PD: TIP TOE COMICS Introduction of Mirror Girl (1940)

[dans]

TIP TOE COMICS #54 (Friday, 8/31/1940)

Introducing: Mirror Girl - The Girl Who Isn't There!

(I may change her name going forward - any suggestions?)

In the office of Deann Alder, Headmistriss of the Alder Academy for Young Ladies, a short commute outside of New York City, summer of 1940... Deann is involved in a serious discussion with her friend Drew Thorne, the warden for the nearby Downstate Reform School for Girls.

***

"So, Drew, tell me more about this girl Patty, who you say needs some help?" This was Deann, a sturdy woman, above average in height, with wavy brunette hair to her shoulders, and a squarish face that was handsome rather than beautiful.

"Patty Simmons is a good girl who fell in with some bad company, and she ended up in my care. Her behavior was exemplary while she was in the School, but she's been having a tough time since she's been released. She needs to help support her younger brother, but nobody will give her a job, and she's discouraged. I'm afraid someone from Monk Manton's gang is going to dangle easy money in her face again - and she'll be in trouble again!" She handed over a folder. "Here's her address and case history."

Deanne nodded gravely. "OK, Drew - I can't help her as Deann Alder, but maybe as <Mirror Girl>..."

"<Mirror Girl> has done SO much good for kids - especially girls - over the past few years - that sounds wonderful! I just KNOW you'll be able to help!" Drew smiled brightly and sounded relieved. Then, curiously: "But say, you've never told me just how you got to BE <Mirror Girl>?"

"You've known about me being <Mirror Girl> for years and never told anyone - I think you deserve the rest of the story," Deann agreed. "It's like this..."

"You know that before I bought the Academy, I used to work in Hollywood, right?" Drew nodded. "I was a bit player and a stuntwoman. We were in Tibet, filming Last Horizon..." She paused for an instant with a questioning glance, and Drew interrupted her excitedly.

"YOU worked on Last Horizon? It's my favorite movie - I've seen it 3 times! Buster Crabbe is to die for!" A second's pause for thought. "Saaayyy..."

"Yes, I got in the film as an extra, and no, I never made time with Buster. No, my names not in the credits and you can't actually see me," Deann laughed. "You know the mob scene at the beginning, where Buster Crabbe's character barely makes it onto the plane with that giant fire in the background? And Connie Moore's character is already on the plane? I'm somewhere in the mob." They both laughed - it was dark and the light was flickering and almost nobody in that scene was recognizable.

"Anyway, we were filming on location in Tibet, and set up near a monastery - actually, a lamasery - and one of the other extras got drunk and tried to shoot Looba, the High Lama. I barely tackled him in time, and the rifle bullet missed. The extra ended up in lamasery jail until we came back to the States, and then he was fired. But that night, after dinner, several monks requested that I attend the High Lama - and he gifted me with the Gossamer Garment. At least, that's how they translated the name - although it's more than that. Anyway, they told me that the Gossamer Garment can grant the wearer great mystical powers, if used in a good cause."

"Me? I'm a good Christian girl and don't believe that Oriental mumbo-jumbo - or at least, I didn't - then. I put that outfit on once before we finished filming, in private, and I thought it made me look chunky and indecent! It is skin tight and shows off every little bump. I've never been the pin up type, you know, but it would probably look GREAT on Harlow! Anyway, I never wore it again for years."

She paused, reflecting a bit sadly on the good <Mirror Girl> might have done in those years. "Then one night, I was reading my diary from that trip, and I thought I'd try it on again. I stood in front of the full-length wardrobe mirror, and you know, it really looks a lot better these days! I've lost a lot of baby fat since Tibet!" She was very enthusiastic about that! "I was turning to get another angle when I stumbled over the ottoman, and fell against the mirror - except... I fell INTO the mirror! Except... I FINISHED falling out the back of the mirror! I fell totally THROUGH the mirror and into the closet!" "Suddenly I thought I understood the 'Gossamer' reference - I felt as light as a feather! I looked down in amazement, and then screamed in panic! All I could see was a very dim, almost invisible pale blue outline. I stood up and realized I was INSIDE the wardrobe and I PASSED THROUGH all my hanging clothes!!! I was so dizzy I stumbled and FELL THROUGH the side of the wardrobe back into the room. I went crazy for a few minutes, but I finally calmed down enough to try to remember everything Looba told me about the Gossamer Garment. To return to normal, I had to pass through the back of a mirror and come out the front. I did it - and it worked! Thank goodness!! I spent a few hours learning more about my new powers, and the next day I started my new career as <Mirror Girl> - or, as they like to put in the headlines, 'The Girl Who Isn't There!'. So, now swear never to divulge my secret!"

Drew was happy to make that promise, particularly since her friend was going to try to help Patty Simmons... But Heidi Halbrook, the maid, eavesdropping in the next room, wasn't. She was already scheming how SHE could get hold of that costume!

***

Deann stood in front of her full length free standing mirror for a second or two, admiring the image of <Mirror Girl>... clad in a brick red body suit that covered her completely, with cutouts for the eyes and a slot in the back of the neck for her hair. There was no emblem on the chest, or boots and gloves, and she wore an unusual black belt that had a tall black diamond across her stomach and there was a white emblem in the center of the diamond. It was some kind of mystical symbol, though she had never figured out how to describe it well. She saw a woman who was athletic rather than curvy, a shape she had worked hard on and was proud of. An then she strode forward and walked into the mirror - and the room was empty. Well, not really empty, yet... In pitch black without any moonlight, or inside the closed wardrobe, an observer might have been able to see a very dim pale blue ghostly figure, but in anything other than total pitch blackness, <Mirror Girl>'s aura was invisible. The invisible <Mirror Girl> circled back to the front of the mirror and stepped into it again - and now the room truly was empty.

A few seconds after <Mirror Girl> vanished, the door pushed open slowly and Heidi Halbrook pushed hesitatingly into the room, awestruck at the incredible sight of someone walking into a mirror as if it were an open door. Now, even more than before, she was determined to obtain the Gossamer Garment as her own!

***

A small fraction of under half of a split instant after the invisible, intangible <Mirror Girl> entered her own mirror the second time, she stepped out of a storefront window onto a city street, still invisible and intangible. This store was the closest location she could remember to the address she'd been given for Patty Simmons. A short time later, she was standing in a trash-strewn alley behind a dilapidated building, facing an entrance next to an equally dilapidated sign which read "ROOMS".

'This place has definitely seen better days!' she observed mentally. 'It looks like she really DOES need some help! This place wouldn't be safe for the toughest crook, much less a girl!' She walked through the door and climbed the stairs to the third floor, then pushed through the door into 3D, a ratty two room 'apartment' with threadbare rugs and walls and ceilings with peeling paint and big chunks of plaster missing. As she had hoped, Patty was home. As she had sort of expected, Patty had a guest. He was sitting backwards on the only chair in the place, arms curled on the top of the back; she was sitting on the bed. She didn't seem happy with what he was saying, but she was listening.

