Monday, November 30, 2009

Jann of the Jungle in "Cry Danger!" (Marvel Comics; 1957)






A "Week of Jungle Girls" continues here in the Catacombs and also over at Pappy's Golden Age Comics blog, where you will find another adventure featuring Jann of the Jungle. Jann was one of Marvels jungle girls during the years that the company was known as Atlas.

My story selection, "Cry Danger!" is taken from Jann of the Jungle #16 (Apr. 1957). The story is written by Don Rico, drawn by Al Williamson and inked by Ralph Mayo. Now that is one fine assortment of terrific storytellers folks. Two additional stories from the same creative team in this issue will be posted here very soon. This Jann adventure was eventually reprinted in September 1974 in Marvel's Savage Tales #6. 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!
Tomorrows featured jungle girl: Camilla.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Sheena, Queen of the Jungle in "The Skull Wearer of A'wando Grotto" (Fiction House; 1953)









This week I will be participating in a crossover "Week of Jungle Girls" event with Pappy's Golden Age Comics Blog. He also has a nifty Sheena story up, so click on the link and enjoy!

"The Skull Wearer of A'Wando Grotto" is taken from Sheena, Queen of the Jungle #18 (Summer 1953), originally published by Fiction House. The story is credited to W. Morgan Thomas, but the Grand Comic Database lists him as writer, whether he also drew the issue is unknown to me. 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! Tomorrow featured jungle girl: Jann of the Jungle

Friday, November 27, 2009

"Gal" Friday! Ali Larter


Today's selection is the final lass to represent my blond celebration month in the Catacombs.

Actor Ali Larter has made memorable supporting appearances in theatrical films such as Varsity Blues and Legally Blonde, but most fans know her from a string of appearances in genre roles ranging from the horror thrillers House on Haunted Hill, Final Destination, Resident Evil: Extinction or since 2006 as one of the stars of Heroes on the NBC television network.

Larter's original Heroes character, Niki Sanders, was a wife and mother, and former Internet stripper from Las Vegas who exhibited superhuman strength, plus an alternate personality who went by the name of Jessica. After being hailed as a creative triumph in its freshman season, Heroes writing staff eventually wrote out her twin role of Niki/Jessica (which had become somewhat ill-defined), and Larter began portraying a new character, Tracy Strauss, with watery-icy-based abilities. Larter has been nominated for "Best Supporting Actress" for the 33rd Saturn Awards, despite the fact that Heroes seems to be fading.

The slim, sexy, beautiful and talented Larter married her longtime boyfriend (together 7 years) over the summer. Damn, what a lucky guy!

Kara the Jungle Princess (Better/Standard; 1945)













Here is another obscure jungle girl from the catalogue of golden age publisher Better/Standard/Nedor/Pines. Kara the Jungle Princess first appeared in Exciting Comics #39 (1945) and despite most folks never having heard of her, she logged almost a dozen adventures before disappearing in 1946 with her last story appearance in Exciting Comics #49.

This tale is from Exciting #41, and the art is credited to Al Camy who was a regular artist on Better Publications titles with features like 'Jill Trent', 'Crime Crushers', 'Grim Reaper', 'Phantom Detective' and 'Spectro'. Kara was originally army nurse Jane Howell who, along with Major Kit Kendall, stumbled upon the lost civilization of Arohiti in the jungles of Africa. There she was elevated to ruler of the Arohitans, a people possessing a charm against physical harm, but she must always stay alert for the evil machinations of the priest Targala.

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. This is as good a time as any to mention that beginning on Nov. 30, and running through Dec. 4, I will be participating in a "Week of Jungle Girls" crossover event with Pappy's Golden Age Comics Blog (click on it in my links section). That will double your pleasure for jungle stuff!

Enjoy!

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Rayboy's Review: The Black Knight #1




Travel back in time and meet the greatest warrior of them all as Marvel Comics details the never-before-revealed true origin of the original Black Knight in an excellent new one-shot, The Black Knight #1, written by Tom Defalco, and drawn by Ron Frenz & Sal Buscema.

Facing vampires, zombies, werewolves, witches and demons from the darkest realms, Sir Richard of Scandia and his twin brother, Percy are tasked by the wizard Merlin to undertake a desperate quest to find Chaos the Doombringer--the only weapon capable of defeating Excalibur, the legendary battle sword of King Arthur! Modred and his forces are determined to turn the evil power of the weapon to their advantage. Long time Marvel readers know the sword simply as the Ebony Blade of the modern day incarnation of the Black Knight, the Avenger named Dane Whitman. This riveting adventure delights readers with an untold story of Marvels heroic medieval hero from its 1950's Atlas days and Defalco, Frenz and Buscema not only transport readers to the medieval days of yore, but also treat current fans to a retro-styled tale that could easily have been issued twenty, thirty or forty years earlier by the House of Ideas.

This one is highly recommended!

