Character Bio

Daughter of movie star Tim Turner and a stunt woman, Linda Turner became one of Hollywood's biggest stars. Then, she grew tired of Hollywood's make-believe and decided to fight crime as a cat-costumed vigilante.

When she came across a plot by Nazi spy and director Garboil she realized she could help her country and have fun by taking on the identity of the Black Cat.

She has no superpowers but is a skilled fighter, knows karate and acrobatics, and is good with javelin and lariat.

She was assisted by Rick Horne, a reporter for the Los Angeles Daily Globe, and her sidekick Black Kitten.

Villains

Among her more notable enemies are Fire Bug, The Sceptre, Cleopatra, and the Crimson Raider.

Historical Notes

In the Golden Age, publishers were required to pay a registration fee to start a new series, they often used the numbering of canceled series for new ones. Thus, Black Cat changed titles and genres several times. Issues 16-19 were Black Cat Western, which featured Linda Turner's adventures in the West. With #30, it changed to a horror title, Black Cat Mystery. After appearing on only one cover, Linda Turner was dropped. Eventually changing back to just Black Cat, the series featured gory stories and covers that helped lead to the creation of the Comics Code Authority.

To comply with them, the title changed back to Black Cat Western for 3 issues (the first one was actually called Black Cat Western Mystery) featuring reprint stories. Then, they renamed the title again -- this time to before to the toned-down Black Cat Mystic.

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Character Bio

While fishing, Freddy Freeman and his grandfather save a man from drowning. Unbeknownst to them, the man is really the evil Captain Nazi, who had been knocked into the lake by a powerful punch from Captain Marvel during their fight. When Nazi awakens, he kills Freddy's grandfather, then breaks Freddy's back -- permanently crippling the boy. However, Captain Marvel flies in and rushes Freddy to the wizard Shazam's underground lair. Shazam tells Marvel that he can save Freddy by siphoning off some of Captain Marvel's immense power.

With Captain Marvel's shared powers, Freddy became Captain Marvel Jr. Unlike his "senior" counterpart who yells "Shazam" to transform, Freddy must say, "Captain Marvel."

When powered up, Freddy is no longer crippled. However, his human form is still lame and must use crutches. Captain Marvel informs Junior that he cannot remain in his super-powered form all the time, and he must allow his human form to heal.

Freddy took up a job selling newspapers to support himself after leaving the hospital. However, his job did not pay much forcing him to live in a shack and wear rags. His most valued possession was his journal which was a large, richly ornamented book.

Villains

His enemies included his nemesis Captain Nazi as well as Captain Marvel's archenemy Dr. Sivana. He also battled Captain Nippon (not to be confused with Captain Nippo.) and Sabbac who was empowered by six demons instead of six gods like the Marvel Family.

Powers & Abilities

Captain Marvel Jr. has the wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Hercules, the stamina of Atlas, the power of Zeus, the courage of Achilles, and the speed of Mercury.

A weakness Captain Marvel Jr. possessed was that he could not say his own name since it would transform him back into Freddy Freeman.

Historical Notes

• Marvel Comics owns the trademark for the name "Captain Marvel."
  DC comics owns trademarks for the names "Shazam" and "Billy Batson", and "Captain Marvel Jr.".
  In order to use Captain Marvel Jr.'s name it must be used in the interior of the story, the same way DC does to avoid Marvel's trademark on the Captain Marvel name.
• Only the Golden Age Captain Marvel Jr. (as depicted in the comics that fell into public domain) is public domain. Non-public domain Golden Age appearances are under copyright of DC Comics, which owns the version of the character based on those comics and all subsequent versions published under DC comics banner.
• Captain Marvel Jr. was a member of the Crime Crusaders Club, a team of Fawcett heroes from Master Comics. Their ranks included Bulletman, Bulletgirl, and Minute-Man.

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Character Bio

Balbo was a young stage magician and the son of Valdini the Great, a famed illusionist.

In his first appearance, he and his father aided El Carim, a fellow magician. Unbeknownst to them, El Carim had real magic powers thanks to a magical cloak. Balbo took over El Carim's spot in Master Comics from that point onward. He was assisted by his brother, Frankie, and his friend John Smith.

