Judomaster Day!

Frank McLaughlin was born on this date in 1935. McLaughlin of course created Judomaster, the mascot for this blog.  He worked with Dick Giordano at Charlton for some time.  When he shifted to Marvel and other publishers from time to time he mostly concentrated on inking, which he did with great aplomb. His sharp inks rescued many a tired layout. 

It will come as a surprise to no one that Judomaster is on this list of my favorite heroes given the name and longstanding design of this blog. Rip Jagger fell into my hands when I was a tyke when my grandmother gave me some comics she'd found somewhere. There were two issues of Judomaster in the batch, the two halves of the second Mountain Storm saga and I was pulled into McLaughlin's martial arts mania once and for all.

Frank McLaughlin is the man, a trained martial artist who sought to bring to the comic book page an accurate representation of the skills which have formed the basis for so much exploitation entertainment over the last many decades. The thrill of Judomaster is the novel setting -- World War II. What we have is a re-imagining of the Captain America story minus the super-soldier serum. Jagger is a capable U.S. soldier who due to circumstances becomes trained in martial arts and adopts a persona to better wage war on the Japanese threat in the Pacific Theater. He is joined by a young boy named Tiger and this ersatz Cap and Bucky proceed to kick butt. Judomaster's WWII setting is at once his blessing and his curse. His adventures felt like little else in the superhero universe at the time, but his isolation in time made his eventual teaming with other of Charlton's "Action Heroes" difficult.

Alas the line did not last long enough for that problem to really develop and eventually Judomaster like most of his Action Hero kin were snapped up by DC and blended into the background of that sprawling universe. Judomaster himself has been barely used but nonetheless multiple versions exist. But for me it will always be the original Rip Jagger stuff by McLaughlin which makes my heartbeat race a little more. Here are the covers from that brief but powerful run. 

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Captain Video!

(Art by Will Eisner)

Captain Video and his Video Rangers is a TV show which (for the most part) is lost to the ages. Only a tiny fraction of the actual shows themselves actually survive, a glimpse of what was produced. In a century in which a great deal of human activity found itself recorded, the notion of lost footage seems quaint. But the impact of Captain Video goes well beyond those episodes. While they might not have survived on film, they have thrived in the imaginations of the children and others who saw them, igniting a sense of wonder about our planet and the universe in which it nests.

The first half of the 20th Century was how humanity found a way to work together to accomplish great deeds. The greatest and most dramatic was to send representatives into outer space, off the globe and into brand new environments. To put people in new and terrible circumstances for the sheer glory and adventure of it. Sure space will ultimately be exploited and its resources turned into capitol, but that's not what triggered the desire to get there. It was different, unknown, and we wanted a taste.

Combine that desire with a society which likes its citizens to fit in comfortably beside one another, and you had the makings of a unifying purpose which drove education and morality to seek to make the population buy into the goal. Captain Video is a strange blend of influences which showcase the contradictions in American society, the simultaneous celebration of the individual alongside the call for a shared cultural mission. A sense of adventure teamed up with a craving for financial reward, a calling linked with a career. These inherently divergent notions were bonded in the space race, a drive ever upward which unified a nation and made the folks at once proud of their nation yet suspicious of their neighbors.

And then it stopped. The goal was achieved to a very modest extent when man finally set foot onto the Moon. After that exalting moment the drive disappeared and was replaced by a cry for moderation and the mood shifted from the Moon to our own monotony. Hard economic times and the always ready individual greed got the better of us and the sense of shared mission vanished as malaise spread. We are still there, more fascinated by ourselves than the universe which expands in all directions beyond us.

Perhaps the weirdest legacy Captain Video has given pop culture was unleashed just last year in the Avengers - Age of Ultron movie.

Roy Thomas makes no bones about how Makino from the pages of the comic inspired the creation of Ultron and after reading the complete story there's little doubt. So, one of the more memorable pop culture villains of recent times derives from the pages of Captain Video and we hardly know it. But that's the case with so much of the influence of this not forgotten but little understood old TV show.

