Mystery Men 1 appeared on the stands mid June 1939, just one month after Fox entered the comics field with his Wonder Comics #1 (quickly noted by DC and dragged Fox into court). The issue has the first appearance of several features including cover man The Green Mask, The Blue Bettle, Rex Dexter of Mars, Wing Turner, Zanzibar and humour strip Hemlock Shomes. Standouts in artwork were Dick Briefer's Red Dexter and Fred Schwab's Hemlock Shomes but Blue Beetle, inspired by the then popular Green Hornet radio star, was the cover star by the eighth issue. Six months later he was starring in his own BB comic. The Flame and Green Mask were also given their own titles.
Readers might note the Blue Beetle doesn't look much like the super hero they might have seen in the later appearances. His first look here is in a business suit and mask like the hero Fox was copying - the Green Hornet. GH plot devices were also copied. BB would get a new look in the second issue of Mystery Men #2 and evolve in subsequent issues of the title.
Victor Fox must have thought BB had potential. BB would follow Superman's lead getting a newspaper strip in Jan. 1940 as part of an all Fox comic section much like Eisner's Spirit Section. BB was even given a daily strip though only one paper is known to have carried the daily which ended the following November on a cliffhanger. The strip was initially drawn by a very young Jack Kirby getting his first superhero comic work and can be seen on DCM at this link:
https://digitalcomicmuseum.com/index.php?dlid=26164
BB then got a radio show in 1940 two months after the comic section started. Copying plots from other radio shows, BB comics and even a DC comic the show lasted a mere four months.
Fox would publish the BB character off and on until going bankrupt a final time in 1951. But that was hardly the last time we would see BB. Years with Charlton and DC were still to come but that's not our focus here.
Our thanks to Brian House for buying this first issue and scanning it for all of us to read in its original form.
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