Number 1605: Cave Girl and the Amazons

Cave Girl, as recounted in Don Markstein’s Toonopedia, had an interesting origin. She and her parents were in a part of the African jungle they shared with neanderthal men and prehistoric creatures. Cave Girl’s name was Carol, and grew up without her parents, who were killed. At some point the prehistoric setting was dropped for more standard blonde jungle goddess types of stories, much like many of the other comic book jungle women. She had her own comic and appeared as a backup in Thun'da, King of the Congo as well, so as they say in showbiz, her character “had legs.” Literally. Artist Bob Powell, who could draw pulchritudinous females as well as anything else, did a good job on Cave Girl. But while physically attractive, story-wise she wasn’t particularly distinguishable from all of the other beautiful women who swung through trees.

In this tale, from Cave Girl #13 (1954), she mixes it up with some Amazons who are beating up on the local native tribesmen. We’ve seen this all before, but I don’t care. I have kind of a thing for jungle stories and jungle girls.

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Number 1580: Powell surprinted

Artist Bob Powell took some chances with the crummy reproduction of most comic books by including things like the surprints in both these stories from Weird Thrillers #3 (1952). A surprint is created by inking a drawing on a separate sheet of clear acetate, then using it as an overlay on the primary artwork, where it is photographed separately. It was then engraved onto the blue plate, and printed without the usual black lines around it. Sometimes in the printing process if the pressmen weren’t paying attention or didn’t care, the surprint got the bad end of bad printing. But here the surprints show up well.

The other thing I’ll mention is that with some editing (like changing a panel of a man run over by a car), either of these stories would have fit comfortably into a post-Code comic book. They aren’t horror stories as we usually think of them.

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Number 1526: Foul Powell

Bob Powell and his studio had such a recognizable style it is easy to spot their work, no matter the genre. Some of my favorite Powell stories are from the horror comics of the early '50s, where they drew some of the foulest monsters and creepiest characters in the comics. These two stories are from Ziff-Davis’ Eerie Adventures #1 (1951) (The only issue, title dropped to avoid legal trouble with Avon, who also published a comic called Eerie).

There should be some sort of award for understatement in “The Vampires from Venus.” Two brothers rescue a manlike creature from the swamp. The thing is fish-belly white and has cat eyes. One of the brothers says to the other, “Jake, there’s something weird about this guy.” (Hey! you think?!) Yet Jake replies, “Don’t be silly! He’s just a little shaken from the crash.” People in horror comics can be so damn dumb it’s no wonder horrors happen to them.

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Number 1508: Scarlet Arrow makes his “bow”

If this Scarlet Arrow origin story was a 1947 movie instead of a comic strip it would be a programmer, a B-movie. It would be a made on a low budget without “A-list” actors. I'd give it credit for good costume design for the hero, but the unimaginative script would doom it to the bottom of a double bill at a neighborhood theater. Since it’s a comic strip and not a movie, I’ll give it credit for being drawn well by artist Bob Powell and his studio assistants.

The Scarlet Arrow didn’t make the comic book world “quiver” (ho-ho); he lasted for a couple of issues of Black Cat. This story is from Black Cat Comics #5 (1947):

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Number 1472: Spirit of the thing...

We’re finishing up our Week of Quality with an early Spirit Section, the 16-page newspaper supplement that Will Eisner produced for Quality Comics publisher Everett “Busy” Arnold. At some point in its 12-year life the Spirit Section became copyright by Eisner, but in this early example Arnold held the copyright.

This section, dated July 14, 1940, was the seventh to appear. It’s early enough that the Spirit has his flying car. I think Eisner made a wise move when he dumped that silly gimmick.

Chuck Mazoujian drew ’Lady Luck.” According to some biographical information Mazoujian left comics when he went into the service during World War II. After the war he went into teaching painting and figure drawing at Pratt Institute. Later Mazoujian went into illustration and commercial art.

Bob Powell did “Mr. Mystic” and had a long career in comic books.

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