By Andrew A. Smith
Tribune Content Agency
They’re super! They’re weird! They’re heroes!
They’re Super Weird Heroes, which is the title of the latest collection from comics archivist/historian Craig Yoe ($39.99, Yoe Books/IDW). Yoe, who has written a cornucopia of delightfully oddball books, is currently excavating the original Popeye, 1950s horror comics and strange romance stories at IDW Publishing. He’s been labeled a “comics archaeologist” – and the title is well deserved.
Case in point: Super Weird Heroes. That’s 328 pages of superheroes that someone, somewhere thought were a good idea, but were deservedly short-lived and justly forgotten. Nevertheless, Yoe has dredged this drek out of the basement of comic book history and exposed it to the light, where it squirms for our amusement.
It’s a calling.
“When I was teenager it was superheroes that got me crazy for comics,” Yoe said in an interview. “I wanted to voraciously read them, compulsively collect them and burrow deep into their history.”
And what started as passion has become something resembling a career. A super weird career.
“With my partner Clizia Gussoni I've done like 100 books collecting classic comic book stories, but Super Weird Heroes has probably taken the longest. It was hard and expensive to track down all these uber-valuable superhero comics. According to the 46th Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide one would have to spend $105,280 to obtain the rare comics that were used to make up Super Weird Heroes – if you could find them!”
Most of the material in Super Weird Heroes comes from the “Golden Age” of comics, the first decade or so after the arrival of Superman in 1938. And, yes, that era gave us some of the greatest characters in our modern mythology: Not just the Man of Steel, but Batman, Captain America, Wonder Woman and a host of others.
But it was also an era filled with fly-by-night publishers who hired Depression-starved artists, talent-free writers and rank amateurs to throw anything and everything against the wall. Was it good? Was it bad? Publishers like Lev Gleason and Victor Fox didn’t care, as long as it was cheap. Just churn it out, boys!
Which is why you might see, in 1941, Speed Comics right next to Flash Comics on the newsstand. The latter starred, of course, The Flash, an inspired character who in one form or another remains with us today in comics, movies and television. The former starred The Hand, who was a big hand.
A big, flying hand, to be sure. A hand of justice! But, alas, a hand that was un-armed. Also un-bodied.
And that’s just one of the Super Weird Heroes found in this book. Given that they’re assembled in alphabetical order, they don’t build to a climax; the signal on the Weird-O-Meter varies from character to character. Still, by the time you hit Fantomah – a beautiful, white jungle girl who inexplicably becomes a skull-faced banshee when she uses her super-powers – you know you’ve hit seriously weird territory.
Fantomah was created, written and drawn by Fletcher Hanks, whose every story would fit the Super Weird Heroes criteria, but who died in obscurity. But obscurity is no obstacle for Yoe, who printed the Fantomah story “directly from the Fletcher Hanks original art in my collection.”
Fantomah shouldn’t be confused with Phantasmo from Dell Comics, a handsome lad who fought crime in a cape and a Speedo – and sometimes just a thong (he’s on Page 254). Then there’s Madam Fatal (p. 213), who was actually a man – and therefore the first cross-dressing superhero. For some reason that reminds me of Rainbow Boy (p. 265), who fought crime with a rainbow crest on his helmet to match the one on his chest, and the one that trailed behind as he flew.
Characters of this type would be the height of gay camp today, but who knows what was going on in the heads of those desperate Golden Agers? Still, I had to ask Yoe what he thought would become of someone like Rainbow Boy had he continued into the modern era.
“There is gold at the end of Rainbow Boy's rainbow!” Yoe responded. “His phantasmagorical, colorful outfit and his wacko, rainbow mohawk may attract nefarious bullies, but in the end don't forget he's a superhero – any attackers are going to get their comeuppance!”
Good point, but the ability to create rainbows doesn’t exactly qualify you for the Justice League. Nor does fighting crime with a marsupial, which was Kangaroo Man’s schtick (p. 194). Continuing on this theme, Super Weird Heroes gives us Black Cobra and the Cobra Kid (p. 38), who battled evil with, yes, snakes. Finally we have Yellowjacket (p. 300), who stung ne’er-do-wells with wasps – that he continually referred to as bees. (Evidently entymology wasn’t a strong suit at Charlton Comics, who published the Insect Avenger.)
Naturally, comics this bad have met with resounding approval.
