Heroines

Friday, October 19, 2012

LADY SATAN II "Macabre Beginning"

With the success of Warren Publications' Vampirella, in the early 1970s...

...it was inevitable that another barely-clad anti-heroine would appear in a b/w comic magazine, where the Comics Code didn't apply!

But, this one was demonic, not vampiric...

This is definitely not the Golden Age Lady Satan!

From her first appearance in Skywald's Scream Magazine #2 (1973), the never-reprinted (and never-completed) saga of Satan's betrothed pushed the boundaries of both good taste and coherent storytelling.

Created by writer Al Hewetson and artist Ricardo Villamonte, Anne Jackson also made comics history as the first Black anti-heroine!

BTW, Skywald was also responsible for comics' first Black superheroine, ButterFly two years earlier, as detailed HERE.

Lady Satan (II) would make three more appearances in Scream and Psycho magazines before disappearing without a proper conclusion to the storyline.

Watch this blog for her later appearances...

Friday, October 12, 2012

SORCERESS OF ZOOM "Invasion of Bango & Zoda"

Here's the first Golden Age anti-heroine...

...who both helped and hindered mankind as the whim struck her!

And, she had a real knack for creating zombie slaves, as you'll see in this tale from Weird Comics #2 (1940)!

While this particular story has a timeless, "fairy-tale" feel to it, later chapters were firmly set in the then-present of the 1940s.

Credited to the nom-de-plume "Sandra Swift", this tale was illustrated by Louis Cazeneuve, who co-created Timely's Red Raven and produced almost 300 stories and covers in almost every genre during his ten years (1939-49) in the comics field.

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Friday, October 5, 2012

FANTOMAH "and the Super-Gorillas"

With Halloween around the corner, let's look at some weird heroines...

...beginning with the weirdest of all...the "Mystery Woman of the Jungle"...Fantomah!

As rendered by the...unique...Fletcher Hanks, Fantomah was the first comic book superheroine (as in heroine with super-powers instead of a costumed "normal" woman), predating Wonder Woman by a year, and the non-powered Woman in Red by a month!
This particular story, from Jungle Comics #4 (1940), was her third appearance, and one of the first really wild tales that read like drug-induced nightmares.
Hanks handled the character from her premiere in #2 to #15.
When a new writer and artist took over with #16, the character was immedately "toned-down", eliminating the skull-face look, and limiting her powers.
As of #27, she was rebooted as "Daughter of the Pharaohs", the queen of a lost civilization made up of descendants of an ancient Egyptian expedition stranded in central Africa centuries earlier.
Her series ended in #51 (1944).
Trivia: Despite being popular enough to run for several years in Jungle Comics, Fantomah never made the cover!

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

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Friday, September 28, 2012

HONEY WEST "Underwater Raiders" Conclusion

When Last We Left our Heroine...

Millionare Lewis Trent hires Honey West to guard the valuables aboard his yacht during a costume party thrown for his friend, aircraft designer Jack Bynner to celebrate his $200,000,000 contract with the US Air Force.

Armed frogmen board the yacht and steal the model of the prototype aircraft Bynner had on display, igoring the party guests' valuables!

When Honey and the police attempt to stop the pirates, the sinister scuba divers sink the police cruiser with a magnetic mine and make their getaway underwater with the model.

Unknown to the felons, Honey managed to plant a tracer on one of them...

Story for this never-reprinted, one-shot from Gold Key Comics (1966) by Paul S. Newman, art by Jack Sparling.
Anne Francis took instruction in Okinawa Te under Sensei Gordon Doversola for a couple of months before shooting began.
The TV series the comic is based on ran only one year and Anne Francis won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Emmy.
The Executive Producer of the show was Aaron Spelling, who later created Charlie's Angels.
The complete series is available on DVD in the US from VCI.
The British Region 2 DVD set from Delta Entertainment also contains the Burke's Law episode "Who Killed the Jackpot?" which served as a "backdoor pilot" for the character.
Most of the novels have been reprinted, and a new comic series is available from Moonstone Comics.
There's been talk of a feature film based on the novels, but it's currently in Development Hell.

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