Number 1466: Jurassic Tomahawk

This past September I showed a story of frontier adventurers, Tomahawk and his young friend, Dan, fighting pirates. In Tomahawk’s era there would be a possibility he could meet a pirate...but not a dinosaur. Still, this story is about just that. Tomahawk and Dan wander into a lost valley full of prehistoric creatures.

When this story takes place (date given is 1769), dinosaurs had not yet been discovered as an extinct species. It would take another 80 years, according to “Early Dinosaur Discoveries in North America”, where it is said:  “It is generally accepted that the first discovery of dinosaur remains in North America was made in 1854 by Ferdinand Vandiveer Hayden during his exploration of the upper Missouri River.” To be fair to the Tomahawk writer, one caption mentions dinosaurs, but Tomahawk never calls them that. Still, he does know that the giants are critters of another time.

It reminds me of the basic premise of Turok, Son of Stone. Turok and Andar were two pre-Columbian Indians who stumbled into the lost valley of dinosaurs, and couldn't find their way out. Who knows? Maybe it was the same valley.

From Star Spangled Comics #83 (1948). Drawn by Fred Ray.

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In later years Tomahawk encountered all kinds of crazy stuff: aliens, dinosaurs, supernatural creatures, etc. You can find an especially oddball Tomahawk story from the mid-'60s which I featured in 2010. Just click the picture.

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Number 1451: Battlin’ ‘bots

I used to watch my younger brother playing Rock’em Sock’em Robots with his buddies. I was a little too old when they became a fad in 1964...I was way too mature. I’d sniff with derision at the youngsters’ juvenile antics in trying to knock each others’ robot heads off, then go in my room and read comic books.

The idea for fighting robots wasn’t new, and had been used in science fiction before. It was used as recently as Real Steel, a movie from 2011.

So, we have two roughhousing robot stories today: “Stuart Taylor in Tales of the Supernatural” is from Jumbo Comics #101 (1947), and the Robotman story, “The Battling Robots” is from Star Spangled Comics #81 (1948). Robotman is drawn by Jimmy Thompson, and Stuart Taylor is credited by the Grand Comics Database as being drawn by Jack Kamen.

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Number 1439: Tomahawk under the black flag

Tomorrow is the annual Talk Like A Pirate Day, so practice your best Robert Newton Long John Silver impression, and holler “Yarrrr!” and “Arrrrr mateys!” at work or school tomorrow. Everyone will love it. NOT.

I never need a reason to show a story about pirates, but it seems more appropriate today to feature Tomahawk and Dan, the buckskin Batman and Robin, and their encounter with buccaneers. Pirate Cap'n Henry Gannon makes Tomahawk walk the plank! Yarrrr!

From Star Spangled Comics #80 (1948), with artwork by the fabulous Fred Ray. To demonstrate how fabulous, look at that splash panel.

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Clicking the thumbnail will take you to Tomahawk’s first appearance in Star Spangled Comics.

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Number 1360: Boyoboy: The Newsboy Legion!

Just thinking here. Have I ever seen a newsboy? I mean, an actual kid standing on a street corner, hawking papers and hollering, “Wuxtry! Wuxtry!” The answer is no. I grew up in the suburbs of a Western city, not inner-city New York, where most of the Simon and Kirby characters sprang to life. In our town the newspaper came without a "wuxtry!" but with a plop! when it landed on the driveway. The newsboy, or newsgirl, was a delivery person, a carrier on a bicycle.

Ah, but that doesn’t have anything to do with the Newsboy Legion, and their protector, the Guardian, does it? The prolific imagination of Jack Kirby was always providing characters, and his kid characters were a combination of fictional ideas of New York City street kids and the kids Kirby grew up with in the Hell’s Kitchen area of that city. In the Newsboy Legion stories Hell’s Kitchen became Suicide Slum, and the beat cop was the civilian identity of the masked Guardian. There is a real New York flavor that comes through in the stories, as Kirby and Simon practiced the advice of their high school English teachers: “Write what you know.”

This is the last in our “Boyoboy! Week,” featuring some of the kid gangs of the comics.

From Star Spangled Comics #15 (1942):

More Simon and Kirby Newsboy Legion from Pappy! Click the pics:

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