The Heroes of Rural Home Part IX

Finally, here's my last installment of "The Heroes of Rural Home". I started this little project over two years ago, and I really didn't plan on it taking so long to complete. Obviously, I haven't posted everything this company produced, so you might have to go to The Digital Comics Museum if you want to see the full series & all the stories those books contain.

Today's stories feature The Green Turtle from Blazing Comics # 5, and The Blue Circle, Maureen Marine and The Steel Fist from Blue Circle Comics # 5. Both comics carried a cover date of "March 1945".

Originally, both Blazing Comics & Blue Circle Comics were published by Rewl Publications Inc from (cover dates) June to September of 1944. From (cover dates) January through April of 1945, Rural Home Publishing Co took-over those two books (with "Enwil Associates Inc" named as the Copyright holder), and then added other titles to the mix, such as Red Circle Comics, Cannonball Comics, Laffy Daffy Comics, Mask Comics and Eagle Comics.

Green Publishing eventually would publish stories that might have made-up additional Rural Home books. Liberty Comics (May 1946) featured a Prankster story that wasn't found in Red Circle Comics, while the June 1946 issue of Roly Poly Comics featured new Steel Fist & Blue Circle stories. In "My 50th Post", I totally made-up a story about "Blue Circle Comics # 6" and provided a link for people to download the bogus issue as a lame attempt at an April Fools Day gag.

But enough yakking from me, already! Read & enjoy the last stories of The Green Turtle, Blue Circle, Steel Fist and Maureen Marine that Rural Home produced!

The Heroes of Rural Home Part VII

Whoops! I didn't mean for nearly four months to slip by without posting another installment of "The Heroes of Rural Home". I was hoping to keep the somewhat-monthly schedule I had going, but ... that's Life for ya!

Today's stories are Green Turtle & Jun-Gal from Blazing Comics # 4 (cover-date February 1945) and Steel Fist from Blue Circle Comics # 3 (September 1944). All of today's stories can be found at your local Golden Age comic book download website if you'ld like to see what else Blazing & Blue Circle Comics had to offer.

According to everyone else in the world, Green Turtle was drawn by Chu Hing, Jun-Gal was drawn by Harold De Lay and Steel Fist was drawn by Henry Carl Kiefer. I gotta say that while I'm impressed with De Lay's work, Kiefer's work on Steel Fist is kind of disappointing. Kiefer got started in comics in 1935, working on strips like Wing Brady and Just Suppose (with A.D. Kiefer, who I assume might be a sibling). Henry Kiefer would have a pretty long career in comics working for most of the major companies under a variety of names ("Karl Kief", for example). Some of his work is really nice, such as his "Famous Poems" and other similar features, but his work on Steel Fist is lacking the detail & style that I've grown fond of ... or maybe he simply wasn't suited for superhero stories. On that note, here's a few pages of Kiefer's earlier work.