Forgotten Masterpiece: WINGS COMICS #94

Fiction House was one of the more successful comic book publishers of the Golden Age of Comics. They came into the field from pulp magazines, where they had an active line of titles every month. For the most part, Fiction House’s comic book output mirrored their pulp magazines–often using the same title and even on occasion the same cover compositions. One of their better-selling books during teh wartime years was WINGS COMICS, dedicated to the adventures of heroic aviators. It was spun off from their successful WINGS STORIES pulp magazine. The title continued for many years following the conclusion of the war, but the emphasis began to shift at this point to stories that involved a lot more cheesecake as well as supernatural elements. And that’s where we get to our story today.

Ghost Squadron, credited to the fictitious house name of Captain Derek West, debuted in WINGS COMICS #66 under the title Ghost Patrol. Rather than featuring any continuing characters, Ghost Squadron instead ran self-contained single-issue stories about ghosts and spirits and supernatural entities getting involved with matters surrounding aviation. One of the best of these stories saw print in WINGS COMICS #94 in 1948. While the story was untitled, it became known as “The Room of a Million Windows” after a line in its introductory caption.

The name of the writer behind the Captain Derek West name on this tale has been lost to history, but the artwork for this story was produced by Maurice Whitman.

Ghost Squadron ran as a feature up through issue #113 of WINGS COMICS in 1951 before giving up the ghost. WINGS COMICS itself would call it quits with #124 in Summer of 1954.

Even in this postwar period, the Japanese are still colored a bright yellow and caricatured horribly.