Bazán, Jaime. Jaime Bazán was created by José Canellas Casals (Amiel, Armando, Carlos and Marcos Bon, Bronkos, Cesar, Judit, Mario, Nick, Rin-Tin-Tin (I), Sam, Toby, Capitán Velez, Mack Wan, Zimbra) and appeared in the Spanish comic book Jaime Bazán #1-9 (1940). Jaime Bazán is a heroic Spanish aviator who finds adventure around the world in the company of his lover Margarita. Bazán fights jetpack-wielding techno-thieves, ray-gun-wielding Mad Scientists, skyscraper-sized city-destroying robots, Yellow Peril pirates like the Red Dragon (and his fleet of junks), and dinosaurs in an underground world. Bazán appears in stories with titles like “The Valley of Hell,” “The Assault on the Convoy of Gold,” and “The Phantom X.”
No particular social insight to be found or commentary to be had about Jaime Bazán. Just pure raw pulp awesomeness. Plus, of course, evidence that the Spanish comic book industry of the 1930s and 1940s–an industry curiously neglected in histories of the comic book–histories written by Americans, which likely explains the neglect–we’re great at navel-gazing but not so good at acknowledging or researching the world beyond our borders–was as imaginative and pulpishly wonderful as the American comic book industry of the Golden Age, and Spanish writers and artists like José Canellas Casals were the equal of most of their American contemporaries.