Thursday, January 26, 2012

SPECTACULAR ADVENTURES "Slave Girl"

Today: One of the most politically-incorrect stories you'll read this year.
Racist.
Misogynist.
Sexist.
But back in the 1950s, it was good, clean, harmless fun.
In 1950, St John Publishing experimented with different formats to increase sales.
One of the ideas was a magazine-sized comic called Adventure with some risque (but not obscene) material and lots of two-page spreads that would be racked on newstands with magazines rather than comics.
Think of it as a predecessor to the graphic novels of today.
The first issue was cover-titled Adventures in Romance.
We've presented several stories from it on our "sister" blog True Love Comics Tales™.
The second (and final) issue, cover-titled Spectacular Adventure, was more men's magazine-oriented, with high-adventure tales (including this one) set in exotic locales and featuring femme fatales.
Art by Warren King, but the writer is unknown.
Be back next week for another tale your grandparents didn't want your parents to see!

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Tuesday, January 17, 2012

REFORM SCHOOL GIRL

One of the defining comics in Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent was...
...but the book is so rare that we're presenting the b/w 1989 reprint!
(Our copy of the 1951 1st edition is "slabbed".)
Ironically, this story is a case of Fredric Wertham totally-overdoing the hyperbole, like he did with Teen-Age Dope Slaves.
It's actually a fairly moralistic tale featuring an innocent girl who stops just short be being led astray, then reforms, and ends with a wholesome, "happy" ending.
The writer is unknown, but the art was by Ric Estrada.

Join us next week as we present another tale your grandparents didn't want your parents to see!

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Thursday, January 12, 2012

Mister Mouse Meets Peter Max

From the Funky '40s to the Psychedelic '70s...
Click on the art to enlarge
...with this reality-bending short tale, illustrated by the legendary Wally Wood, that appeared in Peter Max Magazine #1 (1970).
Wow! How "Age of Aquarius" can you get?  ;-) 
It's a little bit off the beaten path for us, but, since it relates to stuff parents disapproved of, including implied drug use, I decided to go with it...
Join us next week as we present another tale your grandparents didn't want your parents to see!
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Thursday, January 5, 2012

DOCTOR HORROR

No, not Doctor Horrible, played by Neil Patrick Harris...
...but a much weirder character who made only one appearance...but what an appearance!
If this had been produced in the 1960s, I'd say the artist had gotten some bad weed before producing the latest issue of his underground comix.
In fact, it appeared in 1941's Captain Battle Comics #2, illustrated (and probably written) by Don Rico and read by impressionable young kids throughout America!
Publisher Lev Gleason had already introduced comics' first major super-villain, The Claw, in Silver Streak Comics, and it's possible he posed the suggestion to his artists that they come up with something to top The Claw.
Or, it's possible that with a deadline looming and pages to fill, Gleason assigned Rico to come up with a story in a very brief time frame!
We'll never know the answer.
But that shouldn't stop you from enjoying this startling story!
Join us next week as we present another tale your grandparents didn't want your parents to see!

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