Who's This? A formulaic speedster.
The facts: As one of the principal members of the All-Star Squadron that Roy Thomas focused on, Johnny Chambers-then-Quick was encountered by most readers my age in that title in the early 80s. He first appeared, in More Fun Comics #71 (September 1941), a book that would be his stable home until issue 107 in 1946. As editor, Weisinger kept him around longer than most superheroes, moving him to Adventure Comics from issues 103 to 207 (1954, the eve of the Silver Age). In the modern era, he would appear in Flash comics occasionally, and die in the Speed Force in The Flash: Rebirth #3 (August 2009).
How you could have heard of him: Johnny is now best remembered as the father of Jesse Quick, a still-active hero who sometimes goes by her mother's code-name, Liberty Belle. He is not to be confused with the evil Earth-3 Johnny Quick.
Example story: More Fun Comics #87 (January 1943) "The Luck of Jabez Riker" by Don C. Cameron, Mort Meskin and Cliff Young
For many Golden Age strips, it's not uncommon for the comedy sidekick to be pretty central, and the superhero to actually be the "action sidekick". Think of the Guardian in the Newsboy Legion, for example. Comedy "fatty" Tubby Watts is Johnny Quick's sidekick, but he gets the splash page and the entry into the plot. The duo normally produces news reels, but here (disappointingly), they're just vacationing in the country, when they witness a farmer trying to offer double wages to anyone willing to help him with the harvest. No one bites, and when Tubby approaches to offer his services (because the work comes with three square meals a day), he's intercepted by someone working for the Village Bank - whose born-banker James Margin is salivating at the chance to foreclose on the farm - offering money NOT to work. Venal Tubby accepts. Vacation or not, newshound Johnny Chambers investigates.
There's also been so sabotage of harvesting machinery, so yeah, it stinks. And then the dam above Riker's place blows up, so Johnny has to say his magic formula and fly into action! The narration tells us the equation "coordinates time and space factors and equalizes the law of gravity" - so THAT's how it works! Superspeed, do your thing!
Of course, it doesn't solve the underlying problem, so Johnny and Tubby (kissing his daily 20$ goodbye) head over to the farm. It shouldn't be too hard for a speedster to harvest the wheat before the day is out - one wonders why Tubby even has to life a finger.
Tubby is chewing on the wrong end of a stalk of wheat just to keep his enormous appetite at bay, but no worries, the farm wife is making a snack that could feed a family of bears. But before they can sit down at the table, a brush fire approaches (three guesses as to who might have set it). The windmill in the background gives Johnny an idea.
CAN those things pump water? I guess they can if astride a stream. The more you know. Superhero logic dictates they can also blow out fires (or at least, pushes the flames back the way they came). The Bank has one more trick up its sleeve: Sending all its paid men to just attack the place - money has driven them insane. Johnny?
Turns out the Banker used to be a geologist and had found gold on Riker's land. Instead of going to jail (he IS a banker, after all), he ends up working on the farm as some kind of indentured servant (fantasy!). I guess that means Tubby can finally feast.
As previously established, I love superspeedsters. There's just enough flying to make Johnny Quick's adventures distinct from the Flash's, and just the right dose of Tubby Watts NOT to irritate me. Win!
Who's Next? A boy with a genie.
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