"Cheez, kid, lookit this dump! I see ya ain't wised up yet! Ya know once ya get outta stir, nobody'll never givya a break! Why not c'mon down and talk ta Monk wit me? He'll give ya a break - and I'll even put inna good word for ya..." He leered, clearly hoping for a reciprocal favor in the future.

"Maybe you're right, Parker. Do you think he'll give me a loan? My kid brother Petey needs an operation, but my folks are broke... they want me to move home with them, but they're too broke for that too..." Patty had short curly black hair and was probably normally attractive, but she was so despondent and sad that it was impossible to tell right now.

Parker sat up abruptly at her words and though Patty wasn't looking at him, a look of triumph flashed across his face. "That's right, kid - I'll bet he will! Or mebbee he'll offer ya a job 'steada a loan."

"I wouldn't go if I were you, Patty!" <Mirror Girl> spoke loudly and flatly.

"What did you say, skirt?" Parker demanded angrily, rising to his feet.

"It wasn't me, Parker! I didn't say ANYTHING!" Patty responded, suddenly scared at Parker's furious demeanor at being contradicted by a skirt.

"It was I, <Mirror Girl>, who spoke. I warn you, Patty - don't go back to Manton!"

Parker whirled to face the source of the voice and pulled his pistol. The voice continued, unconcerned.

"Parker, you can shoot as much as you like..." Parker pulled the trigger and a bullet thudded into the far wall, but the voice continued, unruffled: "...but you can't hurt me, any more than you can hurt your reflection in the mirror!"

Parker bolted for the door. "Come on, kid, let's get outta here! It's a ghost!"

The disembodied voice followed the two out the door. "It doesn't matter where you run - I'll always find you, when I want to!"

Down the stairs, out of the alley, Patty followed the rushing Parker, who headed to Monk Manton's hideout. Just outside, he stopped. "So, kid, since weze here anyways, c'mon in and talk ta da boss. But say, there ain't no sense in tellin' him 'bout what we heard - he'd think we wuz nuts or somtin' and just toss us both out on our ears!"

<Mirror Girl>, who had followed them, was saddened but not surprised at Patty's response. "Guess you're right, Parker! Do you think Monk really will advance me some dough? Petey really needs that operation, bad!"

"All ya gotta do is ask, kid," Parker assured her. 'Boss'll give me a nice bonus fer gettin' her back!' he thought smugly as he led her into Monk Manton's 'inner sanctum'. Followed, invisibly, by <Mirror Girl>.

***

"Glad to have you back, kid!" Monk Manton was a heavyset man with a double chin, wearing a poorly fitted suit. (He looked kind of like Jackie Gleason from the 1961 TV variety show, The Jackie Gleason Show, though Jackie dressed much better, and the show was still some 20 years in the future during this story...). He always had a big smile, though some people found that that smile was disturbingly reminiscent of a predator eying prey... "Hear ya been havin' a tough time."

"Yeah, I need some dough bad, Monk. Gimmie a chance, will ya? But just this one job, 'cause I need the cash right away. OK?"

"Sure, kid, sure. And all you gotta do is faint, and you get 500 smackers for it!" He chuckled with satisfaction and turned to the rest of the mob. "OK, the rest a'ya mugs got the layout? Tamarah, the skirt walks into the bank at 2 minutes to 12. At 1 minute to 12 she goes into her fainting routine. At 12 sharp, Parker and Putty-face storm in and clean out the bank. Blast anyone that gets in your way!"

There was a mutter of agreement, and everyone went about their day. <Mirror Girl> followed Patty to a nearby park, and plopped down on an empty bench next to her.

"Patty, you're not really going to go through with it, are you?" she asked sadly.

"Who ARE you? WHERE are you? Why don'cha just bug off and leave me alone?" Patty demanded.

"I'm sitting right next to you, Patty. Don't be frightened." She paused for a second, then, "If you give up Monk and his gang..."

Patty didn't let her finish. "I must be nuts, talkin' to nobody and nothing but air! But... If there IS somebody there, I want to tell you... there ain't NO work for nobody that's been in reform school! And none of the nice guys look at me twice!" Without waiting for a response, she jumped to her feet and hurried away. Looking back she demanded: "Leave me alone! I know what I'm doing! One job, to get money for Petey's operation, and I'll quit. And you just keep your nose outta my beeswax!"

"One job'll be one job too late, Patty!" <Mirror Girl> started to object, but Patty turned away, put her head down, clenched her hands and her jaw, and walked even faster. Deann sighed. 'I'll guess I'll just have to handle this my own way!'

***

The next day, a girl walked into a bank and asked for change for a $10 bill, her advance against the 500 smackers she expected to take home later. The teller was a little surprised... you didn't see young women flashing that much cash very often! She took the bill, held it up to the light, folded it and rolled it between her fingers. Patty was getting more and more angry at such blatant disrespect from the teller that she almost... but not quite... forgot her lines.

A loud moan... she bent forward and steadied herself with one hand against the teller's window, the other going to her forehead. "Oh, no... so dizzy... can't breath... going to fai..." She fell against the counter, started slipping toward the floor, and made a vain attempt to stop her collapse, scrabbling at one of the trays, and then crumpled to the floor, her eyes closed. 3 bank guards raced toward her, and the manager jumped up from behind his desk to push into the main lobby, and everyone turned to look... and the front door crashed open and two men carrying Tommy guns raced in. They had the drop on the bank guards; no one dared resist.

"Line up against the wall, alla you!" Parker ordered. "You tellers, alla you put your hands on the grill! The phone and burglar alarm wiring has already been cut, so don't try any funny business!"

'This is the part about being <Mirror Girl> I HATE!' Deann thought. She was standing right next to Parker. 'Hurts like HECK and I'll be out like a light for at least 10 hours when I finally get home...' She concentrated, and gasped at the sudden intense pain in her hands and forearms - almost as if she'd stuck them into a blast furnace. 'Wish Looba's magic was a little easier on me!'

At least the loud, painful gasp out of thin air startled Parker for an instant - and in that instant, she announced herself. "Drop those guns, you two! You're all washed up!" She launched a powerful right uppercut, learned during her job as a stuntwoman, and Parker was knocked off his feet and backward. His trigger finger clenched as he fell and he fired a short burst harmlessly into the ceiling of the bank before he dropped his chopper.

Meanwhile, Patty sat up and hollered: "Give it to 'em sister! I'm with YOU!"

<Mirror Girl> turned her attention to the other bewildered gunman, and hit him with another invisible punch, and then yelled back, "Good work, Patty! I KNEW you'd come through!" It took a few more seconds for her to subdue him and grab the chopper to keep it aimed away from the crowd.

During those few moments, there was chaos in the lobby, and while everyone's attention was turned to the second hood seemingly being thrashed by the empty air, Parker struggled to his feet and staggered out the door. Patty spotted him, sprang to her feet and raced after him yelling "Parker's getting away. I'll stop him!"

