Number 509


Cathy the Cat Girl


Mrs. Pappy, whose name is Sally, went on a collecting binge a few years ago, finding and buying anything with the name Sally on it. Among the other stuff she found she bought a 1975 Sally Annual from the UK. She liked the cover, but she opened it, saw comics, and closed it right back up. I've told you before about the balance in the Pappy marriage. I love comics, she hates them.

I took a look and found this cute 4-page duotone strip featuring Cat Girl, who is Cathy, a prepubescent girl with a cat suit that gives her the agility of a cat. The story is as fluffy as my own cat; it's also unsigned, as is everything else in the Sally Annual. But it gives me an excuse to show you some other stuff about Catwoman, who we all know. These are panels from Batman #35, by Bob Kane.


Here's a babe in a Halloween costume who could trick or treat at my house:

Here's a photo called "catsuits" my son sent me last year. He knows what his Pappy likes:

I dunno if those are really catsuits, but I like the picture and wanted to share.

Number 508


Blackout


Origins of superheroes can be so silly. Consider some of the chemical accidents that happen to turn those guys into superheroes...or nuclear explosions...or gifts from alien beings. Might as well say a magic word like "Shazam," because it makes as much sense.

Dr. Basil Brusiloff of Belgrade, Yugoslavia, is in on one of those big explosions, in this case working in his lab when the Nazis bomb the place. It turns him into a hairy ebony black guy who can fly. We can even see his hairy bum in the last panel, so is he wearing pants? It's probably no wonder that he only showed up in Captain Battle #1 in 1941, #3, and #5, and #5 was a reprint of #1. The scans for this story come from that reprint issue, dated Summer 1943. Artist Don Rico signed the strip in the last panel.

Blackout was created for Charles Biro and Bob Wood by George Roussos, because Roussos was an assistant to Bob Kane on Batman, and Biro wanted a bit of the Bat magic to rub off. At the same time, Jerry Robinson, another Kane assistant, created London for them. Blackout never hit the big time. Maybe it was the hairy bum. Even in the superhero world where logic does not rule Blackout seems more odd than most.

Number 507


Puglyon's Crypt


I always liked Ramona Fradon's artwork; she worked on the Aquaman backup strip in the 1950s and into the early '60s, then drew Metamorpho. The last work I saw by her was on Super Friends in the 1970s. I thought she had one of those great old-fashioned styles, solid drawing and cartoony exaggeration when necessary. This story, from House of Secrets #116, February 1974, is one where that exaggeration plays a part. It doesn't look all Fradon to me, more like a collaboration of Fradon and Jerry Grandinetti. If it is then Grandinetti isn't credited, or maybe it was just Ramona being influenced by his style. Writer David Michelinie plays on the Poe-esque premature burial idea, but why set the story in 1923? I dunno. It's a good story, though. It observes Pappy's First Law of Horror Comics: "The main character shall be as awful and unredeemable as possible, to justify his horrible fate." Yet it is Code approved. By the early '70s, after twenty years and the rising age of comic book readers, the Code was backing down from prohibiting horror themes.

Number 506


Readin' is important


I haven't shown a Superkatt* story before; this is from Giggle Comics #54, June 1948. Dan Gordon was another of the group of moonlighting animators who provided the funny animal strips for Giggle and Ha Ha Comics. They didn't write down to their young readers. For the most part these comics were probably bought and read by parents to young children, but because of the skill level of the artists the comics are raised to a level where parents could also enjoy reading them.

I loved the cucumber gag on the first page. My dirty mind saw something the artist probably didn't intend. Oh well, it's funnier to me the way I see it.

*I have no idea what makes this "katt" super.

Number 505


"...Behind the Horror Story Comics Books!"


Friday I showed you my favorite Al Feldstein story. EC Comics had a big part in popularizing the forbidden horror comics we all love, and also did their part to bring about the Comics Code and cause the industry to crash and burn.

In 1956 Lunatickle #2 published "The Horrible Comic Story Behind The Horror Story Comic Books!" I think any fan of horror comics would love to know the true story behind Sam Grisly and his ECHH Comics. Even as satire this is probably closer to the truth than what was reported in newspapers at the time, told as it was by ex-EC writer Jack Mendelsohn and drawn by former Harvey Comics horror artist/art director Lee Elias.

Elias drew things like this when he worked on horror comics:

The "Horrible Story" was also reprinted in EC mega-fan Roger Hill's EC Fan-Addict Fanzine #1 from 2004.


Lunatickle was a Mad imitator that lasted two issues.

Elias, who did the cover, was joined by Bob Powell, Joe Kubert, Mike Sekowsky, Andru and Esposito. Unfortunately, that spark of genius that permeated Kurtzman's Mad in 1956 was nowhere present in Lunatickle and probably contributed to its short shelf life.