Flips And Counters With Judomaster!

With the seventh anniversary of the Dojo, let me take a moment and talk about the comic book which in many ways inspired this blog -- Judomaster. This site makes it most plain that I have a great affection for that little concoction of Dick Giordano's he dubbed the "Action-Heroes", of which Judomaster is a part despite being set during World War II. The comic produced by Frank McLaughlin under the editorial auspices of  Pat Masulli and Giordano had a distinctive character which set it apart from everything else on the stands. All the "Action-Heroes" had that, something Giordano strived mightily to create in order to find some level of sales success. It didn't work but not for lack of trying.

(Dick Giordano (far right) holds court in the 60's with writers O'Neil and Skeates)

With "Flips and Counters with Judomaster" Giordano attempted to open a line of communication with the fans. That strategy had proven mondo successful for Stan Lee at Marvel and clearly Giordano was attempting to tap into something akin to that popularity with his refurbished Charlton books. In those letters pages in Judomaster and elsewhere, Giordano entered into a robust and surprisingly frank conversation with the fans, treating them with true respect. For all his vibrant personality Stan could come off as glib and sometimes condescending in his letters pages, and DC rarely did it at all and didn't really to understand the whole dynamic. Giordano did get it, and he brought forth something which worked for this young fan.

Letters pages have disappeared in the modern day, losing out to the internet where fans yak incessantly about their favorite comics (this website a case in point of course). But once upon a time they were important, really important in building what we take so much for granted today, real sense of community among comics book fans, a group that often shared isolation and a degree of loneliness all their own.

Here are the letters pages from Judomaster...all of them. 

In this one we meet Judomaster's creator and the artist and writer of the lead feature Frank McLaughlin.

This letters page features a missive from Bill Schelly, a regular contributor and a man who has since gone on to document much of what was happening in the fan press of the time.

This is the only two-page letters section in the comics run, but it was the first issue I ever encountered and so I just assumed two pages was the norm, and was disappointed when I only found one. The candid talk about prices and distribution was fascinating. Dick Giordano was an artist before he became editor and the value of having artists write as well as draw the feature is discussed.

Letters pages were always great places for cross promotion and Pat Boyette's Peacemaker gets a push in this installment.

I get the sense that Stan Lee is getting a mention here in the discussion of dialogue and attempting to get a natural feel. Stan's loquaciousness would seem to be the counter to what is mentioned. Sarge Steel fans really miss that comic and since he's the back up in Judomaster a lot of the page time is devoted to him.

The Action Hero line up is in full swing and you really get a sense that we are talking about a line and not just a single comic book. Giordano really was on to something.

But it didn't last, just like the Action Heroes themselves the letters pages went away and were replaced by the durable one and two-page text pieces which had decorated Charlton comics for many many years. It's a shame really. With the lapse of the letters page the company lost a crucial connection with their fan base and lost an ability to reinforce a sense of a distinctive voice. But for a short time, a sweet moment in comic history they had the lightning in a bottle and were making the most of it.

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Judomaster - The Smiling Skull!

Judomaster #92 is dated December 1966. Frank McLaughlin's name is the sole name listed and I assume he again is responsible for both story and art. 

"Judomaster meets The Smiling Skull" begins right where the last issue ended with the plane carrying Rip Jagger landing in Europe so that he can combat the spy ring he began investigating in the previous issue. Also still aboard that plane is the young Japanese-American boy who learned that Rip Jagger was Judomaster and who helped him in his battle with The Cat. Rip leaves the nameless boy with the MPs at the airbase but he slips away. Rip and his European contact follow a known spy but they are spotted and the spy runs away before being intercepted by the young boy who has followed Rip yet again. The spy captures the kid and uses him to escape. Intelligence reports allow Rip to discover the likely location of the spy ring as well as its leader a man named Rudolf Wolk, more infamously known as "The Smiling Skull". (Note: This villain first appeared in Sarge Steel #3 some years before.) Rip dons his Judomaster gear and is air dropped into the base where he is immediately intercepted by The Smiling Skull and his men. 

The Skull has heard of Judomaster's skills and wants a hand-to-hand duel with him promising him the safety of the boy and himself if Judomater prevails, but with the edge that bright searchlights will be used to diminish Judomaster's eyesight. The two struggle in the glare of bright searhlights, which continue to burn and in fact increase in number and intensity throughout the fight. Ultimately Judomaster knocks out The Skull, but he himself collapses in exhaustion. He is about to be shot by the Skull's men regardless of their bargain when bombs begin to explode around them all. He finds the young boy who he now calls "Tiger" but before they can leave Judomaster reveals that he has gone blind. With this revelation, the story ends. 

