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Centaur Comics
19 19

Started by jbcomicbox,

6,168 posts in this topic

Timely

Timely

Posted
Posted
It's not this, either...4th appearance of the Arrow (Church copy), vol. 3#1:

 

100_2742-1.jpg

 

S, why not bring this to the shop for some big trade credit????? :gossip:

 

This one is a keeper, sorry - has the Bruce Wayne prototype story by Bob Kane.

 

I would not sell this one either as it is clearly the 1st cover appearance of the Energizer Bunny!

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G.A.tor

G.A.tor

Posted
Posted
It's not this, either...4th appearance of the Arrow (Church copy), vol. 3#1:

 

100_2742-1.jpg

 

S, why not bring this to the shop for some big trade credit????? :gossip:

 

This one is a keeper, sorry - has the Bruce Wayne prototype story by Bob Kane.

 

I would not sell this one either as it is clearly the 1st cover appearance of the Energizer Bunny!

:o
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TheEyeSees

TheEyeSees

Posted
Posted

I'm speechless. One of my fav Centaurs, and a 9.0 to boot!! Great PQ!!

 

This is an amazing issue... the Arrow story is really classic. Mad doctor in a castle on mountain top, guarded by a polar bear, experimenting on human guinea pigs!

 

Here's a sampler...

 

FP35panel.jpg

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jbcomicbox

jbcomicbox

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  • Author
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Here is part of an article that I did on "The Arrow" for CBM....

 

I ran this before....hope it is helpful to those who did not have this info.....

 

 

 

Paul Gustavson was one of the more enduring artists of the golden age. Born in Finland, Gustavson immigrated with his family to the United States at an early age. After working for the Chesler shop in the late 1930s, he worked for Funnies Inc. where he created a number of characters such as The Arrow, The Fantom of the Fair and Man of War for Centaur Publications. For Timely he created The Angel which appeared in the earliest issues of Marvel Mystery. Finally he went to work at Quality Publications where he created a number of characters such as The Human Bomb, The Jester and others. He also did work on Jack Cole’s Midnight.

 

The Arrow first appeared in Funny Pages Vol. 2/10 cover dated September 1938, a mere three months after the appearance of Superman. At this time Funny Pages was published by Centaur Publications. Centaur had consolidated the titles of Comic Magazine, Inc. and Chesler Publications, two of the earliest companies producing original material. As of March 1938 all the titles were published under the Centaur banner. The Arrow was the first foray of Centaur into the world of costume heroes. Other Centaur heroes would soon join The Arrow, including Amazing Man, The Iron Skull, The Shark, The Masked Marvel, The Fantom of the Fair and Man of War. Much of the early work was performed by Funnies Inc. which was run by Lloyd Jacquet. This shop also produced comics for Timely which accounts for the overlap of artists such as Burgos and Everett who would gain greater fame for the creation of the Human Torch and the Submariner. Centaur itself died in 1942 despite the fact that the comic marketplace continued to grow.

 

To say The Arrow was a mysterious character would be an understatement. It was not until Funny Pages #38 (June 1940) that the reader actually obtains a glimpse of his face which is perpetually hidden by his monk-like hooded top. It is not until his final apperarance in The Arrow #3 (October 1941) that it is revealed (by subsequent artist Bob Lubbers) that The Arrow’s secret idenity is Ralph Payne. His own man servant remarks (Funny Pages 3/2 March 1939) as The Arrow takes off after escaped convicts: “ ‘e’s a strange man- comes an’ goes in the night- never saying when or where he’s going! I’ve worked for ‘im for fifteen years an’ I know nothing about him”.

 

The Arrow is described as a “modern ‘Robin Hood’ who fights crime with all his might--and a bow and arrow”. The plots generally were thin. Most of the early adventures involved encounters with criminals (every crime boss seemed to be named “Dutch”), escaped convicts, threatened heirs, etc. The Arrow was a little hard to warm up to. He was a sullen and taciturn character that dealt with wrong-doers in a straightforward and, often, deadly fashion. When he did speak, his words were as cold as his shafts of steel: “Don’t anyone move or I’ll seal your doom forever”. (Funny Pages 3/3 April 1939) When you are nearly seven feet tall and can tear manacles out of walls with your bare hands people tended to listen. He had no compunction to pin his adversary’s wrist to the wall with one of his steel-shafted arrows. These were his lucky foes. Often the end for his unlucky foes was a quick arrow in their chest or a severe beating. As one police officer observed (Funny Pages 3/1 February 1939): The Arrow is the “only guy that can straighten things out that we can’t touch! The underworld fears him more than they do us.” One simply did not mess with The Arrow.

 

The Arrow, beside the deadly accuracy of his shafts of “flying death”, was incredibly strong. One story has him take on a whole mob of thugs by himself, another has him climbing up a rugged wall with his bare hands, diving out of a building, hooking onto a powerboat and breaking the steering chain with his hands. In one story (Funny Pages #39 July 1940) he stops a submarine from blowing up shipping by jumping from a plane and redirecting a torpedo shot from the sub!

 

In Funny Pages 37 (May 1940) The Arrow commences to take on terrorists that began to invade the American shores. In this issue after foiling the terrorists he accepts the offer of U.S. Intelligence to fight for Uncle Sam. Interestingly, the thrust of these stories is to avoid having the United States dragged into the war. (Remember this is still eighteen months before Pearl Habor.) Certainly stories such as this reflect the split of public opinion on the U.S. getting involved in the European conflict. (Compare the stories in the Timely publications which had its heroes fighting Nazis months before the U.S. entry into the war.)

The Arrow appeared in Funny Pages from September 1938 until October 1940. (The final issue of this title). At this time The Arrow appeared in his own short-lived title, The Arrow, in October and November 1940 and October 1941. The first issue reprinted the Funny Pages stories appearing in issue 3/1 (February 1939) and issue 3/3 (April 1939). The second issue contained one new Arrow story by Bob Lubbers and reprinted stories from Funny Pages 3/4 (June 1939) and 3/5 (July 1939). The final issue contained two all new Arrow stories.

 

The rest of the article is on "Alias The Spider" another archer that Gustavson did for Quality Comics....jb

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sacentaur

sacentaur

Posted
Posted
Steve I;m jealous of that 3#2 great Cole cover never owned one of those.Jack

 

It's a toughie, that's for sure.

 

I'll post the vol. 3#3 shortly, but we're going to need some help from Boardies if the Arrow countdown is going to continue - I don't have copies of FP vol. 3#4, vol. 3#5, or vol. 3#6. :pullhair:

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sacentaur

sacentaur

Posted
Posted
Really nice S. wish I would have gone after more of those funny covers!

 

They're pretty cool books, and also very scarce. I just take what copies I can get.

 

What's actually 'funny' is that it took Centaur 10 issues before they finally did an Arrow cover (vol. 3#7). (shrug)

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sacentaur

sacentaur

Posted
Posted

Makes sense - they probably already had vol. 3#8 and vol. 3#9 (excellent Tarpe Mills jungle cover) "in the can", then Burgos did the Arrow cover for vol. 3#10.

 

Fore the record, I really like the Mad Ming covers, too.

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PreHero

PreHero

Posted
Posted
Steve I;m jealous of that 3#2 great Cole cover never owned one of those.Jack

 

It's a toughie, that's for sure.

 

I agree. My old copy (till I found an upgrade) - picked it up from Bedrock at SDCC. Happy to have had any copy! Glad it found a good home (at least until you find an upgrade).

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