<Mirror Girl> pulled the chopper from the thug's hand, reversed it, and slammed the butt into his head. "Hold him, Patty - I'm on my way!". She carefully put the Tommy gun down on the floor and then pushed it to slide toward the wall, then turned and headed for the window of the bank. There was a brief instant of pain in her forearms, and then she dove at the window - and her again totally intangible form passed through it.

She reached the street just in time to see the brave girl grab Parker by the shoulder. Parker swung around and slammed a single punch to her jaw, while he growled "This will hold you, you stinking witch!". Patty staggered backward, tripped and fell, and her head struck the granite cornerstone of the bank building. She slumped to the sidewalk, not moving. For real, this time!

An enraged <Mirror Girl> didn't even notice the momentary pain in her forearms before she reached Parker. Likely very few people in history had ever witnessed what the crowd on the street saw next; a bewildered man being beaten mercilessly by an invisible adversary.

"I'll teach you to never strike a woman again!" Deann thundered, as she landed a mean one-two, snapping his head back and spinning him around. He tripped and fell backward, and then squirmed and rolled as if he were having a fit, while something no one could see struck him in the face several times, opening cuts that began to bleed profusely. Fortunately for Parker, the sight of blood on her otherwise invisible hands jolted Deann out of her rage. When she realized that her foe was limp and unconscious, she forced herself away from him, and for an instant stood invisibly over him, then turned her attention to Patty. The young woman was breathing and there was a man kneeling next to her with a Doctor's bag.

"She'll be OK - probably has a concussion and needs a few days to recover."

He and those around him were startled when they heard a voice from the air. "Her name's Patty Simmons, Doc. Can you look up her folks?"

***

Still invisible, <Mirror Girl> turned back to the bank and once again walked into the window. A small fraction of under half of a split instant later she was stepping back into her apartment through her wardrobe mirror. She stepped into the closet and then stepped into the mirror from behind, and the solid figure of Deann Halper, still in the skin-tight brick red Gossamer Garment, stepped out of the mirror into her apartment. "One more thing to do - and then I'm going to sleep for a week!".

She opened a safe and pulled out an envelope containing some bills, counted them - $200, and nodded in satisfaction. A quick stop at her desk, a quick note on the envelope, then she tucked the envelop under the big black triangular belt buckle and stepped through the mirror again, circled it, stepped in again, and popped out the same store window she'd used earlier today - and then made her way to Patty's folks house. She walked through the wall and dropped the envelope on the dining room table. It became solid as soon as she released it.

Then she turned back the way she'd come. "Lucky I only weigh a few ounces!" she chuckled wearily to herself. "Even so, it's lucky I don't have to walk all the way home, too, or I might pass out in an alley!" She shuddered at the thought of alley traffic passing through her intangible form as she slept! Then she stepped into a window and out her mirror, circled the mirror and stepped through again, and was solid. She was dragging herself wearily to the bedroom when something slammed into the back of her head, slamming her into unconsciousness just a few seconds before she would have fallen into bed unconscious anyway.

CONTINUED IN TIP TOE COMICS #55 TO BE PUBLISHED FRIDAY NOVEMBER 1, 1940

[redsycorax]

I take it that "Tip Toe" is an ironic reference to Tip Top Comics, which was put out by United Features (although its only heroic figure was Tarzan)? There were British and Australian versions and the Aussie version was put out by B&W Independent/Planet Comics in Sydney, which republished DC comics for the Australasian market until direct distribution arrived in the mid-seventies. Which is how I used to get my DC fix when I was a kid and teenager.

[dans]

Tip Top Comics available on comicbookplus. Heroes include: Triple Terror (3 brothers each with a different minor power), Mirror Man, Spark Man (who had electrical powers). There might have been others, I have been paying more attention to Mirror Man. Mirror Man started off as a superhero, but then evolved away from using his powers and became a special agent for the military, performing special missions for the Army with his partner Slim.

They had a detective series called Hankshaw the Detective, which is interesting because Carol Clews called Dan Dare 'Hankshaw' - now I know where the nickname came from. At least one site says that Iron Vic has superpowers.

[johnreiter902]

very nice

[dans]

Thanks, John!

[dans]

TIP TOE COMICS #55 (TUESDAY 10/1/1940)

Thrills! Action! Suspense!

Why did Deann's maid steal Mirror Girl's costume? How will Deann get it back? Is this the end of Mirror Girl?

***

Even before she slowly regained consciousness, Deann was aware of a tremendously painful throbbing headache. Her subconscious mind knew how to fix the pain... when she was intangible, her healing processes were miraculously enhanced - the magic of the Gossamer Garment would erase this headache in minutes! She opened her eyes and focused on her wardrobe mirror, only a few feet away... and realized that she wasn't wearing the Garment! She crawled painfully to the wardrobe and struggled to open the secret compartment where she kept her mystical costume... and it was empty. She almost passed out again from the combination of the pain and the despair of her discovery. But the pain drove her on.

The monks in Temple Looba had tried to teach some of the studio hands the process of meditation. Deann struggled to recapture some of that discipline... to isolate the pain in a distant corner of her mind, far enough away that she could think. It helped a little, and she was able to remember another bit of secret knowledge, also dating back to her years spend with the studio. Several agonizing years later, she crawled into the bath and opened the cabinet under the sink. She managed to screw the top off a squat, wide-mouthed blue bottle. She thrust one finger into the powder in the bottle and managed to bring the finger to her mouth - and then fainted from the pain and exertion.

When she came to again a few minutes later, she felt better - well enough to moisten her finger and repeat... only once! The powder was a nostrum once peddled by a chemist for the same studio she worked for, who had prepared it in a back room on the lot. Of course, back then, it has been used for recreational purposes, but she'd saved some because she remembered how it also relieved pain. Some of the ingredients were no longer available to the general public - in fact, possessing this nostrum today could get her thrown in jail, though such ingredients had been readily available in Hollywood in the 30s! She had hoarded it carefully through the years, but if ever there was a time to use it, it was NOW! She thought she could feel it spreading out through her body, and then she passed out yet again.

When Deann awakened again, she felt unusually refreshed and invigorated - and she realized she remembered a very vivid dream that had come to her while she was passed out! It had seemed incredibly real - as if it were a real-life experience and not a dream at all! She'd been sitting cross-legged in the meditation room in Temple Looba, surrounded by a dozen monks, and she'd been conversing with Looba, the High Lama, himself. Looba had been describing the mystical properties of the Gossamer Garment to her. The scene triggered an instant sense of deja vu in her memories - and she realized that this scene was similar in many respects to the one years when Looba had originally presented her with the Gossamer Garment - but prior to her unexpected audience, she'd had several of the highly potent lamasery beers to calm down after she'd risked her life to stop the assassin, and she may not have remembered everything that she'd been told about the Gossamer Garment at that time... well, this dream and the new instructions were crystal clear in her mind - and if the dream had been as real as it seemed, everyone who thought they had Mirror Girl and her powers figured out was going to be in for some big surprises!

