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"Mickey Finn": (newspaper strip reprints)

Quote1 From now on I shall be known as ~ THE DOLL MAN and pledge myself to fight crime and evil, relentlessly. Quote2
Doll Man

Feature Comics #27 is an issue of the series Feature Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of December, 1939.

Synopsis for "Mickey Finn"

(newspaper strip reprints)

Appearing in "Mickey Finn"

Featured Characters:

  • Mickey Finn

Supporting Characters:

  • Uncle Phil

Synopsis for Doll Man: "Meet the Dollman"

Without first bothering to develop an antidote, handsome young mad scientist Darrell Dane drinks an experimental serum, causing him to shrink to six inches in height, then waits around for the effect to wear off, if it ever does. Initial psychological effects are to make him quite belligerent, but this passes. He soon solves his girlfriend's blackmail problem, recovers an incriminating letter, lets the slimeball blackmailer Falco get away, and then adopts the identity of Doll Man.

Appearing in Doll Man: "Meet the Dollman"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Falco (Single appearance)

Locations:

Synopsis for "The Bungle Family"

(newspaper strip reprints)

Appearing in "The Bungle Family"

Featured Characters:

  • Bungle Family

Synopsis for "Ned Brant"

(newspaper strip reprints)

Appearing in "Ned Brant"

Featured Characters:

  • Ned Brant

Synopsis for "Dixie Dugan"

(newspaper strip reprints)

Appearing in "Dixie Dugan"

Featured Characters:

  • Dixie Dugan

Synopsis for Slim and Tubby: "Episode 27"

(newspaper strip reprints)

Appearing in Slim and Tubby: "Episode 27"

Featured Characters:

  • Slim
  • Tubby

Synopsis for Reynolds of the Mounted: "Radium Mine"


Appearing in Reynolds of the Mounted: "Radium Mine"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • three escaped convicts

Other Characters:

  • John Brent, engineer, Beaver Radium Company

Locations:

Items:

  • hunk of radium ore concealed in a pillow

Synopsis for The Clock: "Phantom Gang Escapes Police Again"

The Phantom Gang has been eluding police by running their getaway cars up ramps into the backs of big trucks, for several weeks, before the Clock figures out their gimmick and busts them.

Appearing in The Clock: "Phantom Gang Escapes Police Again"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Captain Kane, NYPD

Antagonists:

  • The Phantom Gang

Locations:

Synopsis for "Jane Arden // Lena Pry"

(newspaper strip reprints)

Appearing in "Jane Arden // Lena Pry"

Featured Characters:

  • Jane Arden
  • Lena Pry (See Notes.)

Synopsis for Captain Fortune: "Angela"


Appearing in Captain Fortune: "Angela"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Will Kentshire, First Officer
    • "Revenge" Crew

Antagonists:

  • Captain Gabul (Dies)
    • Crew of Pirates (all killed)

Other Characters:

  • Merchant Galleon Crew (all killed)
  • Merchant Galleon Passengers (mostly killed)
  • Angela

Locations:

Vehicles:

  • English Privateer Galleon "Revenge"
    • Revenge's Longboat
  • Pirate Ship (Destroyed)
  • Merchant Galleon (stolen, new pirate ship)

Synopsis for "Lala Palooza"

(newspaper strip reprints)

Appearing in "Lala Palooza"

Featured Characters:

  • Lala Palooza

Supporting Characters:

  • Vincent Palooza

Synopsis for Rance Keane: "Gold Mine"


Appearing in Rance Keane: "Gold Mine"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Pee Wee Lee

Antagonists:

  • Arch Cantle

Locations:

Synopsis for Charlie Chan: "Claire Lamont"

(newspaper strip reprints)

Appearing in Charlie Chan: "Claire Lamont"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Kirk Barrow

Antagonists:

  • Katherine Evans (Dies)

Other Characters:

  • Gina Lane
  • Claire Lamont (Dies)
  • Armand De Remy
  • Cooper the Butler
  • Ann Drew
  • E.A. Cross
  • Tom Martin

