PRE-CODE CLASSICS: CAVE GIRL VOL. 1
Collecting Cave Girl #1-4 (1953-54) and stories from Thun'Da #2-6 (1952-53).
If you've read any 1950s Sheena, then you pretty much know the story here, as Cave Girl is basically a clone. But what Sheena didn't have that Cave Girl does is Bob Powell. This book is regarded as his best "Good Girl" art, and it is. There's nothing salacious, but Cave Girl has mighty fine form. I enjoyed this book for the art alone.
Naturally, Cave Girl is incredibly racist, just like all 1940s and '50s jungle comics. Native Africans wear grass or animal-skin skirts, throw spears, live in log "kraals" and straw huts, and are superstitious and almost childlike. That wasn't true at the time, and probably never was.
One oddity is that the writers didn't seem familiar with Africa. Distance is meaningless -- characters talk about crossing the border to Kenya, and then a page later are in Johannesburg. It's more than 2,300 miles from Nairobi to Johannesburg and the implication is they walked there. Maybe the writer only knew a couple of African place names, with no idea of their relative proximity. In all these stories, everything is either in "Kenya" (civilized) or "Congo" (jungle). There don't seem to be any other places in Africa. (I'm guessing the writer thought Johannesburg was in Kenya.)
Also, between Tarzan, Sheena and Cave Girl, I'm surprised panthers weren't wiped out in the '50s, since our heroes are forever jumping on their backs and stabbing them to death with knives. They were the "bad" animals, I suppose.
And here's another fun part: weird '50s numbering!
Cave Girl issues #1-4 are also A-1 #82, A-1 #96, A-1 #116 and A-1 #125. A-1 was a long-running (139 issues) anthology at Magazine Enterprises with different features, much like Dell's Four Color. But if you search the GCD, Cave Girl #1-4 pops right up, with the A-1 numbering in brackets. That doesn't happen in Four Color searches, where the changing features all retain their Four Color numbering, which were nevertheless "counted" if the feature went to series. That is to say, if you looked up Roy Rogers' Trigger, you would find Four Color #329 and Roy Rogers' Trigger #2-17. Meanwhile, if you look up Bob Powell's Complete Cave Girl (Dark Horse, 2014), it says the stories are reprinted from Cave Girl issues #11-14 (which do not exist).
Also weird: Cave Girl got her start in another title. She was introduced in "The Ape God of Kor," the fourth story in Thun'Da #2, co-starring with Thun'Da and Pha, his girlfriend, and was awarded a back-up strip in Thun-Da #3-6. As you can probably guess, Thun'Da issues #1-6 are also A-1 Comics, issue numbers 47, 56, 63, 73, 78, 83 and 86.
But that's not the weird part. What's odd is that the five stories from Thun'Da chronologically preceded Cave Girl #1-4, but are located in the back of Pre-Code Classics: Cave Girl. They should have been in the front (and knowing this, that's how I read them). Maybe they just wanted to lead with the better material.
Meanwhile, there are still four more Cave Girl stories left unreprinted, from ME's Africa (a 1955 one-shot). I don't know why they weren't included here, and they're not enough for a Volume Two. I'm curious to see if they'll make it to (re)print. Maybe Cave Girl Vol. 2 will be Africa #1, and fleshed out with Thun'Da or some other jungle queens.
BLACKHAWK VOLS. 4-5
Collecting Blackhawk #21-30 (Oct 48-Apr 49)
I don't think I reviewed the first three books in this series, but that's OK, because all these Blackhawk stories are pretty much the same. The Blackhawks get called in to take care of some kind of uprising or knavery, which they eventually outfight or outsmart, with most of the serious derring-do reserved for Blackhawk himself. The Magnificent 7 do occasionally use handguns, but prefer fistfights.
There are many twists in this formula, so it's not boring at all. I find myself breezing through these collections rather pleasantly, despite the vaguely unsettling geopolitics. (With a few exceptions, Blackhawk is nearly always on the side of the local authorities, who are presented as champions of their people. Yes, we expect Blackhawk to take the side of the good guys, but why are the good guys usually the hereditary or traditional rulers? It's like backing the Shah of Iran.)
But while the stories are passably entertaining, it's the art that puts Blackhawk #9-27 into must-read territory. Many of these stories are drawn by Reed Crandall, and you will believe seven guys in black leathers can be visually interesting! The travel porn and aircraft are nice, too, in Crandall's hands.
Crandall usually draws the cover and at least one story, sometimes two, per issue. When he's not at the art table, it's usually Jack Cole (Plastic Man), Paul Gustavson ("Angel" for Timely) and "Good Girl" artist Bill Ward (Torchy). Wally Wood even contributes a story.
