The most unheralded hero of the 1950s?

Mr. Muscles?

Who the what now?

OK, one more time...who?

Don't act like you've never heard of Mr. Muscles!

How strong is Mr. Muscles? Pretty damn strong, perhaps superhumanly strong:




Not only that...he can bust out of a tiger cage!


Yeah, it turns out that he was stuck in a death trap by a jealous zookeeper. Yes, that old cliche!


Uh-oh--origin time!!


And so...

Great!!

Man, 1950s doctors were the worst!!




Now, if this were Grant Morrison, he'd be Flex Mentallo or something. But nope, he just used hard work and iron will to make himself stronger than anyone on earth.

And how does he heal with the wicked wimpy zookeeper?


And after a full-page training montage...


Geez, thanks, Mr. Muscles.

In the only two issues of Mr. Muscles (#22 & #23--he took over Blue Beetle's old numbering!), he fought crooked wrestlers, mob protection rackets, crooked carnies...no super-villains, though.

So why should we care about Mr. Muscles? Two reasons.

First, he was created by, and all his stories written by, Jerry Siegel. So attention must be paid.

Secondly, just like Fawcett's Captain Marvel, Mr. Muscles had a whole "family" of spin-off characters!!

First:
Yup, Kid Muscles!!

Yeah, he's strong.

His name was Kip. and he often appeared in Mr. Muscles' stories. But he did have that one solo strip.

And then there was...

Miss Muscles!

This was her only appearance, and she never got a name or an origin--but she could kick the asses of jealous women!!






Woo hoo!!

And that was it--two issues in 1956, and Mr. Muscles, Kid Muscles and Miss Muscles were never seen again. [NOTE--Wikipedia would like you to believe that Mr. Muscles appeared in a Steve Ditko Creeper story--WRONG. That is a thug named Muscles McGook, and the villain of the piece refers to him as "Mr. Muscles McGook" at one point. Different name, different character. Case closed.)

I don't know if DC got his rights when they bought the Charlton stuff, but surely Mr. Muscles is public domain by now. Any publishers want to take a crack at the Muscles Family?!?

It's easy to dismiss as no big deal in hindsight, but in 1965...

...Charlton pretty much accurately predicted modern video gaming.

Writer is not known for sure (GCD has "Joe Gill?"), penciled by Bill Molno, inked by Jon D'agostino. I hope those guys took out some patents on the idea...

From Konga #23 (1965)

Horror anthology comics have a long history of employing "hosts"--supernatural characters to introduce their tales, sometimes narrate them, sometimes even take part in them. Think The Mysterious Traveler, Cain, Able, Doctor Death, etc.

Sometimes, though, we had a host who gave the artist an opportunity to provide a little bit of cheesecake into an otherwise dark tale. Such was the case of Winnie The Witch, hostess of Charlton's Ghostly Haunts.

These tales were published in the 1970s, and the artists tool advantage to present something of a more mod host, who also liked to pose a bit provocatively on occasion.

Winnie had a definite "uniform" for the first several issues, but note the deviations the artists made, particularly hair style, glasses, the necklace, belt buckle, garter, and...ahem...skirt length.

Pete Morisi:

Sam Glanzman:

Jean Elier:

Charles Nicholas:

Fred Himes:

Artist unknown:

Pat Boyette:

Steve Ditko:

Steve really liked Winnie involved every page, as in this strip that ran down the center of 6 panels, with the witch commenting (and posing):

More Ditko:



Fred Himes:

Winnie sometimes even showed up on the cover (Ditko!!):

Pat Boyette:

Pete Morisi:

By issue #25, they were getting a bit bored, I guess, as they started varying her look (Pete Morisi):

Fred Himes:


Ditko:

Maybe DC can bring back Winnie someday...?

From Ghostly Haunts #20-25 (1971-1972)