My favorite image from The Golden Age of DC Comics: 365 Days—

Just in case you've ever wondered what it looks like when The Spectre has an orgasm:

(A detail from a story written by Jerry Siegel and drawn by Bernard Baily that originally appeared in 1940's More Fun Comics #60, but I found it in The Golden Age of DC Comics: 365 Days, which I promise I'm almost done using as blog-post fuel. Just one more and then I'm done with it forever. I swear.)

Two more Golden Age super-pets

Alan Scott's canine companion Streak the Wonder Dog wasn't the only Golden Age superhero animal sidekick that Les Daniels, Chip Kidd and copany highlighted in The Golden Age of DC Comics: 365 Days, that book I keep posting scans from. Space is also allotted to Ace the Bat-Hound and two much less-familiar super-pets, one of whom I'd heard of but never seen, and another I'd never even heard of.

The former is Robbie the Robot Dog, the unimaginatively named robot dog of the Golden Age Robotman (not to be confused with The Doom Patrol's Robotman, Cliff Steele, although their origins are quite similar). The original Robotman was scientist Dr. Robert Crane, who had developed a robot for use as a full-body prosthetic. When he was fatally wounded by crooks, he had his assistant stick his brain in the robot body, and thus became an automaton avenger.

He first appeared in Star-Spangled Comics, and later in Detective Comics. (More recently, he was in 1981-87 series All-Star Squadron, James Robinson and Paul Smith's dark 1993 Elseworlds series The Golden Age and (extremely) briefly in Geoff Johns and Lee Moder's short-lived Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. series and Robinson's Starman (though in non-Robotman bodies).

Robbie hasn't gotten around quite as much since the close of the Golden Age.

Here's a 1944 image by Jimmy Thompson:


And here's another Thompson image, from 1947:


More than fifty years before the AIBO! I don't suppose there's much hope in DC reprinting any old Robotman stories, but the art in those panels really is quite charming.

The other super-pet is Airwave's parrot, Static. Or, as Daniels refers to him, "Static the Proverb Parrot." Daniels also goes on to say he was "essentially a pest whose only talent was squawking homilies mixed with wise-cracks. (Having lived with a parrot for two years, I can attest that "essentially a pest" is a good description of any pet parrot).

While I have never read a single Golden Age Airwave story, I've long wanted to, as he seems like such a delightfully weird character.

Law clerk Larry Jordan fought crime using the cutting technology of radio, building himself a costume with dials and antennae on the ears which allowed him to intercept police radios and phone calls. To get around town, he would roller-skate atop the telephone wires. (His grandson is the current Airwave, who had actual superpowers instead of radio-based gadgets. He was a JSA reservist who's been MIA since Infinite Crisis).

The original doesn't pop up very often, although Brad Meltzer did just namedrop him in DC Universe: Last Will and Testament. An Airwave Chronicles or Airwave Archive repring project eems even less likely than a Robotman one; maybe DC could put together some kind of Golden Age sampler someday to include the likes of these guys...?

Here's a 1945 George Roussos image of Static lookng on at Airwave's radio-ears in action:


And here's a 1946 image by Harris Levy, demonstrating how color-coordinated this duo was:


Hmm. Alan Scott's dog Streak, Robotman's robot dog Robbie the Robot Dog, Airwave's parrot Static, Batman's canine crusader Ace the Bat-Hound, Dr. Midnight's owl Hooty, The Shining Knight's pegasus steed Winged Victory, Red Bee's prize bee Michael, Manhunter's dog Thor...that's more than enough for a Golden Age version of the Legion of Super-Pets.

Is the world ready for All-Star Squadron of Super-Pets? I know I am.

The other other wonder dog

In tomorrow’s Teen Titans #62, writer Sean McKeever and artist Eddy Barrows will be introducing Wonderdog into mainstream DCU continuity. (You can read five pages of the issue, during which Wonderdog appears and gets his name and cape, here).

This Wonderdog is, of course, the one from the early ‘70s iteration of Super Friends, the green-caped anthropomorphic dog who hung out with his fellow “junior Super Friends” Wendy and Marvin (whom Geoff Johns added to the Teen Titans line-up after the “One Year Later” jump.)

When McKeever and Teen Titans editor/DC muckety-muck Dan DiDio first started teasing about a wonder dog joining the team, I was initially worried they might have been talking about the DC Universe’s greatest hero, Rex the Wonder Dog, who had previously been hanging out with teenage hero Hero in the pages of Superboy and The Ravers, and Hero subsequently joined a Titans West team that never appeared after their origin story, which Johns co-wrote. So you see, Rex is practically a member already.

(Well, “worried” is probably too strong a word, but I really rather like Rex the Wonder Dog, and would prefer to see him stay in limbo for now rather than suffer the indignities of having to hang around Wendy while she’s dressed like this, or be forced by Clock King II to fight to the death against Ace the Bat-hound in a prelude to Final Crisis or any of the other horrible things that could befall such a character in one of DC's team books).

So last week when I was reading through The Golden Age of DC Comics: 365 Days by Les Daniels, Chip Kidd and Geoff Spear (i.e. That Book I Keep Posting Scans From), I was surprised—no, shocked—to find that there was apparently another wonder dog in DC’s character catalogue, and this original DC wonder dog was actually the pet of one of its Golden Age superheroes, Green Lantern Alan Scott.

