Lou Fine ’s Rex Dexter cover charge for Mystery Men Comics # 2 is an early model from an creative person who helped define scientific discipline fable art during comics ' Golden Age .
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Throughout a Golden Age lifetime that ran throughMystery Men Comics # 1 - 24and the attempted launch of his own series , Rex Dexter was only featured on three covers . Created byDick Briefer , the character made his cover charge launching withMystery Men Comics # 2with an underappreciatedLou Finepiece . While Fine is justifiably be intimate for iconic work range from superheroes to fantasy and beyond , his nontextual matter help fix how we think of Golden Age comic book skill fabrication , with covers that includedPlanet Comics # 1,Fantastic Comics # 3 , and many others . secret Men Comics # 2 ’s Rex Dexter cover is likely his first skill fiction cover song work , and there’sMystery Men Comics # 2(Fox , 1939)CGC VG- 3.5 copyup for auction at 2025 February 2 - 4 Sunday , Monday & Tuesday Comic BooksSelect Auction # 122505 .
Fox Feature Syndicate publisherVictor Foxhad high Bob Hope forDick Briefer’sRex Dexter of Marsfrom early on . A few months after his debut inMystery Men Comics # 1 , Rex was part ofFox ’s pushvia theMitchell J. HamilburgAgencyto get Fox property into film , radio , ware , and syndicated newspaper cartoon strip . A Rex Dexter radio series was plan aspart of the next wave of Fox radio featuresafter the launch of Blue Beetle on the radio , but Rex never hit the radio airwaves . Similarly , a newsprint daily and color weeklystrip by Briefer was harbinger and name as available for syndication . The gloss weekly appeared in a handful of newspapers as part of aFox Feature Syndicate weekly funny incision .
The New York World ’s Fair of 1939 - 1940 was a major influence comic books of that epoch , and this demonstrate up in a number of manner at Fox . For example , Science Comics ' Perisphere Payne is obviously named after one of the most famous symbol of the fair — the Trylon and Perisphere . The character Electro fromScience Comics # 1was also likely inspired by Elektro , the automaton created by Westinghouse Electric Corporationand one of the most famous exhibits at the fair . With Rex Dexter , the World ’s Fair influence is bake into the character ’s origin story . As say inMystery Men Comics # 1 , " one of the feature of the Fair of 1939 was the rocketing of a space - ship to the planet Mars . navigate by Young Montague Dexter and his Wife , the ship soared on its class … the nervous humanity receiving word every hour , until … "
That feature of the fair was actually an showing inspired byAlex Raymond’sFlash Gordonnewspaper strip , where the entrance of the exhibit resembled Flash Gordon ’s skyrocket ship , and showed visitors destinations such as Venus and Mars . Beyond Flash Gordon , there ’s belike some more specific inspirations that can be pointed to here . Given how close Victor Fox was look out DC Comics title likeAction ComicsandDetective Comicsfor inspiration , it ’s not unlikely inspiration was read fromAll - American Comics for this one . That title was running both Ultra - Man and Adventure in the Unknown in the early going . Ultra - Man was itself inspired by Buck Rogers with the improver of a multi - generational household scene and connections to the U.S. president and government , which are also present in Rex Dexter of Mars . dangerous undertaking in the Unknownis a proto - Challengers of the Unknownsaga which was adapted for comic by its creatorCarl H. Claudyfrom story originally appearing in the magazineThe American Boy1931 - 1939 ( parts of which were more famously gather up into theAdventure in the Unknownbook series ) . The first story arc ofAdventure in the Unknownbeginning inAll - American Comics # 1 , involves travel to Mars and returning with weird engineering science , which also seems to inform Rex . The name of that first arc inAll - American Comics , Mystery Men of Mars , also seems on - point for inspiring a Mars - themed grapheme that debuted inMystery Men Comics .
Briefer took these inspirations in some crazy directions of his own , as he did with Frankenstein . In the yr 1939 , Montague Dexter , an brave seer , design to get away Earth ’s hullabaloo and demonstrate a dependency on Mars with two other twosome . They successfully down and build a novel life-time on the Red Planet , leave a varnish message for their descendants . In 2015 , Montague ’s gravid - grandson , Rex Dexter , is born on Mars and raise with a super - vitamin diet from Martian moo-cow Milk River . He mature into a strong and thinking young man , partake a close alliance with a unseasoned fair sex named Cynde , who perpetually endeavor to outdo him . In 2040 , Rex opens the plastered tube allow by Montague , which contains teaching to return to Earth and share the results of their Martian experiment . After refurbishing the onetime skyrocket ship , Rex and Cynde embark on a journey back to Earth .
Upon their arrival , they are ab initio met with suspicion by the Earth Patrol , but historic records confirm Rex ’s identicalness . In New York City , they are greet with excitement and oddity . The Earth of 2040 has transformed into a united world spare of war and poverty , where golem handle menial tasks and transportation is free . Rex and Cynde receive an apartment overlooking the Empire State Building , ready to share their noesis with the people of Earth , and the fable of Rex Dexter begins . This news report is told from the beginning inMystery Men Comics , andexemplified spectacularlyin Lou Fine ’s cover ofMystery Men Comics # 2 .
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