1970's Flashback: Swamp Thing

Swamp Thing was created by writer Len Wein and artist Bernie Wrightson for DC Comics. The character first appeared in House of Secrets #92 (June/July 1971), but was subsequently featured in his own long-running series of the same name. Swamp Thing is a humanoid mass of vegetable matter who fights to protect his swampy home, the environment in general and often humanity from various supernatural or terrorist threats. The series later enjoyed a popular reinvention of the character in 1984 by British writer Alan Moore and artist John Totleben; which has been particularly influential on modern comics. Under Moore's stewardship, the character became a psychologically complex creature immersed in an auto-referential journey to determine his capabilities, the actual degree of his humanity and his true place in the world.

Originally Swamp Thing was simply Alec Holland, a scientist who had been working on a top secret bio-restorative formula (that could make forests out of deserts) in the Louisiana swamps. Holland was caught in the explosion of a bomb planted by agents of the mysterious Nathan Ellery, who wanted to black market the formula. Splashed with burning chemicals during the massive fire, Holland ran from the lab and fell into the muck-filled swamp nearby, and following which a creature resembling a humanoid plant was seen shambling out of some time later. The creature called Swamp Thing, was originally conceived as Alec Holland, having mutated into a vegetable-like creature or nothing more than a "muck-encrusted mockery of a man". However, under writer Alan Moore, Swamp Thing was reinvented as an elemental entity who was created upon the death of Alec Holland, but possessing Holland's memory and personality. Swamp thing is now described as "a plant that thought it was Alec Holland; a plant that was trying its level best to be Alec Holland."

Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of "The Prisoner"!

The Prisoner was an allegorical British science fiction television mini-series starring Patrick McGoohan. It followed a British agent who (after abruptly resigning from his position as a top-level government operative) is held captive in a small, colorful village by unknown people who are concerned about his resignation. Each episode typically featured the imprisoned former agent, now labelled "Number Six" by his captors [who refuse to use names] failing to escape from "the Village", but successfully resisting various interrogation and brainwashing attempts made by his mysterious captors.

The ground-breaking show was created by McGoohan and George Markstein, with exteriors filmed primarily on location at the Hotel Portmeirion resort village in Penrhyndeudraeth, North Wales. Only seventeen episodes were produced, with the first being originally broadcast in London in October 1967. Although marketed as a spy thriller in the mold of McGoohan's previous series, Danger Man, the show's combination of 1960’s countercultural themes and its surreal setting had a far-reaching effect upon science fiction-fantasy-genre television and also popular culture in general.

1970's Flashback: Rima the Jungle Girl

Rima was the heroine of the 1904 Victorian-era novel Green Mansions: A Romance of the Tropical Forest by Argentine-British writer W. H. Hudson, a naturalist who wrote many classic books about the ecology of South America. Hudson based Rima on a persistent South American legend about a lost tribe of white people who lived in the mountains. DC Comics adapted the character in a short-lived comic book series, Rima the Jungle Girl in 1974.

All but forgotten now, the 7-issue run of her monthly series is of significance within the world of comics, because it features rarely seen interior artwork by famed Filipino illustrator Nestor Redondo and covers by Joe Kubert. Rima the Jungle Girl is noteworthy as one of DC's first major publishing efforts (other than Wonder Woman) to feature a woman hero as the titular star of her own book. The ecology movement of the early 1970s also made her stories very timely. Writer Robert Kanigher, used many themes showing Rima passively interfering with predatory hunters and natives rather than engaging them in outright battles.

Like other jungle girls, Rima is always scantily-clad and barefoot, however unlike the literary character, DC’s Rima is a fully-grown and powerful woman with Ashe-blond hair. In the Hudson novel Rima the Bird Girl was 17 years old, small (4' 6"), demure, and dark-haired. Natives avoided her forest, calling her "the Daughter of the Didi" (an evil spirit), but Rima's only true defense is a reputation for magic, earned through the display of such strange talents as talking to birds, befriending other animals and occasionally plucking poison darts from the air.

Trivia: Green Mansions became a 1959 film for MGM Studios starring Audrey Hepburn as Rima. This filmed adaptation deviated far from the novel; in particular, Hepburn's Rima was simply a mysterious girl who lived on her parents' plantation.

