Comics Schlock King: From Plagiarism to Pistol Whippings 

"Please let this be about Myron Fass, please let this be about Myron Fass" ... wish granted, thanks!

Walked around the office with a gun, you say? Dwight Schrute approves.

3:27 yo wtf

Thank you for mentioning my book!

For a foreigner like me I was always fascinated by the existence of these wierd shock magazines, about aliens cloning Elvis and all the bizarre and criminal sexual content, not of them being good or interesting but just the fact that existed , nothing even close to that existed in my country. I remember seeing that for the first time alluded in shows like the Simpsons and Men in Black. So it's not only an interesting show about this quite unique person but also a part of American pop culture of the XX century. Great work Chris!

I am one of the few people in the world who actually bought Fass' Captain Marvel books off the comics rack. They weren't great, but there were far worse super-hero books out there at the time. I was a little too late to have gotten in on the ground floor of DC's silver age heroes or Marvel heroes. Dell's heroes (Frankenstein, Dracula, et al) were abysmal, but here was a comics group I could be with from the very beginning, so I enjoyed it.

.... It's kind of insane how much of a splash Captain Marvel has had for the history comics and pop culture. Like holy Moses, that is kind of crazy that we're still feeling the effects of this crazy stuff. HA! So THIS is where Captain Marvel with his Split powers came from! Amazing.

Me, before watching the video: “I love schlock! This will be tons of fun!” Me, after seeing some of those mag covers: “Eeeeeeah, that’s a little too schlocky for me to handle.”

That thumbnail drawing of himself being attacked by the monsters he draws is pretty darn cool 😎

I remember buying some of those horror mags as kid. They were uber violent and disturbing. There were always eyes, brains and various body parts flying across the pages.

Dr Fate looked a lot like Stan Lee

the bell is working

I'm going to read as many Myron Fass comics and magazines as humanly possible in only one weekend, it will be a Fass-bender

"Holy plagiarism Batman, it's Mister Lawsuit"!

I remember seeing his "Captain Marvel" at the drugstore where I got my comics when I was a kid. I leafed through one issue but it didn't grab me. Sometime later, I saw the horror comics magazines, but again, they didn't appeal to me. I remember reading somewhere that some of his horror comics were reprints of older comics, but I didn't know he'd just "used" them without permission, as well as changing them up. Fascinating stuff!

Another awesome video. I'm not sure if anyone noticed, but at 11:58 you can clearly see the gun on his right hip, tucked into the waistband of his pants. Unbelievable.

The more I learn about the golden age of comics, the more I learn that it's just as much of the wild west as the beginning of any other medium or business

12:35 by that logic my man should’ve had pormstars, aliens, and vampires in the office 😂

Every one of your topics is so interesting. Always a joy when you upload

Moores Miracle man, good read. The negative legal ranglings and work arounds are sometimes as interesting as the positive and inspired original works. Thanks again Chris, I'm going to go read some comics.

It's too early in the morning for this!

Nothing like a cup of coffee and comic tropes on a Sunday morning ☕️ Love topics like this one. Many thanks for the content

Yes, the weirdest entry in the history of "Captain Marvel"!

What a fascinating character this guy was.

What a wild story to wake up to!

I vaguely knew about the guy - but I didn't know he started as an artist. Thank you!

Holy hell, four minutes in and I can tell this video's going to get demonetized harder than a hit from the grip of a .45. Good work on a seriously underreported comics industry story, as always!

I've always enjoyed the schlocky energy of Erie Publications, and I actually have one of his Captain Marvel books. Great episode.

Fass was sort of like an Ed Wood of publishing.

wow, that's so weird. If he got into animation, it'd be Ricky Rouse or Monald Muck. Good video.

Wow, all that lead to Miracle Man and Captain Marvel? Strange how many characters involve lawsuits and stuff.

This was a cool episode,i remember those horror mags from my young days,lol

12:58 JEEZ, what a cover.

Fass' Captain Marvel is very T.D.K...

The name Myron just feels like you're in for trouble. Great video!

"Of course I murdered my business partner; my comics feature murder and I must be familiar with the subject matter!"

I always learn something new watching this channel! Thanks, Chris!

