Showing posts with label Tarpe Mills. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tarpe Mills. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Reading Room: PURPLE ZOMBIE "A Zombie is Born!"

It's Halloween, so instead of The Purple Claw battling zombies, here's...
Yes, he's a zombie, and, yes, he's purple!
You can catch a zombie...but can you hold him?
Despite having a name that sounds like a potent retro cocktail, writer/artist Tarpe Mills' never-reprinted series was actually rather unique, even for the Golden Age, where a giant flaming eyeball could get it's own comic book!
Running through the first dozen issues of Eastern Color's Reg'lar Fellers Heroic Comics, the feature crammed the title zombie, mad scientists, Nazis, death rays, armies of robot skeletons, and a time machine into four-page segments in the comic equivalent of a movie serial, with every chapter ending in a cliffhanger!
We'll be presenting the entire Purple Zombie saga here, so watch for it!

Friday, July 8, 2011

Reading Room: Return of the OTHER Cat-Man!

Beneath that skirt, Tarpe Mills' first comic creation is all MAN!
Apparently she lost his number, since this tale from Amazing-Man Comics #8 was this Cat-Man's last appearance!
The Cat-Man name would be reused for another Golden Age character and Tarpe Mills would go on to create another cat-themed series...Miss Fury!
Curiously, though other characters from Amazing-Man Comics (and the entire Centaur Comics line have re-appeared in Alex Ross' Project SuperPowers, this CatMan has yet to do so!  C'mon, Alex, you can find a place for him...er, her...er, whatever...

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

The OTHER CatMan!

He's not the Cat-Man we showed you yesterday...
...but, this guy, who appeared in two issues of Amazing-Man Comics (a year before Crash Comics #4), was a super-hero with a difference!
How different?
Read on...
"Criminals are a cowardly, superstitious lot, so my disguise must be able to strike terror into their hearts...I shall become...a little old lady with cats!"
Tarpe Mills, the writer/artist of this titillating tale, later created another, better-known, feline-themed comic character...Miss Fury!

BTW, despite Wikipedia's claim that Madame Fatal was the first transvestite super-hero, this Cat Man predates him/her by several months. (Amazing-Man Comics #5 was cover-dated September, 1939. Crack Comics #1, Madame Fatal's first appearance, was cover-dated May, 1940!)
And yes, we will present the second, and final appearance of this...unique...Cat Man, soon!
Curiously, though other characters from Amazing-Man Comics (and the entire Centaur Comics line have re-appeared in Alex Ross' Project SuperPowers, this CatMan has yet to do so!  C'mon, Alex, you can find a place for him...er, her...er, whatever...