“The Triple Terror” (Tip Top Comics 90, November 1943, p. 11)

“The Triple Terror” (Tip Top Comics 90, November 1943, p. 11)
by Fred Methot and Paul Berdanier (1879-1961)
13 x 20 in., ink on paper

“The Triple Terror” appeared in Tip Top Comics #54-119 (1940-46).

This is the fifth page of a complete, six-page story published in Tip Top Comics #90 (November 1943).

The Triple Terror series started off as an unusual concept. Putting their considerable wealth and scientific skills to good use, the Brandon triplets (Barton, Richard, and Bruce) donned costumes to fight evil around the world as Chemix (Barton), Lectra (Richard), and Menta (Bruce), The Triple Terror. 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. In early adventures, decked out in superhero garb, they usually fought to prevent dangerous new technologies from falling into enemy hands, sometimes at the request of the US Government.

After America joined WW2 in 1941, these superheroes (as did many others) changed back to their civvies, joined the Army, and fought in both the European and Pacific Theaters. Their enemies included a female villain in a rat costume named The Rat and a cabal of Nazi sympathizers called the Silver Swastikas.

Triple Terror’s creators, according to Public Domain Superheroes, were Fred Methot (about whom I can find almost nothing) and Paul Berdanier.