Thursday, April 17, 2014

O is for the Owl

The Owl is second creation of cartoonish Martin Filchock to be featured on this trip through the alphabet by way of obscure Golden Age comic book characters, with the previous one being Electric Ray.

The world gets its first look at the Owl! From Funny Pages #1 (vol. 4)
The Owl is a young librarian named Jack who uses the hi-tech  flying suit to take revenge against the crimnals who crippled his father. The suit gives him the ability to fly "faster than an airship" and to communicate with his father via radio.

Like all of Flichock's creations, there is a quirky feel of off-centeredness--while reading, one is never quite sure if the story is to be taken seriously or is a clever bit of comedy.His most successful and longest-lived Golden Age superhero strip was Cenatur's Mighty Man (lasting from issues 5 - 25 of Amazing Man) which most was an obvious comedic take on superheroes Filchock was a celebrated cartoonist and yhumorist, who continued working and publishing right up until his death in 2012, so maybe he couldn't stop kidding around even when drawing and writing superheroes.

The Owl's solitary flight will be presented in a future issue of Complete Golden Age Oddballs.


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