Change Partners and Die With Me!

"No one wants to be alone on New Years Eve..." and so begins this eerie tale by Joe Kubert (School of Cartoon Art) from Scholastic Magazine's WEIRD WORLDS #4 from 1980-- a tale that feels a lot like a leftover precode classic if you ask me. Weird Worlds was sort of like Dynamite Magazine in that the content was aimed more at kids, but unlike that series, WW contained articles of a darker, sometimes more science fictiony nature. This issue for example features all kinds of fun junk about zombie movies, UFOs, short fiction stories from John Collier and Henry Slesar, hilarious epitaphs and horror jokes, assorted weird 'n true facts, movie previews (Saturn 3 in this ish) and even lends an ear to "weird" music like Alice Cooper, Devo, and Iggy Pop. I believe WW only lasted 8 issues and fyi: one or two of the other issues I have contain scary comic stories by Steven Bissette.

Anyway, HAPPY NEW YEARS, everyone!

Number 1499: Swinging out of 2013 with Tarzan

We’re celebrating the end of the year with yet another story of Tarzan in yet another lost city of the jungle.

Cathne is the City of Gold. When Tarzan says he hasn’t been there in 20 years he isn’t quite telling the truth*...the novel, Tarzan and the City of Gold, by Edgar Rice Burroughs, was originally published in Argosy in 1932. Our comic book adventure was published in Dell’s Tarzan #21 in 1951.

Tarzan, who rescues a girl, “Princess” Elaine, in the jungle, ends up with her in Cathne. He goes to tell her dad she is okay and recovering from a broken arm, only to leave her to the evil intentions of lusty Lord Tomos. Tomos has her clapped in a cell with a slave who is ordered to teach her the language, and promises, “I shall see you, Princess...very often!” Whoops. What do you think Lord Tomos has in mind for Elaine? You can almost hear his evil cackle, and see him twirling his mustache. If he had a mustache, that is.

Everything works out fine, thanks to Tarzan, Tantor and some ape buddies. Story by Gaylord Dubois and art by Jesse Marsh.

Happy New Year, and thanks for making this year a good one for Pappy's Golden Age. I’ll see you again on January 1.

*Maybe Tarzan forgot he re-visited the City of Gold again in Tarzan the Magnificent, published in 1939. Tarzan’s jungle is wall-to-wall lost cities and civilizations, even dinosaurs. No wonder he has trouble remembering.

Creature of the Deep!

Golden Age greats Jack Katz and Jack Abel do a little Jack Kirby channeling and team-up for this epic monster-rama from the August 1971 issue of Nightmare #5. Also!-- the gorgeous Boris Vallejo cover I know a few of you were waiting for a large scan of too. Hope everyone enjoyed this look at a really cool Skywald "horror mood" issue, maybe we'll do another one next year (and thanks again to Brian Barnes who gave me this issue a long time ago.) We've got one more tale on deck to round out 2013 while ringing in the New Year... yes, we've lots more-- see ya in a few!

Number 1498: The back-ups

These three well-drawn short stories, all from Police Comics #11 (1942), struck me for different reasons. The first, “Chic Carter,” has a swamp monster (or at least what appears to be). Something shambling out of a swamp, fake or not, gets my attention.

“Firebrand” was the first cover feature of Police Comics. He lost the position to Jack Cole’s Plastic Man. “The Mouthpiece” appears to be one more Spirit lookalike from the company that owned the Spirit. In addition to Spirit, who dressed in a suit and wore a mask, Quality had Midnight and the Mouthpiece. Are there any more blue-suited crimefighters with Lone Ranger masks from Quality I have missed?

Fred Guardineer, who drew the Mouthpiece, is responsible for the above head-spinning electric chair panel. Fred drew many a similar panel when he went to work for Charles Biro at Crime Does Not Pay. Lee Ames, who drew this episode of Firebrand, went on to a career which included book illustration and how-to-draw books. Vern Henkel, artist on the Chic Carter story, began his career by sending a story he wrote and drew to publisher “Busy” Arnold in the days when comic books were in the so-called Platinum Age.