Sunday, January 26, 2014

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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