Superman On Television With Serial Costumes

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Superman had a new costume for television, but a number of other costumes used on the show were left over from the serials. The first episode had a number of the inhabitants of the planet Krypton dressed in futuristic costumes from the Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers serials.

Robert Rockwell as Jor-El reused the costume worn by

Buster Crabbe in FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE.

The guy on the right is wearing

Captain Marvel's costume from the serial, 

with a collar taken from one of the costumes from FLASH GORDON and BUCK ROGERS, such as the one worn by this "Kryptonian". 

Second man from the left has Captain America's costume from the 1944 serial. Captain Marvel's longjohns can be seen on the third man from the right.

During the same episode, Aline Towne as Lara wore a space girl costume from a Republic serial.

A similar costume was worn by the girl Martian in THE PURPLE MONSTER STRIKES.

It might have been the same costume with slight changes. 

Gloria Saunders wore a costume in THE RIDDLE OF THE CHINESE JADE

 

that had been worn by Carol Forman in THE BLACK WIDOW.

The use of a costume that had been worn by Carole Forman in a serial made it look as if they were trying to sneak a reference to her into the television version, something that I don't think they wanted.  The people who were in charge of the production did not try to emulate the Superman serials and did not originally use any of their principal cast members. Noel Neill was only used on the television version when it became necessary to replace Phyllis Coates when she left the series. Although Carole Forman was still working on television, she was never used on THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN at all.

Carole Forman:
http://bennypdrinnon.blogspot.com/2012/10/carol-forman-and-spider-lady.html


Aline Towne:
https://filesofjerryblake.com/serial-heroines/aline-towne/



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"Captain Marvel And the Temple Of Itzalotahui" - WHIZ COMICS #22

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Billy "Whitey" Benedict, who played a character in THE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN MARVEL, was used afterwards as a character in the comic book. He makes his first appearance in this story, which refers to the serial as a movie that the characters made.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Comic Book Plus site had this to say about this story:

"Apparently the first time regular Captain Marvel artist C. C. Beck is credited with writing as well as drawing the story, and he does an outstanding job. This is the first Captain Marvel story that has no real villain in it, and yet it's still entertaining. Whitey and Dr. Malcolm transfer from the famous 1941 Captain Marvel serial to the comics this story, despite the fact that Malcolm was killed off at the end of the serial. It's explained that Billy met them while working on "the Captain Marvel movie". Whitey already seems to know that Billy Batson is Captain Marvel. Another thing that makes this story a standout is the remarkably enlightened attitude for its time when Billy, Whitey, and Malcolm decided not to exploit the jungle natives. There's even a sweet little interracial romance between Whitey and a Mayan girl."  Comic Book Plus states that the pencils were by C.C. Beck and that inking was by Pete Costanza. Pete Constanza drew girls that looked like that for years afterwards; you would see them in his work for The American Comics Group. The Indian girl can be seen as similar to the girl in the first Doc Savage story, but in neither story is there much of a romance.

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"Captain Marble"- NUTS

This is a Captain Marvel parody done in 1954, after the cancellation of the original comic book, for NUTS! #5.

Reblogged from http://pappysgoldenage.blogspot.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

Betty Grable was the top pinup girl of the second World War, who was still making movies at the time this comic book was published.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And so the story ends up in an insane asylum, which seems appropriate for a story published in NUTS! Actually switching back and forth so the other guy would have to serve the sentence sounds just like the sort of thing those two would do, since they're basically a couple of kid characters anyway.





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"Captain Marvel Rides The Engine Of Death" - WHIZ COMICS #12

Remember when author Chip Kidd published a picture of this cover in his book and said that Superman "would NEVER so much as consider using a gun against his enemy"?

 

Well, in the story this cover is supposed to represent, Captain Marvel didn't use one either. Read it and see.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Captain Marvel makes use of the plane to save lives, not take them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not only did Captain Marvel not use any machine guns in this story, nobody even got killed when he sunk the submarine. This story makes it clear that everyone on board was saved. I don't think Captain Marvel ever killed anybody in the comics. The serial was a different story.

The site "Comic Book Plus" ( where I got this story ) complains about Billy Batson appearing in blackface, something which is not considered to be acceptable today. Now, that's something that I don't think Superman ever did.




SHAZAM by Chip Kidd:
http://bennypdrinnon.blogspot.com/2013/03/shazam-by-chip-kidd.html




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THE SECRET VOICE - Ajax/Farrell

THE SECRET VOICE is, I suppose, an educational comic book. Although the story it tells is of course an impossible fantasy. It just happens to have a historical framework which presumably is supposed to be educational.

Then there is the message about simply doing right.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Before television, radio was of great importance. And CBS was originally a radio network.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Frank Sinatra was very popular with the "bobby soxers" at the time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Mad scientists with secret laboratories and rocketships were common in science fiction at the time, like Dr. Zarkov in FLASH GORDON.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dale remarked that this bug appears to be a "cootie", or body louse. These lice were a problem during wartime and you frequently come across references to them. Lice were also frequently referred to simply as "bugs".

 

 

 

 

 The US was plunged into World War II when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor without declaration of war.

 

 

 

 The president of the US when the war started was Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

 

 

 

The leader of England was Winston Churchill. 

 

 

 

 General Douglas McArthur was in command of the Phillipines when the war began. The Phillipines fell to Japan, but McArthur would be able to continue the war afterwards. Bataan was the scene of the notorious "death march" undertaken by US soldiers who had been taken prisoner by the Japanese.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 General Dwight Eisenhower oversaw the Normandy invasion which began the liberation of France.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The V-1, here referred to as a rocket, was actually jet propelled. It was one of the first guided missles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 They said Hitler used to work at small jobs like hanging wallpaper before he became the dictator of Germany and began his conquest of Europe.

 

 

 

 "On the beam" was a reference to radio navigation in use during World War II.

 

 

 

 Evidently they planned to make another comic book about the postwar world. It isn't clear if they actually made one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The little bug in this story resembles "Mr. Mind" of Captain Marvel comics in that he was broadcasting instructions to others who were carrying them out,

 but this time the bug making the broadcasts was on the side of right. In appearance, "Cosmo" also tends to be more similar to the type of stylized "bugs" used in animated cartoons, such as Disney's "Jiminy Cricket".

Jiminy Cricket was used in World War II aircraft nose art, as well as other cartoon characters,

 

so these characters had some association with the actual war effort.

 

 

 

Nose art design by Disney

 artist.

 



Mr. Mind ( Captain Marvel villain ):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mister_Mind_and_the_Monster_Society_of_Evil



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