Judomaster - Meet The Tiger!

Judomaster #93 is dated February 1967. The story and art are credited to Frank McLaughlin and Dick Giordano is credited as the editor. 

The story "Meet The Tiger" picks right up where the last issue ended. Judomaster and the young Japanese-American boy Rip Jagger has dubbed "Tiger" are on in the middle of a bombing raid scheduled by the Allies six hours after Judomaster entered the lair of The Smiling Skull, a Nazi spymaster. During a hand-to-hand battle with the Skull, Judomaster has been blinded by intense light. The scene shifts to a military hospital where Rip Jagger is in bed with his eyes bandaged. Around him stand Bushiri his trainer, Suzi his beloved, General Hawkings his commander, and the boy "Tiger". Rip is understandably depressed by his apparent blindness and requests solitude. Everyone leaves save the boy who overhears his hero bemoan his fate and confess he is of no use in the war effort anymore. The boy is heartbroken and confronts Rip calling him a coward then running away. He then goes to General Hawkins and volunteers to take Judomaster's place despite his age. Hawkins at first rejects him, but then thinks that making Rip think that Tiger is in fact going to replace him might snap Judomaster out of his depression. So Hawkins arranges with Bushiri for Tiger to go the island and begin training. Rip awaits the day the bandages come off and he is informed of Tiger's new role. The scene shifts to Tiger's training which lasts many weeks. Suddenly Judomaster appears and announces that he is back, his eyes have healed and he has a mission to take out an enemy gun site. 

Tiger having finished his training is given a costume similar to Judomaster's by the Sensei and the team of Judomaster and Tiger is born. They head to the island where the enemy gun is located accompanied by Bushiri and his marauders. They stealthily prowl the enemy lines, climb a great cliff and while Bushiri's men provide a distraction they attack the giant gun with Judomaster fighting the troops and Tiger placing the explosives. The gun explodes and both Judomaster and Tiger dive from the high cliff into the sea. Judomaster is picked by Bushiri but Tiger is picked up by a different boat, one containing Judomaster's old enemy The Mountain Storm. At this point the story ends. 

 Another feature is "The Kiai Shout" a two-page piece by McLauglin detailing the value of the shout during combat not only in judo but other forms such as fencing. 

 The Sarge Steel story by Joe Gill and artists Bill Montes and Dick Giordano in this issue is File 111 "Case of the Devil's Wife". Sarge Steel is driving through town and comes under gunfire by a pursuing car. He shoots back with special explosive ammunition and disables the enemy's car. He heads to the airport to meet Ambassador Bruyden but is met by a beautiful redhead who gives him a kiss which paralyzes Sarge. Meanwhile the woman and her accomplice take the ambassador away in a wheelchair. When Sarge recovers he and another agent Lowell Cade check into the woman and Sarge learns she is called "The Devil's Bride" and that she is an accomplished international blackmailer. Sarge threatens some other enemy agents with rough treatment if they do not give him the Devil's Bride's location but when he returns to his own apartment she is waiting. They struggle but her perfume paralyzes him again and he is taken by helicopter to an island estate where he finds Ambassador Bruyden who is carrying an explosive attache case. Sarge takes the Bride hostage but the guards prepare to release guard dogs on him as the story abruptly ends. 

"Flips and Counters with Judomaster" features two pages and five lengthy letters. There is another by famous fan Bill Schelly and several that applaud the development of Judomaster and the addition of a letters page to the Charlton comics. And the idea of "Action-Heroes" is specifically referenced by Giordano as he talks about how Charlton wants heroes without powers (save for Captain Atom who has at this time been de-powered quite a bit) with an emphasis on training and equipment. This according to Giordano gives the line a great logic across the board, and a great realism. Giordano also talks about the advantage an artist has when he also writes a comic such as McLaughlin or Pete Morisi (PAM) and how much of Marvel's success was due to Jack Kirby. 

This is a really outstanding issue of Judomaster. After several issues of preparation Tiger is at least unleashed on the reader and the series finally arrives at its mature state. McLaughlin's artwork is in top form at this point and Giordano's work on Sarge Steel is excellent. The sense of Judomaster being part of a larger Charlton Universe is enhanced by a wonderful house ad featuring the "Action Heroes". This is certainly one of Charlton's peak periods.

This comic was reprinted under the Modern imprint in the 1970's. 

To read the complete comic book go to this link. 

More Judomaster  to come. 

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Captain Action - Classic Collection!

I was the ideal age (pardon the pun) to be attracted to Captain Action when he first dropped onto the scene. I never got the doll (I resist the convention to call him an "action figure") but I always wanted one and have come close to pulling the trigger on some of the modern releases of the toy by others than the original Ideal company. 

So being so enticed by the doll, I was certainly interested in the comic book which came out from DC Comics in late summer of 1968. I was just beginning my life-long career as a comic reader and wasn't at that moment as tuned into DC so I missed these issues when they first dropped for whatever reason. But I've made up for in the intervening years, collecting up all five of the originals some decades ago. But that said I still quite excited when finally a handy dandy reprint volume was announced earlier this year. I now have it, have read and here's a full report. 