That dude seemed cheerful, then both creepy AND eerie. Chris, it would be really interesting if you could one day do a story on the Herbie Popnecker character. I never heard of it till a few years ago, but Alan Moore read it as a kid. The artist was really hilarious, but nobody knows what happened to him (the last I read). Thanks! Enjoying all the richly unpredictable content.

Comic book professionals that are defiantly on serious drugs, Myron was probably using cocaine, drug of choice of sleepy weirdos.

Wow, never heard of this guy. Very interesting episode. Must have been a lot of crazy people in comics and magazine publishing back in the day.

yeh new ComicTropes ! Coffee set go !

I have a book that talks about obscure superheroes from all the ages of comics. One of them happened to be Captain Marvel by Carl Burgos.

Captain Marvel's "Dr Fate" villain sure looks a lot like Stan Lee.

Fantastic! I have one of those Captain Marvel versus the Terrible 5 books and, yeah, it's pretty bad! I don't know what it is about comics but it really draws in some extreme personalities, even today!!

4:16 It's like walking along a Badlands Middle of nowhere Gas Station Convenience Store Rack...

0:50 "Does this feel like a toxic environment to you? Because I'm starting to think this is."

I work a double shift on Sundays and its always great to get home, hop in the bathtub and watch a new Comic Tropes. Thanks Chris!

Love the deep dives in these relative unknowns.

Is that a plushie of the robot from Santa Claus vs The Martians behind Chris? Man I hope so

Excellent episode. What a fascinating character, those magazines were so lurid!

I used to have the October 1970 issue of Crime Does Not Pay shown at 12:57. I remember that specific cover very well. I was 14 years old at the time and it made an impression on me. (My teenage imagination knew exactly what that mobster was going to do with that red-hot poker!) It was about this time that I had discovered that sort of true crime magazine and I was fascinated. It was through those that I learned about Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, Bonnie and Clyde, Machine Gun Kelly, John Dillinger and all the other gangsters and criminals of the Twenties and Thirties. Happy days.

Not trying to be the grammar police here but "O - Kal - La" is the pronunciation of Ocala Florida, my old granddad lived there. Beautiful city. Thank you for covering this topic, Chris. I have some of those old horror titles in my collection and I'm always in awe at the art and layout skills of publishers of that era. There were no computers making it easy for anyone. It took technique to make the artwork pop off the page back then. I'm a huge fan of those gritty old schlock magazines. Enjoyed the video! 👍

Love your channel, keep up the great work!

i love your videos! by far one of the better comic book channels on youtube!

Thanks, Chris, love these episodes.

Great video! You’ve really come into your own with these sorts of topics. Thank you for delving into comic books past the super heroes and showcasing the obscure.

Fascinating look into a a corner of comics that I'm aware of but not overly familiar with. I'd like to hear more about how the difference between comics and magazines was defined and why one could be regulated but not the other. And if you ever get the chance to do a crossover episode wih Legal Eagle, comics code violations could be an interesting topic. The longterm lawsuit by DC against the orginal Captain Marvel is reminiscent of the topic of Dicken's novel Bleak House, where a dispute over a will has been going on for over a generation and when one side finally wins there is no money left, because it all went to the lawyers...

SoooOOoo RU-vid stopped showing your videos to me automatically and it took a while to notice, but your stuff is great and even i (a guy with memory problems) eventually worked my way back…. I’m soo happy you’re still making this great/hilarious show

Awesome to hear the history of those shlocky magazine, great vid as always!

So informative! Outstanding research, Chris. Always appreciate the respect that you show for your subject especially when they are a bit out there. Well done!

Chris is pumping out the content. Love it!

Thanks Chris!

Another winner, Chris! Your videos are making Sundays my favorite day of the week.

3:16 This page from the satire magazine is very true: The comics code wasn't just implemented because of moral outrage, but as a way for the big two publishers to drive the likes of Bill Gaines / EC comics and Charles Biro out of business.

Awesome bit of history! Thanks Chris!

Great video, can't say I knew much about Fass so this was great and informative. Thanks!!

I love the time and work you put in on this stuff. This particular one is amazing (love old horror comics).