(Another juicy Will Eisner bit of artwork)

It showed us the way forward, into space at least in our imaginations. That's not unimportant, we could use some inspirational entertainment like that today. We really could.

For more on the legacy of Captain Video check this out. 

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Life On Another Planet!

I very much enjoy Will Eisner's raucous noir saga Signal from Space (which goes also by the title of Life on Another Planet - I much prefer the former title). This story is one of Eisner's more muscular pieces, a story which has very little of the small world daily life material he focused on in his later career, but a wild science fiction yarn which reads like sci-fi blended sweetly with a no-nonsense crime drama.

Our hero is named James Bludd and he's hired by the C.I.A. when a purported signal from purported intelligent life in the depths of space triggers all sorts of action from foreign powers, the now-defunct U.S.S.R. least among them. This is a vivid satire very much plugged into the headlines of the late 70's. Eisner's commentary on such world events as the reign of the noxious Idi Amin and the rise of deadly cults among the desperate folk of the world is potent.

Highly recommended. 

Here are the issues in which it first appeared. While the story never rates a cover mention, I never pass up a chance to showcase some of Will Eisner's rich artwork.
 

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B'wana Beast Day!

Bob Haney was born on this date in 1926. Haney was a delightful writer who did most of his work for DC and is most famous for his wonderful The Brave and the Bold stories featuring Batman. He created many of DC's characters in the Silver Ager including the focus of today's Dojo celebration -- the wacky B'Wana Beast.   

I have no earthly idea what prompted the creation of B'Wana Beast, one of the strangest characters ever to erupt onto the comics world. He appeared in two issues of DC's venerable Showcase and then was seen no more...almost. He appears to be a blend of classic jungle action and superhero craziness, cross of Tarzan and the Phantom. He's strange right down to the logo.

I never owned these two B'wana Beast comics, but I was transfixed by the ads for his debut. Like so many DC characters, which are peculiar and odd, there is a fundamental dynamic which is nonetheless fascinating. Created by Bob Haney and Mike Sekowsky, two of DC's most iconoclastic creators, B'wana Beast has a handsome pedigree   Apparently his "superpower" was the ability to communicate with animals and to blend two animals into one creature. It was an idea ideal for the visual feast of comics, but it was at best a limited notion.

B'wana disappears for years and years before surfacing during the Crisis on Infinite Earths alongside every other DC hero.

He did get a try-out of sorts in DC's offbeatChallenge comic, which featured scores of characters in a bonanza of weird stories by a gaggle of DC creators.

He shows up in Animal Man for a few issues, even making the cover once. This is a typically handsome Brian Bolland effort and makes the most of the design disaster which was B'wana Beast.

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Doctor Strange Day!

Dan Adkins was born on this date in 1937. Adkins was a sturdy artist who showed up everywhere -- Marvel, DC, Warren, and more. He was most famous perhaps for his time as Wally Wood's assistant on The Thunder Agents. He proved to be too slow to be a penciller at Marvel and show Stan shifted him over to inks. He did pencil and ink the focus of today's Dojo celebration -- Doctor Strange.  

When Marvel finally wriggled free of their distribution deal with DC Comics, they were at last able to expand their line of comics and deliver to their fans the comics they desired. So the split books which had been featuring two superstars were busted apart giving more room. Tales to Astonish became the The Incredible Hulk and the Sub-Mariner started afresh with a number one, likewise did Tales of Suspense become Captain America with Iron Man beginning his own series. And so we had Strange Tales become Doctor Strange, and the series starring Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD started a brand new series.

The first thing that jumps out at you in this debut issue (of sorts) is the way Dan Adkins expands his artistic storytelling. What had been rather cramped suddenly blossomed across the page and sometimes two with some fantastic effects. Adkins was an artist who was able to generate a great sense of realism and playing that against the weird dimensions which Strange often played in gave the book a really distinctive look. The first new issue gives us a Doctor Strange in repose between battles and it gives him time to reflect on his origin. We get an expanded version of the story by Roy Thomas first related so long ago in Strange Tales.

