Alan Class Presents Wally Wood's T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents

This week just gone marked the anniversary of the birth of the one & only Wally Wood.
Woody was the first comic book artist I was ever a fan of, from the instant I saw his first issue of Daredevil reprinted in Mighty World Of Marvel.
But soon after that, I also discovered his magnificent T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents series. However, rather than reading the adventures of Noman, Menthor & Dynamo in the original Tower comics, we on this side of the pond experienced this stuff in the glorious ( and shockingly badly printed ) Alan Class line.
Oh, you thought Charlton printed on bad paper?
As I've reminisced before, these comics ran to no publishing schedule known to man, each issue featuring completely different characters and stories, and were culled from Silver Age Marvel, Charlton, Tower, and god knows where else. There was no rhyme or reason to any of it.
In fact, they weren't even called Alan Class comics. They weren't called anything, except maybe 'Summer Holiday Comics', as that seemed to be when they mostly appeared.
In fact, even though Class obviously paid to reprint these stories, they do sort of feel like bootlegs these days.
So, as we head into summer, here's how Woody & Dynamo, and all the rest of the gang, were introduced to us.
For the full effect, read this on the beach while your parents repeatedly ask you if you're going to be spending the holiday doing nothing but reading comics.

T.H.U.N.D.E.R Agents: Dynamo

More great comics first seen by UK fans in the pages of the great Alan Class b/w reprint comics, but originally from Wally Wood's wonderful Tower Comics line of spy / superheroes, the T.H.U.N.D.E.R Agents.
( The Higher United Nations Defence Enforcement Reserves, thanks for asking )
Jointly inspired by Marvel's burgeoning success and TV's Man From U.N.C.L.E. Woody drafted friends like Gil Kane, Reed Crandall, Mike Sekowsky & George Tuska to help him with the art, while he wrote
( most of ) the scripts and edited the line.
Here, you had a bunch of great, fun characters like Noman ( Mad scientist transplants his mind into a series of creepy androids with invisibility cloak ), Menthor ( traitorous psychic with costume borrowed from The Atom ), Lightning ( super-speedster who ages rapidly every time he uses his powers ), and back-up sidekicks The Thunder Squad, plus great hissable villains like The Warlord and the super sexy Iron Maiden. And the subject of today's post, the Joe Shmoe of superheroes, Dynamo!

Dynamo was Tower Comics version of Superman, but with a twist.
The great thing about Dynamo, was that he was just an ordinary working schlub, clocking in on his day job as a superhero, and having no real emotional investment in saving the world beyond his next pay cheque. A great concept I'm amazed hasn't been used since.
The other great thing about him was that he was, in all honesty, a bit of a dumbass, constantly forgetting to recharge his Thunder Belt before going into battle, getting his ass whipped, then getting reamed out by his boss after the mission. At times, he's so thick, you almost feel Woody is parodying muscle-bound tough guys.
Plus he's named after a real person: Len Brown was working for the TOPPS chewing gum company, and providing Woody with work such as the Mars Attacks trading cards, when they came up with the idea for Dynamo. Struggling to come up with a secret identity, Woody just said to Brown ' Ah, let's just give him your name! ' Hey Ma! Wally Wood named a superhero after me!

Here's Woody in top satirical & artistic form. And why don't I know any women called Kitten?