"NO! NO! You are not real! I only drew you from my imagination. Go away! AAOW-W!!" Chris from Comic Tropes: "Oh hi! 👋 You've caught me meeting with my creations!" 🧛‍♂🧟‍♂👻👹

I was a devoted Official Ufo reader in Melbourne Australia in my tweens. My best friend's father worked at a paper mill where most of the city's unsold magazines ended up for recycling, so i got my copies ( and every issue of Curtis's Planet of the Apes) for free with title banners clipped off. I just recently bought an almost complete run of Official Ufo and it's remarkable for two things; 1) it was almost completely serious in tone and content at its inception (interviews with Allen Hyneck and Phil Klass) but by 1978 was publishing stories about Elvis Presley's alien-produced clone running amok, and 2) the writers and editors (including Myron Fass) became integral characters in lurid stories about men in black, alien mind control and government harassment seeking to stop Official Ufo from exposing the truth. One thing about Myran Fass you failed to mention; he was a notorious and unrepentant racist, who never missed an opportunity to use the "N" word with an extra hard "r".

My reaction: OH COOL!!! Chris uploaded a new video about another comic creator's career and how he pistol whipped his business partne- WAIT! PISTOL WHIPPING!??

You always have soooooo much interesting information in your videos. I feel like these thesis pieces. Great work. 👍

ur the best chris love watching ur show

Has anyone ever told you that you'd make a great podcast? Just a thought!!

YES!!!!!!

It's a real shame DC won that lawsuit and buried Captain Marvel, because the scripts by Otto Binder teamed with artist CC Beck were brilliant, hilarious, and weird. (One great cover features a guy stealing Captain Marvel's costume near a lake, with our naked hero covering himself with a barrel as he gives chase). Those stand out with originality, and Fawcett should have endured.

Now this is fascinating!

I do love Schlock

If Myron Fass were alive today he could just use neural network DALL·E's text descriptions to image generator to create all that art work! Even the x-rated stuff would not require him to hire an actual woman, just use CGI babes. Looks like Myron Fass was actually a man ahead of his time! Chris talks about Myron packing heat to his work place as if THAT would make him an outlier in today's society. 🤣

Another funny and interesting deep dive on an oddball creator! Thanks for your hard work Chris! Looking forward to this weeks stream!

Mike Howlett's book on this is essential, glad to see him properly credited for the work he did on this subject. Such a strange little niche corner of the comics history landscape. The Eerie horror mags are getting harder to find, and more expensive to acquire when you do come across them. I regret not picking them up for dirt cheap back when I was a kid. Fun video, nicely done.

7:57 He-he... he, hey, Beavis, check the book number, he-he, he-he...

The Florida man of comics!

Please never stop, Chris ❤

The old magazine industry was the wild west.

I've never heard about Myron Fass; that guy was out of his head!

Doggone it! I am subbed and "smashed the bell" years ago when I 1st learned of this great channel. But the algorithm keeps me from getting alerts of any kind in any of my feeds

Nice depth on a very interesting industry driver. At times arguably shifty, but definitely had the drive to make publishing *whatever* successful enough to pay the bills and kept things covered - NOT necessarily an easy feat! I presume every industry/business line has some Fass'es*: Feisty, devoted, daring...OK, in publishing the social consequences of a publishing line failing are less than other endeavors/industries: I say he still deserves a pat on the back for keeping entertainment of diverse genres produced and even for challenging other comics publishers' stakes (He helped establish boundaries). *I did not render that correctly, did I?

I really appreciate your take on things like this. When most of the world thinks of people in black and white, and wants to entirely hate someone that does something negative like plagiarism or trying to intimidate staff with guns, you show the positives and negatives, and still recommend where people can look to see the person's good works after talking about how difficult they were to deal with. Way to look at the grey area & complexity of a person capable of good and bad.

Thanks!

Otro interesante episodio, como siempre

those are the type of comics that unleashed Dr Wertham's book Seduction of the Innocent.

I got that captain marvel thought it was a funny

Nice Episode Chris

Brilliant video

Interesting and informative video, thanks!

Loved it

Rocking that teddy fresh me boy

A real life comic villain.

Interesting story of a hustler/conman in the comics and publishing world of the golden age. Thanks!

I would love a comic tropes about the many comic adaptations of the Bible