The first character called "Ka-Zar" came from the pulps, but when Martin Goodman decided to publish comic books, he moved that character over to his very first, Marvel Comics #1. The first Ka-zar was a boy whose parents' plane crashed in the African jungle when the boy, David Rand, was only three years old. His mother, Constance, died shortly after of the fever, but his father, John, lived until he was killed by hostile natives when David was about 12 or 13. He learned to communicate with the animals and blah, blah, blah... When Lee and Kirby revived the character in 1965 it was a complete reboot, but it was the pulp adventures of Ka-Zar which inspired young Kevin Plunder to... but wait. I'm getting ahead of myself.
There has been talk on this board, from time to time, of someone starting a Ka-Zar discussion for as long as I have been a member. The 80th anniversary of the first appearance of the comic book version of the first Ka-Zar seems as good of a time as any to finally do so. Some of the earliest comics I acquired as backissues were the "King-Size" Ka-Zar reprint series and the issues of Marvel Tales reprinting the issues of Spider-Man in which Spidey met Ka-zar. when I was in high school I read Ka-Zar the Savage, and when I was in college I began collecting his early appearances, previous series and reprints via backissues. One of the latest of the early appearances I acquired was his very first from X-Men #10. Up until that time I had been pronouncing his name as I had since I was a child: Kuh-ZAR.
X-MEN #10 - p1
DAREDEVIL #12, 13-14, 24 - p2
TALES TO ASTONISH #95-98 - p3
SPIDER-MAN #57 - p4
HULK #109-111 - p4
MARVEL SUPER-HEROES #19 - p4
X-MEN #62-63 - p4
SPIDER-MAN #103-104 - p5
SAVAGE TALES #1 - p5
ASTONISHING TALES #1-18 - p5
ASTONISHING TALES #19-20 - p6
MARVEL TEAM-UP #19 - p6
SHANNA THE SHE-DEVIL #1-2 - p6
SHANNA THE SHE-DEVIL #3-5 - p7
KA-ZAR #1-2 - p7
DAREDEVIL #110-112 - p8
KA-ZAR #3-5 - p8
SAVAGE TALES #5-11 - p16
KA-ZAR #6-20 -
X-MEN #115-116 - p9
MARVEL SUPER-ACTION #1 - p8
MARVEL TEAM-UP #95 - p8
MARVEL TEAM-UP #104 - p11
MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE ANNUAL #6 - p11
MARVEL FANFARE #56-59 - p9
MARVEL FANFARE #2, 4 - p10
KA-ZAR THE SAVAGE #1 - p11
KA-ZAR THE SAVAGE #2-6 - p12
KA-ZAR THE SAVAGE #7-16 - p13
KA-ZAR THE SAVAGE #17-23 - p14
KA-ZAR THE SAVAGE #24-31 - p15
KA-ZAR THE SAVAGE #32-34 - p16,
AVENGERS #256-257 - p10
IRON MAN #202 - p10
X-MEN ANNUAL #12 - p10
Replies
Thanks, Jeff. It wasn't those, though: I didn't know them! I think the Green Lantern one is likely to have been the model for the Shazam! cover.
The Ka-Zar cover is visually close to The Brave and the Bold #141. It also reminds me of Action Comics #567 (which in turn recalls The Flash #165), but checking, I find that came later, as did the even closer Green Lantern #197. The creators may have been mimicking Thor #126, which does have Jane between the guys trying to get them to stop, although she's easy to miss.
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