Showing posts with label Gardner Fox. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gardner Fox. Show all posts

Friday, January 24, 2014

CAVE GIRL "Spears of the Snow-Men"

How do heroines in skimpy animal skins deal with snowy locales?
Have a look at this gorgeous story and find out!
Now that warmed my chilly bones!
In the 1940s-50s, one of the most popular genres in comics was the "jungle hero", the most famous one of all being Tarzan.
A horde of imitators followed, with some interesting variations, including an entire sub-genre--the "jungle heroine"!
While many had weird names like "Sheena", "Rulah", or "Zoot", one of the best-illustrated was known only as "Cave Girl"!

Beginning as a backup in the first issue of Frank Frazetta's Thun'da comic, Cave Girl was a little girl named Carol, whose explorer parents were killed by natives in the jungle they were mapping.
Before Carol could also be put to death, an eagle swooped down and took the child to it's nest.
There, the eagle and a wolf raised the girl to young adulthood, teaching her how to survive and communicate with other animals.
Though in the first couple of stories, the jungle was shown to be home to timelost creatures like sabretooth tigers and Neanderthals, by the time she got her own title, it was pretty much a generic jungle heroine strip...with one notable exception!
Legendary "good girl" and romance artist Bob Powell handled the art as Cave Girl cut a svelte path thru Africa's villains from backup feature in every issue of Thun'da to four exciting issues of her own title as well as a one-shot entitled Africa: Thrilling Land of Mystery!

This story from Magazine Enterprises' Cave Girl #11 (1953), her premiere issue, was produced by her co-creators, writer Gardner Fox and illustrator Bob Powell.

Friday, September 20, 2013

MOON GIRL "Sky Sabotage"

She wore a red/yellow outfit with blue shorts and could bring down an airplane with her bare hands...
But she wasn't Wonder Woman!
She was the short-lived Golden Age superheroine, Moon Girl!
Written by William Wolfolk and illustrated by Sheldon Moldoff, this tale appeared in EC's never-reprinted Moon Girl #3 (1948).
If there seem to be obvious elements of Wonder Woman in Moon Girl, perhaps it's because Wolfolk's wife, Dorothy was a writer/editor on, among others, Wonder Woman, Lois Lane, Supergirl, and romance titles at DC Comics!

Friday, September 13, 2013

UNDERCOVER GIRL "Dinner Date with Death"

Starr Flagg occasionally got the cover spot in ManHunt...
Art by Odgen Whitney
...in this case, illustrating a prose tale she starred in.
Text pages like this were a requirement for comics to receive a highly-valued 2nd Class mailing license providing lower mailing rates and reserved only for periodicals.
Some comics did letters pages, some did fact-based features, others did these short stories.
This never-reprinted tale from Magazine Enterprises' ManHunt #2 (1947) was scripted by Gardner Fox, no stranger to heroines, since he also penned Moon Girl and Cave Girl tales during the Golden Age.
While Flagg usually operated alone, she's assisted by FBI agent Jim Fallon, who had his own strip in ManHunt, making this the only crossover between characters from different strips.
Be here next week, when we present another tale of classic comic grrl power!

Friday, July 5, 2013

MOON GIRL "Rockets for Riches"

A super-powered princess in red/yellow/blue who constantly rescues her heroic boyfriend...
...nope, it ain't Wonder Woman, bunkie!
We previously-presented her origin tale HERE, so today we're going a little further in her history to present her arch-enemy, Satana in this never-reprinted tale from EC's Moon Girl #3 (1948)!
Written by William Wolfolk and illustrated by Sheldon Moldoff.
If there seem to be obvious elements of Wonder Woman in Moon Girl, perhaps it's because Wollfolk's wife, Dorothy was a writer/editor on, among others, Wonder Woman, Lois Lane, Supergirl, and romance titles at DC Comics!

Friday, December 21, 2012

CAVE GIRL "Shadow-God of Korchak"

We ran the first couple of classic Cave Girl stories HERE...
...but she belongs in this blog with other wonderful women who protect the helpless and innocent (and look great doing it)!
In the 1940s-50s, one of the most popular genres in comics was the "jungle hero", the most famous one of all being Tarzan.
A horde of imitators followed, with some interesting variations, including an entire sub-genre--the "jungle heroine"!
While many had weird names like "Sheena", "Rulah", or "Zoot", one of the best-illustrated was known only as "Cave Girl"!

Beginning as a backup in the first issue of Frank Frazetta's Thun'da comic, Cave Girl was a little girl named Carol, whose explorer parents were killed by natives in the jungle they were mapping.
Before Carol could also be put to death, an eagle swooped down and took the child to it's nest.
There, the eagle and a wolf raised the girl to young adulthood, teaching her how to survive and communicate with other animals.
Though in the first couple of stories, the jungle was shown to be home to timelost creatures like sabretooth tigers and Neanderthals, by the time she got her own title, it was pretty much a generic jungle heroine strip...with one notable exception!
Legendary "good girl" and romance artist Bob Powell handled the art as Cave Girl cut a svelte path thru Africa's villains from backup feature in every issue of Thun'da to four exciting issues of her own title as well as a one-shot entitled Africa: Thrilling Land of Mystery!

This story from Magazine Enterprises' Thun'da #4 (1953) was written by Gardner Fox and illustrated by Bob Powell.

When next you see Cave Girl, it'll be her origin story (which was not her first published tale)!