Sarge Steel - The Judomaster Years!

When Sarge Steel lost his comic, he became a back-up feature in Judomaster. It was a great fit with Dick Giordano's crisp artwork showing up nice alongside Frank McLaughlin's equally sharp imagery. 

 

A great example of cross-promotion was when Judomaster narrated a piece in Sarge's own mag titled "What is Karate?" Also, the two heroes a villain in the Smiling Skull. 

Judomaster #91 is dated October 1966. The second feature in this issue is the debut of Sarge Steel or really the continuation of that feature sliding from his own book into the back of Judomaster. There are no credits but the feature is certainly drawn by Dick Giordano and GCD says Joe Gill did the script. Titled the "Case of the Double Agent" this is File 110. It begins with Sarge Steel shooting an astronaut as he approaches his rocket. It turns out the victim was a foreign agent posing as an astronaut and he poisons himself before he can be questioned. Sarge knows that the spy was sent by Irena Dubaya, a dangerous foreign agent who just happens to have a bug on Steel and plans to take her revenge. She poses as a replacement secretary for Sarge in his Private Investigator office but he recognizes her and then decides to pretend to become a double agent offering to sell his services to the highest bidder. She eventually offers him a job as a double-spy but not before he has beat up a few of her thugs with his steel fist. She takes a photo of his first payoff and Sarge realizes he is playing a most dangerous game as the first part of the story ends.

Judomaster #92 is dated December 1966. The back up is the second half of the Sarge Steel adventure by Joe Gill and Dick Giordano called File 110 "Case of the Double Agent". The story begins with Sarge and the spy Irena Dubaya on a military base where Dubaya is getting photos of the secure installation with a belt-buckle camera. Sarge is still pretending to be a double agent offering his services to the foreign spy ring. He tries though to turn Dubaya over to the Security chief of the base a Colonel Trask, but it turns out Trask is also a spy and having revealed his true colors Steel is forced to fight Trask saved from a bullet by his steel hand deflecting it. He knocks out Trask, but Dubaya gives him a judo flip and gets him at gunpoint. Then Trask and Dubaya take Steel aboard a jet and overpower the pilots and steal it with the intent of dumping the bodies along with Steel's out the bomb doors. Steel frustrates Trask's attempts to seal him inside a bomb casing using his steel mitt and uses its single-shot .38 gun to do him in. He then uses the hands sleeping gas to overcome Dubaya and take over the plane landing it safely and handing the spies over to the authorities.

Judomaster #93 is dated February 1967. 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.

Judomaster #94 is dated April 1967. Sarge Steel is back in Part II of File 111 "Case of the Devil's Wife" by the team of Joe Gill on script, Bill Montes on pencils and Dick Giordano on inks. Sarge and the kidnapped ambassador find themselves on an island, prisoners of Satana the Devils Bride. She unleashes her hounds to attack Sarge, but he throws the dog into the shark-infested waters. The Ambassador awakes and denounces the cruelty of the act and Sarge uses his gun to save the dog which comes out of the water shaken. Then Satana rides up on horseback with a lance and begins to chase the pair along with her men and more dogs. Sarge uses his jacket to confuse the horse long to escape momentarily. The Ambassador indicates his case has a bomb inside as they run from the henchmen. They head inside the house on the island where Sarge is at last able to call for assistance and gain the upper hand by dropping a rope over Satana. Holding her captive the pair shoot their way out of the house as a helicopter comes to rescue them and carry them to safety along with the captured Satana.

Judomaster #95 is dated June 1967. Sarge Steel returns for Part I of File 112 "Case of the Village Moneyman". The script is by Steve Skeates, the art by Dick Giordano, and the lettering is by A. Machine. The story begins with Sarge on the ground having been attacked by a couple of thugs, but then he gets up and uses his steel fist to repel his attackers. The thugs did drop a name though, "Eric Summins" a name of a counterfeiter that Steel is familiar with. When he gets to his "pad" Sarge finds a beautiful young girl inside who turns out to be the Bebe Summins the daughter of the aforementioned criminal. Her dad has disappeared and she is being followed. Sarge becomes aware that someone else is in his apartment then a man attacks from the bedroom. Sarge defeats him and then drops Bebe off at the apartment of his secretary Bessie. He then begins the search for Summins checking out leads and various bars and dives. The next day he arrives in the office and Bessie is there saying Bebe slept in. Two CIA men show up and we learn that Sarge no longer works for the Agency full time. They tell him about new counterfeit bills that are surfacing and all agree that it is the work of Summins. When Sarge returns to his apartment he finds a note from Bebe saying "bugged out" and she will meet him at the Silver Spoon in the Village that evening. But Sarge finds evidence of a struggle and suspects foul play. What he doesn't seem to realize is that someone is pointing a gun at him through the window as the story comes to a close.

