Retro Comic Rewind: The Purple Claw

Eileen’s major literary love is comedian books, however she’s all the time looking out for her subsequent literary journey it doesn’t matter what type it takes. She has a Bachelor’s in media research, a Master’s in digital communication, a smattering of revealed brief tales, and a significantly cute canine. Follow her on Bluesky.

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Some comics go down in historical past as masterful examples of the craft and are beloved by a number of generations. And others find yourself on the landfill. In this collection, I’ll be wanting again on some forgotten collection to raised perceive what sort of comics our ancestral nerds had been studying within the days of rotary telephones and file gamers.

Today’s topic: The Purple Claw!

Purple Claw #1 cover — Zombie knights? Must be Thursday.

The Context

Lately, evidently the comics I choose to evaluate all come from the identical time interval and from creators who had the identical objectives in thoughts. It’s the early Nineteen Fifties. Superheroes are on the wane, however horror comics are on the rise. Let’s mix the 2 and see what occurs!

The Creators

Each of the Purple Claw tales is signed “Brown and Gantz.” I might have assumed that was the author and artist, however comics.org identifies them because the penciller and inker, Ben Brown and David Gantz. So, whoever wrote these points is a thriller.

Almost as mysterious is the writer, which is variously often known as Toby Press, Minoan Publishing, and different related titles. I couldn’t discover a lot on them: they had been in enterprise for less than six years, although they managed to differentiate themselves by publishing licensed comics that includes characters like Buck Rogers and Felix the Cat.

The Comic

The first problem races by means of our hero’s origin story, which is dropped at you by the letter R for racist.

In 1943, Dr. Jonathan Weir (alas, nobody ever calls him Johnny, nor does he ice skate, though he does go on a ski trip and battle a snow monster) crash-lands within the Congo and is saved by a witch physician with a mystic, purple-clawed glove. In return, Weir educates the native inhabitants about how mosquitoes trigger malaria, thus saving lives. (Some Africans had already figured that out on their very own, however the location the place Weir crashed seems to be someplace else on the continent, so I’ll let this go together with a suspicious squint moderately than a rant.)

In gratitude, the witch physician items him the Purple Claw, which may, as Issue Two places it, “combat the horrors of the beyond.” His powers stay fairly obscure. What does the Claw do, precisely? How does it repel evil? A nasty man in Issue One describes its contact as feeling like “fingertips of fire” on his coronary heart, however that’s as shut as we get to a proof. It’s additionally talked about that Weir has “supernaturally keen” senses due to the Claw.

Dude doesn’t even trouble with a secret identification. At greatest, he simply throws on a trench coat.

Dr Weir, a dark-haired man with a white stripe down the middle of his hair, dons the purple claw and a trench coat to go fight crime. He says, — Is Dr. Gool actually a extra suspicious identify than Dr. Weir?

Most of his adventures appear to contain combating people who’ve changed into one thing else: the undead, snakes (adorably known as were-snakes), man-eating crops, and so on. They can be lazy in spots: the very first story, “The Power of the Purple Claw,” has Weir confront a mad scientist, Dr. Gool, who needs to take over the world with zombies…and but, the one factor we see Gool do together with his zombies is have one money a test for him. That doesn’t appear to be essentially the most put-together plan, however I assume it’s helpful in case you don’t really feel like going all the best way to the financial institution.

In a surprisingly, uh, sober closing story, “The Final Terror,” Weir helps an alcoholic by being tremendous judgey about his issues and forcing him to battle the supernatural manifestation of his dependancy. That’s how that works, proper?

In a swirl of lines, the Purple Claw and Bill Bartel leave Bill's mind. Bill thanks the Purple Claw for helping him overcome his alcoholism. Weir says that Bill "fought and won" the battle himself. — He’d be successful on the Betty Ford Center.

The Legacy

Even although Purple Claw’s title lasted lower than six months, he has continued to make sporadic appearances in different comics. Stories from these points had been reprinted in different Toby titles, and as soon as Toby went underneath, the Purple Claw was acquired by I.W. Publishing, which did virtually nothing with him.

In the late Nineteen Eighties, the Purple Claw was one among many characters acquired by AC Comics, which intermittently featured each reprints and new adventures in numerous titles till the mid-2000s. In 2010, IDW additionally reprinted a few the traditional tales, however no one appears to care sufficient to sponsor a wholesale reboot like we noticed with the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents.

It’s straightforward to grasp the dearth of curiosity. Dr. Strange hadn’t been invented but, however Dr. Weir(d) nonetheless appears like a generic model knockoff of him. (He’s even received the odd patches of grey hair for crying out loud.) I can undoubtedly see why Purple Claw by no means caught on, although, in case you take the racist bits out, he’s not devoid of advantage. Since Dr. Strange remains to be round, the thought of a non-traditional superhero who dabbles in the dead of night arts generally is a winner when approached accurately.

Want extra classic goodness? Check out earlier editions of RCR: Race for the Moon, Stamps Comics, Tippy Teen, Winnie Winkle, Hangman Comics, G.I. in Battle, Adventures in Wonderland, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1993), The Arrow, Weird Horrors, Ghost Rider, and Crimes by Women!

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