But that reverie is short lived as the menace of Nightmare appears, not seen since that earliest Doctor Strange story.

Adkins delivers possibly the best single comic of his career here with art that explodes across the pages and despite his tendency to a static pose offers up some truly memorable scenes.

But Adkins was slow and he would spend most of his career as an extremely capable inker.

Another man who was to go on to gain repute as an inker is Tom Palmer and he handles the artwork on the third Doctor Strange installment which takes the Doctor into some truly peculiar dimensions as he recruits Victoria Bently to help him rescue Clea. But just as Doc is able to discover her whereabouts an old villain raises his flaming head.

The menace of Dormammu returns and it comes at a propitious time as one of the greatest artists to ever draw Doctor Strange debuts on the series -- Gene "The Dean" Colan. Teamed with the pencil artist of the previous issue Tom Palmer, one of the great art teams in the history of comics appears for the first time and it's a blockbuster.

Colan immediately brings a dynamic and lush quality to the pages which now have room to fully demonstrate the weirdness of Doc's many worlds.

Dormammu and his sister Umar too are back seeking a way to Earth and domination there and so is the lovely Clea. Doc's search for her alongside Victoria Bentley is the key that allowed Dormammu access. But he's turned aside at the last moment.

Then the Sons of Satannish appear. Doc takes Victoria home to England and comes in contact with Lord Nekron, an acolyte of Satannish who seeks to steal Doc's power and of course fails.

The Sons of Satannish appear front and center at that point as their leader Asmodeus uses the combined might of the cult to attack Doc as he and Clea attempt to enjoy a night on the town.

Clea is kidnapped by the Sons and Doc is barely able to save her as he confronts the constant danger his public identity is constantly bringing to his door.

The identity of  Asmodeus is revealed and he is defeated but not before Doc must change his look and his very being to keep the secret of his identity which has proven a weakness.

The new Doc, as designed by Gene Colan is more purely a superhero and it's a look I've always cottoned to. The strangeness and coldness of the design work well for a hero who had in some ways grown too chummy since his early days as an aloof mystic.

But before his ultimate defeat Asmodeus unleashes the threat of Fire and Ice as his spell brings to Earth the Asgardian twin powers of Ymir the Frost Giant and Surtur the Fire Giant. To stop this menace Doc conscripts the help of Dane Whitman the Black Knight to invade the dimension of Tiboro to gain access to certain of the Sons of Satannish who had been exiled there.

Barely escaping the menace of Tiboro, Doc crosses over into The Avengers and allies himself with the Black Panther, the Vision, and Hawkeye to battle the twin giants of fire and ice. They just barely win the battle as teams shift to Antarctica to battle Surtur and Wakanda to battle Ymir.

The run  takes a break as a reprint is used to buy some time for the production team. It's a reprint of Spider-Man's team-up with Doctor Strange from the pages of the second Amazing Spider-Man Annual.

The great Ditko art is on display again as the heroes reject the threat of Wand of Watoomb and its wielder.

Doc is then almost immediately drawn into conflict with Nightmare who has somehow taken the enigmatic Eternity prisoner.

Gene Colan and Tom Palmer are at the top of their game through these issues. Magnificent stuff. 

Doc battle Nightmare and falls victim to his own Eye of Agamotto when Nightmare is able to gain control of one of Doc's most potent weapons.

But Strange makes an odd play when he conjures up the Juggernaut from the Crimson Dimension. This unstoppable force proves to be a potent wild card as he attacks Nightmare. When the two later team up Doc is ready for them.

And then it's the Undying Ones. In Doctor Strange's final issue (of this run) he comes across a threat which will cause him to call upon some astonishing allies. That is a story for another time, when we witness the beginnings of the non-team called The Defenders.

It took Doc a while to find his footing in the marketplace. This early run remains a dear fave. 

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