Thrilling Comics #1

This is the first appearance of Doc Strange and many other characters but Doc Strange is the most notable in my  (and I assume your) opinion.  His story in this book is a long one.  It is well over thirty pages with no adds and it s fully pact.  Strange fights the Faceless Phantom, his thugs a shark, tiger, pit of snakes, giant constrictor snakes, a spy, crocodiles a giant octopus, an ape, and the heavy weight boxing champion.  He also invents alosun that gives him his superpowers, a gas that can take away those powers, a suit of armor that can resist the previously unstoppable delta ray and he invents a potion that can take away the Faceless Phantom's ability to disappear.  He also gets amnesia and recovers, helps a young boy save his home from being foreclosed on and  then stops Faceless Phantom and rescues the girl.
 
As you may have guessed it was a very thickly layered story having many plot points that could have been made into ten or twenty stories.  Today these events would be stretched out over about twenty-four issues.  Now I am not saying it is a bad thing.  There was so much in this story that the stories could have been much more full and developed.  It is done well especially for a Golden Age story.  I liked it a lot. and as a stand alone I would give it four stars.
 

Now here is where the issue goes down hill fast.  There are five comic strips.  All of them are the same strip, The McCoys.  It is a rather dull/moderately cute comic strip and it really seemed like filler.  The next was the short story.  This was one of the better short stories in Golden Age comics I read.  It is a detective story about Don Tyler.  Now I am not saying it is a classic or anything it is just better than most of the Golden Age short stories I have read.
 
The next feature is Nickie Norton.  This has a lot of Mexican stereotypes that were off putting but not uncommon for the era.  That aside there seemed to be some critical plot points that really could have been explained better.  There was this thing about three coins that were the driving force of the book but there full purpose was not really explained well.  You can get the point but it was just a convoluted.
 
Lastly, is a feature of a true event but it is very glamorized and stylized and takes great liberties.  It would be offensive to many people but I assume in its day it was not thought of that deeply.  We have to deal with these kind of things when reading these older books but I just could not enjoy it here.
 
I really believe true comic fans will read books like this.  In this day and age there is no excuse for not reading as they are free online.  Don't know where or how?  Just PM me and I'll tell you.  This book may not have been the greatest but it is aboive average and I gave it three stars.  I recommend reading this to all comic fans.
 
In Liberty We Trust.