Monday, October 17, 2016

Countdown to Halloween 2016: MASKED MARVEL "Phantom Devils of Lorado"

He's the masked Western hero who looks like a Dia de Muertos sugar skull come to life...
...battling threats both supernatural and simply criminal!
It's too bad the writer and artist of this never-reprinted tale from Youthful's Gunsmoke #14 (1951) are unknown, because there are some kool narrative tricks and page layouts (particularly pages 3 & 4) that wouldn't be out-of place today!
The Masked Marvel appeared in the entire 16-issue run of GunSmoke, but he never had the cover slot, except in the background of one cover as a "Wanted" poster on a wall!

Trivia: This Masked Marvel was the fourth hero to have the name, but only the third comic book character!
The first was a Golden Age masked mystery-man in Centaur's Keen Detective Funnies as well as his own short-lived title.
The second was another mystery-man who battled Prize Comics' Frankenstein Monster in several stories before disappearing.
The third was a Republic Pictures 1943 movie serial hero with the gimmick that the audience didn't know which of several good-guys he was...though the audience knew from the beginning who the villain was.
(Usually, a serial audience had to figure out which of several potentially-evil suspects was the mystery villain!)
BTW, you can read the other Masked Marvel tales we've presented HERE.

Please Support Western Comics Adventures
Visit the

No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...