Russkie-Smashers PHANTOM LADY "Man the Kremlin Applauded!"

We showed a tale where a different heroine battling Nazis became Phantom Lady battling Russkies...

...but here's an all-new story featuring our stalwart all-American heroine!

Script for this tale from Ajax-Farrell's Wonder Boy #17 (1955) is probably by Ruth Roche.

However, the art is not by Matt Baker (who had left the Iger Studios).
While competent, the art, by nameless Iger Studio staff artists, is hardly the classic cheesecake we've come to expect of Phantom Lady!

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A Twice-Told Tale About Nazis Becoming Russkies...and Being SMASHED Both TImes by Different Heroines!

This is a "twice-told tale"...

...demonstrating how similarly WWII Germans and Cold War Russkies could be portrayed in pop culture!

First, a tale starring a long-forgotten heroine from Elliot's Spitfire Comics #132 (1944)...

Secret agent Spitfire Sanders made only two appearances, in successive issues of Elliot Comics' Spitfire Comics, which despite the high numbering of this issue (#132), only had two issues!
(And this was the first of the two!)
The art on this story about an extremely competent female spy is by journeyman artist Paul Cooper, working for the Iger Studios, who also supplied art to Ajax/Farrell (where the re-worked version appeared several years later) and Fox Comics.
It was scripted by "Rick Shawn", which was likely a pen-name since he's only credited with the two Spitfire Saunders tales!

Now we jump a decade to 1954.

The Nazis have been defeated.

Communism is on the rise.

A comic book publisher needs a story about a superheroine to meet a deadline, so Nazi-Crusher Spitfire Sanders becomes...already-existing Russkie-Smasher Phantom Lady!

Oh, and due to space limitations, the original story has to be cut by a couple of pages...

For this presentation in Ajax/Farrell's Phantom Lady #5 (actually #1) from 1954, the brand new (and extremely-restrictive Comics Code also required a reduction in gunplay and use of torture instruments like whips, so a number of panels were reworked...or deleted entirely!

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Reading Room: JET DREAM "Demon Dogfight"

OK, now we're presenting the final Jet Dream short story...

...as a public demonstration of prowess goes awry due to evil intent!

Story by Dave Wood, art by Joe Certa.

This new story from Man from U.N.C.L.E. #22 (1968) backs up a reprinted U.N.C.L.E. tale, so most people (myself included) thought it was a reprint as well.
Good thing I took a look inside the book! ;-)
There's one more never-reprinted Jet Dream story to tell, but you won't find it here.
It will appear on our "sister" blog Heroines™ blog in daily installments on the week of August 13th, along with another long-unseen tale with an unusual history!

And, as of our next post, this blog's title is altering to Hero Histories™...although the feed and addy will remain the same.

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Reading Room: JET DREAM "Terror of Ting-a-Ling"

What happens when an innocent stumbles upon a heroine's secret hq?

Ask Johnny Kai, Ting-a-Ling's boyfriend, when he ends up in "No Man's Land"!

"Stray dog"?

Jet doesn't have a very high opinion of men in general, does she?

Story by Dave Wood, art by Joe Certa.

This new story from Man from U.N.C.L.E. #21 (1968) backs up a reprinted U.N.C.L.E. tale, so most people (myself included) thought it was a reprint as well.
Good thing I took a look inside the book! ;-)

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Reading Room: JET DREAM "Menace of the Feathered Warriors"

The time had come for Jet Dream's final battle...

...and it's against her evil doppelganger...who's also her only recurring foe!

Well, so much for recurring foes...

Story by Dave Wood, art by Joe Certa.

We thought this story from Man from U.N.C.L.E. #20 (1968) was her final strip chronologically, but we've just found out that it's not the case!
While the final issues (#21 and #22) of the title reprint earlier U.N.C.L.E. tales, the Jet Dream stories in both issues are not reprints but new stories!
Those two tales will appear over the next couple of weeks.

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Reading Room: JET DREAM "Fall to Freedom"

The Stunt-Girl CounterSpies go back to their roots...

...unfortunately, for one of them, the roots include Nazis!

Remember, when this story from Man from U.N.C.L.E. #19 came out in 1968, it was only 23 years since the end of World War II, so those pesky Nazis were still pretty spry, especially in spy fiction!

For example: Baron Strucker was battling Nick Fury both in the 1960s in Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., and in the 1940s in Sgt Fury and His Howling Commandos!

Blackhawk, himself a WWII vet, was still fighting various hidden Nazi factions until his first series ended in 1968!

Nazis also popped up in the Matt Helm, Flint, and James Bond films, as well as the Man from U.N.C.L.E. tv series.

Story by Dave Wood, art by Joe Certa.

This is the penultimate Jet Dream short story.

Next week, we'll be presenting the final four-pager (which features the return of a past foe), then we're moving over to our sister blog, Heroines™, for the complete full-length one-shot tale that ended Jet's original run!

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Reading Room: JET DREAM "Captive Jet"

What happens when you take "Jet Dream" out of...

...and the team has to rescue their erstwhile leader?

"Jet-A-Reeno"???

Well, it ain't no "Hawkaaa!", but it'll do.

It's good to know they can function without Jet's leadership when necessary.

Script for this tale from Man from U.N.C.L.E. #18 (1968) by Dick Wood, with vastly-improved art by Joe Certa.
(We can finally tell which StuntGirls are which!)

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Reading Room: PHANTOM LADY "Success is No Accident"

For the final time, if the story seems familiar...

...it's because this is yet another re-write of a story of the Fox Comics version of Phantom Lady published several years earlier!

Both ironically and appropriately, this final Phantom Lady tale in Wonder Boy #18 (1955) is based on a story that appeared, not in Phantom Lady, but All Top Comics #9 (1948), entitled "Killer Clown".

This is the final Golden Age Phantom Lady tale on this blog, but it's not the last one in our archives!

There's one more tale, from Phantom Lady #22 (1948), featuring our heroine at the 1948 London Olympics!

It'll appear in our new "sister" blog, Heroines™, when the Olympics open on July 27th!

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