Cautious exploration still revealed a large bump on the back of her head, explosively painful even through the effects of the nostrum. She still couldn't remember the blow that had apparently knocked her out, but it was clear that the Gossamer Garment was gone. This almost amused her - her dream had reminded her that whoever had conked her and stolen it was likely to get a rude surprise!

The clock showed she'd been noshed almost 19 hours ago, and she was ravenous! She switched on the radio as she began preparing a small meal - prior experience with her carefully hoarded nostrum suggested that for a while, she wouldn't react well to the huge meal she really wanted right now.

"News flash! The costumed woman who has come to be called Mirror Girl in the popular press was shot and apparently killed this morning as she attempted to rob the Downtown National Bank. After shooting one of the tellers, the Mirror Girl attempted to step into a mirror in the bank's lobby to escape the fusillade of shots fired by the guards - but instead of vanishing into the mirror, instead the mirror broke. The villain was struck with several bullets and severely cut by the shards of the shattered mirror. No one knows if she was killed by bullets or cuts from the mirror, because before anyone could reach the body, it vanished, leaving behind only her mysterious red costume. The costume was impounded by the NYPD as evidence, and since then, we have received word that a team of scientific experts from the FBI in Washington are on their way to New York to obtain the garment and take it back to the lab in FBI headquarters for further investigation."

"Oh, just GREAT! Now I have to steal my own Gossamer Garment back from the police before they hand it over to the FBI, and then try and clear my name! Maybe it's just time for Mirror Girl to retire!" she thought in disgust. Then she thought of all the good Mirror Girl had done in the past few years... "I can't just quit now!" She started making plans. "How am I going to get into Police HQ without my powers?"

***

Heidi had only been in the Downtown National Bank once before, but they way she remembered, it was the perfect target for someone who could escape simply by stepping into a mirror and becoming invisible - there were half a dozen full length mirrors in the walls of the bank lobby, ensuring that there were no nooks or crannies in the lobby where someone could remain concealed.

Heidi hurried home and made her preparations. She donned the Gossamer Garment and put on a long overcoat and hat, and dropped her Walther PPK (stolen from the home of another of her company's clients, a retired Army officer who had served an extensive stint in Germany) into her bag, and headed downtown.

In the bank, she dropped her coat and fired a couple of shots into the ceiling to get everyone's attention. "Nobody move and nobody gets hurt!" she ordered. "Guards, face down on the floor." She gestured, when one didn't move fast enough, she squeezed the trigger, and he dropped to the floor instantly. He was quiet - she must have missed, and he decided to follow her orders. She pushed a bag through the teller window. "You and you!" she pointed the gun and first one, than another teller, "Dump your drawers in!"

One of the tellers was nervous and spilled a good part of her drawer next to the bag instead of in it. "Clumsy WITCH!" Heidi screamed and fired again. This time she hit her target; the teller dropped to the floor screaming in pain and terror. Heidi grabbed her partially full bag, then turned back to the lobby.

"Sorry, folks, but even the Mirror Girl needs cash to live! Thanks for the cash! I'll be leaving now. You saw what I do if you try to interfere, get out of my way!"

She turned toward one of the mirrors. Perhaps unnerved by the screams and whimper of pain from behind the teller partition, she started running. One of the guards had managed to squirm around and pull his gun, and loosed a shot; Heidi took two more steps and launched herself headlong at the mirror... and crashed INTO it rather than passing through it. The mirror shattered, a couple of bullets crashed into her torso at almost the same instant, and she broke her neck. Nobody will ever know which of her injuries actually killed her; the outraged magic of the Gossamer Garment, which cannot be used for evil acts, caused her body to vanish before it even reached the floor. The crowd in the bank gathered to stare in awe at an empty red bodysuit crumpled on the floor.

(Heidi hadn't heard the part about 'used in a good cause', and she hadn't really thought out her escape very well anyway - even if the Gossamer Garment had allowed her to pass into the mirror, she would have had to release her pistol and the handbag with the cash. But she had never bothered practicing with her new powers; she wanted to cash in RIGHT NOW!)

***

Deann's friend Drew Thorne, Warden of the Downstate Reform School for Girls, was not unknown at police HQ, and had been able to get a little bit of information from a contact there - information she was now passing on the Deann. "Your costume is in the police lab on the third floor. It's not guarded, though they are experimenting on it right now. They expect to turn it over the FBI tomorrow. Commissioner Valentine is reluctant to let the FBI have it, but Smitty says he got calls first from J. Edgar and then from F.D.R. himself. He's furious, but he knows there's nothing he can do."

"Smitty wouldn't be able to get you the key, would he?" Deann mused.

"Hey, it cost me a date Friday night already, honey!" Drew complained. "I'm not ready for the full kit and kaboodle with him just yet!"

"So Sergeant John Smith FINALLY got up the nerve to ask you out? Well, at least THAT's something!" Deann laughed. "I'll just have to figure something out, I guess. I suppose I could show up tomorrow and discuss the full kit and kaboodle with one of the FBI guys." She shook her head... "Guess not. Say, maybe if I get caught, they'll send me to your care!"

"Don't get caught, honey - you wouldn't like the living quarters at my place very much. Decorations are kind of spotty and there's not much privacy..."

***

CONTINUED IN TIP TOE COMICS #56 TO BE PUBLISHED FRIDAY NOVEMBER 1, 1940

[dans]

Tip Top Comics


TIP TOE COMICS #56 (FRIDAY 11/1/1940)


That afternoon, Deann made some hurried preparations, including visiting a theatrical supply store and a hardware store. She laughed ironically when she thought about what she was planning to do. "Betcha they won't be expecting someone to break IN to Police Headquarters!" She mused on her motivation. "For a nickle, I'd let Mirror Girl stay dead - but I just HAVE TO clear her name. So many girls she's helped look up to her; I can't let the public go on believing she's a crook!" Then, 'This would be ever so much easier if I could just change to Mirror Girl and walk through the wall into the police station like a ghost... but of course, if I had the Garment, then I wouldn't need to steal it back from the police!"

Shortly after midnight, a figure dressed in a dark gray suit, wearing a gray slouch hat and a black cape (with a pack under the cape), prowled the alley behind Police HQ. Most of the building was dark. According to Drew, several windows in the police lab opened on the fire escape in the alley. If she could get onto the fire escape without drawing attention, and then go through the window and get out again before the night watchman could respond, and then get away... "If, if, if! If I keep sulking around and adding up all the IFs, I'll NEVER get the Gossamer Garment back!" she scolded herself. "I need to get onto the fire escape, first!"

She'd thought about the fire escape for some time... she _could_ try pulling down the swinging ladder, but often that made a LOT of noise. So she called on another stuntwoman skill instead - tied a grapefruit to the end of a rope, and tossed the grapefruit up through the first landing of the fire escape, caught it before it could splat, and tied the the two ends of the rope, then went up hand-over-hand. She had been making an effort to stay in shape since she'd assumed the headmistress role, but she was pretty winded when she reached the landing. 'More gym time, I promise!' she told the stars above, then carefully climbed to the third floor. She cautiously peered through each window. It wasn't easy to see into each room with a hankie tied over the end of her AlwaysReady^(TM) hand torch, but eventually she found the right room. The Gossamer Garment was stretched out on a table. There was a bunch of lab equipment on another table right next to it, and the room itself was dark and empty.

