Tales to Excite No. 32. March 1942. Featuring Bash Helmet, the Gay Superhero who's out ... to Save the World. And introducing Diva Braun, the Third Reich Dyke

Bash Helmet. His History in Briefs: The 1950s Movie Serials

With the war ending in 1945, sales of the action-based Tales to Excite saw a steady decline as the general public became less interested in stories about armies fighting.

In an effort to target a younger, more innocent market, Bash Helmet was dropped as the comic’s flagship character. 

He was replaced with Squirt ‘n’ Spurt, the unlikely comedy pairing of a squid and a cheetah in the retitled ‘Tales for Kidz’.

Above: Squirt ‘n’ Spurt from the story: “Where There’s a Wildebeest, There’s a Way!”

Bash may have been ousted from the comic world but he was about to conquer a whole new frontier - the motion picture!

Having left the army with an honourable discharge, Florrie Mendelson was out for a late night drive in November 1950, when he backed into the head of RKY Studios, Walter Possum.

This chance encounter resulted in a huge release - the ten-part movie serial, Bash Helmet vs the Size Queen. In the story, Bash confronts the eponymous villainess who invades Earth from outer space using a size-changing ray gun to enlarge insects and shrink humans.

The success of the serial made a star of the actor playing Bash, former Olympic Flower Arranger, Rusty Clappe (right). 

Unfortunately the critics weren’t so kind to the Swedish actress, Rüt Busch, who many felt was too manly for the role of Queen Domina, as this excerpt from a 1951 edition of Moviegoer Monthly demonstrates: 

“Rusty Clappe is a revelation in the role of Bash Helmet, chewing the scenery whenever he appears. Unfortunately, Rüt Busch looks like she merely wants to munch on the carpet!”

Clappe went on to star in three other serials:

Bash Helmet and the Magic Ring (1953)

Bash Helmet and the Haunted Cottage (1956) 

and 

Bash Helmet and the Turkish Prison (1958). 

Bash Helmet. The 1950s. Part II. Launch of The Helmeteers

Above right: The Helmeteer membership certificate that every fan longed to get!

Above left: People are paying a fortune to get their hands on that helmet.

During the 1950s people flocked to watch the movie adventures of Rusty Clappe as Bash Helmet in Bash Helmet and the Magic Ring (1953); Bash Helmet and the Haunted Cottage (1956); and Bash Helmet and the Turkish Prison (1958) and, in a shrewd marketing ploy, RKY Studios set up a club for audience members to join - The Helmeteers.

This proved a hugely profitable move as thousands of fans sent off their fifty cents to the studio in exchange for a membership certificate, a signed letter from Bash and a plastic replica helmet.

Despite vast numbers of these items being produced, not many exist today. At an auction in the year 2008, an anonymous bidder paid a record $9,000 for a complete mint-condition Helmeteer club pack.

Throughout the 70s, gay men referenced the club in marches even though it had stopped running in 1961. The chant: “We’re here! We’re Queer! We’re like a Helmeteer!” became part of gay culture.

The Swinging Sixties and Bash is out ... on his own.

Above: the cover to the first edition of Bash’s own comic

In 1962, the rights to Bash Helmet were purchased by a fledgling production company, Bona Ventures. Bona’s owner, Godfrey Pryce, planned on relaunching the character in his own comic and, in October of that year, Bash Helmet appeared in his own self-titled series.

Over its 24 year run, the comics introduced a whole new rogues’ gallery for the hero, including Hardwood the Lumberjack, motoring maniacs Drag Racer and Diesel Dyke, Mr Pride and the cockney criminal Polari Bear. 

Hardwood the Lumberjack: still going strong in 1974's Issue 139 

Issue 8 introduced the Bashmobile, a souped up 1950s Alfa Romeo,

which allowed our hero to cruise for action at high speeds.

Mr Pride did survive, at least until 1978 and Issue 192

Comic superhero Bash Helmet meets the Fiends of Dorothy ... and gets himself a sidekick

In the 1960s some of the most enduring villains introduced to readers of the newly eponymous comic Bash Helmet, were the Fiends of Dorothy - perversions of the popular L. Frank Baum characters given a little twist so that they fit right in with the world of Bash Helmet. 

The Fiends of Dorothy returned frequently 
throughout the years to battle our hero

A surviving page from the 1979 story ‘Blowing a Gale!’

With comic sales at a steady high, Pryce passed editorial duties on to his partner, Pu Yao-Yun. As an eighteen year old Thai boy, Pu was more in touch with a younger audience, and the older editorial team members valued his enormous input. Bud Demsky, then Vice President at Bona Ventures, remembers one board meeting held at an executive sauna in New York:

“We were all loudly arguing about how to make the stories more interesting when Pu quietly entered the steam room. 

He winked at us all and said coyly,  “If any of you are interested, I like lots of different partners”. 

“Then he popped out again. It was a very insightful comment and, the very next issue, Bash received his first sidekick.”