Ladies and gentleman, are you familiar with Streak the Wonder Dog?

(Above: Page from 1948's All-American Comics #99; scan lifted from Sleestak)

Debuting in the late ‘40s as the superhero slump was beginning, Streak was the creation of Robert Kanigher, and was introduced in the pages of Green Lantern as GL’s dog.

Here’s the cover of 1948’s Green Lantern #30, which featured “The Saga of Streak”:
(I’m not sure who the curvy dame on the other side of Scott is, but I bet she helped sell just as many issues as the dog trying to deposit his bone at the bank did).

Four issues later, Streak is back on the cover, and what’s this? Green Lantern is not:


Streak also got the cover to himself on 1949’s Green Lantern #36 and #38, the very last issue of this volume of the comic.


Oh man, poor Alan Scott. Hal Jordan fans might have thought they had it bad in the '90s when their Green Lantern lost his book to a brand-new young upstart character like Kyle Rayner, but at least he didn't lose the book to his dog.

Now, if that last cover, featuring a German shepherd perched atop a car full of escaping crooks, reminds you of the sort of thing Rex the Wonder Dog might have done in one of his adventures, there’s probably a good reason for that. According to a 2006 installment of Comic Book Urban Legends, Streak stories continued in Sensation Comics for a while, until Kanigher redeveloped the crime-fighting canine wonder dog concept and launched The Adventures of Rex The Wonder Dog. So does that mean Streak and Rex are related? Has Roy Thomas written a story about this?

Here are two interior images of Streak, culled from The Golden Age of DC Comics. First, despite being leashed and tied up, Alan Scott’s dog wins again, convincing Alan Scott’s secretary to stay on the train they're riding on:


And here’s Streak thinking human thoughts:


All of the above images, by the way, are drawn by Alex Toth. No wonder Streak the Wonder Dog look so wonderful...

Some Golden Age characters DC should consider reviving because, hell, why not?:

1.) The Red Gaucho: Not to be confused with Argentina’s Gaucho (a member in good standing of the Batmen of All Nations/Club of Heroes), The Red Gaucho appeared in a handful of adventures in Nickel Comics and Master Comics, but the closest he came to a cover seems to be having his name on one of the stars below bigger deal super hero Minute Man on one cover (an honor he shares with such loser characters as Zoro With One R).

Apparently, he is a “Yankee-born caballero.” As well as one very relaxed man. Just look how totally chill he is there. You can see a slightly-less comfortable looking Red Guacho in action here.

According to Les Daniels in The Golden Age of DC Comics: 365 Days, Red Gaucho “appeared in a mere six stories; then he was gone like the breeze across the pampas.”

Seems to me like he’d make a great candidate for a Booster Gold guest appearance, or inclusion in the next Dr. 13 story…



2.) Gorrah: Since Asians of all kinds seemed decidedly inhuman in Golden Age comics, this variation of the yellow-skinned, mustachioed devil doctor seems to work a lot better today than many of his peers, on account of having only one eye. He might not look like a human being, but maybe that’s because he isn’t—I mean, he only has one eye!—maybe this yellow devil is actually a yellow devil.

He also happens to really freak me out. Something about the eyebrows of Cyclopses have always upset me.

Again according to Daniels, Gorrah was a recurring enemy of Tex Thompson, the original Mr. America. Since there’s a new Mr. America active in the DC Universe again (in the pages of Justice Society of America), maybe it’s time for Gorrah to rear his one-eyed head.



3.) The Companions Three: Yes. I know nothing about these three gentleman other than the name of their little group and their individual names, which they’ve got helpfully written on their shirts, and that they once called Master Comics home as well (And like Red Gaucho, they never seemed to have earned the cover feature).

But I’m intrigued. I like the fact that Nifty is named “Nifty” (Note to self: Nifty Mozzocco would be a great name for my son some day), and that he and Don are wearing jodhpurs and shirts with collars, while Spike just has to rebel, and go with a t-shirt and slacks. It’s like Spike was all, “Listen guys, I’ll hang out with you, let you call us by this fruity name and even have my name printed on the front of my shirt, but I am not wearing matching jodhpurs.”

Perhaps they’d be good candidates for a brief appearance in Trinity…






(Art by Al Carreno, Bernard Baily, and Kin Platt; all images scanned from The Golden Age of DC Comics: 365 Days, which, as you can probably tell, is a pretty totally awesome book)

I find three things amusing about this image:

1.) You can't tell by this drawing, but that malformed goblin hanging off of The Crimson Avenger is actually Wing, a Chinese man who served as his sidekick. This comic was drawn in 1941, which was well before anyone in America had ever actually seen an Asian person in real life, and they all just assumed that all of Asia was populated by some kind of sub-human mole men.

2.) Rather than swinging on his own rope or clinging to Crimson Avenger's back or shoulders, Wing decides to nestle his face against the Avenger's ass and get a good grip on his dick. Surely that can't be a safe or comfrotable way for either of them to swing between rooftops.

3.) The narration box to the left says "The Gay White Way!" In a splash panel featuring a dude copping a feel off another dude.



(This panel was drawn by Jack Lehti and originally appeared in 1941's Leading Comics #1, but I scanned it out of 2004's The Golden Age of DC Comics: 365 Days by Les Daniels, Chipp Kidd and Geoff Spear, a book specifically designed to provide me with lazy content.)