COLOSSUS COMICS #1 (MARCH 1940)

This is a rare one from Sun Publications, a former pulp publisher (10-Story Book, Golden Fleece) who made a brief entry into the comics field one year earlier with Sun Fun Komiks #1 (evidently, there was never a #2).  As for Colossus Comics, one issue appears to have been it.  To get this scan for Colossus #1, several sources had to be used; material for a complete scan of Sun Fun Komiks #1 has not yet been located.

Abysmal drawing and poor color highlight this issue, which contains:

• "Colossus AD 2640"  Plantaliens, defeated in a war sixty years previously, have regrouped and have gained superior weapons and are about to re-invade the solar system.  At the same, Dr. Blitzmann has perfected (he thinks) a glandular formula to control human growth.  Richard Zenith, a lowly lab assistant, is given the formula just as Eve Blitzmann rushes in to tell her father that she screwed up mixing the ingredients for the formula.  Too late!  Zenith grows and grows and grows until he is over two thousand feet tall.  With that height and strength -- and taking. the name Colossus -- he decides he can rule the world.  So Colossus grabs Eve because, hey, she's a good looker who wouldn't give him the time of day, especially with manly Bryn Hale hanging around.  Let's mention that Eve is wearing some sort of misbegotten futuristic hat, that Colossus is stomping around destroying everything, that there is something definitely phallic about the Plantaliens' space ships, that Bryn Hale's manly body resembles that of a lurching ape, and that the only thing decent things artist Bernie Weist draws in this entire story are Eve's legs.  The story, luckily, was to be continued in the next issue that never happened.
• "Educational Adventures of Panda-Lin"  A one pager featuring a young Chinese panda and his father.  They accidentally power a flying carpet and land at the Taj Mahal.  The story ends before the educational part begins.
• "Lucky Lucifer, Flyer of Fortune"  Lucky has joined Allied fliers and is flying over France when attacked by German ace von Fleissig, the Nazi scourge of the skies.  Wounded and with his plane aflame, Lucky leaps out and lands on a plane flown by his buddy Slipstream Barry.  Nothing slows Lucky Lucifer down.  Shrugging off his wound, Lucky is back in the air that afternoon to rescue a pretty French spy from behind enemy lines -- and for another encounter with von Fleissig!  If the April issue had ever come out, Lucky would have faced "The Flaming Death!"  Who would name their all-American hero Lucifer?  Sheesh.
• "The Ghost of Buzzard Mounting" is Part One in the adventures of Lum Sims.  Lum is the poor man's Li'l Abner (only uglier and dumber) with a dash of Robert E. Howard's Breckinridge Elkins.  Lum climbs Buzzard Mounting to recover his hawg that done got stoled by the fersome ghost.  Or something.  Lum was also slated to return the following month.
• "Boomerang"  A two-page story/promotional advertisement.  Kids -- you, too, can enjoy this new sport of boomerang throwing just like Zurro did in this story when he rescued Yombi from the giant kangaroo!  For just one dollar you can get this GENUINE MURCHIE BOOMERANG (a 50 cent value) and a one-year (twelve issue) subscription to Colossus Comics (a $1.20 value) -- an amazing 70 cent savings!
• "Mory Marine" is out on the town with his girl Sally and his leatherneck buddy Chubby when they hear the blast of a machine gun.  A postal inspector has been shot.  The dying man gives Mory a packet that must be delivered to chief Inspector Flint.  The bad guys then kidnap Mory and Sally (with Sally showing some well-turned gams), but do they really think they can keep a good marine down?
• "The Gold of Gartok" featured the Tulpa of Tsang, a Tibetian lama with mystical powers.  A local robber baron has joined forces with an evil (is there any other kind?) Nazi to loot local monastaries.  Tsang avoids many tortures, throws poorly-drawn cobras at the baddies, and **SPOILER ALERT!** dips the robber baron's decapitated head into molten gold.  Mystical lamas are tough!
• "The Black Heart of Red Beard"  A two-page text story by "Nick Nomad."  Bernie Weist illustrated this one, showing us that the guy can actually draw.
• "Blonde Garth, King of the Isles"  Cast ashore as a child, Garth is raised by Bubu the Medicine Man and grew to be the mightiest of them all.  When the island king refuses to give his daughter Tara to a neighboring king, things begin to get out of hand.  First a giant killer shark (and I mean giant; this sucker makes Jaws look like a minnow) is smuggled into the lagoon and kills the heir to the kingdom, then the king himself is killed, then the tribe is turned against Garth and Princess Tara by an evil witch woman.  Things certainly look dire.
• "Ruggey"  This story is meant to be humorous, I think.  The King Joe of Bulmania cannot pay the $65 owed to Phil Thelucre, so Phil forecloses on the kingdom.  Needing a brainless sap to run the kingdom for him, Phil chooses  Ruggey the cab driver.  Ex-king Joe is not a good guy.  He has Hitler hair and a Hitler mustache.  He plots to regain the kingdom while Ruggey eats oatmeal.  Alas, eating oatmeal is a no-no in Bulmania.

With all the stories and characters to be continued in the next issue, it seems hopes were high that there would be a second issue.  In fact, a new superhero character, the winged Icarion, was promised to make his debut in issue 2.

Colossus Comics #1 announced a large contest with 200 prizes for picking a feature in that issue and writing in 25 words or less why that feature is 'the best comic strip."  Prizes included five streamlined bicycles, 20 pairs of skates, 50 league baseballs, and 125 official Murchie Boomerangs.  I wonder if any of those prizes were actually awarded.  And I wonder what Sun Publications did with all those danged boomerangs.

Enjoy.

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