After issue #27 Crandall goes off to EC Comics (can't fault him there), and the book falls into lesser hands. Although Chuck Cuidera returns to ink some of those lesser hands, which include John Forte. Also of note, Blackhawk drops from 52 pages per issue to 36 with issue #24, so the PS Artbooks collections jump from four issues to six issues with Vol. 5.
And, while these stories might not hold up today as plausible war/espionage tales, they were probably head and shoulders above anything else for an older comics reader in the late '40s and early '50s. I've often vaguely wondered why Blackhawk had such longevity, and I think that's the answer.
BLACK MAGIC VOLS. 2-3
Collecting Black Magic Vol. 1 #5-6 and Black Magic Vol. 2 #1-6 (Jun/Jul 51-May 52).
I was genuinely entertained by the first collection of the Simon-Kirby effort, but familiarity is breeding -- not contempt, but less enthusiasm.
For one thing, I've come to realize that most of these stories aren't really very scary. I would classify them as "suspense" more than horror. And sometimes it's not even that -- some stories are of the "Well, isn't that interesting" variety, and some just kinda trail off. GCD doesn't know who wrote these tales, but I feel like the same sensibility is behind them, like maybe Joe Simon's (at least as editor). These stories are pre-Code, but could easily pass.
Worse, there's a lot less Kirby! I don't know what else Kirby was drawing in 1952, and you know it was a lot of something, but it wasn't a lot of Black Magic. He does covers, occasional splash pages, some two-pagers and the like. Mort Meskin shoulders most of the load, and while he's OK, he's no Kirby. Meskin will have one or two stories per issue, while the rest are penciled and/or inked by journeymen like John Prentice, Bill Draut, George Roussos and -- I should have seen this coming -- Meskin impersonator Jerry Grandenetti.
I'm not as disappointed as this sour review would indicate: Black Magic, like Blackhawk, is head and shoulders above its competition. I just want more Kirby! There are still a lot of issues before Simon and Kirby leave for Mainline in 1954, so there's hope for a little more of the King's magic before the curtain closes.
PS ARTBOOKS PRESENTS: CLASSIC SCIENCE FICTION VOL. 2
Collecting Captain Rocket #1 (1951), Attack on Planet Mars #1 (1951), Flying Saucers #1 (1950), Robotmen of the Lost Planet #1 (1952), Space Man #1253 (1962).
There are two big draws for this book: Joe Kubert and Wally Wood. Neither are at the top of their game, but it's always nice to see old friends.
Kubert draws the entirety of the four-chapter, 27-page Attack on Planet Mars, a one-shot from Avon. That was pretty ambitious in 1951.
So is the story. It's narrated by Jac Hallen of Inter-Allied News (so right away you have to swallow your suspension of disbelief in that newspapers still exist in a future where we've colonized Mars and Venus). Anyway, the bad guy tries to start a war among Earth, Mars and Venus through selective assassinations. (There are, preposterously, natives on both Mars and Venus that are involved as well.) His name is Tarrano, so I blame his mother for giving him a name that will lead to attempting tyranny over three planets. (I assume her other son is named "Hitler.") Anyway, he's supposed to be a tragic figure of some kind, in that he occasionally allows people to live he really shouldn't, because he's in love with the lead chick. Is that a spoiler? So be it.
I'm pretty sure I've already read this story, but where I couldn't say.
Flying Saucers (one-shot from Avon) is the Wally Wood contribution. The main story is a 21-page, 3-chapter epic where the twist is that the Flying Saucers in the headlines in the '50s were from underground, from a race that almost died out eons ago due to developing the atomic bomb. The remainder had been in suspended animation ever since, and when they were awakened, started zooming around to see what race had supplanted them.
Wood's underground men are basically just bug-eyed, green men with antlers. He'll do better Subterraneans in T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents.
Captain Rocket #1 (and only, from P.L. Publishing) has pretty nice art throughout from artists the GCD doesn't identify. Captain Rocket, a trouble-shooter for Earth's "governing councils" has two adventures (and a text piece) with his sexy assistant Argo. The science is so outdated as to make this book, like a lot of '50s sci-fi, laughable.
"Space Falcon," a Robin Hood of space, has dialogue like this: "Clever article. Wise to my Robon-Men. This Vaco-Tube'll fix him!" His sidekick is named Tubby, because he's tubby. Well, the art's nice.
"Aurora of Jupiter" wraps up the book, a feature which wants to be Bill Everett's Venus. But whoever this guy is, he's no Bill Everett. He tries hard, though.
