Digest>Archives> Jan/Feb 2015

Lighthouses in the Comics

By Timothy Harrison

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There must be tens of thousands of comic books that have been published since they started to become popular in the United States in the mid-1930s. Compared to the thousands that have been printed, you’ll be hard pressed to find many of them that have a lighthouse on the cover or a story about a lighthouse inside of them, but there were a few.

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Over the years I purchased a few of them at paper collectible shows or at on-line auctions, but it was certainly never a priority for me. My primary interest was in searching for “real” lighthouse stories and old photographs, the stuff that I could write about so that the memories contained in these old newspapers with lighthouse stories, and old photographs, could be written about to be saved for future generations. In many cases, some old newspaper would contain an interview with a lighthouse keeper which, in many cases, was the only story ever recorded about a certain person or lighthouse.

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But, like any other lighthouse-related collectible, comic books with lighthouses are a unique and important part of any lighthouse aficionado’s collection, and in fact they should be displayed at lighthouse museums. Over time, some of our subscribers, people like Richard Fullam and Bill Frey sent us comic books that they had come across to add to our collection. And we sincerely appreciate it. I suppose that if I had all kinds of expendable money, I’d go on line and purchase every lighthouse comic that I could find to add to the collection.

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What’s interesting is that, comparing the large number of comic books published with the relatively small number of lighthouse comics published, for the most part each lighthouse-related comic has unique and different types of stories associated with each one of them. In some cases, such as the romance comic books, the lighthouse is generally, but not always, used only as a romantic backdrop, while others are simply bizarre. One of those is the Hand of Fate comic book where a mermaid leads a lighthouse keeper to his drowning so they can be together forever. In the Sgt. Rock comic book, a life-time lighthouse keeper blows up the lighthouse with himself in it to prevent German troops from a safe landing. The cover scene shows the lighthouse keeper on the lantern room shouting “I would rather die with my lighthouse than leave it.” Toward the end of the story inside the comic book, the scene shows him saying, as he holds sticks of dynamite in both of his hands and in referring to the lighthouse, “You and I old friend have lived together . . . now . . . we must die together,” and then the lighthouse blows up. Other comic books with a lighthouse feature so-called super heroes fighting villains, some realistic and others not. But, the one thing that is for certain is the amazing artistic talent of the people who drew and painted the images that appeared in these comic books.

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Lighthouse Digest subscriber Mike Oliviere wrote to say his favorite lighthouse comic book is the Twilight Zone. I have to agree with him. Not only is the cover very well done but the story is typical of Rod Serling’s great work in the Twilight Zone television programs. Unfortunately, to the best of my knowledge he never did a television episode about the story in that comic book, which is titled, “The Phantom Lighthouse.” The story revolves around a man and his critically ill son who are rescued at a lighthouse by a lighthouse keeper who, against overwhelmingly high seas and ice jams, rowed them safely to shore to reach a small town doctor. The father later finds out that the lighthouse keeper had actually died 50 years earlier while attempting to row to shore during a storm that also destroyed the lighthouse. When the local doctor questions the story, the two men go back to where the father and son had come ashore and they hauntingly find the 50-year-old wreck of the lighthouse keeper’s dory and the lantern that the man’s son had given to the lighthouse keeper the day before.

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Interestingly, the 1965 edition of Treasure Chest, which featured a dramatic cover painting of a lighthouse crumbling into the sea during a storm as six men in a dory watched in horror, was done to help sell that issue and did not have a story in its pages that was specifically related to the cover. However, it did have a wonderful six-page illustrated story on the history of lighthouses.

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A couple of comic book covers that I don’t have in our collection but would love to have are, Popeye the Sailor, Captain Marvel, Jr., and Scooby-Doo.

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Since most of these comic books were read by kids, many of them eventually had a fate similar to those of the old baseball cards that got thrown out. As with the original artwork paintings of the old risqué pulp fiction magazines, most of the artwork from these comic books, and their covers seem to have disappeared and most probably eventually wound up in the trash. But, who knows, there might be some original artwork still around in private collections or tucked away in attics. If so, they would make great prints that could be displayed at a museum or art gallery.

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If you were able to purchase enough of these old comic books and then scan them at an extremely high resolution and make larger images of the covers and then matt and frame them, they would make amazing wall décor for any home, office, or professional waiting room – and they would surely generate tons of conversation.

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This story appeared in the Jan/Feb 2015 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.

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