Shades of * Elmo Lincoln, here is something that you won't see too terribly often in the Catacombs, an actual mainstream story from a major current publisher. DC Comics has probably reprinted this tale featuring the Caped Crusaders seven ways from Sunday, but since it has a jungle-themed element let's just roll with the punches.
Batman & Robin star in "The Jungle Man of Gotham City" from Detective Comics #315 (May 1963), illustrated by Sheldon Moldoff and Charles Paris (despite Bob Kane's credit appearing on the splash page), and written by "who knows" (maybe Jack Schiff/?). This story is typical of Batman's pre-new look period and is a great example of the kind of superhero stories that you will never see again. The Catacombs is grateful to Don "Zu-Gogo" Falkos for providing the scans for this story. Note: The copyright for this issue, its contents and artwork belong to DC Comics and/or the original creators and is reproduced here solely for entertainment purposes. (* Elmo Lincoln starred as the first movie Tarzan of the Apes in a silent film released in 1918. His classic appearance is highly reminiscent of the Jungle Man character featured in this fun story.)
Enjoy!
4 comments:
I started reading Detective and Batman in 1964, the year after this story first appeared and after the introduction of the “new look”, but while stories like these were what were reprinted in the 25¢ “Giant-Sized” issues.
It caused a certain amount of dissonance, but was not as great a challenge as children faced in 1989, as Michael Keaton appeared as a Batman on theater screens and Adam West was back on television screens.
—Daniel (oeconomist.com) on an unsecured connection.
I'm fascinated by the old Batman stories ghosted by Sheldon Moldoff, and according to this article in Dial B For Blog Kane did little or nothing with Batman but claim credit.
As a kid I hated these stories. As an adult I love them.
I'm glad to say that I've met Moldoff in person. His stuff is really great, and I have to agree with you on Kane, Pappy.
He hit the ground running with the Dark Knight, but soon ceded over much of the creativity to others.
I'm concerned because the Jungle-Man in this story looks exactly like the Jungle-Man who appeared in Harvey Comics prior to their shift completely over to humourous publications. Is it possible that Shelton Moloff is the creator of the Harvey Comics Jungle-Man?
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