So, how about equal time for Hitler?
This text piece is unusual for a few reasons. First, it includes some illustrations--some just taken from elsewhere in the issue, but the Hitler drawings are apparently original.
Secondly, this piece actually ties in to the main 50-page comic story that is the highlight of this issue (The Human Torch #8 (1942), which was really unusual for the time. It's background on how the villain's plot of the issue came about.
And the third thing? Well, go ahead and read it, first, then we'll talk.
He did sign another text piece in the issue, and researchers using "textual analysis" attribute this and the big-ass Torch vs. Namor vs. Nazis story to him, as well.
It's certainly a bit (nay, a lot) better written than the average "postal regulation obligation" text piece of the era. The attacks on Hitler's masculinity--the weeping, the "falsetto shrieks," the "delicate cologne"--sure read a lot like Spillane's macho style. He's known to have done plenty of work for Timely in the day, including "at least" 50 prose pieces by his own estimation. (There's a collection of some three dozen of them in print, although that doesn't include this particular story).
And if it's not Spillane? It's still a fun read, in a 1942-propaganda-let's-make-fun-of-the-enemy-without-getting-too-offensive way.
Sorry, I made you read on a Monday morning. We'll make it up to you next post!
