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):

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The Haunted Ghost / Specter's Revenge

We're just a few days away from the release of Haunted Horror #1, the new comic book series of precode reprints from IDW / Yoe Books, (in stores 10/10/12), co-edited by Craig Yoe, Clizia, and myself. And in the meantime, the classics keep coming atcha here at THOIA with a double shot from one of my favorite artists, the seriously underrated King Ward. Ward's unique, atmospheric style, clever framing, and odd angles puts him in a different league than most of the other more static, traditional ACG artists of the era. His nightmarish monsters and spooks are always truly creepy and evil, and in the less disturbing story moments I really love the way he playfully poses his characters (panel 1 on page 3 of the first story is a good example of how to make two people merely sitting there look interesting.) From the Dec '51 issue of Advs. into the Unknown #26, and the Feb '52 issue of Advs. into the Unknown #28.

IN STORES 10/10/12

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S176. The Power House Gang

Here is the just completed Sunday Phantom story. Here is the original link from Emile who shared the story with us.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/yzd64c

Enjoy,

Venkit.

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Underneath the Juniper Tree (FUNDRAISER)

Friend and fellow Ghastly Award judge Bree Ogden, and co-hort Rebekah Joy Plett, have recently initiated a fundraiser for their spectacular online horror magazine Underneath The Juniper Tree, a non-profit labor of love that supports new and budding artists and writers, with an aim to not only tantalize and terrify children and adults alike, but to also promote the most creatively fantastical and darkly neurotic literature out there!

The goal here is simple: raise funds to showcase the best, most amazing writers and artists since UTJT started by printing an anthology of favourite pieces-- and this is where YOU come in.

Click HERE! to find out more, and about how you can help. There are also plenty of donation perks available to make your generous experience "underneath" even more magically macabre!

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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:

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