Number 1944: Jack Cole on Death Patrol

Plastic Man creator Jack Cole is credited with creating Death Patrol for Quality’s Military Comics. The whole magazine was produced by the Eisner-Iger Studio and so I am not sure who had what amount of input into each feature. Blackhawk was the star, and Death Patrol was a filler, lasting until 1946 when it was dropped for Torchy! If ever a feature was sacrificed for the greater good, it was Death Patrol giving it up for Torchy.

Death Patrol reaches a bit by introducing so many characters for only 6 pages, but that was the comics biz of the early years...although the Patrol consists of a millionaire playboy (yawwwnnnn), and some escaped convicts, the introductions are short because it was important to get right to the action. The kids who were reading this didn’t really care much about individual motivation...they just wanted to get to the butt-kicking.

In its initial run Cole left Death Patrol after three episodes.I am showing the first two here.

From Military Comics #’s 1 and 2 (1941):

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