Chủ Nhật, 31 tháng 7, 2011


Number 991



"If you go out in the woods today..."


According to Don Markstein's Toonopedia website, the Flame was created in 1939 by Will Eisner and Lou Fine for Fox Features' Wonderworld Comics #3. This particular episode, from Fox's Big 3 Comics #6, is dated November, 1941. The Flame was gone by January, 1942. A brief flaming career, snuffed out like a candle.

Also according to Toonopedia, the Flame's first appearance pre-dated the Human Torch by a few months.

This story seems old, even for 70 years ago when it appeared, because despite its comic book trappings and superheroics, it's just an old fashioned melodrama. The rich guy will foreclose on the mortgage unless the daughter of his enemy marries him! Baaaaa-hahaha! All he needs is a top hat, cape, and a long mustache to twirl. Wait a mo'...he does have a long mustache when he's in the persona of the monster kidnapper. Ooops. I didn't spoil it for you, did I? I thought the denouement was telegraphed quite early in the story, so if you hadn't guessed you were probably not reading, just scanning the bright primary-colored artwork.

Speaking of artwork, attribution is given to comic book journeymen Pierce Rice and Arturo Cazeneuve.















Thứ Bảy, 30 tháng 7, 2011

Lady or the Tigress?

An interesting art style that I can't quite put my finger on (looks familiar, anybody know who this is?) is the highlight of this cool Cat People rip-off from the February 1953 issue of This Magazine is Haunted #9. (Love that transformation panel on page 6!)









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Thứ Sáu, 29 tháng 7, 2011

Wonder Woman 156--Return of the Golden Age



One of the things that I've been meaning to do is look back through the comics to see when the concept of comics being "collectibles" first started; this must be a fairly early example, with an August 1965 cover date. Marvel Collectors' Item Classics started the same month, so obviously by then the news was getting out about the value of the older issues.

This issue also demonstrates the growing influence of fandom. In 1961 and 1964, Wonder Woman was selected by the Alley Awards as the "Worst Comic Book Currently Published."
While that is a bit unfair, I suspect what the fans were getting at was more like "The worst comic that used to be good."

In response, Robert Kanigher decided to give the fans what they wanted; a Golden Age-type story with Golden Age-type artwork. Does it work? Mostly it does. Oh, it's zany, but the GA Wonder Woman was quite wacky. The story starts out with Steve Trevor telling Diana Prince that he always knew his Wonder Woman was worth a million, and now he has the proof:

How'd you like to be able to buy early Golden Age issues for $100 per copy?

Intrigued, Wonder Woman visits the Dream Merchant (a fictional comic book shop). She starts reading an old comic and suddenly finds herself pulled into the story:

Incidentally, although the Brain Pirates were featured in a Golden Age Wonder Woman story in Sensation Comics #82, there is only a superficial similarity between that tale and this one.

The Brain Pirate tries to steal Wonder Woman's brain, but she throws off his control. However, he succeeds with Steve Trevor:

There follows a zany battle with the pirates over Steve's "brain"; at one point they load it into a cannon and threaten to fire it far out to sea. She prevents them from doing that, but she's stymied when they control Steve and order him to shoot her if she does not submit:

Just then the Holliday girls and Etta Candy happen to be rowing by, and the pirates threaten to ram them. Wonder Woman prevents this:

Err, but isn't she supposed to be only as strong as a normal woman when her bracelets are welded together? She returns to the pirate ship and is there when the Holliday girls attempt to rescue her by swimming to the ship. But the Brain Pirates capture the girls' brains, and the ship takes off for outer space.

After landing on the Brain Pirates' world, they torment Wonder Woman by making all the passengers walk the plank, into a shark-infested sea. Wondy fights off the sharks, and saves Steve and the Holliday girls:

She gets them safely to land, but the Brain Pirates still control them and force Steve and the girls to capture Wonder Woman. The BPs parade their slaves into their city. They attempt to kill Wonder Woman but she manages to avoid their spears and swords. Then comes the dartboard scene shown on the cover. She manages to get a dart to pierce the chains holding her bracelets together, and now she's free. The leader of the Brain Pirates makes a deal:

Except, as you can probably guess, the brains of Etta, Steve and the Holliday Girls are inside that box. Fortunately Wonder Woman realizes this, grabs the box and her friends, calls for her plane, and gets everybody safely back to Earth. And in the end Wonder Woman pops back out of the comic and into the store where she ponders:


The next two issues were done in Silver Age style and featured the memorable Egg Fu. Wonder Woman #159 featured a retelling of the origin of the Amazon princess, and Golden Age-style art, and Kanigher continued the experiment until #165, when the Silver Age artwork returned. Kanigher noted in the letters column of #166:

Number 990


Mothman to the flame


This well drawn story by Gil Kane and John Giunta is from Mystery In Space #3, 1951. Kane learned his comic art lessons well since the 1948 crime story of his I showed you in Pappy's #787. In "Vengeance of the Moth" with Kane's powerful drawings of the human figure in action you're getting an advance look at his work on Green Lantern and The Atom a few years later.

The story has nothing to do with space, despite appearing in Mystery In Space. It likely belonged in Strange Adventures, and perhaps it was placed in this comic to fill up a hole left by an artist who wasn't as fast as Kane.









Thứ Năm, 28 tháng 7, 2011

Flash Gordon Daily Strips - D2-052: Robot Worker (complete) in English & Spanish

Art: Dan Barry

Summary: Landing at the construction site for Earth’s first power station in space, Flash is immediately made aware of the tense atmosphere caused by the arrival of a robot designed by Dr. Zarkov to speed up the construction of the massive solar panel satellite.

As tension continues to build amongst the human workers fed up with the constant ‘meddling’ from the advanced robot, small ‘accidents' start to happen until the situation reaches breaking point and somebody snaps with serious consequences...
 (Source of summary: www.ipcomics.net)  

Download (English)

Download  (Spanish)

Roldan has scanned & edited the Spanish version (very good quality). As well as he has added page #2 in English version (contributed by Emile & already shared in this blog) by translating & replacing texts from Spanish to English.


All credits go to Roldon, Emile & the original uploader of D-052(Eng).

Thứ Tư, 27 tháng 7, 2011


Number 989


Statues and tombs


Lou Cameron is one of the better artists of the early '50s horror comics. His work popped up with regularity, even if he didn't seem to be exclusive with any one publisher. Cameron usually signed his name to his work, when many other artists didn't.

A few years later Lou traded his drawing board for a typewriter. He went into writing paperback novels, which was a very good career move.

A couple of years ago via e-mail I was in touch with Lou's son-in-law, who reported Cameron was quite elderly, but still living. Let's hope that's still true.

"The Night the Statues Walked" is from Ace Comics' Web Of Mystery #19, 1953, and "Within the Tomb of Terror," is from Chilling Tales of Horror, a black-and-white reprint magazine from 1970. Under its original title, "The Tomb of Terror," it was published in ACG's Forbidden Worlds #5, 1951. I featured it five years ago in Pappy's #47. The scans are pretty bad, but if you've got to see it you can click on the link.