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!

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JET DREAM "Achillies Heel"

Most of our audience doesn't read our "sister" blog...

...True Love Comics Tales™, so they missed this story featuring the all-woman crimefighting team that predated Charlie's Angels by almost a decade!

This short tale by writer Dick Wood, penciler Mike Sekowsky, and inker Frank Giacoia is from Man from U.N.C.L.E. #13 (1967).

Jet Dream and Her StuntGirl CounterSpies appeared in 4-page tales in the middle of the book from #8 to #22, then appeared in a book-length story in a one-shot comic.

It's never been reprinted, and very few of the stories are available on the Net...until now!

Besides the book-length tale we ran HERE and HERE, we re-presented the entire series, beginning with the premiere at our "brother" blog Hero & Heroine Histories™.

BTW, you really should check out True Love Comics Tales™ since it features many of the same artists and writers you'll find here (including legendary good-girl artist Matt Baker), and lots more beautiful women!

(We won't tell anyone you were looking at "girls' comics"!

We promise!)

 

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ADVENTURES OF PUSSYCAT: "Merry Mixed-Up Miss"

Didn't know Austin Powers had a sister, did you?

Art by Bill Everett

Actually, he doesn't.
Marvel Comics' publisher, Martin Goodman, also owned several other magazines including For Men Only, Male and Stag (predecessors to present day "laddie magazines" like Maxim, King, 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 Little Annie Fanny with a secret agent theme (It was the 1960s, when James Bond, Man from UNCLE, et al, were phenomenally-popular) added.
Enjoy her pulsating premiere tale from Male Annual #3 (1965) and reprinted in the one-shot Adventures of PussyCat #1 (1968), written by Stan Lee and drawn by Wally Wood and Bill Ward!

...for now!

But, Pussycat will return...

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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!

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TIFFANY SINN "Espionage: Muscle Beach Style"

In the 1940s, it was Senorita Rio!

In the 1950s, it was UnderCover Girl!

Here's their 1960s counterpart in her final appearance from Charlton's Secret Agent #10 (1967)!

Written by Dave Kaler, who also wrote the Steve Ditko-illustrated Captain Atom series, and illustrated by Jim Aparo, who would become the primary Batman artist of the 1970s and 1980s, this was the last of only three stories about private eye-turned-secret agent Tiffany Sinn.

Interestingly, her first two appearances were in Career Girl Romances!

(Well, being a detective is a career...)

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

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JET DREAM "D-Day for the Generalissimo" Conclusion

When Last We Left Our Heroines...

The Stunt-Girl CounterSpies are sent to an unnamed Central American country to keep the democracy-loving Generalissimo Romero Sanchez alive as he returns from America and regains control of his country from the Commies as the land's democratically-elected president.

However CIPHER, the international organization of evil, wants the present government to remain in power and will do anything to prevent the president-elect from returning.

While attempting to secretly fly the politician home, the team's aircraft are ambushed.

Jet Dream and the Stunt-Girls repel the attack, but it's obvious someone in the Generalissimo's entourage is a traitor who tipped CIPHER off!

Who?

Jet suspects Sanchez's right-hand man Felipe, when she notices his glasses don't have prescription lenses, but he acts blind-as-a-bat without them!

Writer Dick Wood and illustrator Joe Certa finally had 30+ pages to play with in this never-reprinted one-shot comic, and took advantage of the extra length to expand action sequences (which were usually abbreviated in the 4-page stories), and give play to individual members of the team.
BTW, to see the complete Jet Dream series, click HERE!

Tomorrow:

We were going to bring you the one-shot Silver Age Tiger Girl.
Instead, we're going to present a story that was told three times...with three different women as the heroine!
Confused?
It'll all make sense tomorrow!
(BTW, you'll still see Tiger Girl in a few weeks.)

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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!

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