Wednesday, March 28, 2012

JETTA OF THE 21st CENTURY "Jet Jaunt"

It's springtime...and more importantly, it's PROM time!
But, in teen humor comic books (even comics set in the future), things never go smoothly!
OK, maybe it's just as well that we of the real 21st Century still don't have flying cars...
As you might have guessed, Archie artist Dan DeCarlo was the illustrator for this tale from Standard Comics' Jetta of the 21st Century #5 (1952), which was actually her first issue!
(Issues 1-4 were a romance comic called Today's Romance!)
There's more about Jetta in an earlier post HERE.

Next week:
We haven't decided yet what it'll be, but we can guarantee that...
You'll Cry Your Eyes Out if You Miss It!
(Oh, you've heard that, eh?)
And now a word from out sponsor...

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

"Fury of the Femizons"

Rush Limbaugh whines about "Feminazis", but personally, I think he'd be turned-on by...
...as portrayed in this Women's Lib-era story from the b/w magazine Savage Tales #1 (1971)!
Written by Stan Lee and illustrated by John Romita, Sr,  this tale had an unusual genesis, as detailed on the editorial page...
Women's liberation.
It's all around us, be we male or female.
marches, intellectual treatises, picketing, bra-burning, some four-letter forensics, and more burnings–not always of bras.
"Women are the equals of men every day, in every way!'
Men are beginning to believe it.
Women always knew it.
So what happens if maybe we come the full circle in, say the next hundred years or so?
What if women turn the rascals out–and we do mean out!
What would we have then?
A better world? Perhaps.
A gentler world? Could be.
A different world? Believe it.
Stan Lee got to wondering-and, by and by, he set imaginative artist Johnny Romita to wondering along with him.
The result is, perhaps, something just a wee bit new under the sun.
Not quite sword-and-sorcery–certainly not science-fiction–and not exactly a political polemic.
Robin Morgan clobbers Buck Rogers in the 25th century!
Kate Millett zaps both Flash Gordon and Ming the Merciless–then takes over Mongo for good measure!
The hand that rocks the cradle really rules the world!
Today's look at the future...as seen from the past.  ;-)

Next week:
We haven't decided yet what it'll be, but we can guarantee that...
You'll Cry Your Eyes Out if You Miss It!
(Oh, you've heard that, eh?)
And now a word from out sponsor...
Support Small Business!

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

GOTHIC TALES OF LOVE

The hardest-to-find (and most expensive) Marvel romance title...
..is not a comic book, but this three-issue b/w magazine which featured both excerpts from then-current gothic romance novels and original short stories, illustrated by romance paperback illustrators, not Marvel Comics artists.
Published shortly after DC Comics tried and failed with their own gothic romance titles Sinister House of Secret Love and Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love, it took a different approach, but was no more successful.
The issues, when you can find them, run from $150 to $400 per issue!
Luckily, we've acquired scans of all three issues and want to run one of the tales here...but which one?
Below you'll find the contents and feature pages from all three issues.
Please have a look and post to the "comments" below as to which one you'd like to see, probably around Halloween.
Note: the only tale we won't run is the two-part "Strange Ecstasy", simply because it's too long to do in less than a week's worth of postings.
Trivia: According to the first issue's "Gothic Roundtable" page, "Strange Ecstasy" was scheduled to run three issues, but they managed to fit it into the first two!
#1
#2
#3
Please have a look and post to the "comments" below as to which one you'd like to see.

Next week:
We haven't decided yet what it'll be, but we can guarantee that...
You'll Cry Your Eyes Out if You Miss It!
(Oh, you've heard that, eh?)
And now a word from out sponsor...
Support Small Business

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

CAMPUS LOVES "They Said I was Fast"

Does Rush Limbaugh read comics?
He must, since this is how he probably sees college sex...
...like repressed readers of the 1950s!
In fact, I'd give odds there's more sexual activity in this story from Quality Comics' Campus Loves #2 (1950) than the elderly Rushbo has experienced in the past year...if not longer!

The art is by Bill Ward, who later became noted for risque work like this cover art...

 Now there's something I'm sure is on a shelf in Rush Limbaugh's personal library...

Next week:
We haven't decided yet what it'll be, but we can guarantee that...
You'll Cry Your Eyes Out if You Miss It!
(Oh, you've heard that, eh?)
And now a word from out sponsor...
Support Small Business!

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

DEAR LONELY HEARTS "So This is Love!"

This is not the typical way a 1950s romance comic story begins...
...but this tale from Dear Lonely Hearts V1N1 (1951) does have some predictable, even cliche, twists...
One date and he proposes?
And she accepts?
If she has a concussion, the writer doesn't mention it...
Speaking of which, we don't know the identities of either the writer or artist, which may be just as well since I suspect some of our readers would probably want to do them serious harm for their backward (even for 1951) portrayal of male/female relationships!

Next week:
We haven't decided yet what it'll be, but we can guarantee that...
You'll Cry Your Eyes Out if You Miss It!
(Oh, you've heard that, eh?)
And now a word from out sponsor...
Support Small Business