The Clock Strikes!

The Clock was created by artist George Brenner in 1936.  He was the very first masked crime fighter to appear in American comic books.  His mask was made of silk and was basically a curtain that had eye holes.  The Clock's first two appearances were published in two comics dated with the same month, November 1936, published by Comics Magazine Company, Inc.  The Clock spent a total of eight years in various anthology comics, but never had his own comic.  All of his stories ranged from two to seven pages. 

If you look for one of the first appearances of The Clock on The Digital Comic Museum you will find this poor quality scan of "Funny Picture Stories" Vol. 1 #1.  However, the reprint in "Keen Detective Funnies" Vol. 1 #8 (July 1938) is in better quality.  It's not perfect, but considering the age of the comic, and the rarity of something like this, I'm glad to see it at all.  I found a much better scan of the cover on Heritage Auctions. 

The next story was published about three-and-a-half years after the one above.  In this story from "Feature Comics" #31 (April 1940) The Clock is very reckless, and almost kills himself!  And if you are asking where the rope and motorcycle came from, you are  reading the wrong comic! 

The Clock worked alone for a long time, but in 1940 he gained a partner named Pug.  I haven't read all of the stories with Pug, but he disappeared by the end of 1941.  Shortly after he gained a second partner, a teenage girl named Butch.  This story is from "Crack Comics" #21 (February 1942).  I suppose some people may feel a bit awkward when reading this story due to Butch's age. 

The above story was the last one in which The Clock wore his trademarked silk mask.  In his next appearance he wore a standard mask similar to The Spirit's mask.  (The Spirit was another masked crime fighter, created by Will Eisner, wearing regular clothes and a simple mask.)  However, the silk mask version of The Clock's face continued to be used for the covers of "Crack Comics". 

Once again, thank you to all the scanners and uploaders at DCM and Comic Book Plus, without whom blogs like mine would not be possible.  And thank you very much for reading this!