Rayboy's Review: Image United #1




Image United #1, written by Robert Kirkman and illustrated by Image Comics founding partners Erik Larsen, Rob Liefeld, Todd McFarlane, Whilce Portacio, Marc Silvestri and Jim Valentino is a crossover event meant as a celebration of the publishers seventeen year history. The simple logistics of having each contributing founder draw their own unique characters – on every page and in every panel – truly boggles the mind, so lets’ at least applaud the massive undertaking that eventually brought this book into comics shops.

"Chapter One" introduces Fortress, a hero with whom I am not familiar, who foresees catastrophic events unfolding that involve Savage Dragon, Youngblood, Spawn, Cyberforce, Witchblade and Shadowhawk. Notably absent are Jim Lee’s W.I.L.D.Cats characters, although Lee does provide an alternate cover for this issue. Image has been rightly taken to task for certain elements of creative hubris that have manifested themselves over the course of the company’s existence, and sadly for such a marquee project, some dumb mistakes do make their presence known within this mini-series inaugural issue.

Between pages 6 & 7, the villain Overt-Kill launches an assortment of rockets towards Team Youngblood’s incoming airship (barely glimpsed in a single panel) and in the very next panel, the featured members are shown leaping to safety, backed by an explosion that is not particularly highlighted as the destruction of their vehicle. I had to go back and view this sequence again to see if I had missed this. That kind of careless oversight takes a reader completely out of a story, and one must assume that this was not Kirkman’s intention. It is just sloppy writing, which an effective editor should have caught before going to press. This happens again several pages later, when Youngblood team member Badrock alludes to Vogue being badly injured while in battle against Overt-Kill; and we did not even see this occur. I also have to take a break here to mention that after dramatically jumping away from their destroyed ship and into battle against Overt-Kill, and before actually coming to blows with the attacking villain, Shaft and company take an expository moment to chat with Officer Dragon, who had witnessed their arrival, before the entire group then jointly leaps into combat almost as an afterthought. That is the typically weird type of stuff that always dogged Image during their earliest days, so apparently some things have not changed at all!

After a sequence showing Cyberforce taking part in a related battle elsewhere, the action returns to the Youngblood/Dragon/Overt-Kill fight, where it’s revealed that Vogue was critically injured, after the fact, of course.

Current Image publisher, Eric Stephenson, has a text piece inside this book detailing the makings of Image United. Since I've never thought that he was a decent editor in the first place and since no "actual" editor is listed among the credits for this issue, I would have to say that the neat promotional gimmick of having all of the company founders cooperate on this project is the only redeeming reason to even give it a look. Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead, Invincible) is a much better writer than this issues story would indicate, but for Pete's sake, why Image would open itself up to unnecessary criticism on a major event-oriented series that potentially could have put that kind of thing to rest, is beyond me. In fact, it is simply ridiculous to be this cavalier on a book that was so intensely hyped.

I have met most of these people in person, and while they are all talented artists with long successful careers under their belts; this type of storytelling indifference, conceit, and egotism is a part of Images publishing history too.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Tygra in "The Phalanx of Fear" (Better/Standard; 1948)












Tygra of the Flame People ran as a back-up feature in later issues of Startling Comics, published by Better/Standard/Nedor during the golden age. In her earlier origin story, Lynn Thomas was returning from a nearby village with an experimental vitamin that was desperately needed to stem the tide of a plague, when her airplane crashed during a thunderstorm. Inadvertently ingesting the elixir to revitalize her diminished pep, Lynn overheard a cry and rushed to the aid of a tribesman under attack by a lion, only to discover that she had become somewhat ferocious in battle herself.

"The Phalanx of Fear" is taken from Startling Comics #50 (March 1948). I have no clue who the artist or writer is, but Tygra (as Lynn Thomas was christened by the Flame People) and her paramour, Prof Terry Wilton encounter the depraved descendants of an ancient Roman expedition, alongside a curious scientist who had long been on their trail. I have also included a neat little two-page Tygra text story written by Charles Strong, "The White Elephant" from the very same issue. 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!

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Judy of the Jungle in "The Lords of Memnon!" (Better; 1947)









Kid Terror has taken an extended break over at Nedor-A-Day, so since I've got quite a chunk of stories featuring the jungle girls that Better/Standard/Nedor published during the golden age, I may as well take advantage of his absence and run a few of them.

Judy of the Jungle first appeared in Exciting Comics #55 and her adventures continued until #69. Judy displaced Miss Masque as a backup strip and eventually knocked off the Black Terror as lead cover feature. "The Lords of Memnon!" is taken from Exciting Comics #56 (July 1947), and tells of her encounter with the descendants of a lost tribe of Egyptians who have discovered a life-extension formula, of course, the requisite gang of modern hooligans shows up using guns to impress the "losties" into giving up their amazing secret. Judy has other ideas and plows into them like gangbusters, or sure-fisted jungle queens really ought to.

The great Ralph Mayo is credited with providing full art duties on this one. 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!