Doll Man #6
Doll Man #6 holds a notable place in Golden Age publishing history as one of the earliest comics to carry a Captain Tootsie advertisement strip — the one-page superhero ad feature created in 1943 by C.C. Beck and his studio for Tootsie Roll Industries, placing it near the ground floor of advertiser-funded comics characters. The issue also introduces two new antagonists for Darrel Dane, and its mad-scientist story — in which Doll Man cannot reverse the villain's shrinking process and grimly destroys the victims — is an unusually dark narrative choice for a wartime superhero quarterly. Together, these elements make the issue a compact snapshot of Golden Age comics culture: a superhero serial running alongside commercial advertising disguised as adventure storytelling, both produced by craftsmen who simultaneously shaped the decade's most popular characters.
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The issue was published under the Comic Favorites Inc. indicia (Quality Comic Group brand) with an on-sale date of May 26, 1943, and carried a July 1943 cover date. Gill Fox, who had served as editor and cover artist for Quality Comics since 1940, is credited as editor; he departed the company later that same year to serve in World War II, making this among the final issues he shepherded. The cover was penciled and inked by Al Bryant, while interior story credits remain partially contested — the GCD currently attributes at least one lead story to Fran Matera, with earlier records crediting Al Bryant, and Fred Guardineer is cited as providing script and art in at least one additional story.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published May 26, 1943 (on-sale date per Catalog of Copyright Entries, registration B604954); cover-dated July 1943 by Quality Comics / Comic Favorites Inc.
- Gill Fox served as editor — one of the last issues under his tenure before he left Quality Comics in 1943 to serve in World War II with Stars and Stripes.
- Cover art by Al Bryant; interior story art credited by GCD to Fran Matera (previously credited to Al Bryant), with Fred Guardineer also credited for script and art on at least one story.
- Introduces villains Lucky Lawson and Dip Fennis in one story; a second story debuts an unnamed mad scientist and his 'little green men' — people he has irreversibly shrunk — all of whom die in the issue.
- Contains a Captain Tootsie advertisement strip — the one-page adventure ad feature created in 1943 by C.C. Beck (with writer Rod Reed and inker Pete Costanza) for Tootsie Roll Industries; Rollo is Captain Tootsie's kid sidekick and part of the Secret Legion alongside Fatso and Fisty.
- Captain Tootsie was produced by the same C.C. Beck studio responsible for Fawcett's Captain Marvel, and his costume was visually patterned on Captain Marvel's design; the character ran as an ad strip across dozens of publishers and newspapers through the mid-1950s.
- The Captain Tootsie ad concept later influenced Marvel's Doc Samson costume design in the 1970s, with artist Herb Trimpe believed to have modeled Samson's uniform partly on Tootsie's look.
- The lead Doll Man content from this issue was later reprinted in Gwandanaland Comics #2123 — Doll Man Giant #0 (September 2018).
Cast · 2 characters
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Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
▸ Reveal full plot — may contain spoilers
Doll Man faces a scientist who has created mute Little Green Men by shrinking people, for whom Doll Man shows no mercy. As he has no way to restore these men to normal height, the mighty mite chooses to trap them all in a confined area and blow them up.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).