Curiously Familiar #2: American Ace and Lieutenant Lank

Today we continue "Curiously Familiar," a series of entries where I'll be casting some light on various comic book characters who turned up at at least two different publishers, but wore a different name at each one. This is not the same as characters who were created in homage - in this instances, the two characters were actually intended to be the same entities. Did you understand any of that?

Perry Webb is a rugged, two-fisted ace American pilot who finds himself in the European nation of Attania when neighbouring country Castile d'Or launches an invasion, spearheaded by their cruel Queen Ursula. Webb takes to the skies in his plane to defend Attania!

Lieutenant Lank is a rugged, two-fisted ace American pilot who finds himself in the European nation of Attania when neighbouring country Castile d'Or launches an invasion, spearheaded by their cruel Queen Ursula. Lank takes to the skies in his plane to defend Attania!

The Story Behind the Story: We have to begin with Paul J. Lauretta, a member of the Funnies, Inc. studio who had been kicking around a comic strip proposal which hadn't sold; Funnies, Inc. repackaged it to appear in Motion Pictures Funnies Weekly, but that book was canned; however, most of Funnies, Inc. wound up seeing their work printed at the newly-formed Marvel Comics and Lauretta's first two American Ace tales appeared in Marvel Mystery Comics. Then, for unknown reasons, he sold the last two chapters to another publisher, Centaur, changing his hero's name to Lt. Lank but otherwise telling the same continued story. Centaur broke the last two installments up into Amazing Mystery Funnies and the Arrow, seemingly daring interested fans to try and follow the story. One must wonder if Marvel actually owns American Ace, considering Lauretta had the freedom to shop his stories elsewhere. One might also wonders "who cares who owns him?" but considering Marvel have actually made use of the character within the last five years, it's not an unreasonable question.

Of course, the larger matter is this: call him "American Ace" or call him "Lieutenant Lank," by any name he's simply a Captain Easy rip-off.