Wednesday, June 24, 2020

MY FAVORITE COVER OF THE SILVER AGE by Dave Goode


When fan boys talk about great Silver Age comic book covers the one for Batman No. 173 ( August 1965 ) somehow gets lost in the shuffle. Illustrated by the tag - team of Carmine Infantino ( pencils ) and Murphy Anderson ( inks ) it rocked my pre - Batmania world. The story , Secret Identities For Sale was a 13 pager written by John Broome and ghosted for Bob Kane by Sheldon Moldoff ( pencils ) and Joe Giella (inks ). And featured a masked criminal mastermind known as Mr. Incognito.

Mr. Incognito is a criminal mastermind along the lines of the Republic movie serial villain the Crimson Ghost. He negotiates a deal with a paparazzo named Elwood Pearson who has created an X - Ray camera that snaps a photo that reveals who is behind the masks of the Dynamic Duo. Mr. Incognito was obviously created as a one - shot character. One that was never seen again in the Silver Age. But that cover image never left me.



Years later a teammate from my high school wrestling days embarked on a brief career as a pro wrestler. And he asked me to create some promo material for him. And so was born Mr. Incognito, the Man of Half A dozen Masks. Originally he was to be called the Argonaut. But I remembered the name of that obscure Batman villain from 1965. I thought it sounded perfect as the name for a masked wrestler. And this character still exists as a comic book hero who turns up every now and again in this blog.




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