Captain Action is brought to life by boy writer Jim Shooter and veteran artist Wally Wood. Under a potent Irv Novick cover these two talents combine to give us the story of Clive Arno and his son Carl. Along with his associate Krellik unearth a trove of magic coins. They are told by the god Odin that the coins can give the powers of the gods to those who possess them. Krellik is immediately interested in getting hold of the coins for his own purposes but fails and instead comes into possession of another coin which gives him evil powers. Arno for his part returns home and becomes Captain Action with Carl becoming Action Boy. They confront Krellik who also is faced with Superman. Arno gets Superman to stand down and he takes the battle to Krellik but is seemingly defeated at the end of the story. 

Gil Kane steps in to pencil with Wally Wood on inks. This is now a superior team as Kane's dynamic style is perfect for the title. Krellik allows Arno to survive but his desire for all of the coins remains. They battle and battle for possession but eventually Arno tricks Krellik with fake coins. Still he slips away as his threat is ended for the time being. As it turns out that's the last time we ever see Krellik. In the next issue we will meet Dr. Evil. 

Dr. Evil makes his debut in issue three. Also making a debut is Gil Kane...a the writer. He takes over both the scripting and the art chores with Wally Wood's help on inks. The story is wacky one indeed with psychedelic overtones. Dr. Evil is in fact one Dr.Tracy (Arno's father-in-law in fact) but he gets transformed when an earthquake triggers a massive explosion which throws him into a strange dimension. He loses his humanity but gains vast intelligence along with desire to destroy mankind. It's all Captain Action and Action Boy can do to fend off the bizarre attacks which use the very forces of nature as weapons. He is though fended off with a classic Gil Kane punch. 

But Dr. Evil turns up in the next issue which sees Gil Kane on writing and full chores. Dr. Evil with deadly race (which looks what he's turned into) and uses that knowledge to bring deadly menaces to the planet Earth. It should be noted that when Kane took over the writing he made Captain Action less omnipotent and gave limited powers such a great sight, ability to throw lightning and possessed of great strength. For his part Action Boy is reduced to mere super speed. Dr. Evil lives up to his name when he uses the ghost of his own daughter to haunt both Captain Action and Action Boy. She had been wife to Arno and mother to Carl. The attacks stop when the aliens step in to stop their former agent. 

The fifth and final issue of the brief run sees Wally Wood back on inks. The story by Kane this time features a wannabe despot named Blackwell who uses hate to whip the populace into a frenzy to support him. (Sounds too close to reality for me these days.) He's actually a split personality and his other self is the father to a son who protests against the Blackwell forces. Captain Action and Action Boy fight these authoritarian forces but alas the tale ends quite tragically. Of all the very excellent Captain Action covers this one is my favorite. 

Chic Stone is tapped to create art for a mini-comic for the Ideal Toy folks. It's mostly an excuse to shill Captain Action toys. 

This comic book package is handsome and durable. It also features a lot of Captain Action extras like the ads which permeated the comics of the time as well as original artwork by Kane. This was Kane at his finest, with pages that never stop moving and at times burst off the page into the readers face. The stories are wild and imaginative if not always logical. We also get some of letter pages as well some of the text pieces which appeared in the comics at the time. Great package and highly recommendation. 

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Gunmaster And Bullet The Gun-Boy!

Once upon a time western heroes ruled the day. Pulps, radio, films, and ultimately television and comics were dominated by the genre which generated hundreds of iterations of the western hero. One of the most distinctive to appear from Charlton Comics, one of the last bastions of the western was Gunmaster. A western hero with a superhero flavor, Gunmaster straddled the transition from the dominance of the one genre into the dominance of the other.

He first appeared in the fifty-seventh issue of Charlton's Six-Gun Heroes which also starred Annie Oakley and Wild Bill Hickock, among others. Quickly though Gunmaster came to dominate the covers and eventually the entire comic. Gunmaster was the masked identity of Clay Boone, a gunsmith who traveled the western landscape plying his trade and seeking justice where he could. Eventually he would need help in this work. More on that below. 

To read Gunmaster's origin story by Joe Gill, Dick Giordano, and Frank McLaughlin go here.

For now enjoy some vintage Charlton covers featuring one of their most distinctive heroes, one who doesn't get a lot of attention. More details to follow as well. 

Eventually the Gunmaster series in Charlton's Six-Gun Heroes was thought to require a boost, and it got it in the addition of the then-obligatory boy sidekick, another element which pushed the series to the superhero side of things. Bob Tellub (ahem...really?) learned of Gunmaster's dual identity and almost immediately was brought into the fold as "Bullet the Gun Boy". He did add a dash of action and the series featured some of the best covers Charlton had to offer thanks to the art of Dick Giordano, Rocke Mastroserio, Pete Morisi and others.

Eventually Gunmaster and Bullet were given their own self-titled comic which lasted four issues.

But given that this is a Charlton publication, it needed some added confusion to the numbering so without missing a beat nor a month, the series adopted the numbering of the old Six-Gun Heroes series in mid-stride.

The series came to an end in 1966 in time to make way for another master of fighting, a martial artist set in World War II by the name of Judomaster. We're familiar with him around these parts.

Gunmaster did not go gently into that goodnight though and one year later in 1967 one more issue of the series was published. And in vintage Charlton fashion they numbered it eighty-nine, a number they'd already used for the debut of the Judomaster series two years earlier.

Sigh. This did prove to be the last hurrah for the western superhero who had managed to eke out an existence on the comic racks for nearly a decade, no mean feat.

To read some delightful Gunmaster and Bullet Boy adventures go here.

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