Golden Age Appearances

• Master Comics  #32-47
• America's Greatest Comics  #7

Powers & Abilities

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More from Mike Grost

Historical Notes

When comic book fans recall the short-lived 1960s publisher Tower Comics, they generally think of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents. If they recall Tower's lesser titles, those generally consist of T.H.U.N.D.E.R.'s spin-offs, Dynamo and No-Man. This is because comic book fans tend to concentrate on the superheroes.

Teenage humor is mostly off their radar — and yet, not only did Tower publish more issues of Tippy Teen (25 in all, plus a special) than of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents — when you add in the 15 issues of Tippy's Friends Go-Go & Animal and the four issues of the magazine-like Teen-In, which also featured Tippy and her pals, her share of the company's overall output outnumbered all the rest put together!

Like Bunny, Henry Brewster and most others, Tippy owed a lot to the reigning superstar of teen humor in comic books, Archie. In her case, however, it was more than just subject matter and style — she also shared their creative personnel, starting with publisher Harry Shorten (There Oughta Be a Law!), who'd been involved with the carrot-topped teen back in his very early days at MLJ Comics.

Shorten hired Samm Schwartz, who has extensive credits on Archie's Pal Jughead, to put together the new character set and edit it once it was running. Schwartz's other credits include Tower's U.N.D.E.R.S.E.A. Agent. Other Archie creators involved include Dan DeCarlo (Sabrina the Teenage Witch) and Bob White (Cosmo the Merry Martian). Also, several of Tippy's friends were strongly reminiscent of certain Archie supporting characters.

They all made their debut in Tippy Teen #1, dated November 1965 — just six years after the demise of the first teenage comics star, who shared Tippy's surname but was never actually stated to have been related.

Tippy's boyfriend, Tommy, had a relationship similar to Archie's with Betty, in that both were free to date others, and sometimes did. Her best friend, Go-Go West, had a boyfriend called Animal, and the two of them resembled Archie's classmates Big Moose and Midge, except Animal wasn't as possessive as Moose.

The series lasted until #25, dated October 1969. Despite the lack of vocal fan interest, it was the first Tower series to be brought back. A mid-1970s Marvel imitator, Atlas Comics (Phoenix, The Destructor), bought rights and reprinted several of her stories, inexplicably changing her name to "Vicki".

Again, she outlasted most of the company's other comics. Whereas three issues or less was the norm for Atlas titles, Vicki was among the few that made it to four. None lasted as long as five.

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Character Bio

Captain Science, aka Gordon Dane, was a sci-fi hero in the vein of Buck Rogers who fought all manner of outer space villains including flying saucers, monster gods, alien spawn, and even domestic traitors.

He has the help of his young assistant Rip Gary and Luana.

His enemies also included the Cat Men of Phobos, the Space Pirates of Lenthus IV, the Deadly Dwarfs of Deimos, the Martian Slavers, and the Insidious Doctor Khartoum.

Golden Age Appearances

• Captain Science   #1-7

Villains

Cat Men of Phobos, Space Pirates of Lenthus IV, Deadly Dwards of Demos, Martial Slavers, Insidious Doctor Khartoum, and other evil aliens

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Character Bio

Unlike normal jungle girls who wear animal skins and speak broken English, Nyoka was civilized and dressed in safari gear. However, in most of her stories she was knocked out and tied up at least once, but in the end she has to come to the rescue of her inept fiancé, Larry Grayson.

Historical Notes

Nyoka was a licensed character from Republic Studios. In 1939, Republic made the serial Jungle Girl based on the novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs. However, the serial bore no resemblence to and no character named Nyoka appears in the novel. Republic made a sequel, Perils of Nyoka (1941), which was based on the previous serial and Burroughs was not credited at all.

Public Domain Appearances

• Jungle Girl  #1
• Nyoka the Jungle Girl vol. 1   #2-77 (Fawcett)
• Nyoka the Jungle Girl vol. 2   #14-22 (Charlton)
• Danger and Adventure   #22-23
• Master Comics   #50-71

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