The Clock as Superhero

Are you a big fan of comics?

We are…we were raised on comics. As a reward for going to church every Sunday, we each got to go to the drugstore with our parents afterward and pick out one comic. As you can imagine, after several years and with two older brothers, we had quite a collection. Spoiled? You bet. But we loved it.

As a web developer, there are a lot of similarities between websites and comics: the combination of text and visuals to convey a message. Truly, to understand websites, it doesn’t hurt to have an upbringing full of comics under your belt.

When we moved to Europe, it was amazing (and disappointing) to discover that the culture of comics we took for granted in the U.S.A. doesn’t really exist over here. Sure, there are comics available to purchase over here. But the focus of the kind of comics we find for sale at newsstands here in Europe is more little kids’ stuff, and not the adolescent or adult themes of the more popular American comics. (Oh well, thank God for Amazon – just about everything that’s published can at least be ordered and delivered to you, just about wherever you live!)

So what does all this talk about comics have to do with clocks?

Well, did you know that one of the first-ever comic superheroes was called The Clock?

Quote from Wikipedia:

The Clock is a fictional masked crime-fighter published during the Golden Age of Comic Books. According to the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, the Clock was the first masked hero to appear in American comic books.

Dating back to 1936, not only was The Clock one of the very first comic superheroes, but, according to many, he was indeed the very first masked superhero to appear in comics.

So, now that you’ve had a brief introduction to The Clock, how about a little trivia?

Top Trivia Facts about the world’s first masked Superhero – The Clock!

• The Clock’s costume consisted of: a 3-piece suit, a fedora hat, and a black, full-faced mask
• The Clock’s real name was Brian O’Brien (heck of a name, huh?)
• Brian O’Brien was a former district attorney who later turned into a playboy & society maven
• The Clock was originally created, drawn & written by cartoonist George Brenner
• At least in the issue I read, The Clock had a sidekick named Butch (no comment!)
• The Clock first appeared in a comic called Funny Picture Stories
• With his first appearance in 1936, The Clock appeared just two years after the very first ‘modern comic book’ was published (the world’s first comic published in a format similar to what we’re familiar with today)

Shouts go out to Caffeinated Joe for making me first aware of The Clock.

More great information on The Clock can be found on Toonpedia (a great site for comics fans!) and Aneris Press.

Also, you can read an entire issue of The Clock online here (but don’t expect too much – it’s a little simple, compared to the comics we’re familiar with today)!

One last piece of trivia about The Clock:  after he’d cleaned up a scene of the crime, The Clock liked to leave a calling card behind with a picture of a clock’s face on it. Written on this calling card were the words,

The Clock Has Struck !

Tags: alarm clock blog, clock comics, clock superhero, clocks, comic clock, comics, the clock, the clock comics, the clock superhero

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