The Forgotten 1970s Black SuperHeroine!

After 1971's The ButterFly...

...and 1975's Storm...

...there was...

SUPERBITCH!

The Black superheroine who's x-rated adventures were so hot we can't run them here!

But we can re-present her tale at our "brother" RetroBlog...

Not Safe for Work Comics!

Dare You Miss this "Lost" Piece of Black Americana?

CATWOMAN: THE MOVIE "Jim Lee Catwoman Sketchbook"

Jim Lee, who in 2004 had just illustrated the best-selling Batman: Hush, did the cover for the Catwoman movie adaptation...

...and here's the story of how he went on-set to create it!

Wow!

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Catwoman

CATWOMAN: THE MOVIE Conclusion

We Last We Left Our Heroine...

...framed for the murder of cosmetics magnate George Hedare (actually committed by his wife, Laurel), Patience Phillips aka Catwoman is arrested by her lover, Detective Tom Lone (who knows her secret identity)...

To say this flick was almost universally-panned would be charitable.

To be fair, Halle Berry did her best with what she was given.

And, to her credit, she took the criticism in stride, even accepting the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress in person...

Trivia:
Until 2017's Wonder Woman, Catwoman was the highest-grossing superheroine movie of all time!
The film was going to be released in IMAX...

...but the SFX couldn't be completed in time!
Written by Chuck Austen, penciled by Tom Derenick, and inked by Adam DeKraker, this adaptation of the 2004 movie utilizes an earlier version of the script than what was filmed, so there are differences between this and what appeared on-screen!
Why did we present this particular flick as our Black History Month month entry?
1) Catwoman was the first flick to feature a Black superheroine in the title role!
Note: both BlankMan and Meteor Man predated it as Black superhero flicks.
But BlankMan didn't have a comic book adaptation, and Meteor Man had both a movie adaptation and a six-issue sequel series which set it in the Marvel Universe!
We'll be doing Meteor Man next year as a RetroBlog crossover event between Hero Histories, Secret Sanctum of Captain Video and Atomic Kommie Comics!
2) Catwoman starred Halle Berry! 'Nuff said!
Speaking of Halle...tomorrow we'll post a text feature by cover artist Jim Lee about how he was able to get her to pose, in costume, for him!

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Catwoman

CATWOMAN: THE MOVIE Part 2

When Last We Left Our Feline Femme Fatale...

Meek (dare we say "mousey"?) graphic artist Patience Phillips, ordered to meet a midnight deadline by her abusive boss, George Hedare, arrives and discovers the doors locked!

Gaining access through a window, she accidentally-eavesdrops on the chemists working on her company's new makeup line...which has frightening side-effects on users!

The scientists, not realizing she's an innocent employee who inadvertently-overheard them, call security officers, who pursue and shoot the panicked woman, who then falls from a height that (combined with her gunshot wound) would kill a normal person...and does!

But, her corpse is surrounded by a group of cats...who apparently restore her to life!

MEOW!

To Be Continued Tomorrow at...

Secret Sanctum of Captain Video

Written by Chuck Austen, penciled by Tom Derenick, and inked by Adam DeKraker, this adaptation of the 2004 movie utilizes an earlier version of the script than what was filmed, so there are differences between this and what appeared on-screen!

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Visit Amazon and Order...

Catwoman

FRIDAY FOSTER "Meet Friday Foster"

Fifty years ago, history was made...

...on January 18, 1970, Friday Foster became the FIRST mainstream syndicated comic strip to star a Black woman as the title character.
Here's the first seven up until now never-reprinted Sunday strips...

(Jackie Ormes' earlier Torchy Brown was, unfortunately, only published in black-owned newspapers which had relatively-limited circulation.)
Friday Foster was also the FIRST mainstream comic strip to star a Black title character, male OR female!
(The humor strip Quincy by Ted Shearer debuted later in 1970!)

Writer Jim Lawrence was no stranger to newspaper adventure strips, having previously written Captain Easy and Joe Palooka.
After his stint on Friday, he scripted a revived Buck Rogers comic strip based on the 1980 tv series!
And, he penned a 1970s paperback novel series, Dark Angel, about a Black female private eye!

Artist Jorge Longaron had done a number of comic strips in Europe, but was unknown in America. Friday was his Stateside strip debut.

The series was a combination of adventure, soap-opera, and social commentary, about former fashion model-turned-photographer's assistant (and later professional photographer and model) Friday Foster.
Supporting characters included photographer Shawn North (her boss and later business partner) and millionare playboy/romantic interest Blake Tarr.
The strip lasted until late 1974, with some of the final sequences illustrated by DC Comics legend Dick Giordano and a then up-and-comer named Howard Chaykin (American Flagg, The Shadow)!

Besides the strip, there was a one-shot comic book in 1972, and a feature film in 1975 (a year after the strip was canceled) starring action-movie goddess Pam Grier as Friday, Thalmus Rasulala as Blake Tarr, Yaphet Kotto as Detective Colt Hawkins, plus Eartha Kitt, Jim Backus, Godfrey Cambridge, and in one of his earliest roles, Carl Weathers, as an un-named assassin!
While there was a soundtrack album, curiously, I've never seen a novelization (and, in the '70s, they did novelizations of movies that weren't even released in the US, just shown overseas)!

If you're looking for a cool gift for the Black History aficionado or grrrl hero fan in your life, you can't go wrong with either

Black Women in Sequence

which includes both a cover and info about Friday Foster or the upcoming Friday Foster book!

As soon as it's listed on Amazon, I'll post a link!