ComicBook+ is an archive of public domain Golden and Silver Age Comics — books and newspapers. 24,184 books as of today. Categorized by type and date. It also has a forum for comics lovers and collectors.
All can be downloaded without cost (donations welcome). And you can subscribe of $7.00 a year. Uses PayPal, which is very convenient. No entering credit card or passing a vision test to read a scrunched up series of random letters.
Invisible Scarlet O’Neil was written and drawn by Russell Stamm, who had previously worked on Dick Tracy. She first appeared in the pages of the Chicago Times, June 3, 1940. Scarlet O’Neil has the claim to fame of being one of the very first super heroines. As her name suggests Scarlet has the power of invisibility. This power was created when Scarlet put her finger in an experimental ray created by her scientist father. She suddenly disappeared, but luckily figured out that touching a nerve in her wrist acted as a switch, so she could turn her invisibility off and on at will.Over time Scarlet O’Neil’s special talent was slowly dropped from the strip until in 1950 it was renamed to just ‘Scarlet O’Neil’. A year later a new character named Stainless Steel was introduced. In 1955 the strip was retitled Stainless Steel, promptly folding the next year. As for Scarlet O’Neil she has yet to switch her off her invisibility and no one knows where she is.
It was hard to find an image of a woman without her skirt half way up to her waist or an obvious accessory for a male character. Such were the comics. And they still are. But now they are heroines.