In Memoriam: Richard H. Goldwater

Richard H. Goldwater, President/Co-Publisher of Archie Comics, passed away October 2, 2007, after battling cancer. Richard’s father, John Goldwater, was the co-creator of Archie Andrews – America’s perennial teenager, and his girlfriends Betty Cooper and Veronica Lodge. In 1941, John and his business partners, Louis Silberkleit and Maurice Coyne, founded MLJ, the company that later became Archie Comic Publications. Richard joined the Company after college and, worked his way up through the business learning all facets of running a successful publishing empire.

Richard was instrumental in the introduction of new properties, such as Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Josie and the Pussycats. He took great satisfaction knowing that Archie Comics only produced comics with content that parents could trust to be appropriate for their children. Richard also assisted efforts to expand Archie’s core characters into other mediums – including countless “Archie”, “Sabrina” and “Josie” animated television series, a live action “Sabrina” television series, a “Josie and the Pussycats” theatrical motion picture and “The Archies” musical group that had tremendous success in the 60’s and 70’s.

1970's Flashback(s): The Invaders & The Liberty Legion

Roy Thomas loves golden age comics and the many heroes who got their start during the WWII period. In the 1970's while he was a writer/editor at the House of Ideas, Thomas tried twice to recapture the magic of the "golden age" using Timely's [former name of Marvel] original stable of heroic champions.

Giant-Size Invaders #1 (June 1975) regrouped Captain America and his sidekick Bucky, the original Human Torch and his sidekick Toro and the Sub-Mariner as an Axis-busting team who would take the fight right to Hitler's Fortress Europa stronghold on behalf of the Allied Forces. After this single, annual-sized one-shot, The Invaders were spun off into their own series which lasted for 41 issues.

Less successful, but equally appealing, The Liberty Legion, first appeared in back-to-back issues of Marvel Premiere #29 & 30 (April/June 1976). This team was organized by Cap's young partner, Bucky when his Invader pals were struck down by the Red Skull. The Patriot, Miss America, the Whizzer, Jack Frost, the Blue Diamond, Red Raven and the Thin Man all responded to Bucky's wartime radio broadcast for super-heroic assistance. The Liberty Legion never made it to their own mag, but the characters made sporadic appearances throughout the Marvel universe and several later became Invaders themselves.

Note: Roy Thomas would pull the same stunt for DC comics in the 1980's with his All-Star Squadron series which utilized golden age characters from DC's vast stable of similar WWII period heroes.

Dead Reckoning

George Romero has another zombie flick due to hit movie theaters sometime this year, but unlike his previous zombieverse films (1968's Night of the Living Dead, 1978's Dawn of the Dead, 1985's Day of the Dead and 2005's Land of the Dead) this time he is basically rebooting the franchise. The characters in the upcoming Diary of the Dead will not have any awareness of the zombie plague until they are actually assaulted by the living dead, and they will also have to "painfully" relearn how to properly slay the beasts. In addition the premise has a group of film school students out in the boonies making their own class film, when they opt to document the rise of the newly undead.

I've always appreciated the subtle social, political and cultural undercurrents and satire that Romero infuses into his horror movies with, so I am looking forward to seeing this one.

Maybe it will make it out in time for Halloween (or shortly thereafter).

Trivia: Dead Reckoning was the original working title for 2005's Land of the Dead. In the film, that was the nickname of the tanklike urban assault vehicle that the denizens of Fiddlers Green used to scour the countryside for supplies.

A little "pulp" history ....

It's always nice to how the route by which one travels, so in that spirit, here is a bit of literary (& radio) history that brought us to the earliest days of comic book superheroes:

1835 - Nathaniel Hawthorne creates America's first superhero, as The Grey Champion appears in New England Magazine.

1901 - Baroness Orczy writes the Scarlet Pimpernel, the story of a hero of the French aristocracy during the Revolution who disguises himself as an English fop.

1912 - Edgar Rice Burroughs' Under the Moons of Mars begins in Munseys’ All-Story Magazine (six issues). It features John Carter, a man who gains super powers by traveling to another planet.

1913 - Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan of the Apes appears in Munseys’ All-Story Magazine.

1914 - Frank L. Packard creates The Grey Seal for Street and Smith's People's Magazine. Jimmie Dale, a wealthy playboy by day, dons a mask and utility belt to commit crime by night.

1918 - Johnston McCulleys’ The Curse of Capistrano appears in All Story Weekly. It is the first adventure of Zorro, a mysterious western champion of the oppressed who disguises himself as a Spanish fop.

1930 - Alfred Knopf publishes a dystopian savage parody of early science fiction pulps by fledgling slick magazine writer Philip Wylie called Gladiator. Wylie often claimed that Gladiator was the inspiration for Siegel's Superman, although Siegel always claimed he'd never read it.

