"Gal" Friday! Penny Mathis

California native, Penny Mathis (aka Jenny P.) strikes just the right pose as the featured honey for this weeks "Go Apeshit Gal" Friday.

She is beginning to make a name for herself with magazine cover appearances and layouts, calendars and other modeling assignments.

The Catacombs credits the original photographers and sources for all of these photos and claims only the fondest regard for this smoking hot young lady.

I suggest you do a fast web search and simply enjoy the many super-fine photos of Miss Penny. She's on the money!

Rulah Jungle Goddess & Wild Boy "Go Apeshit" with Pappy's Apes of Ape-ril!!

Today you get to enjoy two golden age comics stories with a nifty "Apes of Ape-ril" crossover event both here and over at Pappy's Golden age Comics Stories blog. Click here to go there. Oh, yeah!

To kick things off we have "The Scarlet Slavers" starring Rulah Jungle Goddess from All Top Comics #16 (Mar.1949) originally published by Fox and drawn by Matt Baker. This fun tale introduces Rulah's pet chimp, Babu, and the Catacombs also presents the second "Go Apeshit" feature story from yesterday''s classic issue of Wild Boy #1 (Dec.1950) originally published by Ziff-Davis. That story is called appropriately enough "Gorilla God". The Catacombs is grateful to Don "Zu-Gogo" Falkos for providing the scans for this story. Note: The copyright for both issues, all contents and artwork belong to the original publishers and/or the creators and is reproduced here solely for entertainment purposes.

Enjoy!

Rest in peace, Kurt. (MARVEL SUCKS!)

"The Origin of Wild Boy, Prince of the Jungle" (Ziff-Davis;1950)

The Grand Comics Database has no information on the story credits for this exciting Dec.1950 issue of Wild Boy #1 from Ziff-Davis, but thanks to his son, David, we do know that the great Norman Saunders painted the cover for this otherwise well-drawn issue (which is included today, along with the interesting frontispiece featuring fun jungle facts).

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 the original publisher and/or the creators and is reproduced here solely for entertainment purposes.

Hurry on back tomorrow when the Catacombs will be participating in a special one-day-only crossover with Pappy's Golden Age Comics Stories (see Links) called "Apes of Ape-ril". See you on Friday.

Enjoy!

In Memorium: Bill DuBay

Today I ran across two separate mentions of the passing of Warren Magazines editor/writer/artist Bill DuBay on April 15, 2010 from colon cancer. The prolific DuBay's work also appeared under the pseudonyms Will Richardson, Martin J. Arbunich and Dube.

Although he produced work for several comics publishers and worked in the field of animation, Bill DuBay was best-known as an editor and writer for Warren Publishing, including horror-comics magazines Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella.

DuBay held various company titles while at Warren, and beginning in 1973 he was noted for revamping the magazines with a graphic redesign, dropping fan-participation pages, instituting new features, and creating a unified look and feel. He also presided over the introduction of a popular stable of freelance artists from Spain, whose illustrative style provided an exciting alternative to that of other American comics artists. DuBay and Budd Lewis, co-created the time-traveling sci-fi Hero, The Rook in 1977. The Rook appeared in several issues of Eerie before getting his own title in 1979. The pair later created Time Castle Books, which reprinted all of the Rook stories in a series of beautiful, leather-bound graphic novels.

The Catacombs expresses is deepest condolences to his family, friends and many fans.

Two for the Catacombs!!

I inadvertently neglected to share these recent additions to the Catacombs art gallery. The page on the left is from GLA/Great Lakes Avengers #3 (Aug. 2005), page #15 and the page on the right is from Exiles #74 (Feb. 2006), page #9 by artists Paul Pelletier & Rick Magyar. Both issues were published by Marvel Comics.

I purchased these beauties from Randy Martin at Mighty Nib Original Comic Art. Randy represents almost two dozen top comics artists from his homebase in Atlanta and he is very pleasant to do business with. I have grown to appreciate his professionalism in our dealings. Check him out here for all of your comic art needs.

Zudo the Jungle Boy in "The Pygmies' Shining Stone" (Standard;1944)

"The Pygmies' Shining Stone" starring Zudo the Jungle Boy was issued by William H. Wise & Company [as surrogate for Better/Standard/Nedor] in 1944. This tale was drawn by Ken Battefield and was originally published in Mystery Comics #4 (the final issue of the series).

Ken Battefield worked mainly for Wow Comics in the 1940s. There, he illustrated stories such as 'Destroy the Voskay Dam', 'The Rescue of Major Cambon', 'To Save the Suez Canal' and 'The Nazi Big Bertha', all featuring the character 'Rick O'Shay'. He also worked as a penciler on 'The Scarab' (Exciting Comics) and 'The Devil's Dagger' (Master Comics). For the Classics Illustrated series, he redrew the comic adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' 'The Man in the Iron Mask' for the reprint.

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 the original publisher and/or the creators and is reproduced here solely for entertainment purposes.

