Number 1435: “Who is the Black Cat?”

Người đăng: Unknown on Thứ Tư, 11 tháng 9, 2013

Who is the Black Cat? I just happen to know: Linda Turner, glamorous Hollywood movie star by vocation, masked crimefighter by avocation.

As far as superhero types go, I think Black Cat was as good as any, and being a pretty girl didn’t hurt. It is nice to see a babe kicking butt. There have always been female superheroes, of course, but Black Cat was succeeding in a comic book market where her male counterparts were being cancelled.

This particular story, from Black Cat #2 (1946) has what I always think of as a Batman plot, where a crime kingpin puts a bounty on information leading to the secret identity. I must have seen it used more than a few times, and it is entertaining. I like the Rook’s* gang of illiterate crooks. The panel sequence at the bottom of page 7 is funny. “How ya spell ‘cat’?”

“K-A-T, ya joik.”

The art is by Lee Elias.













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*Thirty years later Elias would do stories for Warren about a time-traveler called the Rook. No relation.

Another Black Cat story. Just click the thumbnail.


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Number 1434: Tarzan and the Ant Men, part 2

Người đăng: Unknown on Thứ Hai, 9 tháng 9, 2013


We have returned with the second part of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan and the Ant Men, first published in serial form in 1924, and as a Gold Key two-issue comic book in 1968. Go back to yesterday’s posting for part one.

As I mentioned yesterday in my introduction to part one, The Grand Comics Database credits Mike Royer with helping Manning on #175, based on an identification of the inks by Alberto Bacattini.

The fantastic painted covers on both issues are by George Wilson.





















As I read that last panel, Tarzan promising to tell everyone the story of his adventure, I can just imagine Jane’s reaction. “You expect me to believe you’ve been gone for weeks and you were shrunk down to 18 inches? You think I buy a cockamamie story like that? You’ve been with La, haven’t you, you cheating bastard! You go sleep in a tree!”

Something like that, anyway. You have to admit, it is not a likely story to tell one’s wife to cover one’s absence, is it?
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Number 1433: Tarzan and the Ant Men, part 1

Người đăng: Unknown on Chủ Nhật, 8 tháng 9, 2013

Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan and the Ant Men was first published in serial form in 1924, and is the tenth novel starring Tarzan.

Dick Lupoff, author of Master of Adventure: The Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs, “places Tarzan and the Ant Men in his list of essential Burroughs novels,” according to Wikipedia.

Forty-four years after it appeared in book form, scripter Gaylord DuBois and artist Russ Manning adapted it for Gold Key issues of Tarzan #'s 174 and 175 (1968). The Grand Comics Database credits Mike Royer with helping Manning on #175, based on an identification of the inks by Alberto Bacattini.

This is part one. Tomorrow, part two. Grab a vine and swing on by to read it.






















On August 27, 2012 I presented the DuBois/Manning adaptation of Tarzan of the Apes to honor the jungle lord’s 100th birthday. You can read it by clicking the thumbnail:





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