"It would be nice if there aren't any alarms on the window," she thought, but didn't believe it. The cops might not expect anyone to break in, but there was probably always something of high value to someone in the evidence rooms.

Now that it was time to actually take action, Deann was more than a little nervous. 'Seems like there's a lot of stuff about the Gossamer Garment that the monks didn't tell me! Like making bodies vanish?' she thought nervously. The Garment had apparently disintegrated the body of the last person who wore it... was it because the body was dead, or the the magic didn't think that robbing a bank was a 'good cause'? Would it consider breaking into a police station and stealing forensic evidence a 'good cause'? Would she vanish without a trace too? If she got caught, would the police believe her story that she hadn't been the bank robber? Was she even sure it hadn't been her? She'd been unconscious at the time, after all...

'I can stay here all night thinking of reasons not to go ahead!' she finally yelled at herself mentally, adding some choice words she'd learned on the sets of many different movies. 'I know it wasn't me, and I know my cause is good - the monks gave it to ME! And I've never misused it." She talked herself into moving...

Her plan was to carry the Garment to the roof to gain a few seconds, where she would don it and then use an improvised mirror to escape. The suit was a theatrical quick change outfit she could doff in less than 3 seconds, and donning the Gossamer Garment, which had magical closure seams, usually took less than a minute. And she'd practiced the improvised mirror trick before - if had even just a minute to put on the costume and set up the trick, she'd be home free! She'd left the rope dangling in the alley below - hopefully it might provide a few seconds of misdirection about her escape route.

A powerful WHACK with a crowbar she pulled from the pack shattered the glass, and the alarm instantly shattered the quiet of the night. She put the crowbar against the inside of the window frame and ran it around the entire frame, breaking loose all the little jagged teeth that would have ripped her to shreds if she'd just pushed through. She eased through, with the best caution that was consistent with her urgent need for speed.

She grabbed the Gossamer Garment. Her timing was terrible, or else there had been someone stationed right outside the door, as the door was violently kicked open and a night watchman pushed his way in with his gun already drawn.

He snapped on the light, and the room appeared to be empty. He stopped, momentarily startled, then a triumphant look exploded across his face. "C'mon out from under the table, whoever ye ar, or ye'll get a taste o'lead poisoning!"

"You'll have to come and get me, officer," a female voice responded playfully. "I'm very bashful!"

"On, it's bashful, are ye? Well, I'll be changin' your mind for ye. Here's a bit o'..." he snarled and aimed his pistol at the empty table.

"Sorry, I really don't have time to play," Deann quipped. "I left the motor running!" Well, any good actor, even an extra, ought to be able to ad lib a line now and then, right?

The table with all the lab equipment was upended from beneath, spilling apparatus and equipment into the cop, and then the table slammed into him. He spasmodically fired off one shot and then dropped his pistol as he tried unsuccessfully to stay on his feet. The bullet exploded through the table top and showered Deann with splinters, but missed her. She pushed the table the rest of the way over on top of him, and headed back to the window, kicking his pistol out into the hall on the way.

"Hope you have a nice trip!" she joked as she stepped around him. "Hope your buddies don't give me a speeding ticket for my getaway!" She climbed out the window, wadded the cloak around the hat and some stuff from the pack she figured she wouldn't need now, and tossed them off the landing into the alley in the direction away from the police station. 'Hope they follow my false trail first!' It seemed like her ruse was working; some cops just entering the alley heard the thumps of the stuff she had thrown, and a loud pursuit began 'thataway'.

The fire escape didn't reach the roof, but that wouldn't stop her! She'd learned to climb the walls of buildings in preparation for being the stunt double for Iris Meredith (who played Nita Van Sloan, the eponymous Spider Woman, opposite Buster Crabbe) in the 1938 serial "The Web of the Spider Woman". She easily swarmed up the corner of the old brick building, but just before she swung over the wall around the roof, some clever cop shined his high powered flashlight upward - and caught sight of her. A bullet chased her over the cornice. She had planned to set up an improvised mirror here - but if they were already shooting at her, she wasn't going to have the time she needed.

The police radio aerial consisted of 3 wires, strung between two towers. "Well, if I can't go down, I'd better go UP!" She was one of the towers in an instant, and she used the crowbar to free that end of the aerial. She took a deep breath, got a firmer grip on the bar, and jumped! 

She 'pumped' her legs several times on the down swing. 'Good thing I learned how to swing as the stunt double for Julie Bishop in the Buster Crabbe film Tarzan the Fearless!' she thought as she judged her momentum. 'Looks like the 'gliding cape' skill I picked up while stunt doubling for Jean Rogers in those 'fly between the spaceships' scenes in Flash Gordon with Buster Crabbe might save my life!' Even with her extra pumping, she was going to be a bit short of the building across the street. Just before the top of her swing, she pumped one more time, released, did a back flip, and grabbed the bottom edge of her cape with both hands, then spread her arms as wide as they would go.

'Thank goodness I was the stunt double for Jean Rogers!" She barely made it over the edge of the roof of the next building. She executed a tumble and used the cape to help slow her down, and she was able to land without crashing through a skylight. 'The acrobatic skills I learned for my stunt double role for Lucille La Verne in the Buster Crabbe file The Mighty Barnum sure saved my bacon THAT time!'

The skylight looked into a brightly lighted room that appeared to be a painting/sculpture studio. The dangling aerial would give away her location and she'd be outline against the brilliantly-lit skylight for any trigger-happy cop on the roof - lucky some of the panes were open to let in the cool night air. She slipped through one of the windows and dropped lightly to the floor - then instantly had to find a hiding spot as the door began to open. Fortunately the room was cluttered with life size plaster statues; she was easily able to slip behind a group of statues representing Revolutionary War soldiers playing fife and drums. A very large man, carrying a tray of plaster statuettes, entered the room, totally unaware of Deann's presence. The statuettes were modeled after the larger ones she was hiding behind - the man carried a tray full of patriotism!

He was muttering to his statuettes with a strong accent from one of the Western Germanic languages. "Such foolish imagery, and you are so small and weak, my little statues... but soon you will make me the ruler of America!"

At that instant, the man's musings were interrupted by a pounding on the door. "Open up, Mr. Pignali! It's the police! We're searching for a dangerous fugitive"

***

"My statues and I have been alone here all night!" Pignali insisted to the police for the 4th time. They had glanced into the studio but Deann had found concealment - several of the larger statues were draped in canvas shrouds and she'd slipped under one of the shrouds - and Pignali himself had hounded the cops into only a cursory check of the room.

'Almost as if he's hiding something!' she thought. 'Maybe I'll stick around a bit longer after they leave!'

And they finally did. "He must have climbed down the outside wall of the building!" one decided emphatically. "After I saw him climb UP our building, and make that swing, I'll believe anything! What's one more impossible feat after that?"

