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Sunday, January 03, 2010


Number 660


Origin of Ibis


Ibis the Invincible ran as a backup in Whiz Comics from issue #2 in 1940 to #155, the last issue in 1953. He had his own book which appeared intermittently for a total of six issues from 1943 to 1948.

This is the origin of Ibis (Prince Amentep) from Ibis #1. The Grand Comics Database says Otto Binder was the writer but they have a question mark behind Pete Costanza's name as artist. It looks like it could be very early Costanza. Pete was an assistant to Captain Marvel's main artist C. C. Beck. Costanza's distinctive style became more prominent as time went on.

There's magic afoot in ancient Egypt. Princess Taia is struck by an arrow and appears to die, until Ibis is reassured his girlfriend was only "put to sleep for 4,000 years." Uh, is that 4,000 years exactly we're looking at, or is there sort of a span in there, a few decades to play with? Guess not. Ibis puts himself to sleep and after 4,000 years wakes up. Then all he has to do is wave his magic Ibistick and revive the sleeping princess.

Speaking of which, Ibis has been revived as a comic book character in the past few years.


















7 comments:

Peter Bernard said...

For the last two entries, it only allows me to download the images, not look at them in a browser window. Is this a conscious decision or a blogger.com weirdness?

Chuck Wells said...

Thanks for posting this tale of Ibis the Invincible. Despite being familiar with the golden age character, I had never seen it before.

As far as I'm concerned, you can forget what they've done with the updated "version".

Pappy said...

Peter, it could be because I have increased the width of my scans from 650 pixels to 700. I use Mozilla Firefox and when I click on a thumbnail it comes up in a separate window and I have to re-click on the scan to get the full size. The 650 pixel scans come up full-size.

Herbie #1 is 900 pixels wide, but that's the only one I've scanned that wide.

Chuck, I haven't seen the updated Ibis; I just read he'd been updated.

BEMaven said...

I'm pretty sure the sleep lasts exactly 4,000 years... unless you use the enchanted arrow after its freshness date has expired.

Good thing the lackey didn't have any of the regular lethal arrows within reach. They're like Craftsman Tools, guaranteed to last forever.

Mr. Karswell said...

I'm getting a pop-up too Pappy when I click your scans, it's asking me to save/open the image instead of just opening it in the browser as usual.

Cool story though, I particularly love the comfy position she's laying in in the first panel on page 8, haha

Peter Bernard said...

It's okay, I can download them and then look at them, I was just wondering. You have one of the best blogs going, I come here frequently.

Unca Jeffy said...

Nicccccccce. I am really getting into Fawcett Comics of late.

Thanks for the post, as always, this blog is one of my faves! Keep up the hard work!