Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: bill everett, Carl Burgos, Tarpé Mills
Carl Burgos, Tarpé Mills in Target Comics #2, at Auction
1940s Target Comics #2 from Novelty Press features work by Tarpé Mills, Carl Burgos, Jack Cole, and Joe Simon, with a cover by Bill Everett.
Article Summary
- Target Comics #2 pairs Tarpé Mills and Carl Burgos in two early World War II tales built around disarmament.
- Mills’s Devil’s Dust imagines a metal-destroying powder that ends war while previewing themes before Miss Fury.
- Burgos’s Manowar story probes war profiteering, echoing 1930s Nye Committee fears over arms makers and conflict.
- Target Comics #2 is a scarce Golden Age Novelty Press issue with work by Mills, Burgos, Jack Cole, and Joe Simon.
Before creating Miss Fury, Tarpé Mills wrote a story with a unique way to end World War II by taking weapons away from everyone. Her “Devil’s Dust” in Target Comics #2 (March 1940) is framed as a movie, complete with a fictional cast and an unusual solution to the war. A powder found in a cave destroys metal while leaving people unharmed. Mills puts it in the hands of an outcast and an American war correspondent. In this same issue,Carl Burgos‘s White Streak story tackles the same issue with a different approach, by repurposing war material for peaceful uses.
Devil’s Dust and a War Without Weapons
At the time of this story, Mills was still in the phase of her career leading up to the 1941 debut of Black Fury, later known as Miss Fury. Her Fantastic Feature Films story in this issue introduces a cast of imaginary actors, with Orson Black billed as “The Man of a Thousand Faces,” playing Hugo the Hideous, a Frenchman whose appearance has made him an outcast. Bruce Brian plays American war correspondent Steve Mason. Hugo initially welcomes the prospect of war because it might result in other people looking like him, but Steve’s friendship gives him a reason to hope for better. The dust substance that Hugo knows of in a nearby cave can disolve any kind of metal, while leaving living things, clothing, paper, etc intact. Ultimately, they scatter the powder over the opposing lines, where guns, tanks, and barbed wire disappear. At the end, Steve announces that an armistice will be signed.
Carl Burgos, creator of the Human Torch, examines the financial incentive for war in his Manowar saga in this issue. An industrialist named Tomsen has developed a metal alloy called Chromelac. He expects the expanding war to make it wildly profitable, while Manowar’s associate Dr. Simms fears that this “profit-seeking madness” will draw America into the war as well. This concern parallels the arms manufacturers controversy investigated by the Senate’s Nye committee in the 1930s, which investigated whether such companies pushed the U.S. into World War I, although the Senate’s history notes that the inquiry found little hard evidence of an active conspiracy.
This one is much tougher than you might think: there are only 12 copies on the CGC census, three Universal copies at 6.5 and one higher. Heritage says it has not seen the issue at this grade in 18 years. With the combination of Burgos, Mills, Jack Cole, Joe Simon, and a fantastic cover by Bill Everett, there’s a Target Comics #2 (Novelty Press, 1940) CGC FN+ 6.5 with white pages up for auction at the November 5, 2026 Golden Age Century Comics Showcase Auction VI #40378.
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