***

Mr. Pignali was on the phone within seconds after the police left. "Antone! Do you have the final payment?" A pause... "WHAT? Hitler wants you to witness one final demonstration of my remote controlled exploding statutes or you will withhold payment?" Pignali was furious... but then he sighed. "Hurry over! I want these out of here TONIGHT!"

Yes, Deann was now determined to find out more!

CONTINUED IN TIP TOE COMICS #57 TO BE PUBLISHED FRIDAY NOVEMBER 29, 1940

[dans]

Tip Top Comics


TIP TOE COMICS #57 (FRIDAY 11/29/1940)

During the wait, Pignali had left the studio. Exploring quickly and quietly, Deann discovered a mirror in one corner! She quickly doffed the suit, slouch cap, and cape and stuffed them in her pack, and donned the Gossamer Garment. After stuffing the pack in the back of a crowded cabinet, she'd stepped through the mirror - and now she was free to observe whatever occurred here tonight without being discovered.

Antone showed up a few minutes later, along with three other men - big, rough-looking men who never said anything, did whatever Antone told them to do, and who crowded Pignali whenever possible. He pretended to ignore them, but it was clear to Deann that they had been brought along to intimidate the pugnacious sculptor, and that they were succeeding.

"I need the final payment in order to ship the last batch! The first batch has already been shipped to hundreds of elected officials in Washington; this batch will go to Sears and Montgomery Ward. They should be delivered and sold within a month - after which We will control the government and terrorize the citizens!" Pignali sounded like he was begging.

"Herr Hitler must be absolutely sure of all the details of your scheme." Antone replied. His accent was similar to that of Pignali. "I want the details once more - to be sure what I tell Herr Hitler is absolutely correct!"

As Pignali began to protest, the other men moved closer, and he sputtered to a stop. His tone changed to bluster. "You will have your demonstration. Have your men load these boxes into your truck!" he pointed at cardboard boxes near the door, each of which had several of the small patriotic statues in it. Then to Antoine, "While they load the boxes into the truck, I will patiently explain, yet again in the simplest of terms, my plan, so that even you will understand. The brilliant plan that will drive America into the arms of Hitler, who will make me King of America in gratitude. And then you be among the first to experience my vengeance!"

Pignali explained, in simple words with may repetitions, that he had crafted hundreds of small, ceramic statues, each hollow, and inserted into each a stick of dynamite and a radio-controlled detonator. The statues had been modeled and painted to resemble American patriotic figures - George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Betsy Ross, Abe Lincoln, and several other historical figures, plus some red, white and blue clad statues which were apparently modeled after the patriotic heroes and heroines whose adventures were currently jumping off the newsstands. He boasted that he had designed the detonators so each could be tuned to a specific radio signal, and once tuned, would ignore any other radio signals. He had sent the first batches of statues to selected elected officials, and this final, much larger batch had been sold to the Sears and Montgomery Ward stores in New York. He flourished a list of elected officials which showed which signal would mean death to each official!

Once the last batch had been distributed and sold to the public in advance of the upcoming July 4th holiday, he could send out signals and randomly cause explosions in the New York area - and once he had established a pattern of terror, he could begin extorting and blackmailing public officials - with instant death to anyone who dared resist his demands! It wouldn't be long before no one would dare defy his orders!

"You will get your payment AFTER tonight's demonstration!" Antoine promised. "If you can prove your outrageous boasts!"

Pignali then turned and stomped out the door. Antone followed, as did Deann. She joined them in the rickety lift, invisible, intangible, and undetectable. On the street, two of Antoine's men were sitting in the cab of a small canvas-covered truck, and the third was behind the wheel of a car. Antoine directed Pignali into the front seat of the car and got in the back, and the small convoy pulled away from the curb.

The back of the truck was cluttered; it was apparently normally used to haul junk. A plan started to form in Deann's mind - she might just be able to clean up this mess by herself, with a bit of luck!' Deann thought to herself with a little apprehension. 'I hope it doesn't hurt as much as I was warned!'

She centered herself; it took calm and concentration to make her hands tangible. And to remain calm, she had to force herself not to think about how much this would hurt. Then she concentrated as Looba had taught her, and for an instant, her hands were in tremendous pain - she thought that sticking them into a meat grinder might be an adequate comparison... and then her hands were solid. If she'd had to breath while she was intangible (she thought of it as 'behind the mirror') she would be panting; if she were solid she was sure she would have soiled herself. But in seconds, even the memory of the pain was fading. She opened one of the boxes, pulled out two statues, and hid them in the junk in the back of the truck.

It wasn't nearly as hard dematerializing her hands again. She hoped that when the bad guys unloaded the boxes, they wouldn't notice that a couple of statues were missing... but if they did, she'd just have to think of something else. It's not like they could hurt her when she was intangible!

***~~~***

When the truck came to a halt, she estimated that they must be somewhere in Suffolk County on Long Island; she noted that they had passed through a small town a few miles before they finally came to a halt. She estimated that dawn was still about an hour away - good, she hoped to take advantage of the dark. As best she could tell, the area was deserted - a quick scan showed no buildings nearby that she could see. 

On Antoine's orders, the men unloaded the truck - and as she had hoped, they didn't notice that some of the statues were missing from one of the boxes. Once Antoine and his men were gathered around Pignali, Deann once again materialized her hands. It might not have hurt quite as much as earlier, but if not, it was still the second most intense agony she'd ever endured! She picked up one of the hidden statues, then very cautiously exited the back of the truck. Fully aware that the men might be able to see a pair of floating hands carrying a statue bomb if they looked her way, she hid behind the truck and waited for her chance.

Pignali gave some orders, but nothing happened, until Antone told his men - "Do as he says!" Then each man picked up several statues and moved off into the woods. "At least 2 hundred meters away! and spread them 20 meters apart, at least!" Pignali attempted to appear in charge - or at least, important... in 10 minutes, the men were back. During that time, most of which Pignali and Antoine spent insulting each other, Deann was able to place her own statue under the car.

Pignali was holding a small box, made of sheet metal, with dials and knobs on one face and an aerial. "Each box contained bombs that respond to a specific signal. I will explode one group of bombs, then a short time later, the other group, to prove that I can indeed explode them selectively. I trust that such a thorough demonstration will satisfy you?" Antoine didn't answer, he just snarled and nodded.

"We must be ready to leave in a hurry," Pignali warned, and the men moved closer to the car and truck. "They will hear the explosions from miles away and come to investigate. I will send the signal for each group of bombs separately, to prove that we can choose which ones to explode, and that each bomb will not be detonated by nearby explosions. We have records of which statues responding to which signals have been sent to each official, so we can attack them one at a time or many at once. It is all part of the plan!"

"We all know the plan, Pignali! Get on with the demonstration. If I am pleased, you will get your final payment of 2 million American dollars when we return to Manhattan."

"You will report directly to Herr Hitler?" Pignali demanded.

