Hi-Adventure Heroes!

These two issues of Hanna-Barbera's Hi-Adventure Heroes from 1969 offer up adaptations of the cartoon features from The Banana Splits Adventure Hour.

In the debut issue dated May 1969 we have three features: The Three Musketeers, The Adventures of Gulliver, and The Arabian Knights.

The Three Musketeers advanture "The True King" introduces us to The Musketeers (Porthos, Athos, and Aramis) along with D'Artagnian and the King. The King is kidnapped by his twin brother and put into prison hidden by an iron mask. (Sound familiar?)He gets a message out to the boy Toulie who is the nephew of Lady Constance and who idoizes the Musketeers. The guys save the King and send his vile brother into exile after considerable derring-do and Toulie gets made a Junior Musketeer.

The Adventures of Gulliver story titled "Dangerous Journey" is an origin story. Aboard Captain Leech's ship we meet Thomas Gulliver and his son Gary and Gary's dog Tagg. Gary's dad is threatened by Leech and he gets his sone and Tagg overboard. They wind up on a beach and meet the Lilliputians especially two goofs named Glum and Bunko and a chick named Flirtacia. After the obligatory tie-down scene Gulliver makes friends then a hawk steals the King and Gulliver goes to the rescue. The King is grateful and gives Gulliver kudos, but the story ends on a mysterious note when Gulliver's father's watch is found.

The Arabian Knights story titled "Captive Princess" focuses on Prince Turhan who leaves his friends to save Princess Nida. After some brief action and tomfoolery he does just that rejoining the Knights for a happy closing panel.


The second issue of this quarterly series is dated August 1969 and offers three features again: The Three Musketeers, Micro-Venture, and The Arabian Knights.

The Three Musketeers story titled "Masks of the Spider" focuses on a threat to the Queen by a secret society called Masks of the Spider. Their weapon of choice is a bunch of spiders dropped in a room. Despite advice from the Queen's cousin Margaret, the Masks attack again and the Queen is taken to a remote castle. The Musketeers are again helped by the young boy Toolie, though as you might notice his name is spelled differently that it was in the first issue. The Musketeers save the Queen and the leader of the Masks of the Spider is revealed to be her own cousin Margaret who aspired to the throne herself.

Next is a Micro-Venture story titled "The Tiny Sea" and we meet Mike and Jill and their Dad who has a car that can shrink. Mike is curious about frogs and after some shinking they find themselves among frogs and such and we learn about the life cycle of frogs. A hawk gives them some trouble but that's about it.

The Arabian Knights story this time is titled "The Slave-Maker" and it begins with the evil Bakaar seeking a magic potion from Kadan the Sorcerer on the Island of Darkness, a spell that will make the Knights his slaves. Kadan engages the Knights in battle and manages to capture Turhan and Nida. But the shapechanger Bez, the strongman Raseem, and the magician Farik along with the donkey Zazuum come to the rescue turning the tables on Kadan and sending him and his men to Bakaar under the spell of slavery. But we are told the gallant Turhan will soon send the antidote though he's destroyed the potion itself.

These were fun comics. The neat thing about Gold Key stuff of this vintage is the extra stuff they throw in. I'm always charmed by the kid art they run and the jokes are hokey but entertaining. There are text pieces in both of these issues detailing other Gold Key comics and even offering checklists. Checklists were great to get back in the day before the internets as we all know.

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