Number 2582: “The Golden Gladiator reigns supreme”

The Brave and the Bold was a comic book created as a wholesome entertainment for young readers, those who were now buying censored Comics Code-approved comics, that is. The idea was simple: create three feature characters for the title, make them historical. Even the Comics Code would pass a bit of historical mayhem. Golden Gladiator was one of the characters, along with Viking Prince and the Silent Knight. Of the three Golden Gladiator must not have attracted much attention, despite some excellent (as usual) dynamic artwork by Russ Heath. The Brave and the Bold #6 was the last appearance of the Golden Gladiator.

In this story from The Brave and the Bold #2 (1955), we are told that Golden Gladiator is good in the ring. We don't get to see the bodies piled up as entertainment, but we get the gist of it. Golden Gladiator’s girlfriend, Lucia, cheers for him, while her uncle, “Wily Cinna,” hates Marcus (the Gladiator’s real name).

I wondered if Attila the Hun and his hordes were around during the heyday of the Romans, and then read this online: “Attila the Hun was one of the most fearsome enemies that Romans ever faced.” For me, that is a history lesson in one simple sentence. What got my attention in the story was that Attila took on the Gladiator by himself, while surrounded by his own army, then kept banging with his sword an iron bracelet on the Gladiator’s wrist, which must have been given to Golden Gladiator by an ancestor of Wonder Woman.

Ed Herron wrote the story.

Number 2531: The Uncanny Heath

Recently I showed a Western story drawn by Russ Heath. Russ was very versatile as an artist. He drew stories from many genres, including horror comics. This story, “Meet Mr Jones” comes from Atlas’s Uncanny Tales #13 (1953). It has underwater scenes, something Heath did very well. (A decade later he would draw several issues of Sea Devils, a soaked saga of a group of divers whose business is to be underwater, fighting off monsters.)

This story has a couple of bad guys after sunken treasure, a violent murder by stabbing, and an electric chair. I don’t think Mr Jones’s true identity is any surprise, but at its least the story is dynamically drawn.

 

Number 2515: The cowboy and the artist

The internet biographies of comic artist Russ Heath say that his father had once been a cowboy, so young Russ took to admiring Western artists, especially Will James and Charles Russell. When he went to work as a comic book artist his first assignments were  in the Western genre.

Dale Robertson, actor, was born in Oklahoma, and was a cowboy. After his service during World War II (where he got the Purple Heart for being wounded on two separate occasions), he went to Hollywood and became an actor.

The two men, the cowboy and the son of a cowboy, crossed paths when Heath illustrated a Dell Four Color series comic book of Tales of Wells Fargo, a popular Western television show. The show starred Robertson, and was on the air from 1957 to 1962, for 202 episodes. They are still being shown today on at least one pay cable network and one nostalgia channel on basic cable.

Robertson had a presence as an actor; tall, handsome and as his war record showed, just shy of bullet-proof. He was mucho macho. Heath was perhaps one of the top comic book artists of the era after World War II, when he worked for Timely/Atlas, and then freelanced for many years, doing a lot of war comics, among others. Heath’s art style was dynamic. He had studied art, and he could draw. Robertson became an actor without studying acting.

Both Robertson and Heath are now deceased: Robertson in 2013, and Heath in 2018.

Gaylord Dubois, who also wrote the comic book Tarzan for Dell, wrote “Thunder Over Lost Soldier Gulch.”  

From Tales of Wells Fargo #1215 (1961):

Number 2404: Return from Mars

Such a day motorcycle cop Michael Reardon had. He chased a guy going too fast in an exotic car, and then ended up on Mars. He was also given the news that Mars was about to invade the Earth.

When this was published Mars was a place of the imagination. I am sure that science (without the fiction) knew that Mars was an uninhabited planet totally hostile to humans, but in comic books or pulp magazines it was still a fantasy planet where just about any tale could be told, even one as far out as this story. However, what I found most hard to believe about the tale is that Officer Reardon was allowed to stand in front of a bank of microphones and tell the Earth an invasion was coming from space. To me that is harder to believe than a motorcycle cop traveling to another planet in a Martian car.

For all that, it is well drawn by Russ Heath, and “Return from Mars” originally appeared in Atlas’ Journey Into Unknown Worlds #4 (1951), but is here from an IW reprint published in 1958, Space Mysteries #1 (1958).

Number 2185: Russ Heath, Kurtzman fan

Russ Heath was one of Timely/Marvel/Atlas’ top artists. He drew most everything, including stories for the Atlas Mad imitations.

In the splash panel of “Big Wheels” Heath gives a nod to Harvey Kurtzman, creator and editor of Mad, by using a little character Harvey used in his “Hey Look!” filler pages for Stan Lee.

(More “Hey Look!” at the Hairy Green Eyeball blog.)

As for the story itself, it could have used some help from Kurtzman. It appears that either Heath or whomever wrote it tried to jam as many jokes into each panel as space allowed. That stuff worked in Mad, but it seems a bit strained here. (Hey look! It’s just my opinion.) You might find it very funny. Heath did one story for Kurtzman at Mad: “Plastic Sam,” where he just basically inked in the figures Kurtzman drew in his script. Kurtzman liked it. Long after Harvey and Mad parted company, Heath worked at times with Harvey and Will Elder on “Little Annie Fanny” for Playboy.

From Wild #3 (1954):

Number 2131: Brothers with wings

I skipped over the dinosaur/ World War II combat stories DC did in the sixties. DC made a regular series of the idea. “The War That Time Forgot” was the overall name of the individual stories, and they must’ve appealed to many readers, because they kept churning them out. Despite my opinion other comic buyers thought differently enough to keep buying them. Because I didn’t buy them I missed artists like Russ Heath, who wasn’t concerned with how screwy the plot, he just turned in his usual beautifully illustrated job. And a bonus is the cover by Kubert.

Still, there is the trait in the stories of using repetition in comics edited and/or written by Robert Kanigher. Here it is the human, Tommy, raised Tarzan-like among the dino “birds,” with panel after panel of him talking to them and calling them, "My brothers with wings.” It gets annoying after awhile, you know?

The Grand Comics Database credits Howard Liss with the script. From Star Spangled War Stories #129 (1966).

This is a warm-up for the annual Thanksgiving Turkey Awards series, in itself repetitive and annoying. I am guilty of that also. Come back tomorrow.