"The Triple Terror" in Tip Top Comics 82 p 41 (Feb 1943)

"The Triple Terror" in Tip Top Comics 82 p 41 (Feb 1943)
by Reginald (Reg) Greenwood (1899-1943)
18 x 24 in, ink on board

After WW1 Greenwood moved to NYC, where he studied art and began his career as a free-lance illustrator. He attended a NYC art school for three years. In 1921 he began to work as a newspaper cartoonist for The New York Journal-American.

During the 1930s he painted covers for Real Tempting Tales, Real Boudoir Tales, Real Stolen Sweets, Real French Capers, and Real Forbidden Sweets.

In 1940 he began to draw for comic books. He contributed to Mirror Man, Spark Man, Menta, and Triple Terror.

Greenwood died of a heart attack at the age of forty three in New York City on May 25, 1943. His father had also died of a heart attack at the age of forty-three.

I'm a chemist. How can I not like a super-hero series with a chemistry expert in it?

Wishing to put their considerable skills to good use, the Brandon triplets - Richard, Barton, and Bruce - decided to don costumes and fight evil around the world as Chemix, Lectra, and Menta, the Triple Terror. In early adventures, they usually fought to prevent dangerous new technologies from falling into enemy hands, sometimes at the request of the US Government. In later adventures, they joined the Army and fought in both the European and Pacific Theaters of World War II. Their enemies included a female villain in a rat costume named "The Rat" and a cabal of Nazi sympathizers called the Silver Swastikas. The Triple Terror team included:

Chemix (Barton Brandon), the chemistry expert who wore a beaker symbol on his chest and back.
Lectra (Richard Brandon), the electronics expert who wore a lightning bolt symbol on his chest and back.
Menta (Bruce Brandon), the master of men's minds, who wore an all seeing eye symbol on his chest and back.

In addition to their respective expertise in the sciences, the Brandon boys were extremely athletic, good climbers and exceptional fighters. Menta could pilot an aircraft and they all seemed to be familiar with military weapons, equipment and tactics. As was true for a number of super-hero series, the boys hung up the spandex and put in military uniforms in their later adventures.

The Triple Terror appeared in Tip Top Comics (United Features) #54 (1943) -119 (1946)