#3 April 2002

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Cover

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Contents

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Crimebuster

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Daredevil/Little Wise Guys

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The Barber's Turn in the Chair

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Crimebuster Text

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ZX-5

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Letters/Cover Gallery

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Back Cover

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Click here to go back to the Library

   -All scans by me. First posting.

   -Crimebuster and ZX-5 from the Scott Nichols collection.

Steve, 
Crimebusters #2 was a great issue.  Although I had read the Crimebuster story before (it's from one of the issues of Boy Comics that I own) color comics always seem to look better on the Internet.  That Wise Guys/Daredevil story was Da Bomb!  So many of the Lev Gleason stories from the late 40's were long and "talky" with many pages of very little action illustrated with competent but non-spectacular art crowded onto a page of relatively small panels.  But darned if those things didn't make compelling reading!  Once you started a Daredevil or Crimebuster story you couldn't put it down until you had finished it.
 
I'd like to expand a little on my comments in my last letter about Iron Jaw being a "bafoon."  For one thing, I have learned to stop writing you hastily scrawled notes along with my orders for your CDs, which are TERRIFIC, by the way (plug plug).  I meant to say "buffoon," and that is what Iron Jaw became within a couple of years after his revival in 1950.  I believe this regression was largely due to the Comics Code, which was then in its ascendancy.  But in a remarkably short period of time Iron Jaw went from bloodthirsy Nazi killer to America-hating Communist saboteur to Damon Runyon-style crook to Bowery Boy.  In this last incarnation he got plastic surgery that restored his jaw and, in one story, became a professional wrestler who was too cowardly to face an opponent modeled after Gorgeous George, the famous golden-tressed grappler of the 1950s.  It was an ignominous moment for a bear trap-jawed terror who once hijacked a convertible by lifting it up by its front bumper and dumping its armed occupants (a sherrif's posse) out onto the road.
 
Anyway, since I've gotten started on Iron Jaw, I might as well tell you my theory about who he actually is.  As you know, Iron Jaw was a German Sergeant named Von Schmidt in the German army during World War I.  He tried to do his buddy, Corporal Adolph Hitler, a favor by shooting (in the back) a German officer who didn't like Hitler's political ideas.  Before he died, however, the officer threw a grenade at Von Schmidt which left the latter writhing in pain on the ground with a shattered jaw while a frightened Corporal Hitler took to his heels.  Years later Hitler, now the leader of Germany, was visited by Von Schmidt and browbeaten into giving Iron Jaw, as he was now known, a job as a highly paid Nazi assassin--a position well suited to his sadistic nature.
 
Now, according to Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Hitler also gave a similar job to a man known as Schmidt.  This fellow had lived a miserable existence until Hitler discovered him and was inspired to turn this low life into a super Nazi who would strike fear into the hearts of millions.  Schmidt became the Red Skull, and I believe he was the younger brother of Iron Jaw.  The "von" in Von Schmidt is a mark of nobility, and I think that it was an affectation that the egomaniacal Sergeant Schmidt adopted.  While he went on to become a big wheel in the Nazi party he neglected his family, who sunk into poverty.  His younger brother often suffered beatings from townspeople and no doubt hated his older brother for not helping him.  At the same time, though, he also admired the brutal Nazi killer and wanted to be like him.  Hitler, I think, knew all about this situtation and purposely chose to make the younger Schmidt the Red Skull, perhaps to use him in a plot to destroy Iron Jaw, who he feared.  
 
That, at any rate, is my theory.  But don't expect to see a Captain America/Crimebuster/Red Skull/Iron Jaw crossover from John Byrne anytime soon.
 
Steve, thanks for Crimebusters and all your other on-line comics.  Someday maybe I'll tell you my theory about the real story behind Daredevil's (Bart Hill's) costume.
 
Mark

Thanks for the letter and the theory Mark! You are right about Lev Gleasons being compelling reading. That (and the fact that I had a surplus of them) was what inspired me to reprint them regularly in the first place, and it'll only get better from here! Next issue we have a "Rerun Month" tie-in with all origins, and then in June the format of this book changes slightly! From number 5 on, this book will feature 1 Crimebuster, 1 Daredevil, 1 true crime story, a CB/DD text, and the latest regular addition, 1 cartoon feature! The cartoon, or funny animal genre is one that is WAY overlooked, and was almost going to be the focus of this book before I settled on crime. I'll have rotating features in this new spot, but one recurring star (who may go bi-monthly here if I can get enough stories in reserve) will be fan-favorite, Supermouse!

    I WANT to hear from you! Tell me what you liked/disliked, loved/hated about this issue! If you have a request I can't promise that I can grant it but I'll see what I can do. Just e-mail me at Steve_Rogers_Captain_America@yahoo.com thanks!

-Steve

Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane #75 National Periodical Publications Inc., July 1967 Artist: Kurt Schaffenberger    It's about time I had a silver age Superman cover up here isn't it? Why this one? Well, it just happened to be my newest one and in my room... What's the story behind it? Well, I haven't read it yet... I have three (growing) stacks of books in here that I have yet to read...