I’ve always been interested on how publishers dealt with the transition from WWII to peacetime, like the way Military Comics became Modern Comics . While the Blackhawks continued to headline all of the backup features turned to the supposed humorous. And while it remained a handsome feature, thanks to artists Reed Crandal and Chuck Cuidera, though the writers struggled to find suitable villains for them to grapple with during the post-war period. Take, for example, “Grin the Grabler”, a fairly tedious exercise that keeps the guys grounded for most of the story.

First up is Dogtag, a fantastically stupid and ugly G.I. who became a fantastically stupid and ugly civilian who invariably got himself in jams usually involving crooks of some sort. Proof that some humor does not age very well.

Torchy was about a fantastically good looking woman with a fetish for incredibly high heels who invariably got into jams, unusually involving crooks of some kind. Torchy has it’s fans and while I have to admire the skill of artist Bill Ward I can’t number myself among them. Your mileage may vary,but for me sexy is about being comfortable, so I’m afraid the strips fetishistic focus on painfully high heels is a real turnoff. Wow, those things might have been painful to wear.

Will Bragg featured the “adventures” of a fat, weird looking (he looks like he’s got a sideways football stuck in his mouth) doughy white guy. Bragg was (for the Old-Time Radio fans out there) a cross between Fibber McGee from Fibber McGee & Molly and The Great Gildersleeve himself, a lazy, cowardly pathological liar. The 1940′s was a Golden Age for this character type; it’s not used much these days, but back in the 1940′s apparently audiences couldn’t get enough of them. It was written and drawn by Paul Gustavson, an artist better known for creating The Human Bomb for quality.