Bob is some kind of unlucky guy, or maybe he’s just dumb...or maybe he plans it to prove Sheena’s love for him...but I’ll be damned if he doesn’t get in a lot of messes that force her to rescue him. In this case he’s being rescued from a witch doctor’s daughter who gives him a choice of being with her or being stomped by an elephant. I know what my answer in that situation would be, but Bob is more noble than that. Sheena is his woman, and besides, she rescues him at least every month in
Jumbo Comics. Bob, who likes a strong woman, will stick with Sheena.
The witch doctor’s daughter appears to revive the dead, but she apparently also has the power to change her skin color. The splash page and end of the story show her as Caucasian, in the rest of the story she’s not. Did anyone check the colorist’s work before it went to the engraver? That is an editor’s job.
From
Jumbo Comics #83 (1946), drawn by Robert Webb:
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More Sheena here. Just click on the thumbnails:
I think what happened is that the writer messed up by devising a story in which white-skinned Sheena had to impersonate dark-skinned Dema, which may have led to the colorists' confusion about whether the natives of Dema's tribe were dark or white. The problem could have been surmounted either by the old "berry juice" solution or just having the tribe be the usual bunch of white jungle savages, but nobody cared that much about detail.
ReplyDeleteWebb's art is really cool, though. He deserves a greater reputation for his yeoman work on SHEENA.
Okay, so … I don't know 'bout you, but I don't have a life-sized Daniel doll ready in case Colonel Moran decides to take a pot-shot at me. Did Sheena know about Bob's Sheena doll and where he kept it?
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, how does Chim get away with ripping Sheena's disguise from her, while Bob is in the dog-house simply because some dame made eyes at him?
Gene, I believe your explanation is probably the answer to the coloring screw-up, but it is the job of an editor to catch these errors before they go to press. Maybe it just didn't matter to anyone, and that lack of attention might have been another serious problem.
ReplyDeleteDaniel, you should always take your life size simulacrum with you, as I do with mine. I never know when I'll be attacked, and my Pappy doll is handy to divert attackers and give me time to get out of danger's way.
ReplyDeleteEditors in 40s comic caring about the end product? Oh Pappy, to be so old but so naive :)
ReplyDeleteJokes aside, a lot probably cared about their work, but more just needed to get the product out the door in a timely fashion, and a colorist mistake could really set back the schedule.
And Bob, I've never been one for rigidly defined gender roles, but man up! There's a weird subtext in this one about a guy who is so in demand that women are jealous just because he got kidnapped, but in the end, seems to have all the women turn on him (death by elephant or the cold shoulder.) A little insight into an unsuccessful dating life for a writer?
"Old but so naive."
ReplyDeleteBrian, you cut me to the quick.
And yes, you are correct about getting the product out the door, and on the presses, which were reserved. "OK, we have Jumbo Comics scheduled for Friday at 10:00 a.m." And if the issue is late, the plates haven't been made and can't be printed the publisher pays anyway for missing an appointment.
But dating life of the writer, I dunno. I believe most of Fiction House's stories were written by hard-working, fast-typing Ruth Roche, who worked for the Iger shop.
Yup, I recall an article on Planet Comics in "All in Color for a Dime." One issue had a story called "Kenny Carr of the Martian Lancers" that obviously was drawn for one of the other FH books (Fight or Rangers) but had some lettering changes to half-heartedly turn it into a SF story, probably because "an artist missed a deadline or someone was just feeling cute that day."
ReplyDelete" I believe most of Fiction House's stories were written by hard-working, fast-typing Ruth Roche, who worked for the Iger shop."
ReplyDeleteYeah, I actually thought the last line of the story was fairly clever, in that Sheena was giving Bob a hard time even though he hadn't done anything. That seemed a quintessentially feminine way to act. A guy who felt threatened would probably just get pissed off.
Gene, you may be opening yourself up with the female readers of this blog for your "quintessentially feminine" remark, but I've been the target of such treatment as you describe from women. Not with Mrs. Pappy though, who puts up with my behavior. Any woman who has never read a comic book in her life who can stand 45 years with a comic book man will not otherwise disturb the delicate balance. Nor will I.
ReplyDelete