1931 - Street and Smith launches The Shadow pulp magazine, based loosely on their hit radio program. Walter Gibson writes as Maxwell Grant.

1933 - Fran Striker's the Lone Ranger begins on WXYZ radio in Detroit. The success of the program spawns the creation of the Mutual Broadcasting System. Lester Dent's Doc Savage first appears as a pulp magazine from Street and Smith, although he writes under the house name of Kenneth Robeson.

1936 - Fran Striker's The Green Hornet begins on WXYZ radio in Detroit. A spin-off of the Lone Ranger, the Hornet, accompanied by his chauffer Kato, fought crime in a powerful automobile known as the Black Beauty. Lee Falk's the Phantom begins in the newspapers. In the beginning he appears to be an urban crimefighter but the strip quickly refocuses to a mysterious tropical island. The Phantom may be the first character ever to sport the ubiquitous tights and two-tone pants that mystery-men every where would soon don.

1938 – Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster introduce Superman in Action Comics #1.

1939 - Bob Kane is asked to create a new super-hero to capitalize on the success of Superman. With the help of writer Bill Finger, he comes up with Batman who makes his debut in Detective Comics #27.

And thus superheroes started flying out of the woodwork and the ball began rolling ....

1970's Flashback: Karate Kid

Karate Kid (Val Armorr) is a member of DC Comics super-team the Legion of Super-Heroes. He is a master of every form of martial arts to have been developed by the 30th century. The extent of his skill is so great that he can severely damage various types of hard material with a single blow and was briefly able to hold his own against Superboy through the use of what he called "Super Karate". His introduction occurred in Adventure Comics # 346 (July 1966), but for a brief period in the 70's Val traveled back in time to the regular DC Universe as the star of his own series. Val did this in order to prove his worthiness for the hand of his team-mate Princess Projectra (whom he later wed) , so he took a leave of absence and spent about a year in the primitive 20th century. Karate Kid #1 debuted in March 1976 and lasted for fifteen issues.

Trivia: Columbia Pictures had to get permission from DC Comics for usage of the name of the Legion of Super-Heroes comic book character Karate Kid. Although their film version and its sequels (starring Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita) did not resemble the original comics creation, DC did get acknowledgement during the end credits.

Hispanic Heritage Month (José Luis Salinas)

In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month here is a profile of one of the great, largely unheralded comic strip artists..

José Luis Salinas was born in Buenos Aries in 1908, after graduating from school he began a nine year apprenticeship at an advertising agency where he learned his craft. His art-style was heavily influenced by the great American comic artists of the time, notably Harold Foster and Alex Raymond. His first succesful magazine strip was Herman el consario (Herman the Corsair) which appeared in the December 1936 pages of Patoruzu. In 1937 Salinas drew comic adaptations of popular literature for El Hogar, notably Last of the Mohicans, King Solomon's Mines, The Scarlet Pimpernel etc.

In 1949 he immigrated to the United States where he was employed by King Features Syndicate to create a project that they had in mind. The project was a syndicated comic strip version of O. Henry's character The Cisco Kid. King Features had commissioned writer Rod Reed to write the stories and Salinas to draw the strips. The result was magic: Cisco actually kissed the heroine rather than his horse, Salinas' animals looked life-like, his villains mean, his heroines pretty. The Cisco Kid debuted in 1950 and ran without changing editor, writer or artist every weekday for the next eighteen years, during which time it was syndicated all over the world. Salinas died in 1985.

1970's Flashback: Brother Voodoo

Brother Voodoo (Jericho Drumm) first appeared in Strange Tales #169 (Sept. 1973). Returning to his native Haïti (born in Port-au-Prince) after twelve years of education and practice as a psychologist in America, Jericho Drumm discovered that his twin brother, Daniel, the local houngan, was dying, a victim of a voodoo sorcerer who claimed to be possessed by the spirit of Damballah, the serpent-god. Just before he died, Daniel made his brother vow to visit Papa Jambo. Jericho visited Papa Jambo and became his student. After studying under the aged houngan for several weeks, Jericho gained a greater mastery of voodoo practices than his own brother. Papa Jambo then performed a rite that summoned Daniel Drumm's spirit back from the dead and joined it with Jericho's own. Having fashioned a worthy successor, Papa Jambo died. Taking the name Brother Voodoo, Jericho challenged Damballah and his cult. With the help of his brother's spirit possessing one of the cult members, Damballah's artifact of power was stolen from around his neck. With this lack of power, the Damballah's snakes turned on him. His cult seemingly destroyed. Brother Voodoo became Haïti's houngan supreme and champion.

