April 1970: The Amazon and the Clown

Wonder Woman and … Jerry Lewis? Talk about your odd couple.

But actually, the comedian had run into other superheroes in his DC Comics title The Adventures of Jerry Lewis, notably Superman, Batman and the Flash.

“Unfortunately, while this story (in issue 117) is explicitly touted as featuring the new Wonder Woman, it reads very much as though writer (Alan) Riefe and editor Murray Boltinoff weren’t all that familiar with what had been done to the character over the past year,” recalled Tom Brevoort. 

“In an attempt to spike interest in her series, Diana Prince had given up her Amazon power and taken to running a boutique while studying the martial arts under her sightless Asian instructor I-Ching. She would get involved in spy adventures very much inspired by Diana Rigg in the UK import television series The Avengers, and took to wearing white outfits. So most of the magic and the mythology had been stripped out of the series in an attempt to make it more relevant. But you wouldn’t know that from this Jerry Lewis tale.”

Mike Sterling noted, “Jerry’s run as a comic book character began in 1952 with The Adventures of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. After the Martin/Lewis comedy act broke up, the title was continued as The Adventures of Jerry Lewis.”  

“What made Jerry Lewis stand out to me was his longevity,” wrote Sterling. “His comic book ran 124 issues before coming to an end in 1971. At DC, Green Lantern and Green Arrow were dealing with the impact of drug abuse, Batman was returning to the dark, gritty roots of his origin and a Jerry Lewis comic book was being published.” 

Comedian Bob Hope’s title had an equally impressive run of 109 issues. I once interviewed Hope prior to his show at the local university, and kicked myself later when I realized I’d forgotten to ask him about his lengthy career as a DC Comics character.

Still rankles me.

November 1950: A Star is Masked

Actor Tim Holt had a dual identity as a masked avenger, but only in the comics.

It was an odd turn of fate for an actor who’s remembered for his leading roles in several Hollywood classics — the 1942 Orson Welles film The Magnificent Ambersons, the 1946 John Ford western My Darling Clementine and the 1948 John Huston film The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

A decorated combat veteran in World War II, Holt earned a Purple Heart while flying in the Pacific Theatre as a B-29 bombardier with the Army Air Force. He starred in westerns before and after the war, including 46 RKO B pictures.

Holt proved popular enough to star in a western comic book published by Magazine Enterprises from 1948 to 1956. In the 20th issue of Tim Holt, writer Gardner Fox and artist Frank Bolle told readers how Sheriff Tim Holt heard the story of Redmask, a mystery man of the Rio Grande long before, and decided to adopt that identity to fight crime. 

Holt’s secret identity may have been inspired by the popularity of the Ghost Rider, a Dick Ayers feature appearing in his title.

“The real-life Tim Holt’s career as a cowboy star petered out in the early ’50s,” noted comics historian Don Markstein. “In fact, by the middle of 1952, he wasn’t doing those roles at all anymore. But the comic book continued for another couple of years. There’s little doubt that his activities as Redmask contributed to his longevity in that venue, because when the Tim Holt title finally bit the dust, it was replaced with Red Mask... The switch took place with #42 (July 1954). The only difference in the content was that a couple of issues earlier, he’d switched from a triangular lower-half face mask like Vigilante wore to a domino mask like that of Nighthawk.”

Meanwhile, the real Holt became the manager of an Oklahoma radio station, dying in 1973 at the age of 54.