Greg Clark Noir Art

  LEGENDARY HEROES #40 THE GREEN LAMA The first appearance of The Green Lama was in April 1940 in the pulp Double Detective magazine.  The story was written by Kendall Foster Crossen who used the pseudonym Richard Foster, and the character was somewhat inspired by Theo 'The White Lama' Bernard who was an explorer, author, and yoga enthusiast.  The character was originally conceived as The Gray Lama but tests of cover art were unsatisfactory so the color was changed to green.  The character was created at the request of Frank Munsey Publishers who wanted a competitor for The Shadow at their rival publishers Street & Smith.  Frank Munsey created the pulps.  It was Munsey who had the idea to use high-speed presses to mass produce inexpensive, untrimmed, pulp paper magazines, creating magazines filled with various genres of action and adventure that were aimed at working class readers.  One of the earliest publications by Munsey was Golden Argosy a wee...

  LEGENDARY HEROES #39 SPY SMASHER When Fawcett Publications decided to enter the comic book field they turned to Bill Parker and C. C. Beck to create characters for them.  Parker wrote the stories and Beck illustrated them, and Spy Smasher was one of several heroes that they came up with.  Spy Smasher would become one of Fawcett's most popular characters and he was introduced in Whiz Comics #2 (February 1940) alongside another Parker & Beck creation called Captain Marvel.  In that introductory story readers met Alan Armstrong, a wealthy Virginia sportsman who is an intelligent scientist and inventor, a master detective, and a skilled hand-to-hand combatant.  Alan Armstrong is engaged to Eve Corby whose father is an Admiral in Naval Intelligence.  One day Admiral Corby confides to his future son-in-law that he suspects that a string of recent "accidents" at the navy yards are actually the work of saboteurs.  Armstrong decides to look into the matte...

  LEGENDARY HEROES #38 CAPTAIN MARVEL Fawcett Publications was founded in 1919 in Robbinsdale, Minnesota by Wilford Hamilton "Captain Billy" Fawcett and it's first publication was the bawdy humor magazine Captain Billy's Whiz Bang.  Fawcett expanded their magazine empire with Mechanix Illustrated, True Confessions, Family Circle, Woman's Day, and True.  After experiencing tremendous growth the company relocated to NYC in the 1930s and in 1939 they decided to go into the comic book business.  Staff writer Bill Parker was chosen to create new characters for this endeavor, and one of his ideas was a team of six heroes, each possessing a different special power granted them by a mythological figure.  Executive Director Ralph Daigh suggested that instead of six heroes that they combine them into one hero with six powers.  Bill Parker did this and Captain Thunder was the final creation with artwork supplied by cartoonist C. C. Beck.  Beck had a very cartoony...