One of the best things about heroes with a poor fashion sense? They can get better.
Take poor
Paul Patton, "
former all-around athlete at Penn State." Apparently he wasn't good enough an athlete, all-around or not, to make it in the bigs in any sport. So, naturally, he winds up as a newspaper photographer.
Sadly, Paul
wasn't an all-around photographer. He never got good pictures, and while on assignment in West Virginia, he allowed star reporter/potential girlfriend
Ruth Ransom to get kidnapped by the Klan (I guess with a name like Ransom, she
should have seen that one coming, eh?).
But Paul has a solution to both problems--become a super-hero with a camera in his costume!! First he invents a new kind of camera...
The designs the costume around said camera...
...and straps himself in!
You know, it's only 1940, but Paul sorts kicks
Peter Parker's ass here in the "
take pictures of yourself doing super-heroics" category.
So, surely this brilliant scheme is accompanied by a
dazzling costume for
The Fox. Right, Paul?
Right??
You have
got to be kidding me!!!
No, he's
serious.
Even by the laxer
Archie hero standards...
that's a sucky costume.
Seriously, he looks like an escaped mascot from a college football game, or a refugee from a children's television show. It would be considered crappy even if it were a Halloween costume!!
And that mask!!
But even the most serious sins of all,
fashion sins, can be redeemed. It took a few months, but eventually Paul managed to come with with something a wee bit sleeker and dynamic looking:
But even in that tight costume...
...he
still had the camera going!!
Call the
Pulitzers...
AND Mr. Blackwell!!
Before is from Blue Ribbon Comics #4 (1940). After is from Blue Ribbon Comics #18 (1941).