Captain Flight Comics #11
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeCaptain Flight Comics #11 holds a firm place in Golden Age history as the swan song of Four Star Publications' flagship anthology — and it goes out with a bang. It marks the sole appearance of the Blue Flame, a fire-powered superhero drawn in transparent imitation of Timely's original Human Torch, making this the only record of that character's brief existence. Simultaneously, it delivers the final in-series appearances of both Red Rocket and the Black Cobra, closing the book on a run of Golden Age heroes who had anchored the title since the mid-1940s. The cover, a robot-and-rocket-ship painting by L. B. Cole executed in his signature saturated 'poster colors' against a deep background, has become one of the most reproduced and discussed pieces of Golden Age cover art — a canonical example of Cole's habit of grafting science-fiction imagery onto a title nominally devoted to aviation adventure.
In "Strange Tale of the Sea Monster," Torpedoman dives into the deep after hearing rumors of a monstrous creature haunting the ocean floor. With bold determination and a sharp eye, he uncovers a shocking truth beneath the waves—a giant rubber octopus hiding a secret oil-drilling scheme. Art by Rudy Palais brings the underwater mystery to life, while the cover by L. B. Cole captures the eerie allure of the sea's hidden dangers.
In "Strange Tale of the Sea Monster," Torpedoman dives into the deep after a warning from Salvador about a monstrous octopus lurking beneath the waves. When the creature attacks, he’s captured by a secret crew and brought to their leader, Mr. Fowler—only to escape and return to the ocean floor, where he uncovers a shocking truth: the beast is a fake, a rubber construct hiding a criminal oil-drilling scheme.
In "Monstrous ..Mutants..," Rod races to uncover a global conspiracy after learning that babies are being swapped in hospitals worldwide—linking the mystery to his friend Chuck, whose memories have vanished, and Chuck’s recent journey to Mars. As Rod digs deeper, he uncovers a shocking truth: the so-called mutant minorities on Mars have declared themselves the true majority, and now seek to transform both Martians and humans into their image.
When crooks target the museum's prized mummies, The Black Cobra and The Cobra Kid uncover a clever scheme involving hidden Egyptian relics and a mysterious note marked only with the word "Reptiles." As the heroes piece together clues hidden among the museum's serpent displays, they race to stop the thieves from escaping with their prize—but not before discovering a traitor working from the inside.
Torpedoman investigates a mysterious subterranean hideaway beneath the Statue of Liberty, only to discover a high-stakes criminal gambling operation hidden in a cave under the Hudson River. When the operation's leader Highpockets threatens to seize Torpedoman's secret retreat, our hero must use every trick in his arsenal to protect what he's built and stop the racket cold. Adventure and danger collide in this six-page tale of justice taking hold in the most unexpected of places.
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Four Star Publications, edited and published under the direction of Robert W. Farrell, launched Captain Flight Comics in March 1944 as a wartime aviation anthology. By the time issue #11 appeared in early 1947 — roughly fourteen months after issue #10 — the title had clearly lost momentum: the indicia itself is inconsistent, with two versions appearing inside the same issue, one reading 'CAPT. FLIGHT COMICS' and the other simply 'CAPT. FLIGHT.' The cover was penciled, inked, and signed by L. B. Cole, who ran his own comics packaging studio from 1942 to 1948 and supplied covers to multiple publishers during this period. Interior stories were contributed by artists including Rudy Palais, George H. Appel, Leo Morey, and Zoltan Szenics, the latter signing the Blue Flame story with the initials 'SZ.' After this issue, Four Star continued its numbering with Daffy Tunes Comics #12, effectively rebranding rather than canceling the line.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Final issue of Captain Flight Comics (Four Star Publications, 1944–1947), a Golden Age anthology that ran eleven issues; series numbering was then continued under the title Daffy Tunes Comics #12.
- First and only appearance of the Blue Flame, a fire-powered superhero with the ability to burst into blue flames and fly — a character openly patterned on Timely Comics' android Human Torch, created by Zoltan Szenics (signed as 'SZ').
- Final in-series appearances of both Red Rocket (Rod Page) and the Black Cobra (Jim Hornsby / Cobra Kid Bob Hornsby); the Black Cobra's next appearance came years later in Farrell's Black Cobra #1 (1954), where his identity was revised from Jim Hornsby to FBI agent Steve Drake.
- Cover art by L. B. Cole — pencils, inks, and colors all signed by Cole — depicting a robot and rocket ship; Cole was known for inserting science-fiction imagery into the covers of what were nominally aviation-themed comics, and this image is among his most frequently cited works.
- Interior artists confirmed by the Grand Comics Database include Rudy Palais (Torpedoman story), George H. Appel (Red Rocket story), Leo Morey (Black Cobra story), and Zoltan Szenics (Blue Flame story).
- The Red Rocket story, 'Monstrous Mutants,' was reprinted at least four times: in Blue Bolt Weird Tales of Terror #111 (1951), a British Black-and-white reprint, Spook #28 (1954, retitled 'The Monstrous Madman'), Startling Terror Tales #1 (1954), and Strange Mysteries #9 (1958).
- The Torpedoman story was reprinted in Blue Bolt Weird Tales of Terror #112 (February 1952) and Ghostly Weird Stories #124 (September 1954).
- The L. B. Cole cover was reprinted in the Fantagraphics hardcover Black Light: The World of L. B. Cole (January 2015), cementing its status as one of the defining images of his career.
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Reprints
Reprinted in Blue Bolt #111 (1951), Blue Bolt #112 (1952), Spook #28 (1954), Ghostly Weird Stories #124 (1954), Strange Mysteries #9 (1958), Black Light: The World of L. B. Cole #[nn] (2015), Super Weird Heroes #[nn] (2016), Men of Mystery Comics #102 (2016), Étranges Aventures #5 (2021), The Blue Flame #1 (2021)
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