"Yes, fool! No get on wit the demonstration!"

"You will be sorry for addressing me in that tone," Pignali snapped. "Herr Hitler has promised that when he rules the world, I will be the King of America!"

Antone had a mental guffaw over that. The fool could believe whatever made him useful to the Axis, but Hitler had promised that HE would rule America. "My apologies, your majesty. Please proceed with your demonstration."

Pignali insisted that they all get into the vehicles with the motors running for a quick getaway. In the car, making sure Antone could observe, Pignali moved a rotary switch on his detonation transmitter to position 1 and pressed a button. There there were several simultaneous explosions in the woods behind them. He waited several seconds, rotated the switch to position 2 and pressed the button. The remaining statues in the woods exploded - as did the statues hidden in the truck and car!!

Deann was more than a bit shaken... she'd never killed a human before... "But they deserved it - spies and traitors, and they would have killed dozens, at least, indiscriminately, maybe more... what if someone had one of these bombs in an apartment building, for example They deserved it!"

She turned back toward New York. She'd have to walk back to the last town they passed through, and then step back through a window to return to Adler Academy. And then tomorrow, she'd have to tell the FBI about Pignali and Antoine, and they'd have to track down all the statues with bombs in them - even though Pignali claimed only he was able to detonate them, it was still dangerous to have sticks of dynamite just floating around New York! And she had to restore the good name of Mirror Girl. It looked like her work was just beginning!

CONTINUED IN TIP TOE COMICS #58 TO BE PUBLISHED FRIDAY JANUARY 3, 1941

[dans]

TIP TOE COMICS #58 (FRIDAY, 1/3/41)

Even though she was exhausted when she finally stepped through the mirror into her dressing room, it took a long time before Deann fell into a troubled sleep. She started off tossing and turning... and then suddenly, she was still. In her dream, she was back in Tibet yet again, again sitting in front of Looba and the assembled monks. Only this time, they were sitting in judgement of her actions. She was never after able to recall clearly the trial, but she would never forget the verdict - or the relief she felt when her jury assured her that they found that her actions were in a good cause. She knew she'd never quite get over some feelings of guilt, but Looba was able to mystically show her some of the havoc Pignali's bombs would have caused if she hadn't stopped them, and knowing she'd prevented dozens of murders and saved many from agonized anguish help make her guilt more bearable.

Later that day, she passed through the mirror and headed downtown.

Office of the Ken Harvey, Assistant Director in Charge, New York City Branch of the FBI, 8 AM

Director Harvey was on his second cup of coffee when a voice spoke to him. "Good morning, Director Harvey!"

He couldn't immediately identify the gender; the was kind of wavery and sounded very hoarse. There was no one else in his office, though the voice seemed to be coming from directly in front of his desk. A quick glance showed that his intercom was turned off. He pulled his gun and started intently staring at any place in the room that might conceal a person - though the room had been specifically designed and appointed so that there were no such places. He was also trying to figure out the gag - could someone have run a speaking tube through a hole in the wall behind one of his pictures? Or somehow put a speaker in the visitor chair?

"Who's there?" he barked, standing up and pushing his rolling chair back against the wall behind him. There was definitely no one else in the office. "You should know I don't like pranks or mysteries!"

"I'm Mirror Girl - and I'm invisible and intangible. Your gun can't hurt me, and I can't hurt you. I need to talk to you about the explosions last night on Long Island, and investigating an Axis spy group in New York which was planning to assassinate elected officials. I think most of them are dead in that explosion, but they may have had associates who weren't killed."

That got his attention in a hurry. The FBI was on nationwide red alert for exactly this type of threat, and New York was a known hotbed for Axis activity. But he was also familiar with the name and stories associated with 'Mirror Girl'.

"Mirror Girl," he mused, drawing out the name. "Called by the sensationalist press the 'patron saint of troubled girls'. A vigilante who saves girls and young women from the terrible clutches of crime and leaves behind a veritable river of captured criminals, sometimes dead, but always battered and usually terrified of things they can't see. Hunted by the police because she often resorts to unlawful tactics and never sticks around to tell the whole story..." He paused, but the invisible voice neither confirmed or denied his summation.

"Apparently yesterday, Mirror Girl went off the rails and robbed a bank... and then, received 3 massive injuries, any one of which witnesses were sure should be fatal - several bullet wounds to the chest and head, a broken neck from running into a mirror mounted on a granite wall at high speed, and gashes from the shards of the mirror that apparently severed at least one artery, from the amount of blood recovered at the scene... and then the body vanished, leaving behind all the cash, a bank guard in the hospital with a bullet wound, and an empty costume, and the aforementioned puddles of blood. And an empty costume with no gashes or bullet holes in it, by the way... And then, somebody stole the costume from the police. And now I'm talking to a ghost!" He sounded disgusted. "And I already told you I don't LIKE mysteries!"

She had to laugh. "Sounds sort of humorous, when you put it all together like that," the ghost replied. "I like the 'patron saint of troubled girls' part! And I can help you with some of the mysteries. Like f'r'instance - I never killed any of those thugs. Battered some of them, yes, and did my best to scare the hell out of them, pardon my language, but the deaders - their own actions caused their deaths. The bank robber yesterday wasn't me, but someone who stole my costume and didn't realize the magical powers of the costume only work in a good cause - and the magic spell on the costume disposed of the body. I don't know who the thief was - and I don't know how to get the body back to identify her. So Mirror Girl never 'went off the rails'. I took back possession of my costume from New York's Finest, though I don't think of it as a theft, just returning stolen property to the rightful owner."

"And last night Mirror Girl discovered an Axis plot against America - a plot to assassinate hundreds of elected officials and average citizens!" she finished emphatically. "And I DID end it, and killed 5 of those spies."

"I'm not going to sit here and keep talking to an empty office," he was equally emphatic. "If you really ARE Mirror Girl, I know you can make yourself visible. Show yourself!"

Here was a chance to test something she'd learned last night in her dream... something she'd apparently been told when she was gifted with the Gossamer Garment, but had forgotten until last night. She hoped it would be less painful than the other trick she had already re-discovered.

"Hold on - this may take a second or two..." the hoarse voice replied. Deann closed her eyes and clenched her fists, and concentrated as hard as she could, already wincing in anticipation of the pain she expected. 'I want to be VISIBLE!' she shouted mentally, so strongly she was sure Director Harvey must be able to overhear her.

The pain was different. May years ago, she'd received a powerful electrical shock from a generator on a remote movie set. The current had jolted through her instantly, and every muscle in her body has gone into spasm, and the spasm had thrown her 20 fee through the air. She'd felt the pain through every inch of her body, and it had been several hours before her body finally stopped twitching and returned fully to her control. The instant of pain was similar, and if she'd had a solid body, she would probably have been flung through the air again - but her body was intangible, so there was an instant of pain - and then it faded.

Harvey could now see a female figure, strongly built rather than curvy, in a skin tight costume that covered her entire body... barely. The costume was off white, just the barest tinge of gray, and he could see through it clearly. But it was still there. Suddenly seeing such a ghostly figure in front of him must have spooked him somewhat, as he brought his pistol up.

