Comedy Comics #9
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeComedy Comics #9 (April 1942) is the closing chapter on a cluster of notable Timely Comics wartime heroes: it contains the final Golden Age appearances of Silver Scorpion, Citizen V (Lt. John Watkins), and the Fin (Lt. Peter Noble), making it a quiet but definitive endpoint for that first wave of Daring Mystery Comics adventurers. Beyond that valedictory weight, the issue also marks the first appearance of the Comedy Kids and is the inaugural entry in the Comedy Comics series itself — a title born directly out of Timely's wartime pivot away from superhero anthologies and toward humor. The Silver Scorpion story here is particularly notable in retrospect: Betty Barstow is among the earliest female superheroes in Timely's line, and this issue closes her three-story Golden Age run before she was revived fifty years later in the 1993 Invaders miniseries. The Fin's story adds an enduring narrative detail — he acquires a seemingly indestructible magic cutlass — an artifact that would carry forward into later Marvel continuity.
In "By Garbage Bin to Mars," a glamorous actress suddenly loses her beauty and is forced to confront a bizarre ransom demand to reclaim it—leaving the Silver Scorpion stunned and determined to uncover the truth. Written, drawn, and inked by Harry Sahle, this 1942 adventure blends surreal humor with a mystery that spirals from a New York garbage bin to the far reaches of space. The cover by Mike Sekowsky and George Klein captures the story’s outlandish tone with a striking, exaggerated scene that perfectly sets the tone for the absurdity within.
In "The Aging Plague," a glamorous actress finds herself transformed overnight into a wrinkled, aged version of herself, prompting a mysterious ransom demand for her return to beauty. Silver Scorpion, appalled by the cruel twist of fate, steps in to uncover the truth behind the bizarre affliction.
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Comedy Comics #9 exists because of a characteristically pragmatic Timely publishing maneuver: when Daring Mystery Comics ended with issue #8 (January 1942), publisher Martin Goodman continued its numbering under the new Comedy Comics banner rather than launch a fresh series — a workaround driven by wartime U.S. Postal Service regulations and paper-supply constraints that discouraged creating entirely new titles. The statement of ownership filed inside the issue still bore the Daring Mystery Comics name in typeset, with the word 'Comedy' literally handwritten in by hand, a candid paper trail of the title change. With superhero material already in the pipeline from the outgoing book, Timely folded completed Silver Scorpion, Citizen V, and Fin stories — all continuing from Daring Mystery Comics #8 — into this debut issue alongside new humor strips, producing an unusual hybrid of wartime action and gag comedy that would not outlast a single issue before Comedy Comics settled into pure humor fare.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published April 1942 by Timely Comics Inc. (the Marvel predecessor); Comedy Comics #9 continues the issue numbering of Daring Mystery Comics, which ended with issue #8 in January 1942.
- Contains the final Golden Age appearance of Silver Scorpion (Elizabeth 'Betty' Barstow), a secretary-turned-crime-fighter created by artist Harry Sahle (signing as 'Jewell') — one of Timely's first superheroines, who had debuted in Daring Mystery Comics #7 (April 1941).
- Contains the final Golden Age appearance of Citizen V (Lt. John Watkins), the British resistance fighter created by Ben Thompson in Daring Mystery Comics #8; Citizen V would not reappear in Marvel continuity until the flashback story in Thunderbolts: Distant Rumblings #-1 (July 1997).
- Contains the final Golden Age appearance of the Fin (Lt. Peter Noble), the aquatic hero created by Bill Everett; in this story the Fin discovers a seemingly indestructible magic cutlass — a plot detail preserved in later Marvel continuity.
- The Silver Scorpion story was later reprinted in Marvel Mystery Comics (1999 series) #1; the Citizen V story was reprinted in Golden Age of Marvel (1997 series) #2 (published March 1999); the Fin story was reprinted in Timely's Greatest: The Golden Age Sub-Mariner by Bill Everett — The Pre-War Years Omnibus (2019).
- Silver Scorpion's Golden Age run comprised exactly three stories — Daring Mystery Comics #7, Daring Mystery Comics #8, and this issue — before her 1993 revival in The Invaders (1993 series) #2.
- Also contains the first (and only) appearance of Comedy Kids, as well as the sole appearance of Captain Dash (a renamed continuation of the Captain Daring character from Daring Mystery Comics) and the final appearances of the comedy strip characters Li'l Professor and Rudy the Robot.
- The title change from a superhero anthology to a humor book reflects Timely's industry-wide pivot in early 1942, as wartime humor comics grew in popularity; this issue's hybrid content — leftover hero stories wedged alongside new gag strips — documents that editorial transition in real time.
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Reprinted in Golden Age of Marvel #2 (1999), Marvel Mystery Comics #1 (1999), The Basil Wolverton Reader #2 (2004), Timely's Greatest: The Golden Age Sub-Mariner by Bill Everett - The Pre-War Years Omnibus #[nn] (2019)
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