Wednesday, October 31, 2018

PEP COMICS "Madam Satan: Who She Is and How She Came to Be!"

Recently, Archie Comics introduced long-forgotten Golden Age villainess Madam Satan...
...into their dark, serious reboot of Sabrina: the Teen-Age Witch!
When the "Smalvillized" Archie TV series, Riverdale, became a hit, a Sabrina show was put into production with Michelle Gomez (The Mistress/Missy from Doctor Who) as Madam Satan!
Intended to be a companion show to Riverdale on the CW, there was literally no room in the schedule due to the plethora of DC Comics series currently crowding the network!
Here's the character's never-reprinted premiere and origin story from MLJ's Pep Comics #16 (1941)!
Now, this is quite different from the story Madam Satan herself tells in the Season 1 finale, but it's worth knowing so you can see how much the character was altered in the revival.
Written by Pep Comics' Editor Abner Sundell,  and illustrated by longtime MLJ/Archie artist Harry Lucey who adapted his style to the Bob Montana/Dan deCarlo look that became the Archie "house style" and kept working for Archie until was forced to retire due to multiple sclerosis in 1976.
BTW, though she debuted in Pep Comics #16, Madam Satan actually cameoed on the cover of the previous issue...
...in a scene not in The Shield and Dusty tale on the inside!
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Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
Book One

Friday, February 16, 2018

The Women of BLACK PANTHER

Most comic book-based movies have one or two powerful female characters...
...Wonder Woman being the obvious (and only) exception...until now!
Black Panther has several powerful women...and amazing top-notch actresses portraying them!
Here are their filmographies (covering sci-fi/fantasy/horror/animation)...

Angela Evelyn Bassett
Queen Ramonda
BoJack Horseman as Ana Spanikopita
Nightmare Cafe "Sanctuary for a Child" as Evelyn 
A Man Called Hawk as Bailey Webster
Lupita Amondi Nyong'o
Nakia

Friday, February 2, 2018

TRAGG AND THE SKY GODS "Race Against Death"

Here's a tale spotlighting her created before that one, but published long after it!
Though this tale was packed into the back of the otherwise-reprint final issue of Gold Key's Tragg and the Sky Gods (#9 in 1982)...it was probably meant for a back-up tale in #1 or #2 back in 1976.
...it was probably meant for a back-up tale in #1 (or #2) back in 1976.
You'll note the cover for #9 (above), which re-does the art for #1, makes no mention of the new back-up story!
The story is by the original artist/co-creator, Jesse Santos, who left the book (except for covers) as of #3 due to scheduling problems.
In addition, both Tragg and Lorn are dressed in garb they only wore in the Santos-illustrated #1!

Why had it not been used up to this point?
I suspect the editors felt Lorn was too aggressive, even during the heydey of Womens' Lib, but since #9 was the last issue, and the Gold Key line was shutting down, it would be the last chance to recover the money already paid for the story!
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Saturday, January 6, 2018

TRAGG AND THE SKY GODS "Death-Duel" Conclusion

...in our distant past, aliens from Yargon manipulated the DNA of two cavewomen!
Their children, Tragg and Lorn, were the first homo sapiens.
After observing the successful results of their experiments, the Yargonians left.
Two decades later after a bloody revolution on their world, other Yargonians, far less benevolent, landed on Earth.
The now-grown Tragg and Lorn seek to organize resistance to the aliens, whom the cave dwellers consider "gods" due to their technology and appearance!
But one of the aliens, Keera, lusts after Tragg and seeks to slay his beloved Lorn...
Up to this never-reprinted story by writer Don Glut and illustrator Dan Spiegle from Gold Key's Tragg and the Sky Gods #6 (1976), Lorn had been a fairly-passive character, following Tragg around and occasionally acting as a decoy or distraction when he battled aliens, dinosaurs, and other, less evolved cavemen.
This issue presents her in a far more aggressive light as she battles for her life in hand-to-hand combat against the alien who also desires her man!
In what can best be described as an "interstellar soap opera",  the ongoing Keera/Tragg/Lorn triangle continued for the remainder of the series' run, adding a human interest side to this variation of the then-phenomenally popular Chariots of the Gods concept!
As to how this series features dinosaurs hanging around with the cavemen (and aliens), this one-pager explains the matter...
If you'd like to see earlier adventures of Lorn and Tragg...click HERE!

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