Robotmen of the Lost Planet (Avon one-shot) is another story I feel I've read. Maybe it's because the robots look like big babies with antennae sticking out where their eyes and ears should be, vaguely resembling the Martians in Attack on Planet Mars. It's another epic -- 22 pages in three chapters -- in which mankind is driven into caves and woods by a robot revolt. Somehow man -- because he's so awesome, as we're occasionally reminded -- somehow gins up the tech necessary to beat the robots while living in caves and woods and wearing animal skins for clothes. The artwork is by journeyman Gene Fawcette, and isn't anything to write home about. It's bettered by the short back-up, "Cargo from Mars," which has a 1920s adventure comic strip look to it.
Space Man (Dell) is numbered 1253, because it's really that issue of Four Color. (The indicia just says "Space Man #1253," though.). A heroic astronaut and his sidekick (also an astronaut, but clearly a teenager) are recruited to help fight off the Garrok-Axos of Alpha Centauri, whom we never see. Jupiter and Mars have been fighting them (in flying saucers) for an unspecified amount of time (we don't see them either), and they want Earth to start building saucers and training astronauts/fighter pilots to join the fight. Which (spoiler) they agree to do.
The art is by Jack Sparling, one of my least favorite artists. Dell launched a Space Man title after this (beginning with issue #2) with the same characters and artist, so maybe we actually see Earth build those ships and train those pilots.
Replies
CAVE GIRL: I did not buy this one because I already bought Bob Powell's Complete Cave Girl published by Kitchen Sink Press (an imprint of Dark Horse Books) in 2014 (as well as Bob Powell's Complete Jet Powers in 2015). The contents are listed as Thun'da #2-6, Cave Girl #11-14, and Africa, Thrilling Land of Mystery #1. I'm not sure how this jibes with your research, but I'm standing pat in any case. I read the stories back then and remember them pretty much as you describe them.
EDIT: I suspect that your Cave Girl #1-4 are probably my Cave Girl #11-14. Mine are numbered on the covers, so check yours. Africa, Thrilling Land of Mystery #1 includes four stories, so my Bob Powell's Complete Cave Girl is, in fact, complete.
BLACKHAWK: Her's another PS Artbook series I passed. I read the early Blacjhawk stories (from Military Comics #1-17) when they were published in DC Archive format (back in 2001) and they didn'r do anything for me. Besides, PS Art is releasing them exclusively in their "softee" format, and I collect only the hardcovers.
BLACK MAGIC: I have all of Black Magic I need reprinted in the "Simon & Kirby Library" so, again, I gave this series a pass. I am not running out of shelf space for my books (and floor space for my shelves); I have run out. That makes it (relatively) easy for me to pass on volumes, especially dupes, the completist in me yearns to buy. Same with Konga and Gorgo and a couple of others as well.
CLASSIC SCIENCE FICTION v2: This one I do have, but I haven't read.
His name is Tarrano, so I blame his mother for giving him a name that will lead to attempting tyranny over three planets.
Still not as bad as "Simestro."
Space Man (Dell) is numbered 1253, because it's really that issue of Four Color.
That's amazing.
The art is by Jack Sparling, one of my least favorite artists.
Agreed.
QUESTION: When are you going to get around to Dick Briefer's Frankenstein in one of these PS Roundups? That's the one I've been waiting for you to get to.
The GCD attributes the script of Robotmen of the Lost Planet to Walter Gibson. He was the main writer of the Shadow pulps.
An altered version of first chapter of the story appeared in Skywald's Nightmare #2 titled "The Massacre of Mankind!" According to Nick Caputo the art changes were by Bill Everett. They included redrawing of the robots.
Comic Book Plus's version of Robotmen of the Last Planet has a different backup, ''An Accident in Devil's Gorge Lab!" Perhaps there was another version with "Cargo from Mars", or it might be in the Artbooks reprint because it was used to back the lead story up when it was reprinted in Strange Worlds #19.
The GCD attributes the art of both backup stories to Gerald McCann, which was my guess. He drew stories for Dell's Ghost Stories in the 1960s, including the memorable "The Black Stallion" from Ghost Stories #1.
I did not buy this one because I already bought Bob Powell's Complete Cave Girl.
So you've already read Africa #1 and I haven't! No fair!
I suspect that your Cave Girl #1-4 are probably my Cave Girl #11-14.
You are right and I am wrong, as GCD says issues #11-14, and so do the covers. I saw what I expected to see, I guess, or write it off to old man vision.
