenly had space to build intricate multi room hideouts, elaborate car chases, and elaborate trap setups. In Mystery Men number seven, Dan Garret investigates a sinister extortion ring targeting local merchants, complete with secret trap doors under rug runners and a thrilling climax on a waterfront pier.

George Wilson

And Victor Fox did not stop at Mystery Men Comics, Simon. He put Blue Beetle everywhere his presses could reach! Between March 1940 and late 1941, Blue Beetle starred in Mystery Men Comics numbers eight through seventeen, his own quarterly title Blue Beetle numbers two through five, and he co starred alongside Samson and The Green Mask in Big 3 Comics number one in the summer of 1940. That is an enormous wall of paper! Victor Fox was running a total factory system out of the Eisner and Iger studio. They rotated ghost artists like Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, and Bernard Baily across those pages, recycling classic pulp plots to keep the newsstand racks stuffed full every single month.

Simon Carver

It, it really was an assembly line of adventure, George. You would see a plot beat in Blue Beetle number two where gangsters hijack an armored car carrying payroll, and three months later in Mystery Men number twelve, a remarkably similar gang uses a high tech ray machine to pull off the exact same robbery! But despite that repetition, there was an unmistakable energy to it all. The covers were loud, primary red and bright yellow, with Blue Beetle flexing his muscles or leaping off a skyscraper wall, practically grabbing the young reader by the collar and demanding their ten cents.

George Wilson

Now, let us be honest about the quality debate, Simon. Some collectors and critics look back at these 1940 Fox books and turn up their noses because the scripts were rushed and the anatomy was sometimes crooked. But if you were a kid in New York or Chicago in 1940, sitting on a stoop with a nickel soda, Blue Beetle delivered incredible bang for your buck. Superman had the grand cosmic power and Batman had the dark theatrical shadow, but Blue Beetle was always right there in the alleyways, punching out corrupt politicians and loan sharks twice a month. His sheer omnipresence made him a true titan of the early Golden Age.

Simon Carver

He certainly captured the public imagination in a big way, George. Blue Beetle even made the jump to a syndicated daily newspaper strip and a popular radio program right around the same time, proving that Dan Garret's scrappy street level crusade resonated far beyond the comic shop counter. But as the clock on the wall ticks down tonight, we must wrap up our thirty first broadcast of Distinguished Comics Radio. The Atlantic static is picking up, and the wardens are doing their rounds outside my blackout curtains here in London.

George Wilson

For our next standard broadcast, folks, we are returning to the Man of Steel himself! We will be diving deep into Superman's historic 1940 adventures, covering Action Comics issues twenty five through thirty one, along with Superman numbers seven and eight. You will see Luthor's wild science, Lois Lane's fearless reporting, and Superman taking on international saboteurs as the world edges closer to global war.

Simon Carver

Please make sure to send your letters, comments, and favorite Golden Age panel choices to our program inbox at distinguishedcomicsradio@gmail.com. That is distinguishedcomicsradio@gmail.com. We always get a kick out of reading your notes, including those strange messages forwarded to us by our mysterious time traveling producer, Mr. Moore, who keeps telling us about digital websites and future archives that sound like pure science fiction to two old radio men!

George Wilson

From the KDCR studio in New York, where the streetlights are bright and the Dodgers are still fighting, I am George Wilson. Keep your chin up, keep your fists high, and do not take any wooden nickels.

Simon Carver

And from London, under a quiet starlit sky, I am Simon Carver. Keep reading the funny pages, hold fast to democracy, and good night to you all.