Number 2433: Stuart Taylor says goodbye 1946, hello 1975!

“Stuart Taylor, Weird Stories of the Supernatural” was a silly feature from Jumbo Comics, played for laughs. I like a silly story as much as any other kind of comic...just go back a few posts to the story of the Deadlings.

I have sometimes forgotten what I have posted in the past, so I made sure to check that I had not shown this story before. What I found was that I had shown the Stuart Taylor story for Jumbo Comics #89, which preceded this. When those issues of Jumbo were published they were a month apart. In this case it took procrastinating Pappy almost 10 years to post the second part, from Jumbo #90 (1946).

The story is provided by the Iger Studios, who did most of the contents for Fiction House, if not all. Grand Comics Database credits Alex Blum with the artwork.

The link to the previous Stuart Taylor story; just click on the thumbnail.

Number 2201: Good girl Sheena

Sheena,  Queen of the Jungle, was very popular during the 1940s. Fiction House, the publisher, aimed its comics at men, specifically young men, who liked looking at cheesecake artwork. They got that with Sheena, who was the first of many under-clothed, well-coiffed and shapely jungle women who followed her.

I have been looking for information on Robert H. Webb (who sometimes signed himself R.H. Webb or even Bob Webb), the artist during the greater part of Sheena’s comic book existence. I just can’t find out much, not even when Webb was born or died, or if he is still alive. What I found out in an online article here is that Webb did penciling and layouts, but did not draw the figure of Sheena. WHAT!? And here I have always imagined some comic book artist, not particularly well paid and yet working hard, finding satisfaction in being able to draw sexy females on every page. As the article explains, Webb worked for the Jerry Iger Shop, and the pages went through various artists’ hands for the drawing and then inker David Heames would, as the article states, “ink over the entire strip to obliterate any discernible differences in the different artist’s [sic] styles.”

The page also explains the comic book term “Good Girl Art,” or GGA. I first read the term in the '70s, and it can be read two ways: one, the pictures are of good girls, or two, the real meaning, is the artwork featuring girls is good, and in that case good means sexy. The term caught on, and it caught on because it was used to describe pin-up covers and artwork featuring women like Sheena.

Our story today is from Jumbo Comics #82 (1945).

Number 2118: “Hot dawg! Ain’t I nifty?”

 I have seen many examples of stereotypes in old comics, including some really egregiously racist portrayals of African-Americans, and in this story, a “minstrel face.” Caucasian male ZX-5 is the face behind the make-up, in this tale from Jumbo Comics #101 (1947). Artist Jack Kamen used ink lines on the face for shading, and then the colorist added the brown color over the lines. It isn’t as bad as I have seen in other places, where the minstrel make-up is solid black, but it is still insensitive, a relic of its era.

I like when ZX-5 and his platinum blonde partner, Rita, go into their soft-shoe routine. It makes for an amusing two panels at the top of page 4. That ol' devil weed, marijuana, also figures into the story. The artwork shows that Jack Kamen, who later went on to EC Comics, could draw pretty girls, but his action panels always looked stiff to me.

Even after having shown two other ZX-5 stories,in 2008 and 2013, I still knew nothing of the character. I went to Public Domain Superheroes, where I lifted this:

Created by Will Eisner

Origin

Agent ZX-5 was one of the top US spies. He answered to his superior Major Jason, who gave ZX-5 missions around the world fighting the Axis powers during WWII. He would continually come into conflict with foreign spies such as Madame Terror. After the war, he goes on to become a private eye.

He was known for his charm and carried a trick cane with numerous buttons each with a different function such as one for tear gas.

ZX-5 gets a ringing endorsement from his boss in the next to last panel: “For the first time, I like you...you’re actually human!” Not only that, he had staying power. ZX-5 appeared in all 140 issues of Jumbo Comics.

Number 1532: What about Bob?

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:

Number 1451: Battlin’ ‘bots

I used to watch my younger brother playing Rock’em Sock’em Robots with his buddies. I was a little too old when they became a fad in 1964...I was way too mature. I’d sniff with derision at the youngsters’ juvenile antics in trying to knock each others’ robot heads off, then go in my room and read comic books.

The idea for fighting robots wasn’t new, and had been used in science fiction before. It was used as recently as Real Steel, a movie from 2011.

So, we have two roughhousing robot stories today: “Stuart Taylor in Tales of the Supernatural” is from Jumbo Comics #101 (1947), and the Robotman story, “The Battling Robots” is from Star Spangled Comics #81 (1948). Robotman is drawn by Jimmy Thompson, and Stuart Taylor is credited by the Grand Comics Database as being drawn by Jack Kamen.