MADAM ZERO "Her Name was...Zero"

Real Name: Unknown
Agency/Organization Affiliation: Unknown
Effectiveness Against Commies: Unmatched!

Debuting in this never-reprinted tale from Fiction House's Fight Comics #82 (1952), Madam Zero fought only Commies (of varying ethnicities) for the entirety of her too-short career!

Note: the stories are told exclusively from George's point-of-view, and considering he runs into her in various locales at varying times by accident, it's obvious that...
1) She doesn't work for the same agency as him.
2) She may, in fact, be a totally-independent operative working outside legal constraints!
3) She's involved in situations and adventures he (and his organization) know nothing about!

Heroine Holidays BLACK CAT "A Day with Linda Turner: Christmas Party"

Not the Marvel anti-heroine, but a Golden Age actress/stuntwoman turned heroine...

...sharing Yuletide festivities with fellow (real life) movie and radio celebrities!

(See if you can name them all!)

Illustrated by Lee Elias (with Bob Powell doing the celeb caricatures), this gentle tale from Harvey's Black Cat #21 (1950) features Groucho Marx, Jack Benny & Rochester, and Bing Crosby along with Linda (Black Cat) Turner and her somewhat dense boyfriend Rick Horne!
When the story was reprinted (in black and white) in Recollections' Original Black Cat #8 (1992), it finally got the cover...

...which it didn't in the original!
BTW, the cover was by Harvey Comics' Editor/Art Director Ken Selig, who had been working for Harvey since just after the original publication of the story in 1950!

CoronaVirus Comics PIONEER WEST ROMANCES "FireHair in Fatal Fever"

Despite the title, Fiction House's Pioneer West Romances wasn't a love comic...

...it was about a woman warrior kicking butt in the Old West!

Young Lynn Cabot, nicknamed Princess Smith by her father, a wealthy Boston businessman killed by outlaws posing as Native Americans, was found by Little Ax, son of Chief Tehama of the Dakota tribe and adopted into the chief's family.

Given the name FireHair, she became an expert archer, knife thrower, horsewoman, canoe rower, and hand-to-hand fighter as she got older.

The now-adult woman protected the Natives from anyone who dared to try and exploit or hurt them, as this never reprinted tale of fever and fractured fantasies from Fiction House's Pioneer West Romances #6 (1950), written by John Mitchell (as "John Starr"), penciled by Bob Webb and inked by David Heames, aptly-proves!

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Fiction House
From Pulps to Panels, from Jungles to Space

CoronaVirus Comics NYOKA THE JUNGLE GIRL "Jungle Fever Fury! Chapter Three: Dance of Death!"

When Last We Left Our Heroine...

...when Nyoka tries to put an end to the awful death toll claimed by the most horrendous enemy of the Jungle People, swamp fever...her life hangs in the balance as she battles twin terrors...disease and ignorance!

(BTW, you haven't missed a chapter!

The second part of this post appeared on our "brother" RetroBlog Secret Sanctum of Captain Video!)

Though the long-running comic was based on the two Republic Studios movie serials Jungle Girl and Perils of Nyoka, those were based on an Edgar Rice Burroughs novel, Jungle Girl aka Land of Hidden Men...

...which took place in Cambodia and featured an Asian heroine!

All the studio took was the title and Burroughs' name.

The rest was totally-new!

The novel itself has never been adapted into live-action or animated form, or even a comic book, though there is an internet comic strip at the official Edgar Rice Burroughs website!

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Jungle Girl

and

Perils of Nyoka

The two movie serials the character appeared in!

CoronaVirus Comics NYOKA THE JUNGLE GIRL "Jungle Fever Fury! Chapter One: Burning Revenge!"

Since it was based on a movie serial character...

...the Nyoka comic book followed the multi-chapter cliffhanger format, which is rather convenient for our purposes!

Actually, the next chapter will appear on our "brother" RetroBlog Secret Sanctum of Captain Video over the weekend, with the final chapter returning here next week!

You'll note that the African natives, unlike most jungle comics of the era, aren't portrayed in overly-racist stereotypes.

Also: unlike most of the jungle heroines of the era, Nyoka isn't garbed in a tight animal skin, but safari jacket and shorts!

Despite that, her book lasted longer than most, first at Fawcett from 1945 until 1953, then at Charlton until 1957!

Their dialogue and imagery is no worse than most examples of American Indians from Westerns in the same era!

Sadly, none of the creatives from this never reprinted story from Fawcett's Nyoka the Jungle Girl #54 (1951) can be definitively-identified!

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Jungle Girl

and

Perils of Nyoka

The two movie serials the character appeared in!

CoronaVirus Comics MADAM ZERO "Rockets of the Red Mist"

Some Reich-wingers like Jerry Falwell Jr postulated North Korea and Red China created the CoronaVirus!

Perhaps Falwell was inspired by this forgotten  heroine's never-reprinted final tale from Fiction House's Fight Comics #84 (1952)!

Anonymous Commie-buster Madam Zero made only three appearances in her short-lived career!

A mistress of disguise, she always surprised the (also anonymous) secret agent who narrated these stories and who played the helpless "Steve Trevor" to her plain-clothes "Wonder Woman"!

Nothing is known about her real identity, motivations, or even which department she worked for!

Note: This is part of an on-going series throughout the entire RetroBlog line featuring disease/epidemic/pandemic tales!

Check out the other RetroBlogs on the left of this page for more such stories!

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Marvel's Black Widow

Secrets of a Super-Spy

IT RHYMES WITH LUST! "Chapter 5: CounterPlot!" Part 2

Sometimes it's the woman behind the man...

...who's the real heroine of the story!
Rust Masson secretly runs Copper City's government and it's underworld!
Her ex-lover, newspaperman Hal Webber, runs the Express, also secretly-owned by Rust and used as a propaganda tool.
But Hal has fallen for Rust's step-daughter Audrey, who's convinced Hal to expose her step-mother (though Audrey doesn't know it yet)!

Now the excrement has hit the rotating blades!

Will Hal, with Audrey at his side, stop Rust's plans?

To be continued in...

NOT SAFE FOR WORK COMICS!

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It Rhymes with Lust

Deluxe Reprint Edition