Number 1257: Jet Powers and the three million-year-old men!

This is story one from Jet #2 (1951), written by Gardner Fox, and drawn by the Bob Powell studio.

I first saw this comic in its reprint form, Jet Power #2, in 1959. It was published by IW Comics (“IW” stands for Israel Waldman) as Jet Power #2, and sold  at my local grocery store in a three-for-25¢ pack of comics. Years later I managed to buy all four of ME's original Jet issues. I've hung on to them as sentimental favorites for over thirty years. I have scanned and shown these previously, but am in the process of re-scanning and re-presenting them.

As with everything else I do, there's no guarantee of when I'll show them. I gets to ’em when I can; in the meantime enjoy this fast-paced time-travel adventure.

Other re-scans are from Jet #1, and can be found in Pappy's #1127, Pappy's #1141 and Pappy's #1198.

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A Really Big Shoe

Superman gets emphatic at the UN:

This refers to a famous supposed incident when Nikita Kruschev, then ruler of the Soviet Union, supposedly banged his shoe on the desk in anger during a debate at the United Nations. This was, as several sources note, an iconic and comic moment, one that was commonly satirized during the 1960s. But according to the NY Times, it may have never (quite) happened:

Did he or didn't he? A KGB general remembered that Khrushchev banged the shoe rhythmically, "like a metronome." A UN staffer claimed Khrushchev didn't remove his shoe ("he couldn't have," she recalled, because the size of his stomach prevented him from reaching under the table), but it fell off when a journalist stepped on his heel. The staffer said she passed the shoe wrapped in a napkin to Khrushchev, after which he did indeed bang it. Viktor Sukhodrev, Khrushchev's brilliant interpreter, remembers that his boss pounded the UN desk so hard with his fists that his watch stopped, at which point, irritated by the fact that some "capitalist lackey" had in effect broken a good watch, Khrushchev took off his shoe and began banging. When I talked about Khrushchev to veterans of his era in Washington, one eyewitness confirmed the banging. But another eyewitness confirmed the nonbanging. A third, who said he'd been standing several feet behind the premier, insisted that the heel of the hand that held the shoe slammed the desk but that shoe never actually touched it.

So we may never know if Kruschev actually banged his shoe or not. Superman? Hey, it's there in living color.

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Number 1256: Babe the Boody-cutey

It's time to bring back Boody! Boody Rogers, a cartoonist whose stories were not only well drawn, but funny and bizarre. This is a good example. “Babe and the Dying King” is a comical situation that is as strange as it is hilarious.

Hillbillies were in during the 1940s, seen in movies, novels and comic strips, so why not a funny hillbilly comic book? Babe Boone is the female L'il Abner Yokum. Her parents are even “Mammy” and “Pappy.” The comic book lasted for eleven memorable issues, and produced some classic stories. Some of those stories (along with examples of Rogers' Sparky Watts and Dudley) can be found in Boody, the Bizarre Comics of Boody Rogers, edited by Craig Yoe, published by Fantagraphics in 2009. Boody is still available from the usual outlets, including Yoebooks, Fantagraphics, or even your favorite comic book store if they will be nice enough to order it for you. It gets my highest recommendation.

From Babe #3 (1948):

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Dungeon of Doom!

Had a request for this classic Vic Donahue tale from the March 1952 issue of Chamber of Chills #6. It was originally featured here back in August 2007 (along with the rest of this entire great issue), but I thought I'd share it again for those that missed it the first time around, as it is definitely one of the finer, more gruesome examples of 50's Harvey horror... I'll begin with new posts soon!

Two of THOIA's favorite followers, Blaise & Mim, have been with us since the very beginning... I'd like to thank them again for the great Tales of Terror postcard book they were so kind to send to me for Halloween! It's kind folk like this that keep THOIA going! XOXO

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Number 1255: Tarzan and the tyranno

Some poor dinosaur wanders out of the lost world of Pal-Ul-Don, yet another area of Tarzan's Africa containing critters or civilizations hidden from everyone else. Tarzan's pal, Raoul, while sleeping outside (without a mosquito net, I might add) first sees the behemoth lumbering past Tarzan's tree house, and the chase is on.

I feel sorry for the dino, who was just doing what a hungry Tyrannosaurus (or “Garth” as they are known in Pal-Ul-Don) does. He's grabbing a bite to eat wherever he can: a steer, a hippo... He scares some humans (including some who die in a vehicle wreck). But jeez, he couldn't read the signs, could he? “You are now leaving Pal-Ul-Don and entering Tarzan country.” The dinosaur is not the only one in unfamiliar territory. When Raoul reports it to his superior officer he is almost arrested for being mentally ill!

“Nightmare in the Jungle” was written by Gaylord Dubois and drawn by Jesse Marsh. Marsh had done another dinosaur assignment in '60, when he did the movie adaptation of Dinosaurus! for Dell. You can find that full-length comic in Pappy's #1160.

The incredible cover was painted by artist Morris “Mo” Gollub.

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