Showing posts with label Marvel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marvel. Show all posts

Monday, December 20, 2021

Heroine Holidays PUSSYCAT "'Twas the Night Before Xmas..."

We presented this heroine's politically-incorrect premiere adventure HERE...

...but this tale never appeared in any Marvel publication!
(We'll explain later!)
Marvel Comics' first publisher, Martin Goodman, also owned several other magazines including For Men OnlyMale and Stag (predecessors to present day "laddie magazines" like Maxim, and Smooth).
One of the ongoing features appearing in them was Pussycat's strip, a non-nude clone of Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder's Playboy strip Little Annie Fanny with a secret agent theme (It was the 1960s, when James BondMan from UNCLE, et al, were phenomenally-popular).
In 1968, at the same time Curtis and Marvel tried a b/w Spectacular Spider-Man magazine, they issued a Pussycat one-shot featuring a number of the lady's already-published adventures!
Though the spy fad faded, the Pussycat strip kept going, with her now a ditzy working girl in PG-13 adventures such as this one from Curtis' FunHouse V2N11 (1980), written by Larry Lieber and illustrated by penciler Bill Ward and inker Jim Mooney.
(It had appeared several times before in the Curtis mens' magazine line, but this was the copy I managed to find.)

Tuesday, October 26, 2021

Halloween Heroines LADY LIBERATORS "Come On In...the Revolution's Fine!" Conclusion

...no, this hasn't occurred...yet!
The Wasp receives a mysterious message that directs her to a meeting in Avengers Mansion...but not with the Avengers, but a new group of heroines led by a mysterious woman named Valkyrie!
The team heads for Rutland, where four Avengers; The Vision, Black Panther, Quicksilver, and Goliath II, have already arrived to protect a local scientist with a top-secret invention from a planned kidnapping!
Arriving just in time for the Rutland Halloween Parade (which the professor is participating in) the heroes encounter the Masters of Evil, who are now on the verge of victory...
For the record, the Enchantress did survive.
Bad girls (and guys) have a knack for that sort of thing!
Written by Roy Thomas, penciled by John Buscema, and inked by Tom Palmer, Marvel's Avengers #83 (1970s) introduced the Rutland Halloween Parade into comics lore where it remained for a couple of decades!
At least one comic would set a tale at the parade every Halloween until the mid-1990s!
It's reappeared occasionally since then...
BTW, The Lady Liberators returned almost a half-century later, but that's a story for another time...

Please Support Heroines!
Visit Amazon and Buy...

Monday, October 25, 2021

Halloween Heroines LADY LIBERATORS "Come On In...the Revolution's Fine!" Part 1

The very first time the Rutland Halloween Parade (which features comic book characters) appeared in comics...
...was this tale, which didn't even mention the parade itself on the cover...or the fact it takes place on Halloween!
Keep in mind this was 1970, and the Women's Liberation movement was on the rise!
Actually, this sort of lab accident is a lot more common in comics than in real life.
And unlike in real life, in comics it usually results in this...
(Take everything the Valkyrie says with a grain of salt...)
Real-life Parade organizer and comics uber-fan Tom Fagan usually dressed up as Batman for the parade, but since this isn't a DC comic, they put him in the garb of Marvel's "evil Batman", NightHawk of the Squadron Sinister (itself an evil version of the Justice League)!
If you're too young to understand the reference to "Mrs Peel" who was part of the other Avengers, read HERE.
She's a heroine we'll have to do a post or two on in the future!
One other thing, the big guy is not Henry Pym, The Wasp's husband and the original Ant-Man/Giant-Man/Goliath/YellowJacket (don't ask) or Scott Lang/Ant-Man II, but Clint Barton aka Hawkeye, who gave up archery for awhile to become Goliath II.
He went back to being Hawkeye a year later.
Things aren't going too well for the superheroes!
So where are the superHEROINES?
Be here
as they make their decidedly-dramatic entrance!
Please Support Heroines
Visit Amazon and Buy...

Friday, February 16, 2018

The Women of BLACK PANTHER

Most comic book-based movies have one or two powerful female characters...
...Wonder Woman being the obvious (and only) exception...until now!
Black Panther has several powerful women...and amazing top-notch actresses portraying them!
Here are their filmographies (covering sci-fi/fantasy/horror/animation)...

Angela Evelyn Bassett
Queen Ramonda
BoJack Horseman as Ana Spanikopita
Nightmare Cafe "Sanctuary for a Child" as Evelyn 
A Man Called Hawk as Bailey Webster
Lupita Amondi Nyong'o
Nakia

Friday, June 7, 2013

ADVENTURES OF PUSSYCAT: "Merry Mixed-Up Miss"

Didn't know Austin Powers had a sister, did you?
Art by Bill Everett
Actually, he doesn't.
Marvel Comics' publisher, Martin Goodman, also owned several other magazines including For Men Only, Male and Stag (predecessors to present day "laddie magazines" like Maxim, King, and Smooth).
One of the ongoing features appearing in them was Pussycat's strip, a non-nude clone of Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder's Little Annie Fanny with a secret agent theme (It was the 1960s, when James Bond, Man from UNCLE, et al, were phenomenally-popular) added.
Enjoy her pulsating premiere tale from Male Annual #3 (1965) and reprinted in the one-shot Adventures of PussyCat #1 (1968), written by Stan Lee and drawn by Wally Wood and Bill Ward!
...for now!
But, Pussycat will return...

Saturday, December 8, 2012

MISS FURY "Origin"

She wasn't the first superheroine, but she was the first to be created by a woman!
Conceived, written, and illustrated by cartoonist Tarpe Mills (who dropped her first name "June" from her published credit), Miss Fury started life in 1941 as a newspaper comic strip.
Police and reporters initially referred to her as "Black Fury", but she called herself "Miss Fury" in notes attached to crooks she caught. (The name "CatWoman" was already in use!)
This particular version of the tale, which appeared in Timely's Miss Fury #1 (1942) was made up of those early newspaper strips pasted-up into comic book format, though the art for our story was taken from a 1970s reprint trade paperback which printed the story in b/w, rather than the comic's color.

Sadly, unlike most other adventure strips, there were no other spin-offs like movie serials, radio shows, or even a Big Little Book or two!
The newspaper strip ended in 1952, but Tarpe Mills continued to work as a comic illustrator for various publishers, including Marvel Comics!
Her last published work was a new cover for a graphic novel reprint of Miss Fury in 1979. She passed away in 1988.

Two items of note:
1) The panther hide didn't give her any super-powers, as such items tend to do in comics!
Marla was a gifted athlete, and, that combined with the visual shock value of the costume, enabled her to defeat foes. (ask another wealthy socialite, Bruce Wayne, about his similar, equally effective, strategy!)
2) Unlike most Golden Age heroines (Wonder Woman, Black Cat, Phantom Lady, et al), who seemed to wear skimpy swimsuits to battle evil, Miss Fury's costume totally covered her (but extremely tightly)!

This entry is part of our Retroblogs™ Masks Marathon, celebrating the new Dynamite comic series Masks which combines, for the first time, the major masked mystery men of pulps and comics including The Green Hornet, The Shadow, The Spider, Zorro, The Black Terror, The Green Lama, and Miss Fury (ok, a masked mystery woman), among others.
We'll be presenting more stories featuring these characters throughout the month of December.