'The Music Master' (Heroic Comics #16, January 1943).
Ben Thompson was an American newspaper cartoonist, who also worked as a comic book artist during the late 1930s and early 1940s. He co-created the superhero comics 'The Masked Marvel' (1938-1942) and 'Dr. Frost' (1940-1942).
Cartoon depicting Joseph Stalin as a witch brewing Communism.
Early life and comics career
Benton F. Thompson was born in 1906 in Nebraska. By 1922, he was a radio hobbyist in Bellingham, Washington, where, at age 16, he also made a children's comic strip called 'The Alley Kids' for the Bellingham American Reveille. He studied at the University of Washington, as well as the Chicago Art Institute. In 1929, he lived in Seattle, where he produced cartoons for the Seattle Times. For the latter paper, he drew a daily cartoon, 'Listen to This One', serialized between June 1930 and March 1932. Thompson has done magazine art for Collier's, Click and The New Yorker, and also gag cartoons for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Seattle Times and New York Journal-American. In 1949, he self-published a 16-page pamphlet with his Stalin cartoons, called 'The Reaper!'.
'The Masked Marvel' (December 1939).
The Masked Marvel
Between 1938 and 1942, Thompson was active as a comic book artist through the packager Funnies Inc. In 1939-1940, he created the adventures of "super sleuth" 'The Masked Marvel' for Centaur's 'Keen Detective Comics'. The Masked Marvel was the first comic book hero with "marvel" in his moniker, created before Timely Publications/Marvel Comics began to introduce a host of characters with the name, such as 'The Black Marvel' (1941), 'Marvel Boy' (1950), 'Marvel Girl' (1963), 'Captain Marvel' (1967) and 'Ms. Marvel' (1977). Centaur's Marvel was not quite a superhero though, since he didn't have any particular superpowers.
'Doctor Frost' (Prize Comics #9, February 1941).
Work for Timely Comics and Prize Comics
While working for Centaur, Thompson also earned his bread at Timely, creating 'Ka-Zar the Great' for 'Marvel Comics' #1 in 1939. His other Timely credits include 'Blue Diamond' (1941-1942), 'Citizen V' (1942), 'Loony Laffs' (1939) and 'The Texas Kid' (1940). He also drew for 'Prize Comics' by Feature Comics, where he and scriptwriter Richard Steele created 'Dr. Frost' (1940-1942). This arctic character could freeze objects and create ice sleds by projecting cold beams from his hands.
'Hydroman' (Reg'lar Fellers Heroic Comics #12, September 1942).
Eastern Color Printing
Thompson worked mainly for the comic books published by Eastern Color Printing. He first drew filler comics (1938-1942), before between 1942 and 1943 working with many of the company's over-the-top superheroes for 'Heroic Comics'. He drew features with 'Hydroman', a superhero created by Bill Everett who could transform into water, and co-created 'Rainbow Boy', a youth who travels with the speed of light. Another creation was 'The Music Master', a violinist who able to fly through the air on musical notes.
Death
Ben Thompson lived for many years in Naugatuck, Connecticut, but then divorced and moved to San Diego, California, where he died on 14 December 1975.
Ben Thompson in 1926.