Number 2274: “As one Blue Beetle to another...have some fist!”

Don Markstein’s Toonopedia has three listings for Blue Beetle: the original 1939 character from Fox, plus the two incarnations from Charlton in the sixties. The story today is the 1939 B.B., from a story published in 1948 by Fox, and drawn by the Iger Shop, which means various artists were involved.

Dan Garret, who is a cop, is involved in a puzzling case where people are burning down their own houses. It was published at a time when there was a postwar housing shortage in the United States, and the characters make mention of that. I assume someone thought the housing shortage would make a good springboard for the plot. Dan is also the Blue Beetle, although as Don Markstein mentions, his best friends don’t realize the Blue Beetle is actually Dan Garret. To double the trouble, a fake Blue Beetle shows up to make the original Blue Beetle look bad. In “The Lady Firebug,” Blue Beetle looks into the eyes of a beautiful woman and is hypnotized. Because it’s done by the Iger gang, and because it is published by Fox, this Blue Beetle adventure contains sex appeal for eye candy.

From Blue Beetle #57:

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