Golden Age Heroes and Villains not magical

Was the Shield an Archies comics character? I remember him, the Fly and Black Hood but maybe the Fly wasn't an Archie character, not so sure. They were black and white reprints that I read but the art was excellent, especially on the Fly.



Yeah, that's him. Really hard to get hold of in the UK because everyone wanted Marvel and to a lesser extent DC. I had to flick through various comics to get a sniff of following the Flys adventures back in the day as a 7-8 year old on Doncaster market sifting through mountains of comic books on a market stall. It's where my pocket money went as a kid

Yes, the Shield was an MLJ character, that later became Archie Comics. Due to some kind of lapse in copyright, the MLJ characters are public domain, even the early Archies, up to a certain point in the late 1940s and early 1950s depending, apparently, on which book they are talking about.

The Spirit was Denny Colt, young PI, who was shot when tracking down an evil scientist. He was bathed in the formula the scientist was working on but appeared to have died from the various gunshot wounds. He was laid to rest without an autopsy or embalming. He came back to life healed of his wounds.
He seems to have gained a very low level regeneration ability from the formula that entered his wounds when he was shot, possibly immortality or DC's invulnerability.

Other than that, he is an above average hand combatant and detective.

And he has had some of the most brutal fight scenes ever! Including a wonderful two-page spread that I don't have of him fighting a gang of crooks from the second floor down to the first floor of a stairwell and getting battered by things like a steam radiator and an actual kitchen sink. He is bruised, battered and bleeding and still gets up and finishes the fight. He has had some wonderful whimsical stories over his ten years or so run. And he never fights crime on Christmas Eve, saying the Christmas Spirit will take care of things on that day and there have been some fun stories just showing that.

Music Master
Background

Real Name: John Wallace.
Marital Status: Single.
Known Relatives: None.
Group Affiliation: None.
Base Of Operations: Unrevealed.
Powers and Abilities

When using his Flight power, his lower body turns into music.

When using his Force Manipulation power, he may only materialize solid musical notes or solid sheets with musical notes written on the sheets. These sheets may be used as (for example) a sword or a ladder (with the notes as rungs). One may also be used to lift and throw an object, for example, or to wind around a building or group of enemies.

Apparently, only the music of musical instruments counts. He seems unable to solidify music from a singing voice (or at least he never thinks to try to do so).
History

Created by Ben Thompson, The Music Master has a power which could only work in comics… Having acquired the “musical pipes of death,” John Wallace, a violinist, learned the ancient secrets which gave him the ability to fly through the air on musical notes. He was also able to pluck notes out of the air and use them as weapons and tools.

The Music Master was later given a “hep” sidekick named “Downbeat.” Yes, you will root for his death (a well-deserved fate which, sadly, never materializes).

The Music Master appeared in Heroic Comics 12-26, with his origin presented in his first tale. Downbeat was introduced in a special second story in Heroic Comics no.15.
Description

Music Master dresses like a concert violinist – in a tuxedo.

Downbeat, on the other hand, looks stupid. Downbeat wears a white tuxedo shirt, a red tuxedo jacket, red shorts, a green bow-tie, green socks, and blue shoes, not to mention his large, thick, round glasses.

Music Master has stylish black hair, while Downbeat has weird pale blue hair with poofs out in the front.

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Music Master (Heroic Comics)
Music Master

(John Wallace)

Comics Golden Age Stuff
Power Level: Mid-level
Game system: DC Heroes Role-Playing Game
Role: Character (Heroic)

Jump to the game stats
Context

The Eastern Color Printing company once printed large comics runs. From the mid-1930s to the mid-1950s they also published their own fare, in a variety of genres.

Their Golden Age super-heroes fare is a good example of lesser-known, less influential 1940s material. Here are notes about a character who’s C-list event among that roster.
Background

Real Name: John Wallace.
Marital Status: Single.
Known Relatives: None.
Group Affiliation: None.
Base Of Operations: Unrevealed.

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Powers and Abilities

When using his Flight power, his lower body turns into music.

When using his Force Manipulation power, he may only materialize solid musical notes or solid sheets with musical notes written on the sheets. These sheets may be used as (for example) a sword or a ladder (with the notes as rungs). One may also be used to lift and throw an object, for example, or to wind around a building or group of enemies.