That character was Ginger Crawley, a red-haired orphan living on the streets of New York. Ginger had a penchant for tying all sorts of elaborate knots which he liked to test on himself. In issue 20, Bash finds Ginger bound to a tree in Central Park. Mistakenly believing the boy had been kidnapped, the hero attempts to rescue him until Ginger explains the situation. Bash, recognising that he could use the boy’s talents in a number of ways, takes him under his wing and christens his young partner Bondage Boy.

Bash's junior partner Bondage Boy 
was the star of Issue 23 from August 1964

Bondage Boy manages to rope 
someone into joining him

For the next ten issues the boy bonder roamed the city with Bash, tying up numerous villains, sometimes against their will. But in the real world there was a growing level of concern expressed about this new junior hero.

Parents feared that children would start to identify with the youngster and want to emulate him. Horrified at the thought of their kids dying their hair ginger, adults petitioned Bona to get rid of the character. Demsky succumbed to the mounting pressure and, in a controversial storyline during issue 30, Bondage Boy tragically perished while attempting a monkey’s fist. 

The Turk's Head knot from 

Samplers and Stitches, 

a handbook of the embroiderer's art 

by Mrs Archibald Christie, London 1920

The Monkey's Fist by Markus Bärlocher

Bash Helmet in the 1960s. The white heat of technology catches up with our gay comic superhero.

In the spring of 1965, since America’s fascination with new technology was so prevalent, Bona Ventures decided that Bash should have a robot assistant. Issue 32 introduced Beeping Tom.

Primarily built as an observation and recording device, the android had a range of lenses that enabled him to see in a number of different ways. For instance, Tom could see in the dark (‘blackness-vision’) and even through clothing (‘x-rated vision’).

The aptly named Beeping Tom first appeared in Issue 32

The remarkable robot also had a dazzling array of plug-in electrical gadgets that Bash put to full use - sometimes when fighting crime. And when Tom wasn’t required for a mission, he would simply switch to a standby mode and wait for Bash to come and turn him on.

But a few months later, a powerful figure was to silence Beeping Tom once and for all!

By May 1966, Pu Yao-Yun had grown bored of his duties at Bona Ventures and was rarely seen outside of the executive washroom. 

Bud Demsky and Godfrey Pryce held a meeting in which it was decided that they needed to extend their reach into the women’s arena. Neither man felt qualified to do this and so Demsky appointed Regina ‘Reggie’ Furburger as the new editor of Bash Helmet.

'Reggie' in her trademark coveralls

Reggie was Demsky’s former plumber and her remit was simple - increase the female readership.

On her very first day, Reggie called together the artists and writers and held up the latest issue of Bash Helmet which featured Beeping Tom on the cover.

She tore the comic in two before the startled staff and screamed,

“I am sick of electrical appliances - give me a real woman!”

And it was definitely a case of third time’s the charm when Bash was given his next sidekick - Flick Faster!

Bash Helmet Issue 50: Flick Faster takes the comic world by storm

Flick Faster, the high-kicking, high-heeled heroine, took the comic world by storm with her debut in Issue 50. Her origin was simple but effective - Felicity Fisher was a young, hip English undergraduate working part time as a taxi driver in New York City to help make ends meet. 

Feisty female phenomenon, Flick Faster

She had just picked up a pair of American All-Star Women’s Tennis Champions when her cab was struck by lightning. 

The sudden surge of electricity transferred all of the tennis players’ strength, stamina, agility, accuracy and sexual orientations into Felicity who used her new-found powers to give women a hand wherever they wanted it. 

Staff writer, Hernandez Pico is credited with creating her: 

“We were all tasked with coming up with a new sidekick for Bash. I went home and spent a whole afternoon reading through my collection of ‘Tales to Excite’ that he appeared in. I really loved those strong wartime female adversaries - Diva Braun, Fifi Fingersnatch - they had great names and I wanted someone like that to be at Bash’s side. 

Anyway, I had gotten through all of his early adventures with no ideas so I just carried on reading my old Tales for Kidz comics for my own amusement. Then I saw the answer to my prayers in the story “Veg Out!” where Spurt and Squirt go to watch a character called Flick the Bean at the Vegetable Olympics. 

She was a runner bean taking part in the 400 metre sprint and there is a panel where Squirt is shouting out to her, “Go, Flick! Faster!” There was my name! The rest just fell into place.”

In order to tie Flick’s history in more closely to Bash’s, Pico wrote a flashback story showing a young Felicity sitting with her Aunt Phyllis with whom she lived in England. Phyllis reveals that, during the war, she had worked tirelessly as a Free FANY and personally helped Bash Helmet to resist any advances from the German soldiers. It was Phyllis who originally encouraged her niece to travel to New York to “try and get a glimpse of that magnificent Helmet.”

With her incredible powers and strong desire to finger female felons, it was not long before Flick Faster became an important part of the Bash Helmet mythos. Reggie was thrilled and her success was confirmed when market research at the time actually indicated that the number of girls reading Bash Helmet was greater than the number of boys. 

In 1967, Flick was given her own spin off title but she still popped up for regular periods in Bash Helmet’s comic.

In Bona tradition, Reggie was quick to capitalise on this phenomena and a Flick Faster doll was brought out and became the year’s top selling toy. 

Ironically, Flick Faster bucked trends once again as market research this time showed that more boys were purchasing the doll than girls!