Which raises another question: Why did Magazine Enterprises go with those numbers? What are the (implied) first 10 issues? Since all these comics are technically A-1 Comics, they could skate on the second-class mailing permit. Tis a puzzlement.
I read the early Blacjhawk stories (from Military Comics #1-17) when they were published in DC Archive format (back in 2001) and they didn'r do anything for me.
Blackhawk debuted in Military Comics in 1941. Blackhawk didn't start until 1945. The art and writing on the eponyous series are considerably more sophisticated. Especially with the second issue (#10), when Reed Crandall climbs on board. But it might not be your cup of tea no matter how pretty it is.
I have all of Black Magic I need reprinted in the "Simon & Kirby Library" so, again, I gave this series a pass.
I have the Completist Disease, as you know, so I will read them all. Pray for me.
I am not running out of shelf space for my books (and floor space for my shelves); I have run out.
Same.
Still not as bad as "Sinestro."
For all we know, "Sinestro" means "handsome champion" in Korugarian. Then again, it might mean "future supervillain" as it would in Engish, in which case Sinestro's mom is the most evil villain of them all.
Space Man (Dell) is numbered 1253, because it's really that issue of Four Color.
That's amazing.
I've just discovered I've got two volumes of Space Man in my to-read piles. I imagine they start with issue #2, but you have to wonder why PS Artbooks split off issue #1 -- excuse me, #1253 -- into an entirely different series. No, wait, I don't have to wonder. They just didn't understand the numbering, which is understandable. And there must not be a single editor approving the books.
QUESTION: When are you going to get around to Dick Briefer's Frankenstein in one of these PS Roundups? That's the one I've been waiting for you to get to.
I’m glad you said something! I have been deliberately postponing those! I haven’t read the other volumes, and figured when I began Frankenstein I’d read it to the end. That was a huge chunk of time I didn’t want to invest while I had so many other stacks of random, unknown material to plow through.
I will now, just as soon as I’m through with all the horror/suspense books. And I almost am.
I'd start right away, but I genuinely don't know what I have and don't have because I've got the read books upstairs in the Comics Cave, and all the unread books downstairs in at least three to-read stacks in the bedroom. I need to get them all in the same room, so I can see what I have. I keep making mistakes in ordering because I don't know what I have, and going from memory has turned out to be a bad idea! Also, we're about to remodel the "master" bathroom, so I'm going to have to move the downstairs books anyway.
But Frankenstein soon, I promise.
The GCD attributes the script of Robotmen of the Lost Planet to Walter Gibson. He was the main writer of the Shadow pulps.
That's interesting! I don't know why I didn't look that one up, but I didn't.
Comic Book Plus's version of Robotmen of the Last Planet has a different backup, ''An Accident in Devil's Gorge Lab!" Perhaps there was another version with "Cargo from Mars", or it might be in the Artbooks reprint because it was used to back the lead story up when it was reprinted in Strange Worlds #19.
I suspect you're right, because I've already discovered various stories showing more than once, not only in different books, but sometimes different companies. PS Artbooks doesn't seem to police this at all, and reprints entire books even if parts of them are reprints that they've already reprinted elsewhere. I'm pretty sure I've read both Robotmen of the Lost Planet and Attack on Planet Mars in other places. I can't say for sure if it was in a PS Artbooks book or not, but I've read 'em more than once.
The GCD attributes the art of both backup stories to Gerald McCann, which was my guess. He drew stories for Dell's Ghost Stories in the 1960s, including the memorable "The Black Stallion" from Ghost Stories #1.
A new name (to me) to watch for! Thanks!
The indicia of the Avon issues was on the inside front cover, so working from a coverless copy you might get issues mixed up.
Avon comics often had an attractively illustrated teaser/index page on the inside front cover. Everett Raymond Kinstler did a lot of these. The Robotmen of the Lost Planet one was by Mort Lawrence.
The reprint had the same text story. My guess is the other story was run because the issue had fewer ad pages. ("'An Accident in Devil's Gorge Lab!" is three pages, "Cargo from Mars" six.)
The teaser page of Robotmen of the Lost Planet has Lawrence's signature. The story is unsigned, and the GCD's attribution is to Fawcette. But the art looks a lot alike, and I've found similar faces in other stories with Lawrence's signature, so I think the "Robotmen" story is his.
In Strange Worlds #7 the lead story has Fawcette's signature, and it has a cleaner look. "The Robotmen" story is a bit muddy. I take the latter look to be Lawrence's. The art of the two stories is otherwise quite similar, so it could be the same party - possibly Fawcette - laid out or pencilled both. I don't have an opinion.
(edited)