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.

Visit our

Comic Collectibles Store

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!

Visit Our

Comic Collectibles Store

UNDERCOVER GIRL "Jeopardy in Jade"

When you're Starr Flagg: Undercover Girl, danger lurks everywhere...

...and no one is to be trusted, as shown in her third appearance, where she goes, without backup, into tropical danger.

Illustrated by Odgen Whitney, this story from Magazine Enterprise's ManHunt #3 (1947) is typical as the very self-sufficient Starr handles the situation without being bailed out by a male associate.

Be here next week, when we present another tale of classic comic grrl power!

Visit Our

Comic Collectibles Store

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)! 

Visit our

Comic Collectibles Store

UNDERCOVER GIRL "Puzzle of the Picture"

Spies have always been popular in fiction.
Girls have always been popular in fiction.

So, it stands to reason that girl spies would be popular in fiction, right?

With the notable exception of Modesty Blaise, female secret agents have not been able to hold the spotlight, despite several attempts to crack the glass ceiling of spydom including Senorita Rio and Miss Espionage, both of whom we've presented in this blog!

In comics, the 1950s Undercover Girl series from Magazine Enterprises was probably the best of the femme-spy genre.
Featuring art by luminaries like Odgen Whitney, Bob Powell, Gil Kane, and Dick Ayers, the series detailed the exploits of government agent Starr Flagg against spies, saboteurs, and criminals.
Starr could shoot and fight as well as any male agent, but could also play helpless and innocent to throw the baddies off-guard...until she could kick serious butt!

Beginning with the tale presented here from the first issue of the anthology title ManHunt, Starr Flagg's adventures were a regular feature during the book's run.

In fact, she was popular enough to receive a three-issue run of her own title (with reprinted stories, but new covers).

But, when Magazine Enterprises folded, UnderCover Girl disappeared from the newsstands.

She wasn't even in the recent Project SuperPowers series by Alex Ross, which revived almost every non-DC or Marvel character from comics of the 1940s-50s!
We hope you enjoyed her debut story from Magazine Enterprise's ManHunt #1 (1947) as illustrated by Odgen Whitney.

Be here next week, when we present another tale of classic comic grrl power!

Visit Our

Comic Collectibles Store

BLACK PHANTOM "Sheriff Satan"

She started out as a villainess, but became a heroine...

...and discovered that it was dangerous to be a masked woman in the Old West no matter what side of the law she was on!

Debuting in the Red Mask strip in Tim Holt #25 (1951) as the leader of a gang of train robbers, she eventually reformed and becoming Red Mask's crime-fighting partner as well as appearing in her own strip.

In fact, Black Phantom was popular enough to be given her own one-shot comic in 1954, from which this story was taken.

You may note that this story, written by Gardner Fox and illustrated by Frank Bolle, has a lot of "panel bursting" effects.

That's because it was done during the heyday of 3-D comics, but publisher Magazine Enterprises didn't want to pay the license for the red/blue 3-D effect used by numerous other comic companies, so they had their artists do a pseudo "three-dimensional" effect by extending art elements outside panel borders, then promoted it as "3-D in Full Color".

Support Small Business

Visit our...

Black Phantom

Comic Collectibles Store