The next feature is three pages and is titled "Judomaster's Sport of Judo". In this piece by McLaughlin Judomaster gives detailed instructions in the use of two moves, one called "Kubi-Nage" a head lock throw, and the other called "Tsurikomi-Goshi a lifting hip throw. 

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. 

"Flips and Counters with Judomaster" offers up four letters, most complimentary of the comic to date, though a few are not happy with Judomaster's ponytail. There is mention made of the 25-cent comic Fantastic Giants. Of note is that one of the letters is from famous fan Bill Schelly.

 

And that wraps another issue of Judomaster. A few things are apparent at this point in the series. One that the stories will continue from issue to issue with a clear sense of continuity between tales. Also that the continuity will be more strongly enhanced between comic book series as the villain here The Smiling Skull is from another comic to begin with, Sarge Steel #3. This is clearly an attempt by Dick Giordano to build a line-up that feeds across titles and essentially develop a Charlton universe. There will be other examples of these attempts at continuity, some quite cleverly done. 

To read the complete comic book go to this link. 

More Judomaster to come. 

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Judomaster - Man Without A Country!

Judomaster #91 is dated October 1966. The story and art are by Frank McLaughlin. The issue picks up immediately after the events of the previous issue. 

The Judomaster story this time is titled "Man Without A Country!" and begns with the "Crimson Crusher" (one of two nicknames used for Judomaster in the series, the other being "Scarlet Smasher") diving onto a junk in the harbor and finding it operated by beautiful woman, an agent sent to pick him up by General Hawkins following his escape from the Japanese. Her name is Sylvia Coates and she says she is the daughter of a missionary who was killed by the Japanese and so she works to thwart them. She takes Judomaster back to the island where he was trained and he is reunited with Suzi and his mentor Bushiri. They indicate they know that his role as a "traitor" is a ruse. Next we see Rip Jagger in General "Hawk" Hawkins office getting his orders for his next mission. That mission takes him to Wyoming to infiltrate a Japanese internment camp in which a security leak has been discovered to exist. Rip poses as a guard at the camp and quickly follows a young Japanese-American boy and finds "The Cat" a notorious Kendo master and a many of mystery who has his face hidden at all times. Rip discovers that secrets are being transported out of the camp by use of hollow chopsticks. The next day Rip finds The Cat all decked out in his Kendo rip, battling two opponents but using tricks to defeat them. Despite this the young boy clearly idolizes the The Cat. 

The Cat takes issue with Rip's criticism and strikes him and Rip challenges him to a battle that The Cat says must be to the death. The agree to meet early the next morning. Rip brushes up on his Kendo technique then puts on his Judomaster costume, all the while being watched by the young boy. He heads off to his duel with The Cat and the begin a battle that lasts through the morning. Finally the younster throws a rock that strikes Judomaster giving The Cat the advantage. The boy did it help his hero The Cat save face, but The Cat's merciless desire to kill his weakened foe makes the boy see the flaws in his hero and he helps Judomaster after Judomaster fends off The Cat's first attack. The battle continues for a few moments but The Cat falls from a cliff. His fate is somewhat unresolved, but I guess we are to assume he died. The boy admits his mistake and wants to go with Judomaster, but is denied. Later General Hawkins gives Rip Jagger new orders to break up an international spy ring and he flies off to complete his mission. But he discovers that the young boy has stowed away on the plane. 

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. 

"Flips and Counters with Judomaster" closes out the issue and it offers up three letters from fans. All are flattering, some more that others, but many ask about the design of Judomaster and its obvious connection to the Japanese Empire. The editors indicate they feel enough time has passed but they were nervous about the choice. Also included on this page is a biographical sketch of Frank McLaughlin who is called the "Creator-Writer-Artist" of Judomaster. A photo of McLaughlin is also shown. 

For the completist let it be known that "Judomaster's Self-Defense" is a three-page feature narrated by Judomaster in the pages of Thunderbolt #52. It is written and drawn by Frank McLaughlin and focuses on "Ouchigari" an inside leg reap and "Tomoenage" a stomach throw. 

You can feel that the series is getting itself together a bit in this issue. The characterizations are strong, and the action is pretty dandy. There is a great full-page splash of the fight between Judomaster and The Cat. Overall, you can really tell that editor Dick Giordano is wanting to give his Action-Hero books a distinctive if somewhat Marvelesque feel in their tone. 

