THE CLOCK: 1939 to 1940 STORIES

This weekend’s escapist and light-hearted superhero post here at Balladeer’s Blog presents my SECOND look at the adventures of the Clock. PART ONE examined his November 1936-January 1939 stories, so STILL before Batman debuted in May of 1939. 

Yes, before Batman, before Captain America and even before Superman himself, came the Clock, written and drawn by George E. Brenner. The Clock was the first masked crimefighter in comic books, debuting in 1936, while the much more popular Batman didn’t come along until 1939. I’m not pointing that out to diss Batman, but to point out what a shame it is that the Clock seems to have been forgotten by most of the world. The figure is pretty much the middle character between Pulp heroes like the Shadow and the Moon Man and comic book superheroes. The Clock’s influence on Will Eisner’s iconic character the Spirit is obvious.

FEATURE FUNNIES Vol 1 #17 (February 1939)

Title: Murder of a Painter

Villains: Nick and Slug

Synopsis: Two thugs called Nick and Slug hold up a physician at gunpoint to steal his newly arrived shipment of radium for medical use. When John Post, a painter on a safety belt outside the window, witnesses the robbery our villains send him falling to his death.

The physician, Dr. T. Loden, is too scared of getting killed himself to cooperate with the cops. Millionaire Brian O’Brien becomes the Clock and prepares to “strike” once again with his gimmick-laden cane, gas-filled bowtie and armored vest.

He guilts Loden into giving him enough info for him to track down Nick and Slug and beat them unconscious. The Clock then calls Captain Kane (his pre-Commissioner Gordon version of Commissioner Gordon) to come pick up the thugs and the stolen radium. 

FEATURE FUNNIES Vol 1 #18 (March 1939)

Title: Sam Snatz – Cop Killer

Villains: The Tony Chukka Gang

Synopsis: Captain Kane is in danger of being forced to resign if he and his men don’t soon haul in crime lord Tony Chukka and his gang. The Clock reads about it in the newspaper and goes undercover as Sam Snatz, a fugitive cop killer, to infiltrate the Chukka Gang.

Our hero plays along, then shows who he really is in time to thwart a diamond heist by Tony Chukka and two of his underlings. He calls Captain Kane and has him come collect the criminals.

FEATURE FUNNIES Vol 1 #19 (April 1939)

Title: Fight Fixing

Villain: Pug Pratt

Synopsis: Man about town Brian O’Brien, being a fan of the Sweet Science, gets wise to criminal Pug Pratt and his toughs fixing boxing matches. Our hero becomes the Clock and investigates.

When Pug has his men get violent with a boxer that Brian O’Brien knows personally, the Clock abducts Pratt and – in a throwback to the earliest Clock stories – takes the villain to his secret lair where he lets the muscled boxer rough up Pug before taking him to the police. 

FEATURE FUNNIES Vol 1 #20 (May 1939)

Title: The Clock Unmasked

Villains: Boss Marco and his gang

Synopsis: The Clock is driving around the night-darkened city on patrol when he comes across Boss Marco and three of his men robbing the Acme Diamond Cutting Company. He takes them on, but in the subsequent fight one of them gets the drop on him.

The robbers unmask our hero at gunpoint and relish getting to tell all of New York City that the Clock is really Brian O’Brien.

All four criminals wind up getting blown up in their car with nitroglycerin before they can expose the Clock’s secret identity.   

FEATURE COMICS Vol 1 #21 (June 1939)

NOTE: The publication has been renamed Feature Comics.

Title: Crime at the World’s Fair

Villains: The Boss and Chick

Synopsis: The Boss, one of the Clock’s colorful supervillains from Part One, returns to liven things up compared to the lackluster villains so far this time. Brian O’Brien is among the tourists taking in the 1939 World’s Fair.

He spots the Boss and his sole remaining thug Chick in the crowds. The villains try to rob the cash take for the day from several fair vendors, but Brian takes action as the Clock and engages in a running fight with the crooks throughout the World’s Fair. Atop a building he outfights them and makes sure the Boss doesn’t escape this time.

FEATURE COMICS Vol 1 #22 (July 1939)

Title: Death of a D.A.

Villain: Mayor Tull

Synopsis: Brian O’Brien and Captain Kane, among the attendees at the Policeman’s Ball, learn that District Attorney Ted Downs has shot himself to death. As the Clock, our man investigates.

Finding Downs’ safe has been emptied of the D.A.’s evidence in his ongoing probe of political corruption in New York City, the Clock uses fingerprints to prove that Mayor Tull killed Downs. The D.A. had compiled evidence of Tull’s misdeeds so the Mayor killed him and faked a suicide. The Clock has Captain Kane arrest Tull.

FEATURE COMICS Vol 1 #23 (August 1939)

Title: The Burton Kidnapping

Villains: Butch Barron and Squint

Synopsis: Butch Barron and his partner Squint kidnap a millionaire with the last name Burton and issue a demand for an enormous ransom.

When the police get nowhere with the investigation, the Clock breaks into headquarters overnight and consults the evidence himself.

Naturally, our hero sees things the cops missed and drives into action. He manages to locate the hideout of the kidnappers, where he defeats both Butch and Squint in battle and frees the hostage, Burton.   

FEATURE COMICS Vol 1 #24 (September 1939)

Title: Nillot the Swindler

Villains: Nillot, Kratz and Joe

Synopsis: Nillot the Swindler has been arrested recently for another of his stock frauds. As usual, the witnesses have been killed off before they can testify. The Clock takes action to get incriminating evidence and when Nillot plus his gunsels Kratz and Joe attack him, he fights it out with them.

