Black & White & Blue

Sometimes you find the most interesting things unexpectedly while spelunking around old comics.

Take Fighting Yank #22 (1947), for example. We've got what starts off as a blandly unimpressive Miss Masque story. As gorgeous socialite Diana Adams, she's attending a costume party...

See, it's ironic, because when she's in her superhero mask, no one can recognize her...but at this party in a "civilian" costume, everybody can, because she's "too" beautiful.

Anyhoo, there's a surplus of one costume...

And then, one of those devils commits...MURDER!! So it's time for Diana to change from one costume to another...


She confronts one of the devils...


And then...

And there's where things get interesting. Because artist Al Camy (sorry, no other credits for the story) portrays the fight in the dark in a very intriguing way...click to embiggen:

Now that was totally unexpected. Suddenly we get all black & white & blue, a minimalist Sin City-style fight scene that I didn't really expect to see in a bog-standard 1947 Miss Masque story. Color me impressed.

Of course, they blow it the very next panel:

Uh, hello--the lights were shot out? What, in 1947 they had self-healing bulbs? The sun came up? You're in the very same room!! Why are we back in color?!?

Well, that's it. No deep points to make. That battle in the dark just kinda impressed me, that's all.