To read the complete comic book go to this link. 

 More Judomaster to come. 

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Judomaster - Traitor!

The saga of Sgt. Rip Jagger, The Judomaster continues in Judomaster #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 missile capable 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 emphasis on the pure martial arts aspect of the series this time and more just plain rollicking action. 

To read the complete comic book go to this link. 

 More Judomaster to come. 

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Judomaster - The Mountain Storm!

The second issue of Judomaster is numbered #89. That's because this issue, dated May-June 1966 is a continuation of another series Gunmaster which was actually a continuation of yet another series Six-Gun Heroes. If it's Charlton, you can be sure it's confusing. So, the ballistics are turned in for bare knuckles. 

The lead Judomaster story is in two parts. Part I is titled "Prisoner of War". Both story and art are attributed to Frank McLaughlin. After a symbolic splash with Judomaster battling a giant sumo wrestler in a prison camp, we leap to page two and story begins with Sgt. Rip Jagger being called into the office of General Hawkins. Hawkins asks Jagger to volunteer to go behind enemy lines and infiltrate a Japanese prison camp to rescue Captain Brian Miller who has unrevealed "valuable information". Of course Jagger volunteers and soon meets up with a Ranger unit who take him nearly to his destination where he allows himself to be captured and taken across the moat into the camp. There he meets the Commander of the camp, who turns out to be a Ninjutsu. Jagger meets up with other prisoners and discovers that Miller has malaria and hasn't been able to reveal any intelligence. He begins to plan the escape after he learns about Mountain Storm. Mountain Storm is a silent giant sumo who uses the prisoners as fodder in his fights to entertain the Japanese troops. Jagger arranges the escape and plans to settle the score with Mountain Storm. 

Part II is titled "The Mountain Storm" and sees the prisoners continue to plot their escape by building makeshift devices. But the Commander gets wind of the attempt and calls everyone out on the field. Some prisoners slip off to begin the escape using inflatable bladders used by ninjas to walk on water. Meanwhile Rip Jagger becomes Judomaster and confronts the Commander and the Mountain Storm. The next several pages are taken up with precise martial arts action sequences with Judomaster ultimately getting the better of the Montain Storm while the escape continues. But the Mountain Storm has one card left to play, as his name is apparently also the name of a particularly powerful judo throw, but when attempts it Judomaster is ready and swings the giant onto his knee for a painful backbreaker. Judomaster then leads the remaining prisoners in an attack on the Japanese overtaking a machine gun tower and mowing down some of the enemy. He then overtakes the Commander and defeats him. The battle over Judomaster disappears and Rip Jagger returns to lead the former prisoners to safety. General Hawkins congratulates Jagger on a job well done and mentions Judomaster's role, and it is unclear how much he knows about Jagger's dual identity. The last scene shifts abruptly to the island where Judomaster was trained and a conversaiton between Bushiri and Sensei about how sad Suzikawa (Sensei's daughter) is that Jagger is gone.

 

The second story is titled "Self Defense" and is really a tutorial featuring Judomaster and he gives step by step instructions on breaking choke holds and doing leg sweeps and a hip toss that looks much the "Mountain Storm" move from the first story. Both story and art are again attributed to Frank McLaughlin. 

The text story in this issue is titled "The Finger of Fate" and offers up speculation about a moviemaker seeing the perfect performer in a dream and then taking steps to find that specific individual. That is compared to a Chinese Emperor from ancient times who also followed up on a dream to locate and put into place the ideal man to lead as prime minister. 

This is a solid issue, giving Judomaster plenty to do and also taking a few moments in the action-packed story to do a tiny bit of characterization with the potential love interest. The relationship between Hawkins and Jagger is also one that seems at this point ripe with potential. Mountain Storm will show up again in the series, and despite not having a single line of dialogue proved to be a most memorable opponent for Judomaster. 

To read the complete comic book go to this link. 

More Judomaster to come.

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Beware The Creeper!

Beware The Creeper the title says and it's no small warning. The Creeper was one of Steve Ditko's remarkable and memorable additions to the DC universe when along with other Charlton talents such as Dick Giordano, Pat Boyette, Sergius O'Shaugnessy, Steve Skeates, and Jim Aparo landed on those halcyon "House of Krypton" shores. The cover above is my favorite image of the Creeper, his posture all bent and the water oozing and dripping, a deadly "Menace" looming behind him. Ditko did his heroes proud with this one especially Will Eisner. 

