Prize Comics #26

History

Prize Comics was launched in March 1940 by Feature Publications Inc., operated by publishers Teddy Epstein and Mike Bleier, as one of the smaller superhero anthology operations of the early Golden Age. The title distinguished itself with Dick Briefer's Frankenstein feature beginning in issue #7 (December 1940) — written and drawn under the pseudonym 'Frank N. Stein' — which ran with only two gaps through issue #68. By the time issue #26 appeared in late 1942, the book was deep into its wartime phase, with most of its cast of heroes reframed around the Allied war effort. Ken Crossen scripted the Green Lama, Jack Binder supplied cover art and handled several interior features, and Briefer continued his evolving, increasingly complex Frankenstein saga.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Published with a December 1942 cover date by Feature Publications Inc. (Prize Publications / Crestwood), with a cover by Jack Binder.
• The issue is an anthology containing stories starring Doctor Frost (art: Maurice Gutwirth), the Green Lama (script: Ken Crossen, art: Jack Binder), Frankenstein (script and art: Dick Briefer), the Black Owl (art: Jack Binder), Buck Sanders and his Pals (art: Munson Paddock), and The General and the Corporal (script and art: Ken Browne).
• The Yank & Doodle story, titled 'Case of the Crooked Clown,' was drawn by Paul Norris — the same artist who created the patriotic twin-teen heroes when they debuted in Prize Comics #13 (August 1941).
• Yank (Dick Walters) and Doodle (Rick Walters) are identical twins who derive super-strength and invulnerability only from proximity to each other; their wartime mission — fighting spies and saboteurs while too young to enlist — was a direct product of the patriotic-hero boom of late 1941.
• The Laughing Head, a recurring Black Owl villain described as mirthful during the commission of crimes, is reported to have made his debut across Prize Comics #26–28 (1942).
• Dick Briefer's Frankenstein chapter in this issue is part of the character's sustained wartime arc, during which the monster was brainwashed by the Nazis and fought on the Axis side before being reformed — one of the more morally complex ongoing narratives in Golden Age comics.
• The issue's Ted O'Neil feature — retitled 'The Commandos Are Coming' — reflects the title's wholesale reorientation toward WWII subject matter by the end of 1942.
• Prize Comics #26 falls roughly midway through the original Black Owl's tenure (Doug Danville), before Danville's enlistment prompted the landmark identity transfer to Walt Walters (father of Yank & Doodle) in issue #34 (September 1943) — one of the Golden Age's more narratively deliberate hero legacies.