Number 2468: Into the catacombs you dirty rat!

“A Lovely Night in Paris” is far from lovely. It is a horror story where a woman gets kidnapped by some little red monsters and taken deep into the catacombs of Paris. It is a love story in the making, as a handsome gendarme follows her and her captors underground.

Joe Gill wrote the story, and Tom Sutton drew it. Despite the artwork seeming rushed it is very dynamic: deep shadows, monsters, a beautiful woman and a brave gendarme.

And it has a bondage cover. I am only a bit surprised that the Comics Code let that go by. It had been 20 years since all of the foofaraw over comic books brought on the Code. At some point in the '70s the Code started to lighten up by approving comics they would not have approved in the past. Comic book buyers were getting older, and I have also heard the Code became relaxed because of television, and how much sex, violence and swearing was allowed by TV network censors. By then nobody in the larger outside world cared what happened in comic books.

Back to this comic book. The story is from Ghostly Haunts and was originally published in 1974 by Charlton. This edition was published in 1978 by a promotional company called Modern Comics. I read they were reprinted to be sold three to a bag. In the '70s I bought some Modern Comics one at a time (no bag) from an F.W. Woolworth store. Woolworth is now out of business, as is Modern, but I assume one had nothing to do with the other.

From Ghostly Haunts #41 (1978 reprint of 1974 issue):

Number 2103: Blackhawks on the moon

Blackhawk and his band of buddies volunteer to fly to the moon, and set up camp. They will be waiting for a group who will stay on the moon permanently. If that isn’t incredible enough, they appear to be helping a pair who look like V.I. Lenin and Albert Einstein. That is just the kickoff for one of the goofiest Blackhawk stories I have read, presented in Modern Comics #99 (1950). On the moon the Blackhawks meet two hostiles from a non-democratic nation (the word "communist" is not used), Zorak (has a beard) and Telga (beautiful female spy).

Among the plot elements of this goofball tale, the bad guys have a make-up kit with which they disguise themselves as Blackhawk and Chuck (Telga as Chuck).

I assume that this lunar lunacy was “inspired” by the George Pal movie, Destination Moon, which was heavily hyped in early 1950 before its release in August of that year. Life magazine had an article about it in its April 24 issue.

Grand Comics Database is not sure of the artists, but they guess the pencils are by John Forte and the inks are by Chuck Cuidera.

Number 1973: Queen Torchy

Oops! Torchy can’t resist the impulse to try on an ancient Egyptian queen’s clothes — and yikes! what clothes! — and turns on the wrong guys, who see in her the reincarnation of their ancient queen.

This funny, beautifully drawn (mis)adventure of cute, sexy Torchy, is early in the series. It was the fourth Torchy story published, appearing in Modern Comics #54 (1946). The artwork is by Torchy’s creator, Bill Ward.

Number 1401: Blackhawk and Torchy

These two stories are from the next to last issue of Modern Comics. The title had changed from Military Comics, and it was in issue #1 that Blackhawk was born of World War II. The character and his gang survived the war, and became international troubleshooters and soldiers of fortune. [SPOILER ALERT: The Blackhawks also came up against plots where some fantastic trickery is involved, including this one where a spaceship and creatures from outer space are faked. Stories like these ignore the costs of such deception, which include creating and building, and in this one, the technology involved in making functioning robots with built-in microfilm cameras. Even if such a plot were to work the end result could not be worth what has been put into it. We accept the ridiculous flim-flam because it's a comic book. Just sayin'. END OF SPOILER] The artists are unknown to the Grand Comics Database, but William Woolfolk gets the nod for the script.

I’m also including the Torchy story from the issue. It’s drawn by Gill Fox. Torchy is fooled by an antique word and comedy results. The word, “gaiters,” I didn’t know, and I spend a lot of time with my nose in old books. See, comics can be educational as well as entertaining.

From Modern Comics #101 (1950):