Enjoy!

Hey,mac! It's not very "pc" of me to admit this, but FREE COMIC BOOK DAY was my idea.

It's really a no-brainer folks!

Go to your local comic shop this Saturday, May 1, 2010 and receive specially printed copies of free comic books, and some of these retailers will also offer cheap or reduced price back issues and other discounted items to anyone who visits their establishments.

This is the ninth year of this increasingly popular event. Free Comic Book Day has often been tied to the release of a major theatrical film adaptation of a well known superhero property. Iron Man 2 opens next Friday, and this allows participating retailers to take advantage of the film industry's heavy promotion and related press about the comic book medium.

This year my party will be visiting Heroes Aren't Hard To Find in Charlotte, North Carolina for their annual FCBD bash, which includes appearances by guest artists such as MARK BROOKS (Amazing Spider-Man), CHRIS BRUNNER (Legends of the Dark Knight, Loose Ends), NATHAN EDMONDSON (The Light, Olympus), IAN FLYNN (Sonic the Hedgehog), SANFORD GREENE (Wonder Girl, Method Man), CULLY HAMNER (Detective Comics, Red), ADAM HUGHES (Wonder Woman, Tomb Raider), JASON LATOUR (Loose Ends, The Expatriate), BUDD ROOT (Cavewoman), TOM LYLE (Amazing Spider-Man), ANDY SMITH (Nevermore, Superman Confidential), ALLISON SOHN (Lord of the Rings: Evolution) and BRIAN STELFREEZE (Batman, The Ride).

This year, Heroes famous FCBD soiree will tie into an opening day event at Charlotte’s Twenty-Two gallery! "Super: The Fine Art of Comics" will exhibit some of today’s best comic art, put together with Shelton Drum (Heroes founder) and the artists of HeroesCon’s past and present! Running throughout the month of May, the exhibit is set to hold it's closing reception, right after Day 1 of this summers annual Heroes Convention on June 4, 2010!

[Updated] Black Cat vs. 3-D Man at Byrnerobotics!!!

I've been a fan of comic book writer/artist John Byrne for too many years to count. After years of indecision over what character to have the chief draw for me, last weekend I posted a thread on his forum, allowing the other board members to choose my commission subject.

Today is the last day to cast a vote, and I thought you might get a kick out of seeing how the second run-off vote played out. It came down to a narrow split between the Black Cat and 3-D Man.

The original list of choices that I posted included: Count Nefaria, Daredevil, Doc Samson, Galactus, Gladiator of the Shi'ar, Human Torch, Sabretooth and the Watcher.

Here is a link to the website and then just look for the thread labeled, "Choose My Commission Subject" in the Forum.

[Updated]: Black Cat emerged as the overall winning pick by a mere two votes.

"Gal" Friday! Dorismar

Argentine model, actress, television host, and singer, Dora Noemí Kerchen, is better known by her stage name, Dorismar.

She was a hostess on the Univisión Network television show Caliente from 2000 to 2006. As a result, she appeared on the cover of Playboy, representing The Sexy Ladies of Latin TV, in March 2003. Sadly, Dorismar and her husband/manager Alejandro Schiff were deported from the United States to Argentina as illegal aliens in 2006. Dorismar contested the deportation in an interesting way, claiming that her "physical attributes" placed her in the category of "alien of extraordinary ability", which she hoped would allow her to seek a special O-1 visa, permitting her residency in the U.S. based upon her "talents".

Although ultimately unsuccessful in her petition, I can't say that I disagreed with her argument. Too bad the INS boys didn't check with me first. I think that we could have made an exception in her case (not so much with her husband).

The Lone Ranger rides again!

I recently asked Sergio Cariello, artist of The Lone Ranger series from Dynamite Entertainment (written by Brett Matthews), to duplicate one of his recent commissions of the Ranger for me.

Today Sergio emailed me a scan of the finished drawing and I just couldn't be happier with it. He really managed to capture the original image that I wanted, and in my humble opinion, he even kicked it up a notch.

Since I've gotta wait on the U.S. Postal service to delivery it to me, I'm posting that image here for you folks to enjoy along with me.

"Hi-ho, Silver, away."

The Phantom's Ward, Rex in "The Captive King" (Indrajal Comics;1975)

In March 1964, the publisher of The Times of India, Bennet, Coleman & Co., launched a new monthly comic book series called Indrajal Comics. The first 32 issues featured Lee Falk's The Phantom stories, but thereafter, the title alternated between various King Features characters, including Mandrake, Flash Gordon, and Buz Sawyer.

This story is from Indrajal Comics #239 ["The Solar Power Station"] (Oct. 1975) stars The Phantom's young ward, Rex and his friend Tomm. I couldn't locate information on who the strips creators were. By the way, the famous "Ghost Who Walks" makes a cameo appearance in the last couple of panels.

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 the original publisher and/or the creators and is reproduced here solely for entertainment purposes.

Enjoy!