But before that debut issue, we were first told to Beware the Creeper in Showcase #73. In this issue WHAM tv reporter Jack Ryder runs afoul of a bunch of thugs led by Angel Devlin and in the course of his adventures gathers the odd bits of his bizarre costume and meets Professor Yatz who is the man who uses his new inventions to give the Creeper his new powers. A fluid is injected into the wounded Ryder to save his life and a device is implanted beneath his skin which allows him to alter his appearance with the press of a button. 

I'd seen the Creeper in other comics drawn by Neal Adams and Dick Dillin, but the first time I was able to read this debut story plotted and drawn by Ditko and written by Don Segall was when it was reprinted in on of those juicy giant 100-Page Detective Comics issues which made DC so alluring at the time. 

It would many a few decades before I got my mitts on the Showcase issue itself as well as the original Beware the Creeper run. 

The Creeper's main enemy in most of the issues of the original series was Proteus. Proteus was a man who could be anyone, could alter his features and sneak up behind you at a moment's notice. Proteus seems to have been killed after their first encounter but that doesn't prove to be the case and in stories written by Sergius O'Shaugnessy (Denny O'Neil).

"The Isle of Fear" finds the Creeper on a long-lost island remarkably close on which an old society has been put upon on modern criminals eager for a safe haven from the law. 

As Creeper's fight against Proteus continues he gets new cast members such Rip Cord who join regulars his boss Bill Brane and self-absorbed weathergirl Vera Sweet, who sometimes afflicts Jack and at other times gives him a hand in his investigations. 

It's notable that Denny O'Neil seems to take on more of the plotting and scripting control as he sheds his "Sergius O'Shaugnessy" identity. Inkers join up such as Mike Peppe and give Ditko's pencils a different and frankly less effect look. For the most part, this era of Ditko always looks better when he inks himself.

In the sixth and final issue of the original run under this handsome Gil Kane cover we have only a part of a Ditko issue with journeyman Jack Sparling finishing up this final Beware the Creeper tale, at least for the time being. I an only imagine that Ditko has once again sought greener pastures as he leaves Hawk and Dove too, in the capable hands of Gil Kane it's to be noted. 

But Steve Ditko will return to DC and to the Creeper, but more than a few years will pass. 

In 1975 the mavens at DC Comics decided to give The Creeper another try-out on the newsstands and to that end the seventh issue of 1st Issue Special was pressed into service. This featured a story drawn by the Creeper's creator Steve Ditko. One curious detail about the cover above is the tiny detail of the dog and fire hydrant. (You can almost see them.) This cover was designed by Carmine Infantino and handed to Ditko to finish and to show his displeasure with such an arrangement he has that pup show its disrepect to that hydrant in the natural and time proven fashion. 

In this singular issue Creeper finds himself battling the Human Firefly, a hood just busted out of prison and aching to remake his reputation. The Firefly was a vintage Batman villain first and last seen in Detective Comics #184 from 1952, about the time Ditko was first breaking into comics. The script for the story was by Michael Fleisher, and Mike Royer inked Dikto's pencils. But Ditko wasn't done with his creation, he had more Creeper stories to tell. 

The try-out sparked a revival in the back pages of World's Finest beginning with issue #249. 

The Creeper was rarely featured on the covers, though his smiling yellow mug and lustrous green motop was nestled alongside the logo with the other back-up features face in this densely packed dollar comic. All the stories were written and drawn by his creator Ditko. 

The stories in these issues have a much broader comic feel than the original series had shown nearly a decade before. The Creeper is working for Cosmic Broadcasting as part of a security team. 

Joining his cast are his boss Sam Hagen along with spry blonde dame named Fran Daye and a galoot named Dump. One odd detail is that a fly always seems to be hovering around Dump's head. 

The Creeper comes up against new baddies like The Disruptor and a lug called simply the Monster. He also has to deal with the return of Angel Devlin who was instrumental in the origin of The Creeper in his very first story. 

Apparently there was some thought to busting the Creeper out into his own comic again, but the infamous DC Implosion put the skids to that idea. The issue of Showcase #107 would have allowed The Creeper to return to his place of birth but it was only seen in the Cancelled Comic Cavalcade #2 for many years. Creeper does rate an appearance on both of the CCC covers though. 

This is a wild wild issue with two double-page splashes and a cameo by Ditko's Odd Man. (The Odd Man was touted to have a back-up feature, but the implosion ended that aspiration.) 

And that's a wrap on The Creeper, at least as produced by his maker Steve Ditko. The Creeper did prove somewhat popular and did get around for some time by dint of other talents. 

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