Apparently, only the music of musical instruments counts. He seems unable to solidify music from a singing voice (or at least he never thinks to try to do so).
History

Created by Ben Thompson, The Music Master has a power which could only work in comics… Having acquired the “musical pipes of death,” John Wallace, a violinist, learned the ancient secrets which gave him the ability to fly through the air on musical notes. He was also able to pluck notes out of the air and use them as weapons and tools.

The Music Master was later given a “hep” sidekick named “Downbeat.” Yes, you will root for his death (a well-deserved fate which, sadly, never materializes).

The Music Master appeared in Heroic Comics 12-26, with his origin presented in his first tale. Downbeat was introduced in a special second story in Heroic Comics no.15.
Description

Music Master dresses like a concert violinist – in a tuxedo.

Downbeat, on the other hand, looks stupid. Downbeat wears a white tuxedo shirt, a red tuxedo jacket, red shorts, a green bow-tie, green socks, and blue shoes, not to mention his large, thick, round glasses.

Music Master has stylish black hair, while Downbeat has weird pale blue hair with poofs out in the front.
Personality

I could determine no unique personality traits. He’s a bland, generic hero.
Quotes

“You’ll be flat if you don’t keep quiet !”
DC Universe History

He could easily fit in DC’s overcrowded Golden Age. I could easily see him teaming up with “Swing” Sisson, a Quality Comics backup character who was an adventuring clarinet-player in the one issue of Feature Comics (featuring Doll Man !) that I own.


Game Stats — DC Heroes RPG

Tell me more about the game stats

The Music Master
Dex: 06 Str: 04 Bod: 05 Motivation: Upholding the Good
Int: 05 Wil: 05 Min: 05 Occupation: Violinist
Inf: 05 Aur: 05 Spi: 05 Resources {or Wealth}: 006
Init: 018 HP: 035

Powers:
Flight: 07, Force Manipulation: 12

Bonuses and Limitations:
Flight and Force Manipulation can only be used in the presence of musical notes.

Skills:
Artist (musician): 06, Martial Artist*: 06, Weaponry*: 06

Advantages:
Sidekick (Downbeat).
Downbeat

“I just skipped a beat, but now I’m back in the groove !”
Dex: 05 Str: 02 Bod: 03
Int: 04 Wil: 03 Min: 03
Inf: 02 Aur: 02 Spi: 04
Init: 013 HP: 005

Skills:
Martial Artist*: 05, Weaponry*: 05

Drawbacks:
CIA: Being annoyingly “hep”, MPR: glasses, Age (young).

By Sean MacDonald.

Source of Character: Golden Age comics published by the Eastern Color Printing Company.

more information
https://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2014/08/the-adventures-of-music-master-1942-1945.html


some interesting ads

The pipes of Death pretty much vanished after the third issue.

Ooof he's the worst yet! His sidekick is just as bad.

Wait until you see Rainbow Boy!

MLJ HEROES - the guys Archie comics came out of.

Fluid Man, Coil Man and Multi-Man, together they were the supergroup, The Impossibles, and in their secret IDs, they were the rock band, The Impossibles!

For a short time, the Shadow was turned into a super-hero in the 1960s. Trying to keep up with the times I guess. Frankenstein and Dracula had the same treatment. The Werewolf was turned into a super secret agent.

Originally the series was called The Adventures of the Fly, created by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon, and he was a teenager.  A couple of issues later, Kirby and Simon were gone and they turned the boy into a man and the comic was shortened to The Fly.  A few years later when they were bringing back, this is Archie comics here, their other golden age characters and forming the Mighty Crusaders, they changed his name to Fly-Man.  Guess they wanted to compete more directly with Spider-Man.

Black Terror and his sidekick, Tim. Originally, they took a superformula to gain super-strength and had bullet/bomb/fire/acid-proof supersuits. After WW2, they lost all that with the change in artists and became Batman clones.

Strangely, the Jaguar never became a Mighty Crusader when they were introduced in the 1906s even though his comic had been running, along with the Fly, since the late 1950s.

Archie had two Shield characters, Lancelot Strong was the one they introduced in the 1950s by Simon and Kirby, only lasted a couple of issues.  When they brought the Shield back in the 1960s, he was the son of the original 1940s Shield, who had been turned into stone by a bad guy.  Later, he got unstoned.



I have or had all 3 issues of the Fatman comic from the 1960s. It was the last comic book character created by C.C. Beck, creator of Captain Marvel and Captain Tootsie, which is why his costume looks somewhat familiar.