Blue Beetle - Help in identifying an episode

[vaillant]

Hi everyone,

 

I am asking to the golden age collectors to see if someone can help me to identify an original story of the Blue Beetle which was published in Italy in 1947 in the "Collana Uomo Mascherato" title which also published Superman dailies and Batman material.

 

There is the possibility that this story, has not only been traced (redrawn) from the occasional italian artist, as they were often accustomed to do, but that it’s also a brand new episode written and drawn in Italy.

 

Story goes for 12 pages, then there is a short non-superhero backup story. It starts in an Hollywood studio and features a mad scientist as the villain. Here are scans to a pair of pages, p.1 and p.10, and the covers. The comic is in landscape format, so it is hard to tell whether it could have been sourced from an original Blue Beetle comic book story or what.

 

BTW, Blue Beetle is Red – don’t ask me why, so were Superman and Batman.

 

Many thanks in advance!

 

P.S. The story title is something like "The mystery of the B room", if it helps.

 

 

 

[vaillant]

Anyone?

[Sqeggs]

Anyone?

 

I'm not familiar enough with BB to be of any help. You could take a crack at looking through the GCD for pre-1947 issues of titles BB appeared in to see if you identify a similar story.

[vaillant]

Thanks. I thought about it, but I have no idea of the year from which this could be, and I seem to recall Blue Beetle started in early 1940s…

 

Besides, I don’t even know if there was a Blue Beetle newspaper strip, because this could be an option as well, since that series published Superman, but the newspaper strips not the comic book stories.

[Sqeggs]

Thanks. I thought about it, but I have no idea of the year from which this could be, and I seem to recall Blue Beetle started in early 1940s…

 

Besides, I don’t even know if there was a Blue Beetle newspaper strip, because this could be an option as well, since that series published Superman, but the newspaper strips not the comic book stories.

 

Actually, he began back in 1939 in Mystery Men 1. I think he briefly had a newspaper strip drawn by Jack Kirby. The pages you reproduced don't look like Kirby, unless they are really bad tracings!

[vaillant]

They are (bad) tracings indeed, I saw another issues which seems from the "Charles Nicholas" Kirby period, but this furtherly complicates the thing.

 

It can be a badly traced mid-1940s story.

It can be an italian produced episode (the fact that one page is signed, beside the cover, by the italian artist, makes me think this but I have no proof).

 

Nonetheless it’s an absurdly weird piece of publishing history, as we have had a few example in our postwar years. There are a number of Black Beetle issues, and it would already be a good thing to know whether they are (traced) from newspaper strips or comics. Do you know if there is a resource to check the newspaper strips?

[Sqeggs]

They are (bad) tracings indeed, I saw another issues which seems from the "Charles Nicholas" Kirby period, but this furtherly complicates the thing.

 

It can be a badly traced mid-1940s story.

It can be an italian produced episode (the fact that one page is signed, beside the cover, by the italian artist, makes me think this but I have no proof).

 

Nonetheless it’s an absurdly weird piece of publishing history, as we have had a few example in our postwar years. There are a number of Black Beetle issues, and it would already be a good thing to know whether they are (traced) from newspaper strips or comics. Do you know if there is a resource to check the newspaper strips?

 

I'm afraid that I don't know a good way of checking the newspaper strips. I can't recall seeing them reprinted. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable can chip in.

[BB-Gun]

The only Blue Beetle Sunday page that I have was taken directly from Blue Beetle 1 I think. I looked around for your story but didn't see it in the early Beetle and Mystery Men issues. Doesn't mean that it isn't there but I didn't find it.

 

Also page was from Mystery Men 2.

[OtherEric]

Check out issues here:

 

Fox issues:

http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/index.php?cid=334

 

Holyoke issues:

http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/index.php?cid=548

 

Mystery Men Comics:

http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/index.php?cid=343

 

Big 3:

http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/index.php?cid=700

 

 

[vaillant]

@BB-Gun: Many thanks for taking the time. The sunday page is particularly interesting as it makes me wonder: do they reprinted the comic book story in the newspaper? Also, why the splash page from the story you show, from Mystery Comics #2 uses the same opening panel of the newspaper page but the story appears different?

 

@OtherEric: Thanks, I am familiar with the DCM. If I want to follow a chronological order are the Mystery Men the first ones to check?

[Scrooge]

I was going to check on the Ilovecomix archive for you but it's not available at the moment and I doubt that the Blue Beetle strip would have been there but you never know.

[vaillant]

Thanks Scrooge, much appreciated! (thumbs u

Anyway, how would this be perceived if it’s an italian story? For us it’s just a scarce postwar book, but I guess it would be mostly a curiosity to US readers.

 

I picked this up as I was sure it would have been a re-traced or re-drawn american episode, but then I read that there were some produced in Italy (some 1960s Superman stories would also have been, later on).

[BB-Gun]

@BB-Gun: Many thanks for taking the time. The sunday page is particularly interesting as it makes me wonder: do they reprinted the comic book story in the newspaper? Also, why the splash page from the story you show, from Mystery Comics #2 uses the same opening panel of the newspaper page but the story appears different?

 

@OtherEric: Thanks, I am familiar with the DCM. If I want to follow a chronological order are the Mystery Men the first ones to check?

 

The story is actually the same and the panels have been deleted or rearranged. I think Kirby or Simon did the daily strip. Simon also did some of the early Blue Beetle covers.

 

The art of your comic resembles work on Marga in Weird.

[BB-Gun]

I was thinking that it might not be a Blue Beetle but could be a different Fox character. But you can't go wrong with Blue Beetle or at least that is what the ads used to say.

[vaillant]

No, no, it’s Blue Beetle, this is not in doubt (he was colored red instead of Blue in those italian editions).

The doubt now is whether this is an american original story re-traced (either from a comic book or a syndicated strip if you say those existed) or an italian one (there are very few, but I know some were produced in Italy – all of these I think were pretty much unauthorized – they are from 1947 as you can see from the cover).

 

Thanks anyway for the help so far. (thumbs u

It would be a huge help to know for sure when the newspaper stories were published, if they were exclusive story and how much they lasted, or if some indexed content can be found on those…

[BB-Gun]

No, no, it’s Blue Beetle, this is not in doubt (he was colored red instead of Blue in those italian editions).

The doubt now is whether this is an american original story re-traced (either from a comic book or a syndicated strip if you say those existed) or an italian one (there are very few, but I know some were produced in Italy – all of these I think were pretty much unauthorized – they are from 1947 as you can see from the cover).

 

Thanks anyway for the help so far. (thumbs u

It would be a huge help to know for sure when the newspaper stories were published, if they were exclusive story and how much they lasted, or if some indexed content can be found on those…

 

This one is from a Blue Beetle website. Dates from Jan. 1940 and is by Kirby. Daily comics seem to be a different story line than the Sunday pages which are a reprint of early stories from Mystery Men.

[vaillant]

Ah, so the sunday pages can be excluded? Good, it’s already a solid starting point.

 

So I guess it’s either:

 

– a traced version of a comic book story;

– a traced version of a daily strip story;

– an italian story.

 

Comic book stories should be checkable, I‘d be just curious to know if there is a chronology of the dailies, just in case I decide to take the pain to identity the story.

 

Thanks again BB! (thumbs u

(I have to PM you yet for the scan and uploading to the web services but will do – keep the scan if you have already done it!).