The saga of Sgt. Rip Jagger, The Judomaster continues in issue #90 of the run. The issue is dated August 1966 and the book is issued bimonthly from Charlton. And for the record a subscription for the entire year would be 70 cents. I miss the good old days.
There are no credits for this issue, but clearly Frank McLaughlin is at the helm on art and almost certainly on the scripting as well. The first story is titled "Judomaster...Traitor!!" and begins with another symbolic splash showing Judomaster on the radio in the presence of Tokyo Rose imploring his American comrades to surrender to the Japanese. Then we are told of a Japanese missle capapble of destroying any large city in the U.S. The story begins properly in the Pacific on the island where Judomaster first got his start as Rip Jagger is walking through the jungle looking for his guerilla comrades. He's attacked but it's Bushiri, his mentor who takes him to Sensei and the waiting arms of his apparent romantic interest Suzi. Then things get down to business as Sensei informs Rip that they have developed intel that will allow him to get to the missle and destroy both it and the plans for it. Bushiri takes Judomaster and some other island guerillas to the local Japanese airstrip where they overcome the guards and Judomaster steals a Zero which he uses to strafe the enemy then fly the missle location. Meanwhile a message is sent to General Hawkins who now confirms that he's aware of Rip Jagger's dual identity as Judomaster and also of a secret scheme to get information out of Japan, but a plan he hopes not to use. Judomaster uses the Zero in a Kamikaze run to blow up the missle while he parachutes out at the last moment.
In Part II titled "Tokyo Express" Judomaster steals a motorcycle, defeating some Japanese troops to boot, then motors off to the Japanese command post which he crashes. Using speed and surprise he catapults himself from the motorbike and crashes through a window into a meeting of Japanese generals where he finds the missle plans and burns them. His escape goes rather smoothly as he exits the buiding, locates his bike and heads off. But a bullet wrecks him and he has to fight off many soldiers until he is at long last knocked out and taken to the base commander who has a particularly beefy fellow beging beating the restrained Judomaster. There is this secret plan Hawkins had alluded to earlier but to make it work Judomaster must take a pretty severe beating which he does before he at last taken to another location on the base. There he is taken into a radio room where he meets Tokyo Rose herself and he pretends to turn traitor and implore the American forces to surrender. This is it turns out a coded message to Hawkins who knows then that the missle and the plans have both been destroyed and a counter attack can commence. Judomaster then breaks free from his captors and escapes. But his message has been heard by thousands of troops and they now believe that Judomaster has become both a coward and a traitor. That plot thread is left to develop in the next issue as this story comes to an end.
There are three additional features in this issue. The first is the initial instalment of "Flips and Counters with Judomaster" the proposed letters column. In this first one there is a message from Editor Dick Giordano asking for letters to fill up the column in future issues. He also hints of exciting new features to appear in upcoming issues.
This is followed by a two-page comics feature by Pete Morisi (uncredited but certainly him) titled "The Roof of the World - Where Thunderbolt Was Born" which gives information about the Charlton hero Peter Cannon The Thunderbolt and about how he gained his powers from intense training in the Himalayas among the monks there and from intense study of the Scriptures of Lamaism. There is the suggestion that any human can achieve these abilities with work and focus.
The text feature in this issue is really strange and it's titled "Melifera Asamsonii on the Warpath" and talks about how the world by ultimately be destroyed by insects, specifically Africanized bees. The term "killer bee" is not used but this is the same species. Also there's talk of super ants and of potential use of both bees and ants as weapons in war.
You can tell that the intention with Judomaster is to develop a hero with some aspects of the Marvel magic, essentially heroes with problems. Making Judomaster appear to be a traitor would appear in this issue to be a background story that will develop over time in the series. That will remain to be seen. There was less empahasis on the pure martial arts aspect of the series this time and more just plain rollicking action.
More to come.
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