“I have said many times this is going to be our most popular book,” Yoe said. “The critical and fan response has been fantastic – over the top! The public is mad about superheroes! And all the Internet humor has opened people to the wacky and bizarre. So this is like the perfect storm! Comic fans and non-comic fans alike love super weird heroes themselves and Super Weird Heroes the book!”
A sequel is already in the works. And, fortunately, Yoe hasn’t come close to exhausting the deep bench of Super Weird Heroes.
“From A to Z we have Airmail (and his sidekick Stampy) to Zebra (‘Batman’ was taken),” Yoe said of Volume Two. “I promise you the runt-of-the litter super weird heroes in the second book are going to be every bit as lovable as the first! But, there is a plethora of weirdness in the second volume – minds will be blown!”
Finally, it is a tradition of sorts in bad interviews to ask the interviewee what sort of tree he or she would be, if he or she were a tree. A bad question seems appropriate in this case, where we are celebrating the dregs of superherodom. So, Craig Yoe, what Super Weird Hero would you be, if you were a Super Weird Hero?
“There are more than 30 bizarro long-underwear guys in this book, not to mention their sidekicks,” he said. “That's more than enough fodder for a different role play each day of a month. So I hardly have to choose! But, I guess I am still that hormone-blasted, teenage boy that got turned on to comics. Any of the numerous heroes that had a variation on x-ray vision sounds pretty good to me!”
Reach Captain Comics by email (capncomics@aol.com), the Internet (captaincomics.ning.com), Facebook (Captain Comics Round Table) or Twitter (@CaptainComics).
Replies
I never considered Bullet Girl to be weird. The rest look very interesting.
I have been singing this book's praises since it first shipped on November 16. I most recently posted about it earlier this morning in the “What Comic Books Have You Read Today?” thread. I still have one or two stories left to read, and I’m so glad there’s going to be a second volume (in August, according to Yoe’s website).
Anyone who likes this book will also like “The League of Regrettable Heroes.”
I wondered about that one. Came out when?
According to Amazon.com, it came out June 2, 2015. (Funny; I thought it was earlier this year. Also, note correct title.) League of Regrettable Superheroes features the same kind of characters, but not entire stories, just representative pages. Also, it covers all eras of comics through the ‘90s. Here is a comparison of the two books I posted on November 21:
“Earlier this year, I read and greatly enjoyed League of Regrettable Superheroes by Jon Morris. The one featured essays and representative sample artwork of features from the Golden, Silver and Bronze Ages. As much as I loved that book, I wanted to read complete stories! I almost wrote to Craig Yoe to request that he compile such a volume. I ultimately didn’t because I concluded super-heroes weren’t his thing and resolved to content myself with Yoe reprints of horror and romance comics. I was happy to discover that he compiled such a collection without my having asked for it! There is surprisingly little crossover between League of Regrettable Superheroes and Super Weird Heroes; I think of them less as companion volumes than complementary volumes. I recommend them both.”
I picked up League of Regrettable Super-Heroes when I saw it in the cheapie bin at B&N. I'll probably do the same for Super Weird Heroes.
So basically I got the title wrong twice is what you're saying. :)
They hyphen is such a pain. DC refers to superheroes and super heroes, but has Legion of Super-Heroes. Marvel isn't any more consistent.
I go with superheroes and supervillains in my column, but super-powers, because I don't think I can break the world of that one. And it looks funny. Since I'm making up my own rules -- I don't care for AP's rules on this topic -- "funny looking" is reason enough for me to make a call.
AP would also spell "Superman" comics as just Superman, because the rule is NO style on magazines and newspapers. But then I have sentences like "Superman appears in Superman but not in Action," which make no sense. So I put quotes around comics titles to distinguish from the characters, and italicize the titles when I post the stories online.
But, as is the case here, when a title is spelled with the hyphen, you have to use it. Such a pain.
And what about compound words? Stan Lee uses "comicbook," but I've never liked that one. There are two I made up and use consistently, "backissue" and "longbox," but few have joined me.
I started making up my own rules the first time I typed "four-issue super-hero mini-series." That's just out of control.
I'm with you on "comic book" and "longbox."
Captain Comics said:
I'm old-school; I still prefer, and follow, AP's past standard to italicize titles of books, magazines, movies and TV shows, and put quote marks around titles of articles, stories, and TV show episodes. The notion that italics can't be used because AP's equipment can't handle it only makes me ask why isn't the AP using equipment that CAN handle it.
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