Judomaster #96 is dated August 1967. Sarge Steel returns in Part II of File 112 "Case of the Village Moneyman" written by Steve Skeates, drawn by Dick Giordano with lettering by A.Machine. The installment begins with Sarge dodging a gunshot from the window of Bebe Summin's apartment and returning fire killing the gunman. Steel finds a typed note from Bebe asking him to meet her at the Cafe Long Spoon. Sarge playing a hunch goes to the newspaper morgue and does some research before meeting Bebe at the cafe. He finds her and a brief conversation in which she tries to get him to stop looking for her dad he says he won't give up the search prompting an attack which he fends off but then guns convince Sarge to follow the men to a a printshop where the mastermind of the operation is waiting. The villain is a guy named Jackson who Steel is familiar with and Sarge reveals that Bebe's dad is in fact already dead, which Jackson confirms. Bebe runs from the building in tears while Sarge beats down the thugs with his steel hand. Apparently making Bebe think her dad was alive was an attempt to create confusion among the federal authorities while the counterfeiting was underway. Sarge comforts Bebe as the story closes.

Judomaster #97 is dated October 1967. Sarge Steel returns in a story written by Steve Skeates, drawn by Dick Giordano and again with A. Machine on letters. The story is title "Case of the Widow's Revenge", and it is File 114. (You'll notice the jump in numbers here. File 113 will show up later.) The story begins with a car trying to run down Sarge at a local newsstand but missing and demolishing the newsstand killing the proprietor a blind man we only see in profile named Old Charlie. Sarge then runs down an alley when he hears footsteps and is soon shot at, but he returns fire and kills his attacker. Returning to his car he finds a beautiful woman wrapped in a fur stole waiting for him. She claims to be the niece of Donald Reynolds a man Sarge sent to prison and who died there. His wife is the one behind the attempts on Sarge's life along with his old partner a man named Ralph Gonner. Sarge then goes to Gonner's house and confronts him becomes convinced he's not involved. Returning home he finds a figure in the dark waiting for him, but quickly turning on the lights blinds the person and after a quick exchange of gunfire he finds the girl who turns to be the daughter of Reynolds and not his niece and she is the one behind the plot. She dies in Sarge's arms, and he reminds us all what a rotten world it is. 

Judomaster #98 is dated December 1967. Sarge Steel turns up one more time in a story with no credits but clearly drawn by Dick Giordano and scripting attributed at GCD to Steve Skeates. The tale titled "Key West Caper" is File 115. It begins with Sarge coming out of the ocean in full scuba gear onto a deserted beach at night. He thinks back to finding his office ransacked and a note saying that Bessie his secretary had been kidnapped and taken to a location off the Florida Keys. He then gets transportation and gets to the Keys as quickly as he can and arrived at that spot. He is attacked by a guard but subdues him and then recognizes the machine gun the thug used. There is another shot and Sarge kills the sniper but others get the drop on him and take him to a house where Bessie is unconscious on a table. The villains turn out to be Eric Rinn and Roja a man and woman team of baddies who had battled Sarge a few times in his own book and had run an operation named POW. They gloat that they at last have Sarge in this power when Bessie awakes and a fight breaks out. Rinn tries to shoot Sarge who shoots him first making his shot go astray and kill Roja. Bessie grabs up a machine gun and after quick tutelage from Sarge levels the other thugs. Sarge then cradles the overwrought woman in his arms as the story closes. 

(Sam Grainger)

And that's a wrap for Sarge Steel as a back-up feature. With the Judomaster lead and the Sarge Steel back-ups these were rock solid comics, some of the best of their era. Sarge will return one more time for Charlton. More later when makes a guest-star appearance even gets his own magazine back for one precious issue. 

More Sarge Steel to come. 

This is a Revised Classic Charlton Post! 

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