"I'm still intangible," the ghostly Mirror Girl warned. "If you shoot, the bullet will go through me - and through the door, and you might end up shooting whoever's in the outer office."

"Miss Bohrer would never forgive me!" he noted contritely, carefully placing the pistol on his desk.

***

"We need to find out who already has received these patriotic statues, so we can warn them," Harvey was summarizing. Deann had provided enough details on what she'd seen and the explosion on Long Island to convince him that she was telling the truth - and it helped that the FBI already had a file on Pignali as a potential Axis agent, and her description of Antone had matched up with another suspect in their records - a man who had once worked for the Italian government who still maintained close relationships with some of the members of the Italian consulate in New York. The FBI had nothing but suspicions about these men - but Harvey was nothing if not a suspicious man! 

He'd called in his top 3 Agents-in-Charge after warning them about the 'ghost' and they'd spent an hour grilling Mirror Girl - who had discovered limits to both how visible she could become and how long she could remain visible (not very - not enough to appear solid, and maybe 90 minutes - then it just blinked off, and she couldn't 'turn it on' again for another half hour or so). Then they had moved on to making plans. And the 4 FBI men, and Harvey's secretary, who was taking notes, had all become used to talking to an invisible person - with varying degrees of comfort.

Miss Bohrer, the secretary, seemed exceptionally at ease, and during a quick break, Sterling Archer, one of the agents asked her why. "I just pretend I'm talking to one of my friends on the phone!" He passed the tip on to his fellows and everything had seemed to go a little more smoothly after the break.

"Investigate Pignali's studio and recover as much information as possible, warn the officials, recover as many statues as possible. We need to get started as soon as possible! Archer - you go to Pignali's address and see what you can find. Vincent, you head out to the explosion site and see if you can find anything there that will prove what our ghost here has been telling us. Frank, see what you can find out about Antoine!" He snapped out orders as fast as he could. "Mirror Girl - I should hold you until we confirm your story, but I know I can't. So if you're on the level, I want you back here tomorrow, same time - and then we'll work on restoring your reputation with the public!

CONTINUED IN TIP TOE COMICS #59 TO BE PUBLISHED FRIDAY JANUARY 31, 1941

[dans]

hey, all, as you no doubt realized, I got bogged down in this story, but I have finally completed it.

The story is set in 1940 and introduces Deann Adler, who at least for now is calling herself Mirror Girl in her heroic identity, and establishes her background and powers. Originally she got involved with some Axis spies and then the FBI, and in the story originally she was going to be part of the FBI raid on a factory run by those spies. And that's where I bogged down.

Finally got back to it. I spent a lot of time trying to add some superhero action to the upcoming raid but her powers don't really lend themselves to flashy superheroics (see below), she is more like Phantom Girl whose powers are useful in specialized situations - which I hope to highlight in a future story.

So anyway, I decided to wrap up the story in a very 1940s way - she helps the bad guys kill themselves, in fact, they are hoisted by their own petards! So - no changes to much of the story. Issue 57 has some major changes (the bad guys blow themselves up) from the original story and issue 58 totally replaces the earlier issue 58 (she meets the FBI agents and they take over the wrap up and Deann goes back to her normal life - but now she has built-in allies for the future! And a story line that needs to be followed up - how to restore her reputation with the public...)

So if you read this story before, you don't really need to read it again (unless you want to!)

Here is a Who's Who entry for Deann Adler / Mirror Girl:

---

Mirror Girl (Deann Adler)

---

Heroic/Villain ID: Mirror Girl Nicknames: Ghostly Girl, the 'patron saint of troubled girls' Civilian ID: Deann Adler Civilian Occupation: Headmistress of the Alder Academy for Young Ladies, formerly Hollywood Stunt Girl Appearance: 26, brunette (to shoulders, wavy), 5'*' tall, athletic build, regular handsome features, strong, block face, always very well turned out 5 Earths Universe: Public Domain characters (adapted by Dan S) Base of Operations: Alder Academy for Young Ladies in downstate New York Born: 1914 Aging status: Normal Status: Public Domain Relatives: unnamed rich uncle, deceased, no others have appeared yet Associates: Drew Thorne, (warden for Downstate State Reform School for Girls), Ken Harvey, Director of NY City FBI office Group Affiliations: none Enemies: NY City axis spy cell (all deceased)

---

Powers: Deann can become invisible and intangible by stepping through the reflecting surface of a mirror, and return to normal by stepping 'out' of that mirror from the back. While in her 'behind the mirror' state, she can travel instantly between pairs of mirrored surfaces by stepping into one and out the other, provided she knows the location of both mirrors. Window panes and other reflecting surfaces work fine as entrance and exit points for this travel. While in the mirror state, she is outlined by a very pale blue glow, which is so pale it is only visible in pitch blackness. By concentrating, she is able to materialize and then dematerialize parts of her body, or to become visible as a totally pale gray ghost. These two processes are very painful, though they become easier each time she utilizes them. In the mirror state she can see, talk, and hear normally, and she is does not pass through the ground, or stairs, or the floor of an elevator, or the rungs of a ladder, unless she specifically decides to. She can carry small items into the mirror state and make them intangible, if they can fit inside her Gossamer Garment, and then she can handle these items normally in the mirror state - but if she stops touching one of these intangible items it instantly becomes solid and she can't touch it again.
Source of Powers: As mirror girl, Deann wears the mystical Gossamer Garment, a gift she was given by Looba, the High Lama from Temple Looba in Tibet, after she prevented an assassination attempt on his life. The Gossamer Garment grants her a number of mystical powers (some yet unknown!) as long as she is using it in a 'good cause'. It has been demonstrated that the Gossamer Garment will definitely NOT work when used for evil - and perhaps it will even bring death to the wearer when used in such a cause.
Knowledge and skills: she has a variety of skills she picked up as a stunt girl. Among these are brawling, acrobatics, small arms, and some fencing. She has worked in a number of jobs at the Adler Academy before becoming Headmistress (maintenance, teaching young women, administration, etc).
Weapons and Gadgets:
History: Deann's parents worked in Hollywood, so she got into the movies at a young age as a stunt girl. While her production company was in Tibet in the early 30s filing 'Last Horizon', one of the extras got drunk and aimed a rifle at Looba, the High Lama of Temple Looba. Deann knocked him down and the shot went wild, and Looba gifted her with the Gossamer Garment as a reward. Shortly after returning to the States, a rich uncle died and left her enough money to follow her dream to educate young women, and she purchased an Academy near New York City, and began working her way from bottom to top. When the prior Headmistress retired, Deann assumed the role and changed the name of the Academy. After several years, she finally donned the Gossamer Garment and began her career as Mirror Girl. She has since established a reputation for helping young women in distressful situations, particular those less privileged, and has become know as 'the patron saint of troubled women'.
(Partial) list of 5EP appearances: Tip Toe Comics: Introduction of Mirror Girl

---