Friday, March 29, 2013

AIRBOY "Easter Egg" Part 1

Valkyrie wasn't the only woman in Golden Age hero AirBoy's life...
...there was also Bonnie Easter, heiress with an independent attitude, who would later...oh just read and see...
AirBoy vs the Gangster Air Force!
AirBoy vs the Police Air Patrol!
AirBoy vs EVERYBODY...for the life of Bonnie Easter!
This intro tale for Bonnie Easter in Hillman's AirBoy Comics V3N11 (1946) was scripted by Dick Wood and illustrated by Dan Barry.

Friday, March 22, 2013

UNDERCOVER GIRL "Jeopardy in Jade"

When you're Starr Flagg: Undercover Girl, danger lurks everywhere...
...and no one is to be trusted, as shown in her third appearance, where she goes, without backup, into tropical danger.
Illustrated by Odgen Whitney, this story from Magazine Enterprise's ManHunt #3 (1947) is typical as the very self-sufficient Starr handles the situation without being bailed out by a male associate.
Be here next week, when we present another tale of classic comic grrl power!

Friday, March 15, 2013

VAMPIRELLA "Origin" 2.0

Back in the 1970s, when Vampirella was a b/w magazine...
...the publisher experimented with doing full-color inserts, resulting in this story becoming the first Vampi tale in color!
This never-reprinted tale appeared in Warren's Vampirella Annual #1 (1972).
Written by J R Cochran and illustrated by Vampi's signature artist Jose Gonzalez, this was a retelling of the girl from Drakulon's origin first told by writer Forrest J Ackerman and artist Tom Sutton in the magazine's premiere issue only three years earlier.
(And you thought Marvel and DC rebooted their continuities quickly!).
Ironically, when this story was re-used (in b/w, not color), it was totally-rewritten, and that version has been reprinted several times since (hence the 2.0 designation for this tale).

Be here next week, when we present another tale of classic comic grrl power!

Friday, March 8, 2013

MARY MARVEL "Modern Wizard of Oz"

The Marvel Family's Golden Age adventures tended towards gentle fantasy...
...like this tale from Fawcett's Wow Comics #48 (1946)
Ozz and his robots never re-appeared in any Marvel Family story.
Like most of the Mary Marvel stories of the 1940s, this one was scripted by noted sci-fi pulp author Otto Binder, and illustrated by his brother, Jack Binder.
Otto had a long career in comics, working primarily for Fawcett and DC, making him one of the very few to script tales of both the Captain Marvel and Superman families in the Golden Age!
His brother Jack initially worked at the Harry Chesler Studio, then opened his own firm.
Preferring to illustrate rather than administrate, he closed his shop after three years, then joined CC Beck's studio which supplied art for Fawcett Comics including the Marvel Family titles.
Heroine trivia: Otto co-created both Mary Marvel and Supergirl as well as DC's Merry: Girl of 1,000 Gimmicks, and Timely/Atlas/Marvel's Miss America!
Be here next week when we present another tale of classic comic grrl power!

Friday, March 1, 2013

PHARA: LIVING GODDESS

An immortal, lethal, and scantly-clad, protector of her people...
...who lasted all of one two-page, never-reprinted appearance!
One of several pseudo-Egyptian jungle heroines of the 1940s, Phara's sole appearance was this brief tale in the back of Fox's Zegra: Jungle Empress #2 (1948).
Be here next week, when we present another tale of classic comic grrrl power!