#punch comics

Punch Comics #09

Art by Gus Ricca

Wait.....WHAT?????!!!!!

Sidekick Girls 4

Perhaps the ultimate female sidekick was Rocketgirl, partner in crime-fighting to Rocket Man. Her alter ego was Doris Dalton, fiancée to inventor, Cal Martin, who came up with the “three cartridge rocket” which gave the couple jet propelled flying powers along with a level of super strength and agility. Vowing to use their new-found powers to uphold justice, the couple fashioned themselves skin tight costumes and masks and set about combating criminals, spies and Nazis. Although in terms of powers, Rocketgirl was broadly equal to her boyfriend, her sidekick status was continually reinforced by Rocket Man coming up with all the good ideas, Rocketgirl’s sometimes impulsive “female” behaviour leading her into peril (from which she had to be rescued by the lantern jawed Rocket Man naturally) and a general subordinate role. In other words, the character was subject to all the endemic sexism of the comics of the Golden Age. Nonetheless, Rocketgirl’s superhuman power put her on a par with Mary Marvel and Sun Girl and marks her out as a strong , if not dominant, female character, as demonstrated in the page above, where she is entrusted with taking two juvenile criminals into custody with trash talk supplied by their underage friend Peewee (“Coupla sissies lettin’ a dame turn ya in to the cops!” he tells the captured delinquents as they are tied to a lamp post by the superheroine - being caught by a woman clearly being the ultimate indignity for wanna-be tough guys in the 1940s!).

Rocket Man and Rocketgirl appeared mainly in Scoop Comics and Punch Comics for at least fifteen issues between the two titles. The series was usually written and illustrated by Art Pinajian.

Paul Gattuso - Punch Comics #21 (1947) Master Key

Punch Comics (1945-1946)