As always, his specially reinforced hat protects him from being knocked out by a head-blow from behind. Our hero immobilizes the trio of criminals and calls Captain Kane to come pick them up. 

FEATURE COMICS Vol 1 #25 (October 1939)

Title: The Parker Gang

Villains: The Parker Gang

Synopsis: A gang of thieves called the Parker Gang are pulling off robberies of ritzy homes and escaping in their high-speed motorboat. When the Commissioner’s home is robbed he leans on Captain Kane, so the Clock investigates.

Our hero discovers that temporary service employees for high-class get togethers act as inside accomplices to aid the Parker Gang. The Clock exposes them and takes down the entire gang.

FEATURE COMICS Vol 1 #26 (November 1939)

Title: Wanted: The Clock

Villain: Fingers Holts

Synopsis: Clever and athletic Fingers Holts dons a Clock costume of his own and frames our hero for three burglaries & murders within two weeks. Brian O’Brien becomes the Clock and must evade the cops while tracking down the man behind the frame jobs.

The Clock catches Fingers red-handed during his fourth caper and the two fight it out. It’s a lengthy battle across the rooftops since Holts is able to go blow for blow with our hero. In the end, the Clock defeats the villain and after threatening to feed him to rats, (!) gets him to confess to the police.

FEATURE COMICS Vol 1 #27 (December 1939)

Title: The Phantom Gang

Villains: The Phantom Gang

Synopsis: A clever gang of armed robbers called the Phantom Gang have been pulling off a series of daring hit and run capers and when pursued by police cars they always seem to disappear into thin air.

The Clock investigates and eventually pieces together how the gang pulls off their vanishing act. They drive up collapsible ramps into long-bodied trucks driven by accomplices. This hides the escape cars from the pursuing cops. The masked man catches them and clobbers all of the gang members.

FEATURE COMICS Vol 1 #28 (January 1940)

Title: The Bombing of Dan Nolen

Villain: Assistant D.A. Clyde Neste

Synopsis: District Attorney Dan Nolen, one of Brian O’Brien’s mentors from back when he worked as a D.A. long before he became the Clock, is retiring. His car explodes when he starts the ignition that morning.

The Clock helps the police investigate and exposes Assistant D.A. Clyde Neste as the killer. Neste is in the pocket of organized crime. NOTE: Another Quality Comics superhero – Doll Man – joins the Clock’s series in this publication.

FEATURE COMICS Vol 1 #29 (February 1940)

Title: The Reaper

Villains: The Reaper and his men Trigger, Doc and Dutch

Synopsis: And finally, another one of the kind of fun supervillains the Clock’s stories had a surfeit of in Part One. Hell, he even fought a clown-themed foe in that part, long before the Joker.

Ted Holt, a friend of Brian O’Brien, meets with him at their posh New York City club. Ted is being blackmailed by a figure called the Reaper, who wants all of Ted’s treasure of rubies or he’ll expose his secrets.

When Ted is shot by a sniper from across the street, our hero drives after the men who did it. With their tires shot out, the villains’ car crashes, killing one of the goons. The rest slip away.

The Clock surreptitiously climbs into Ted Holt’s hospital room to get some more info, then confronts the Reaper and his two remaining men, beats them and leaves them for the cops.

FEATURE COMICS Vol 1 #30 (March 1940)

Title: The Monocle

Villains: Monocle-wearing spy Carl Adolf Voss and his henchman Hurtz

Synopsis: Driving around late at night, our hero comes across the scene of two foreign spies killing an FBI agent and stealing the Top Secret plans he was transporting. The spies manage to escape.

The next day the newspapers sow panic by revealing that the stolen plans involve America’s industrial mobilization secrets in the event of us joining the war. The Clock plays detective and tracks down the tobacconist who mixes the unique blend used in the cigarettes whose butts were our hero’s only clues regarding the spies.

The masked man follows that clue to find the villains in their lair before they can pass the documents on to the Fatherland. He defeats both men in battle and even uses gimmicks in his cane to stop Hurtz from fleeing. The papers and spies are turned over to the feds.

FEATURE COMICS Vol 1 #31 (April 1940)

Title: The Poison Gas Formula

Villains: Nazi spies

Synopsis: Nazi spies raid a laboratory and escape with America’s latest formula for deadly chemical warfare agents. NOTE: After World War One such things were technically banned internationally. I’ll buy the government developing some secretly, but this story features radio news reports openly admitting the country has “the deadliest poison gas yet made.”

The radio reports also indicate the thieves are traveling in their own biplane. The Clock flies after them in one of Brian O’Brien’s biplanes, so it’s good to see one of his planes show up again. Our hero leaps onto the Nazi plane and fights the spies.

The Clock sends one spy falling to his death, then forces the other to land. He terrorizes that spy to reveal where their leader is. Our main character tracks the leader, Heizer, to his secret lab in a barn. He has already produced a batch of the poison gas and his orders are to spread it to colleagues all around the country. If the U.S. ever enters the war, the gas will be unleashed in every major city.

Heizer is wearing a gas mask and exposes a vial of the gas, assuming it will kill the Clock. As usual, his special mask filters out any such gases, and he adds Heizer to his haul of Nazi agents.

*** For his next adventure in May of 1940, the Clock’s series moves to Crack Comics (yes) with other Quality Comics superheroes like the Black Condor, the Spider and others. I’ll cover those stories the next time I examine the Clock.

FOR MY LOOK AT DOZENS OF QUALITY COMICS SUPERHEROES FROM THE 1940s CLICK HERE.