New York City’s Water Crisis and Whirlwind Comics #3, at Auction

Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: Frank Z. Temerson

New York City’s Water Crisis and Whirlwind Comics #3, at Auction

Whirlwind Comics #3 included a villain’s attack on Croton Dam, inspired by increasing concerns over NYC’s reservoir reserves in 1939-1940.

Article Summary

• Whirlwind Comics #3 turns New York’s 1939-40 water crisis into a timely Smash Dawson plot at Croton Dam.
• The Magic Mandarin’s plan to drain city reservoirs reflects real drought fears widely reported across New York in 1940.
• Published by Frank Z. Temerson’s Nita Publishing, Whirlwind Comics ended with issue #3 after a brief three-issue run.
• Whirlwind Comics #3 is a scarce Golden Age comic, with just 17 Universal copies on the CGC census and an 8.0 top grade.

A plot to drain New York City’s water reservoirs was a particularly relevant threat in 1940. The city had recently faced a water shortage serious enough to bring public warnings in newspapers, subway stations, schools, and radio broadcasts. In the September cover-dated Whirlwind Comics #3, the villain of a Smash Dawson adventure targets Croton Dam, intending to empty the reservoir before moving on to others, timing it all with a drought period in order to bring the population to its knees. The final issue of this short-lived series presents a bizarre scheme that exploits a vulnerability that readers had good reason to worry about.

The Plot to Drain Croton Dam

That vulnerability had been widely explained in some detail earlier in the year. Writing in the April 1940 Scientific American, Edward Nuebling, a division engineer in New York City’s Department of Water Supply, Gas and Electricity, described the scope of the winter of 1939-40 water shortage. When Water Shortage Threatens traced the dry spell to May 1939 and showed the depleted state of the Croton reservoir. Public warnings circulated through newspapers, magazines, subway posters, and radio. The villain of the Smash Dawson story, called the Magic Mandarin, uses magic to protect himself while his gang attempts to enable the release of the water from the reservoir by opening Croton Dam’s sluices. The story uses the kind of anti-Chinese racial stereotypes that were not uncommon during this period.

This was the last of just three issues of Whirlwind Comics, published by one of Frank Z. Temerson‘s dizzying array of corporate shells, Nita Publishing. Temerson’s Brookwood published its last issue of Speed Comics cover-dated the month before Nita Publishing’s last issue of Whirlwind Comics. Temerson named a number of his companies after his family. Publisher Et-Es-Go, as a company name, was inspired by the shorthand for Temerson’s sisters Etta, Esther, and Goldie. Helnit is named after Temerson’s nieces, Helen and Anita, who were Goldie’s daughters. Nita is named after Goldie’s daughter Anita. While Brookwood’s demise might have been hastened by a dispute with distributor Kable News during this period, it’s unclear whether Nita Publishing’s short lifespan is explained by the same events.

The CGC census lists 17 Universal copies, with one at 8.0 and none higher. The offered CGC Universal 8.0 copy has off-white pages and comes from the Collection of Jon Berk. The highest graded copy of an issue grounded in 1940 NYC history, there’s a Whirlwind Comics #3 (Nita, 1940) CGC VF 8.0 with off-white pages up for auction at the September 24-26, 2026 Comic Books Signature Auction #7469.

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