Tuesday, April 15, 2014

M is for Major Victory

Major Victory was one of several patriotic superheroes to emerge from the studio and comic book packaging operation of Harry "A" Chesler, during a time when Phil Sturm was the lead editor. We here at NUELOW Games think of the Chesler output from 1940 through late 1941/early 1942 as the Golden Age for his Golden Age of Comics activity, and Major Victory is among the last of the characters from that period that we will be bringing to modern readers in one of our titles.

Drawn by Charles Sultan, and written by an unknown writer, Major Victory was featured in the first three issues of Dynamic Comics, along with other great Chesler superheroes, such as the original Dynamic Boy and Dynamic Man, and Lady Satan in her spy-killing incarnation. He was one of several patriotic superheroes created by the studio, a soldier who was returned to life by Father Patriot as the embodiment of the American fighting spirit after dying in an attempt to stop a terrorist attack on an American military base.

The splash page from the second Major Victory story.
Art by Charles Sultan
Like the best of Chesler's output, the Major Victory stories featured solid artwork, fast-paced stories that were more than a little macabre, and a whole lot of fun. Sadly, like all of Chesler's greatest creations, the Major's career was also very short. There were the three stories published in Dynamic Comics 1-3 during 1941, which were then reprinted in Major Victory Comics 1-3 in 1942. Curiously, the Major's shirt and pants were colored yellow in the reprints, breaking the red-white-and-blue motif of his costume. Why this bizarre decision was made one can't even being to guess at.

Exactly where Major Victory will appear in the line-up of NUELOW Games publications remains to be decided, but he is certainly a candidate for an issue of Complete Golden Age Oddballs.

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