Number 2449: Never ignore’a Namora

As I announced in my previous posting, Pappy’s Golden Age has gone to a two-a-week schedule, on Monday and Wednesday. And (mostly) there will be not as much to read in one sitting as you have done this past summer. Since 2020 has been the most unusual year many us have lived through, I am doing it mainly because I have opted to stay home and try my damnedest not to get sick. Mrs Pappy has done the same, so I have a live person and a cat to talk to. So far so good. Mrs Pappy is not acting like she wants to kill me...yet. The cat may be currently plotting murder, though.

Our first post under the two-a-week schedule is from Namora #1, a Marvel Comic from 1948. Two of the three stories from the issue are by Bill Everett.

I don’t know if anyone else has noticed one of Namora’s superpowers. It is to come out the water with her hair looking dry and styled.

Namora did not last long in the '40s; after three issues of her own title, and some appearances elsewhere, she disappeared until the '50s revival of Sub-Mariner.

This story has some Asian characters that some may find offensive. I have decided to show it, anyway, with this heads-up on racial caricatures.

Number 1110


My Mummy done tole me...


For some reason, despite her exotic beauty (supplied by the one-and-only Bill Everett), Namora didn't last for long. Why is that? It had something to do with timing, probably. About the time Namora was coming in many of the male superheroes of the Timely/Marvel/Atlas comics line, including her cousin Namor, the Sub-Mariner, were going on hiatus. We have a few Namora stories to choose from, anyway, so I've chosen "Doom In the Desert" from Namora #2, 1948 to show.

It's a mummy story, and any good Pappy loves a good mummy. I'm including an adaptation of "The Mummy's Hand" from 1965's Monster World #2. That magazine was a companion to Warren's Famous Monsters Of Filmland, also edited by Forrest J. Ackerman. There's an ad in this issue for Creepy #1, and I bought both of them from the newsstand.

I think the movie version of The Mummy's Hand needs more mummy and less comedy, but I believe adapter Russ Jones caught the essence of the film in just seven comic book pages. The story is drawn by Jones, the first Creepy editor, along with EC regular and later DC horror comics editor, Joe Orlando.

Number 753


I adore'a Namora


I love the sexy look Bill Everett gave to Sub-Mariner's cousin, Namora. In creating her it was assumed that comic readers knew Sub-Mariner's name is Namor, so they didn't name Namora "Sub-Marinette" or something silly like that. But speaking of silly names, according to Don Markstein's Toon-O-Pedia, Namora's real name was Aquaria Nautica Neptunia.

Namora, the comic book, lasted only three issues, and Namora, the character, a handful of appearances in other magazines, then again when the Sub-Mariner was revived in the early '50s. I was going to say Namora didn't have legs, meaning sustainability as a character over a long period of time, but looking at Everett's depiction of her...in a more important sense, yeah, she had legs.

This story takes place in an exotic Mexican locale with Mayan pyramids and Indians, away from the sea. As I said, I love Everett's sexy heroine, but he drew everything else well, also, mixing in the cartoony with the illustrative in a perfect blend: a masterful and distinctive comic art style.