Monday, December 20, 2021

Heroine Holidays PUSSYCAT "'Twas the Night Before Xmas..."

We presented this heroine's politically-incorrect premiere adventure HERE...

...but this tale never appeared in any Marvel publication!
(We'll explain later!)
Marvel Comics' first publisher, Martin Goodman, also owned several other magazines including For Men OnlyMale and Stag (predecessors to present day "laddie magazines" like Maxim, and Smooth).
One of the ongoing features appearing in them was Pussycat's strip, a non-nude clone of Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder's Playboy strip Little Annie Fanny with a secret agent theme (It was the 1960s, when James BondMan from UNCLE, et al, were phenomenally-popular).
In 1968, at the same time Curtis and Marvel tried a b/w Spectacular Spider-Man magazine, they issued a Pussycat one-shot featuring a number of the lady's already-published adventures!
Though the spy fad faded, the Pussycat strip kept going, with her now a ditzy working girl in PG-13 adventures such as this one from Curtis' FunHouse V2N11 (1980), written by Larry Lieber and illustrated by penciler Bill Ward and inker Jim Mooney.
(It had appeared several times before in the Curtis mens' magazine line, but this was the copy I managed to find.)

Thursday, December 9, 2021

WEST SIDE STORY becomes BEST SIDE STORY

With the remake of West Side Story opening tomorrow...

...we wondered...
What if the Silver Age Doctor Strange and Wonder Woman fell in love, just like Tony and Maria?
(After all, they were from two feuding "gangs", DC and Marvel)
We probably would've ended up with a serious version of this titanic titilating tale...

Written by Roy Thomas and illustrated by Tom Sutton, this comic company crossover classic was included in Marvel's Not Brand Echh! #6 (1968)...

...a romance-oriented issue that also included a look at how a Human Scorch (Human Torch)/Gristle (Crystal) marriage would work out, and Spidey-Man (do I have to tell ya?) marrying the unlikeliest character of all!
Spoiler Alert: Its' The Wasp!
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Wednesday, December 1, 2021

Heroine Holidays WOW COMICS "Mary Marvel and the Case of the Criminal Kringles"

A Christmas present for our faithful fans...
...a superheroine Christmas tale with not one...not two...but three superhero guest stars!
(And it's the premiere of her own series as well!)
Mr Scarlet and Pinky was one of the ongoing features rotating cover appearances with other characters on Wow Comics when Mary Marvel was given her own feature in Wow as of #9 (1943) after her introduction in Captain Marvel Adventures #18 and 19 (1942).
But, as of this issue, Mary became either the solo cover star or featured star in every cover until the book shifted format to humor strips in #59 (1947)
Writer Otto Binder and illustrator Mark Swyaze were her co-creators in Captain Marvel Adventures, so it was only appropriate they handle her series intro and several stories after that.

Trivia: When the 1970s live-action Shazam! tv series proved to be a ratings success, the studio considered doing a Mary Marvel spin-off!
But, because DC Comics wanted too much money for Mary, it was decided to use a new character, Isis, in the "sister" series instead!
Ironically, DC then had to pay to license Isis for a comic book adaptation (after introducing her in an issue of Shazam! as shown HERE)!
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Shazam Family Giant
Make Mine Mary Marvel

Tuesday, October 26, 2021

Halloween Heroines LADY LIBERATORS "Come On In...the Revolution's Fine!" Conclusion

...no, this hasn't occurred...yet!
The Wasp receives a mysterious message that directs her to a meeting in Avengers Mansion...but not with the Avengers, but a new group of heroines led by a mysterious woman named Valkyrie!
The team heads for Rutland, where four Avengers; The Vision, Black Panther, Quicksilver, and Goliath II, have already arrived to protect a local scientist with a top-secret invention from a planned kidnapping!
Arriving just in time for the Rutland Halloween Parade (which the professor is participating in) the heroes encounter the Masters of Evil, who are now on the verge of victory...
For the record, the Enchantress did survive.
Bad girls (and guys) have a knack for that sort of thing!
Written by Roy Thomas, penciled by John Buscema, and inked by Tom Palmer, Marvel's Avengers #83 (1970s) introduced the Rutland Halloween Parade into comics lore where it remained for a couple of decades!
At least one comic would set a tale at the parade every Halloween until the mid-1990s!
It's reappeared occasionally since then...
BTW, The Lady Liberators returned almost a half-century later, but that's a story for another time...

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Monday, October 25, 2021

Halloween Heroines LADY LIBERATORS "Come On In...the Revolution's Fine!" Part 1

The very first time the Rutland Halloween Parade (which features comic book characters) appeared in comics...
...was this tale, which didn't even mention the parade itself on the cover...or the fact it takes place on Halloween!
Keep in mind this was 1970, and the Women's Liberation movement was on the rise!
Actually, this sort of lab accident is a lot more common in comics than in real life.
And unlike in real life, in comics it usually results in this...
(Take everything the Valkyrie says with a grain of salt...)
Real-life Parade organizer and comics uber-fan Tom Fagan usually dressed up as Batman for the parade, but since this isn't a DC comic, they put him in the garb of Marvel's "evil Batman", NightHawk of the Squadron Sinister (itself an evil version of the Justice League)!
If you're too young to understand the reference to "Mrs Peel" who was part of the other Avengers, read HERE.
She's a heroine we'll have to do a post or two on in the future!
One other thing, the big guy is not Henry Pym, The Wasp's husband and the original Ant-Man/Giant-Man/Goliath/YellowJacket (don't ask) or Scott Lang/Ant-Man II, but Clint Barton aka Hawkeye, who gave up archery for awhile to become Goliath II.
He went back to being Hawkeye a year later.
Things aren't going too well for the superheroes!
So where are the superHEROINES?
Be here
as they make their decidedly-dramatic entrance!
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