Brother Voodoo’s powers include: fire manipulation, an ability to generate mystic smoke,superhuman strength, and possession of other beings.

In Memoriam: Lois Maxwell

Canadian-born actress Lois Maxwell, who was the definitive Miss Moneypenny in many James Bond films, has passed away at age 80. She had been battling cancer. Maxwell, was the demure foil to Bond's suave rake in 14 films from 1962's "Dr. No" to 1985's "A View to a Kill." In the Bond films, Moneypenny (as secretary to Bond's chief M in British intelligence) has a flirtatious relationship with the spy, evidently attracted to him but never succumbing to his advances. It was a role to which Maxwell gave a bantering edge that is missing in Ian Fleming's novels. Although officially her character's first name was Jane, Moneypenny is referred to only by her last name or a diminutive of it -- Penny.

Maxwell became close friends with Roger Moore, who succeeded Sean Connery as Bond in 1973. "She was a very fine actress and had a great sense of humor," Moore told BBC television on Sunday.

1970's Flashback: Iron Fist

Iron Fist (Daniel "Danny" Thomas Rand-Kai) was created by writer Roy Thomas and artist Gil Kane, he first appeared in Marvel Premiere #15 (May 1974) to cash in on the popularity of martial arts in the early 1970s. The character originally appeared in nine issues of Marvel Premiere (#15–25) before moving on to this own title. Thomas acknowledged that a 1940's character, Amazing Man, created by Bill Everett served as inspiration for Iron Fist. Iron Fist also ran in Deadly Hands of Kung Fu starting with issue #10 of that series, but as the martial arts craze died down, sales lagged and both titles ended. However with the cancellation of his solo series Iron Fist soon reappeared in Power Man #48–50, where he was partnered with Luke Cage. Power Man was then renamed Power Man and Iron Fist with issue #50, and ran until issue #125 in September 1986.

Daniel Rand was born in New York City, the son of American businessman Wendell Rand, a wealthy entrepreneur who discovered the mystical city of K'un-L'un as a young boy. During his time in K'un L'un, Wendell saved the life of the city's ruler, Lord Tuan, and was adopted as Tuan's son. However, Wendell eventually left K'un L'un and became a wealthy entrepreneur in the United States. He married socialite Heather Duncan and had a child, Daniel. When Daniel was nine, Wendell organized an expedition to again seek out K'un L'un, taking his wife Heather, his business partner Harold Meachum, and Daniel. During the journey up the mountain, Daniel slipped off the path, his tie-rope taking his mother and father with him. Meachum, who also loved Heather, forced Wendell to plunge to his death but offered to rescue Heather and Daniel. She rejected his help, preferring to journey on their own or die.

As explained in Marvel Premiere #15, Heather and Daniel come across a makeshift bridge that appears out of nowhere and are attacked by a pack of wolves. Heather throws herself on the wolves to save Daniel and is killed even as archers from K'un L'un attempt to save her. The archers take the grieving Daniel to see Yü-Ti, the hooded ruler of K'un L'un. When Daniel expresses his desire for vengeance, Yü-Ti apprentices him to Lei Kung, the Thunderer, who teaches him the martial arts.

Daniel proves to be the most gifted of Lei Kung's students. Rand conditions his fists by plunging them into buckets of sand, gravel and rock to toughen them. At 19, Daniel is given the chance to attain the power of the Iron Fist by fighting and defeating the dragon known as Shou-Lao the Undying, which guarded the molten heart that had been torn from its body. During the battle, Daniel throws himself against the scar of Shou-Lao, which burns a dragon tattoo into his chest. Having killed Shou-Lao, he enters its cave and plunges his fists into a brazier containing the creature's molten heart, emerging with the power of the Iron Fist.When K'un L'un reappears after 10 years, Daniel decides to leave and find his father's killer. Returning to New York, Daniel Rand, dressed in the ceremonial garb of the Iron Fist, seeks out Harold Meachum, now head of Meachum Industries. Before Iron Fist can decide whether or not to kill him, Meachum is murdered by a mysterious ninja, and Iron Fist is blamed for the death. Eventually, Iron Fist clears his name and begins a career as a superhero, aided by his friends Colleen Wing and Misty Knight, falling in love with the latter. Danny Rand, as Iron Fist, is a master martial artist. He also has a healing ability and by concentrating his chi in his fist manifests the Iron Fist power.