Number 1367: Three from Suspense

I've taken three stories from Suspense Comics, a title which lasted for 12 issues in the forties, because they remind me of old radio shows or B-movies. And why not? That’s what the people reading comic books were doing for entertainment in those days. (Those poor deprived citizens, with so few distractions in their daily lives. Unlike today, of course, where our whole lives seem lived for distractions. Ah. But I digress.)

The cover of this issue is by L. B. Cole. The stories are drawn by comic book journeymen John Giunta, George Appel, and Don Rico.

From Suspense Comics #6 (1944):

Earlier this year I showed a couple of stories from this issue by the fine artist/WPA muralist turned cartoonist, Louis Ferstadt. Click on the picture to see that posting:

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Number 1342: Lorna the Jungle Girl kicks commie devil bird butt!

This is day two of our Jungle Jive theme week, here with the first of two postings featuring blonde jungle women. You’ll see Sheena on Wednesday, but for today you’ll be reading a couple of stories featuring one of Sheena’s competitors for the Miss Clairol of the Jungle award. Sheena came first, of course (created in 1938), but Lorna covered some of the same jungle territory. She protected the local tribes. She came up against constant menaces which she conquered handily. The difference in Lorna is in her man...Sheena’s man, Bob, is not a male chauvinist like Lorna’s Greg. That’s where the fun comes in. Greg is constantly telling Lorna men are superior to women, even after Lorna has pulled his sorry ass out of a deathtrap. Lorna smiles and goes along with Greg. I suppose she figures the guy is good for something, but considering his attitude we wonder what.

In these stories Lorna takes on communist infiltrators who come into the jungle trying to bamboozle the “superstitious natives”, and then, in the second story she channels some old jungle movies. She gives a Tarzan yell to keep dying elephants from trampling Greg.

It wasn’t the first time Lorna’s comic book creators borrowed an idea. In my last posting, Lorna dealt with a King Kong-size ape called Agu. At the bottom of the page you'll find a link to that post.

From Lorna the Jungle Girl #9 (1954). Art by Werner Roth, stories by Don Rico.

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Click pic to go to Pappy's #1143.

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Number 1143: Lorna and the King Kong klone

From the Wikipedia entry on the 1933 version of King Kong:

“[King Kong] was re-released in 1952, becoming one of the media events of that year. Time magazine named it “Movie of the Year.” The film’s studio, RKO. tried an experimental reissue of King Kong in the Midwest United States in 1952. In an unprecedented move they committed most of King Kong’s promotional budget to television spots. The re-release was an enormous success, with the film attracting triple the usual business in its markets.

. . . King Kong generated more box office receipts than the original 1933 release . . . Theatre owners named it Picture of the Year. It was at this time that King Kong acquired its reputation as a popular culture phenomenon.”

It's no wonder that comic books of the era used it for inspiration. There was "Ping Pong" in Mad #6, for example.

Atlas Comics' Lorna the Jungle Queen used a Kong lookalike, named Agu, as a character who appeared more than once. I have three Agu stories, "Agu the Giant," from Lorna the Jungle Queen #1 (scanned from the later 1970s reprint in Marvel Comics' Jungle Action), "The Return of Agu the Giant" from Lorna #3, and "The Battle of the Giants" from #9. The stories are written by Don Rico, and drawn by Werner Roth.

Like the movie Kong's love for Ann Darrow (Fay Wray), Agu had a thing for Lorna.

Blondes have more fun, as the old Miss Clairol ad used to tout, but in the company of a twenty-foot-tall ape, a little fun goes a really long way.

















If you want more giant apes, check out the Indian headband-wearing, bow-and-arrow-shooting giant ape from Tomahawk #107 (1966) in Pappy's #848.

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