Number 2293: Warlock and the golden hand

Warlock the Wizard, as stated by the Public Domain Super Heroes website, is a magician who uses real magic. ( Aren’t all comic book heroes with super powers “magic”?) But here I am talking about a magician in the traditional sense of the word.

Most of the comic book magicians, if not all, are descended from Mandrake the Magician, which was a very popular newspaper strip. Mandrake used hypnotism. Okay, the results of his hypnotic spells were more-or-less magic, but I digress.

Warlock the Wizard has a golden hand which he uses to combat evil. He also has a thing about strangulation, which as far as a super magician hero goes, seems weird. Or is it? According to various dictionaries I checked, a warlock is a male witch, and uses black magic for evil. Warlock the Wizard as a name seems redundant, but snappy with its alliteration. I am thinking these thoughts that no one cares about 79 years after the character appeared and disappeared. He lasted for seven issues of Nickel Comics. Nickel Comics lasted one more issue after that. This episode appeared in Nickel Comics #2 (1940).

Grand Comics Database doesn't know who wrote or drew the story. I will guess Bill Parker for the script, because of his annoying use of captions which explain what we are already seeing. It is a technique that was probably old by the 1920s, when newspaper comics finally gave it up. The artwork I don’t recognize.

Here is a Bulletman story written by Parker and drawn by Ed Smalle, and more of my kvetching about captions, also from Nickel Comics #2. Just click on the thumbnail.

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