Number 2156: Congo Bill in the jungle of dinosaurs

Congo Bill was a longtime second banana character for DC. I remember him from the fifties when he palled around with Janu, the Jungle Boy. (Here we go again, with grown men and young boys going on adventures together.) Quoting Wikipedia: “Congo Bill was a long-running DC Comics adventure comic strip, running in various DC Comics titles from 1940 until Action Comics #248 (January 1959), when Congo Bill was transformed into Congorilla (the title of the strip was likewise changed). The Congo Bill strip was a standard adventure strip, often reminiscent of Alex Raymond's Jungle Jim newspaper strip.”

I like gorillas, but I drew the line at Congo Bill becoming a gorilla. Even at the tender age I was in 1959, I knew this was a non-starter of an idea, so I dropped Congo(rilla) Bill from my reading list.

This earlier story, from before Janu the Jungle Boy showed up, is from Action Comics #40. This 1941story has a science fiction slant. No gorillas, but dinosaurs. Fred Ray, who drew it, was one of DC’s top artists, working on Superman covers and later doing a long stretch on Tomahawk. I am not vouching for any dinosaur details being correct in this story, but it is a breezy six-pager. For being a guy who survived for years in the back pages of DC Comics, Congo Bill lasted quite a long time, even if he did end up a gorilla. Someone must have had a sentimental attachment for him.

Number 1466: Jurassic Tomahawk

This past September I showed a story of frontier adventurers, Tomahawk and his young friend, Dan, fighting pirates. In Tomahawk’s era there would be a possibility he could meet a pirate...but not a dinosaur. Still, this story is about just that. Tomahawk and Dan wander into a lost valley full of prehistoric creatures.

When this story takes place (date given is 1769), dinosaurs had not yet been discovered as an extinct species. It would take another 80 years, according to “Early Dinosaur Discoveries in North America”, where it is said:  “It is generally accepted that the first discovery of dinosaur remains in North America was made in 1854 by Ferdinand Vandiveer Hayden during his exploration of the upper Missouri River.” To be fair to the Tomahawk writer, one caption mentions dinosaurs, but Tomahawk never calls them that. Still, he does know that the giants are critters of another time.

It reminds me of the basic premise of Turok, Son of Stone. Turok and Andar were two pre-Columbian Indians who stumbled into the lost valley of dinosaurs, and couldn't find their way out. Who knows? Maybe it was the same valley.

From Star Spangled Comics #83 (1948). Drawn by Fred Ray.

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In later years Tomahawk encountered all kinds of crazy stuff: aliens, dinosaurs, supernatural creatures, etc. You can find an especially oddball Tomahawk story from the mid-'60s which I featured in 2010. Just click the picture.

Number 1439: Tomahawk under the black flag

Tomorrow is the annual Talk Like A Pirate Day, so practice your best Robert Newton Long John Silver impression, and holler “Yarrrr!” and “Arrrrr mateys!” at work or school tomorrow. Everyone will love it. NOT.

I never need a reason to show a story about pirates, but it seems more appropriate today to feature Tomahawk and Dan, the buckskin Batman and Robin, and their encounter with buccaneers. Pirate Cap'n Henry Gannon makes Tomahawk walk the plank! Yarrrr!

From Star Spangled Comics #80 (1948), with artwork by the fabulous Fred Ray. To demonstrate how fabulous, look at that splash panel.

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Clicking the thumbnail will take you to Tomahawk’s first appearance in Star Spangled Comics.

Number 1050


Veteran's Day 11/11/11


Today is Veteran's Day in the U. S., honoring all who have served in the armed forces of the United States. That's a lot of veterans, and includes me.

For the occasion we've got a couple of special war stories, one story from Our Army At War #8, 1953, written by Robert Kanigher and drawn by Irving Novick. It's in the form of the original art taken from the Heritage Auctions site. I also took the other story from Heritage, which harkens back to an earlier era of conflict. It's from the next-to-last issue of Tomahawk*, #139, 1972, written by Bob Haney and drawn by Fred Ray. Ray, who had drawn Tomahawk for years, was an expert on the Revolutionary War period, and looks like he could handle the Civil War period, also.

These stories are dedicated to my fellow veterans, and to those serving now. Thanks to all of you!


















*The cover logo says Son of Tomahawk.

Number 848

The runner-up

Tomahawk #107, from 1966, is the runner-up to tomorrow's 2010 Thanksgiving Turkey Award, when I present the most oddball comic book story I've read all year. I immediately picked up on the cover, a giant purple gorilla with headband, feather, bow and arrow. I felt this was a good candidate for the award.

Tomahawk (Tom Hawk), raised by Indians, began appearing in Star-Spangled Comics in 1947, and in his own comic in 1950. As Don Markstein writes in Toonopedia.com:

. . . all through the late 1950s and early to mid '60s, Tomahawk fought gigantic tree men, miraculously-surviving dinosaurs, mutated salamanders, and other menaces that seem somehow to have escaped the history books. There was even a giant gorilla among them, and putting a gorilla on the cover was also a contemporary trend at DC.

At the time I just didn't find these contrivances very interesting. Until the last few years, that is, when I started reading some of the crazy DC comics I'd completely skipped over during my Marvel Comics phase of the early to mid-'60s.

Two DC veterans did the story, France "Eddie" Herron wrote it, and longtime Tomahawk artist, Fred Ray, drew it. The reason it isn't the 2010 Thanksgiving Turkey Award winner is because during this era of DC Comics you could point to many of their comic books and find something as goofy as this. Come back tomorrow to see the winner.