Number 1240: Babes battling Blackhawk

I had fun in September showing four stories in a row from Fawcett, so this week I’m doing the same with the Quality Comics group. Make sure you come back and see what I’ve got tomorrow, Wednesday and Friday.

I wonder if there was a directive at Blackhawk Island? “Do not accept calls for help unless there’s a hot woman involved.” You’d think so from reading Blackhawk #95, where all three Blackhawk stories involve female villains.

I’ve showed several Blackhawk stories that use strong women villains. Since the comic book was aimed at male readers they probably wanted some sex appeal. That was kind of moot thanks to the Comics Code. They could show all the chicks they wanted to, they just couldn’t emphasize breasts or other feminine attributes. It didn’t stop them from using women as bad guys, though. A guy just had to use his imagination to visualize them in sexy, abbreviated costumes.

The stories are all written by Joe Millard, and drawn by longtime Blackhawk artists Dick Dillin and Chuck Cuidera.

From Blackhawk #95 (1955):

Number 1239: The inside joke

There’s an inside joke in this Steel Sterling story. Charles Biro wrote his buddy, Bob Wood, into the story as “Pig-Pan Wood.” His face, we are told on the wanted poster, “resembles that of a pig.” I wonder if Wood had any foreknowledge of this alleged joke, or what he thought of it.

About 15 years later Wood killed a woman in a hotel during an alcoholic binge. That tale is told in Blackjacked and Pistol-Whipped, Crime Does Not Pay. It’s an excellent anthology of lurid stories from the Biro-Wood edited Crime Does Not Pay comic book, which had its own nefarious history. These pictures of Bob Wood and Charlie Biro are from the book:

If anyone had a pig-pan it wasn’t Wood.

I found a real Pig-Pan — the resemblance is striking, you must admit — while surfing through some local mugshots. Yes, I entertain myself, not only by reading comics, but gawking at ID photos of people who end up in jail with their pictures posted on the Internet. The man whose photo this is was charged with “failing to register as a sex offender.”

From Zip Comics #11 (1941), by Joe Blair and Charles Biro:

Number 1238: Sea Devils sing-a-long with Circe

I was disappointed when artist Russ Heath left Sea Devils after issue #10. He and editor/writer Robert Kanigher had created the characters for Showcase, and after a brief tryout the regular series began in 1961. Heath, one of my favorite artists of all time, was the reason I bought and read the comic book.

This story, from Sea Devils #3 (1962), is one that sticks out in my mind from my original reading. In my adolescent eyes Circe was pretty hot, Comics Code or not. Wouldn’t you love to own the original art for the splash page or cover?

Something I like about Kanigher’s comics is that girls and women figure in, not just as eye candy but significant characters. Judy is a strong and resourceful woman, and of course the jocks she swims around with don’t appreciate her enough.

Number 1237: “. . . the one about the farmer’s daughter.”

I like a good dirty joke as much as the next guy. But I've heard the question, “Have you heard the one about the traveling salesman and the farmer’s daughter?” many times in movies, yet have never heard anyone tell an actual traveling salesman and farmer’s daughter joke. I didn't know there really were jokes about the traveling salesman and the farmer’s daughter.

The Farmer's Daughter #1 (1954) is interesting. This story is about the traveling salesman and the farmer’s daughter! Aha. Now we're getting somewhere. It’s published by Stanhall. Its indicia lists Adolphe Barreaux (“Sally the Sleuth” and various crime comic books) as executive editor, and Hal Seeger as editor. Hal Seeger, an animator, went on in the ’60s to create Batfink. A copyright notice in The Farmer's Daughter gives him the copyright for the book.

Paul Spector, in his apparently vacated blog devoted to his father’s work, Spectorphile, credits Irv Spector with writing and art on The Farmer's Daughter. A commenter to that posting said that title character Amy appears to be drawn by Bill Williams, who also did comic books for Stanhall, and later in association with John Stanley.

The head swims. The Farmer's Daughter, despite its racy-sounding premise, Amy's busty, bare-legged and barefoot cuteness, and its cast of very funny characters, was short-lived. It lasted four issues in 1954. Seeger created a couple of other short-lived comics for Stanhall with Oh, Brother, and G.I. Jane, both with art signed by Bill Williams. The comics all ended just about the time the Comics Code was implemented. Had they submitted The Farmer's Daughter to the Code it might not have passed, based on the storyline and dialogue, and one of the best punch lines ever in a mainstream comic book.