He didn’t even make three dozen appearances and was gone by the spring of 1943, but for some reason The Ray keeps getting revamped and revived. Maybe his first appearance holds the answers. Your Major Spoilers Retro Review of Smash Comics #14 awaits!
SMASH COMICS #14
Writer: E. Lectron (Possibly a pen name for Will Eisner)
Penciler: Lou Fine
Inker: Lou Fine
Colorist: Uncredited
Letterer: Uncredited
Editor: Ed Cronin
Publisher: Quality Comics
Cover Price: 10 Cents
Current Near-Mint Pricing: $8,213.00
Release Date: July 19, 1940
Previously in Smash Comics: One of the sadly forgotten greats of the Golden Age of comics, Lou Fine studied commercial art before finding his way to the Eisner and Iger Studios, a group of artists who provided material to the burgeoning comic book publishing scene. Using a number of aliases in addition to his own name, Fine became known for his detailed and precise penciling style. Though he only worked in comics for six years, Fine managed to provide gorgeous art for two of the most ludicrous origins in comics history in The Black Condor and Yankee Doodle Jones, as well as creating The Flame for Fox Feature Syndicate’s Wonderworld Comics. Fine is perhaps best known these days for his cover work, but in the early days of Quality Comics, he also gave us… The Ray!
Cub reporter Happy Terrill (who only received the name “Langford” retroactively, several decades later) takes the initiative to get himself on the crew of an experimental high-altitude balloon crew, reporting on the outer reaches of Earth’s atmosphere. It’s exciting stuff, made even more so by a sudden cosmic storm!
I don’t know what a cosmic storm is, exactly, but when it hits, Happy Terrill is no more. In his place is The Ray, a strange muscular figure in a yellow leotard with a stylish fin on the top. Though the intrepid young reporter is deemed lost, presumed dead, Professor Styne’s expedition returns with a new element, one capable of powering an explosion 100 times more powerful than TNT! It gains him the support of the United States government… and the attention of a gang of thugs led by the nefarious Anton Rox.
The gang snatches the formula and leaves the old man for dead, but The Ray arrives just in time to find that Styne is merely wounded. Leaping into action, The Ray travels through beams of light, emerging from the criminals’ own headlights to bring them to heel.
Fine’s excellent figure work is on display in this fight scene, even if our hero is inexplicably bare-legged throughout, and may possibly be a giant? It’s not clear, but what is clear is that Happy’s new body is living proof of unified field theory, as he channels magnetic fields, controls light, and even masters the underserved fundamental force of face-punching.
The Ray delivers Rox and his men to the police, then returns the secret explosive formula with only one request for the elderly genius: Forget that Happy Terrill ever existed. By the next issue, Ray would have full-length pants, completing his classic look, and in the next issue, he would be Smash Comics’ lead feature. I suspect that’s not a coincidence, as Fine’s design is clearly one of the big draws of the character, so much so that Alex Ross used it practically unchanged in the pages of Kingdom Come. More support for my “it’s the costume” theory comes in the fact that Lou gave up The Ray feature with issue #33, after which Happy made only a handful more appearances before vanishing. Whether you chalk it up to the costume or the early space travel, Smash Comics #14 gives us a strong debut alongside less memorable features like Chic Carter, Wings Wendell, and the Purple Trio, taking what could have been just another gangster story and giving it a little extra oomph for 3.5 out of 5 stars overall.
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SMASH COMICS #14
An origin right out of '50s science fiction, a cool yellow suit and some smooth pencils make for a memorable first outing in a not-terribly-memorable overall issue.
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Writing5
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Art8
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Coloring7
Once upon a time, there was a young nerd from the Midwest, who loved Matter-Eater Lad and the McKenzie Brothers... If pop culture were a maze, Matthew would be the Minotaur at its center. Were it a mall, he'd be the Food Court. Were it a parking lot, he’d be the distant Cart Corral where the weird kids gather to smoke, but that’s not important right now... Matthew enjoys body surfing (so long as the bodies are fresh), writing in the third person, and dark-eyed women. Amongst his weaponry are such diverse elements as: Fear! Surprise! Ruthless efficiency! An almost fanatical devotion to pop culture! And a nice red uniform.