Locations:

Synopsis for "Joe Palooka"

(newspaper strip reprints)

Appearing in "Joe Palooka"

Featured Characters:

  • Joe Palooka

Supporting Characters:

  • Knobby Walsh

Notes

  • Published monthly by Comic Favorites, Inc.
  • Captain Fortune has left San Louvelle, wherever it was, and sailed to the Caribbean.
  • Doll Man was the first super-powered mystery-man on his version of Earth, and was actually stronger at doll-size than when normal, as strong as twenty full-sized men.
    • His origin is retold in Secret Origins (Volume 2) #8.
    • Rex Tyler at least did ONE lab-rat-test; not this guy. Whether or not he was thinking straight at the time, Darrel Dane became insane at his new size, and remained so for several minutes.
    • At the end of this story, both Dr. Roberts and Martha definitely do know Darrel Dane's double identity.
    • Darrel Dane's doll costume grows with him, when he luckily returns to normal size with no side effects from shrinking. How this happens is never explained in the superhero's long career at Quality Comics, and is also never explained in the character's 1970s revival at DC Comics.
  • Rance Keane makes a long-distance phone-call from a ranch house out west. And in Feature Comics #29 he encounters a modern freight train. There are still no automobiles seen in this strip. Everything else, including stage coaches (next issue), is moved by horses. So this series is set in the 1920s or later.
  • Reynolds of the Mounted gets head-konked unconscious, with a wooden club.
  • Also featured in this issue of Feature Comics were:
    • Big Top by Ed Wheelan
    • "Cove of the Beasts, Part 2" (text story) by Robert M. Hyatt
    • Good Deed Dotty by J.P. McEvoy and J.H. Striebel, running across the top 1/5 of of all four of their Dixie Dugan pages.
    • "Joe Palooka's Album" by Ham Fisher, running across the top 1/5 of all 4 of his Joe Palooka pages.
    • Lena Pry by Monte Barrett and Russell E. Ross, running in the bottom-left 1/4 of all 4 of their Jane Arden pages.
    • Little Brother by H.J. Tuthill, running across the top 1/5 of both of his Bungle Family pages.
    • Mortimer Mum by Bill Sakren, across bottom halves of both "Toddy" pages.
    • Nippie ("He's Often Wrong") by Lank Leonard, running across the top 1/5 of all 4 of his Mickey Finn pages.
    • Off The Record (1-panel gags) by Ed Reed, in two places in this issue.
    • Rube Goldberg's Side Show, by Rube Goldberg, in one place in this issue.
    • They're Still Talking: "...About That historic sports event", by Bob Zuppke and R.W. Depew
    • Toddy by George Marcoux, across top halves of both "Mortimer Mum" pages.
    • Twisted Tales by Rube Goldberg, running across the bottom 1/5 of his Side Show page.

Trivia

  • William A. Smith signs his Rance Keane story as "Will Arthur".
  • This issue of Feature Comics went on sale on November 1st 1939. At this time in comic book publishing history, the entire population of costumed, super-powered superheroes consisted of DC's Superman, Centaur's Amazing Man, Centaur's Fantom of the Fair, Fox's Blue Beetle, Fox's The Flame, Harvey's Shock Gibson, Marvel's Human Torch, and now Quality's Doll Man.
    • (Caveats: 1/ Centaur's Speed Centaur was nude, not costumed. 2/ Centaur's Mighty Man didn't adopt a costume until later. 3/ MLJ's Wizard didn't adopt a costume until later. 4/ MLJ's Bob Phantom started concurrently with Doll Man. 5/ Fox's Samson, like Marvel's Submariner, wore ordinary shorts or trunks. 6/ Dell's Martan the Marvel Man wore the sci-fi fashions of his native time and place, like DC's Gary Concord the Ultra Man.)
    • But even counting all of them, Doll Man was among the first fourteen superpowered superheroes in comics history.


See Also


Links and References

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