Technically, this is a Cold War adventure starring the legendary John Wayne...
...and though Blood Alleydidn't have a comic adaptation, it did have a never-reprinted comic parody...penciled and inked (and possibly written) by none other than Jack (King) Kirby! Warning: May be NSFW/NSFS due to ethnic stereotypes common to the era.
Appearing in Charlton's Crazy, Man, Crazy V2N2 (1956), this piece makes us wish Kirby had done some serious John Wayne comics and/or even more humor work!
Adventurer Doc Savage and his five associates, having survived an assassination attempt by a gunman in Mayan ceremonial garb at their NYC headquarters, are proceeding to the Central American country of Hidalgo to investigate the suspicious death by unknown disease of Savage's explorer father.
As they come in for a landing at the airport...
Are Monk's buddies dead?
Did Ham's suit get wrinkled?
And, where's the Man of Bronze when you really need him?
Tune in Tomorrow for both the Astounding Answers and This Titanic Tale's Cataclysmic Conclusion
at our "brother" RetroBlog... Medical Comics!
In the early 1970s, bolstered by the success of Conan the Barbarian, both DC and Marvel attempted to launch other pulp characters who had successful paperback reprint series as comic book titles.
Hoping that the audiences for them would carry over as Conan's had, Marvel acquired the rights to Doc Savage, while DC snagged both The Shadow and The Avenger.
The Doc title lasted only eight issues from 1972-73, but the license remained in Marvel's hands when the George Pal movie came along and Marvel invoked their right to do a comic based on the movie.
Compare with page 7 above.
Since the flick was an adaptation of the premiere novel "The Man of Bronze", which Marvel had already used as the basis for the first two issues of their previous comic, it was decided to repackage that material as a double-sized one-shot to tie-in with the movie's release.
The art was modified to match the appearance of Doc in the movie, substituting an open-collared shirt for his Marvel-created blue vest and a buzz-cut for the James Bama/Bantam paperback "skullcap" (see left).
(I always wondered why Marvel didn't go with the torn-shirt look of the Bantam paperback covers on the comics.
Maybe they didn't want people confusing Doc with their resident torn-shirt aficionado, Nick Fury.
Thankfully, Marvel returned to the torn shirt "look" on the 1975-77 b/w magazine covers by Ken Barr.)
The original two-issue comic adaptation had updated the 1933 novel to the then-present 1970s.
The Giant-Size Doc Savage "re-mastering" modified the technology back to 1930s levels, except the adaptation's replacing of the Mayan assassin's elephant gun with a laser rifle, which remained!
They also re-did Monk's hair from the incorrect black-with-blue-highlights to the red color it had in the pulp stories (and the remainder of the Marvel run).
...we're presenting what could be considered his direct ancestor in comics.
Though he shares a number of attributes with the movie version of Ant-Man, including reduced height, retaining his full-sized strength while small, receiving his powers from a scientist, and criminal connections, Fly-Man couldn't control or communicate with insects.
Illustrated by Sam Glanzman, this never-reprinted tale from Harvey Comics' Spitfire Comics #1 (1941) was the first of two appearances by the Diminutive Daredevil.
In the next (and final) issue of the title, Fly-Man took both the cover and the lead section of the book from the comic's namesake character, Spitfire!
It didn't help since neither character ever reappeared...anywhere!
But, the "Fly-Man" name would reappear almost 20 years later...on a new character with interesting links to Ant-Man.
...we thought it appropriate to take a look at the insect-themed heroes of comics, with a never-reprinted article from the amazingly-kool The Monster Times #3 (1972) by comics fan-turned-comics pro Marv Wolfman!
Now that you've read a primer of insect (and arachnid)-themed characters, be here next week when we present several never reprinted tales about them!
Since the videos on the original 2010 post were deleted from YouTube...
...we're re-presenting this incredibly-popular post with updated links!
It's Christmastime, so let's go with the most-demanded Green Hornet vids of all...
When Titans Clash :
BatmanvsThe Green Hornet!
A decade before Superman vs Spider-Man, this was the first inter-company superhero crossover. The Hornet and Kato had already cameoed on Batman, in the episode "The Spell of Tut", where they appeared in a window during a Bat-Climb.
Celebrities ranging from Sammy Davis Jr. to Edward G. Robinson popped up for brief appearances during these sequences. Even characters from other ABC series like Lurch (Ted Cassidy) from the Addams Family and Col. Klink (Werner Klemperer) from Hogan's Heroes showed up!
Curiously, the visiting duo are regarded as heroes, not villains, and Britt introduces Kato by name.
(Metafiction aficionados have been driven nuts by these interludes, trying to fit them into their respective universes...)
And, as we've pointed out before, both Batman and The Green Hornet featured their characters watching each others' show on tv!
All that was basically ignored when it was decided that, to boost Green Hornet's decent (but not Batman-level) ratings, GH and K would appear as "Visiting Heroes" on Batman.
For whatever reason, none of the established Batman villains were used. (And The Green Hornet had no costumed or even ongoing opponents.)
Instead, a new baddie, Colonel Gumm, played by Roger C. Carmel*, was introduced, along with a plotline involving counterfeit stamps which drew The Hornet and Kato to Gotham.
The motif of GH and K being perceived as villains was utilized, resulting in the Dynamic Duo being as eager to capture them as to jail the corny counterfeiter!
In addition, it's shown that the two heroes' millionaire alter-egos, Bruce Wayne and Britt Reid, have known each other since childhood, and constantly competed over almost everything, including women!
So, it was inevitable the two costumed frat-boys would square-off in the climax...
On-set photo of Van Williams and Adam West during the climactic fight scene
Unfortunately, the gambit didn't pay off. The Green Hornet's ratings didn't improve, and the show was cancelled.
(Note: the show's ratings were good enough to make them eligible for renewal, but, since the producers didn't want to implement network-demanded budget cuts, the network axed the series anyway. Batman, OTOH, continued, with a reduced budget and cut from being twice-weekly to weekly, for another year, before being cancelled.)
Without further adieu, here is the legendary two-parter; "A Piece of the Action" and "Batman's Satisfaction"...
*Roger C. Carmel played numerous flamboyant villains on everything from The Man from U.N.C.L.E. to Hawaii Five-0 to Transformers to Star Trek, where he portrayed Harcourt Fenton "Harry" Mudd on both the classic and animated series!
He's also the answer to the trivia question; "Who's the only actor to play a villain opposite Batman, Captain Kirk, and The Green Hornet?"
, this was the first inter-company superhero crossover.
to Hawaii Five-0
to Transformers
to Star Trek
, where he portrayed Harcourt Fenton "Harry" Mudd on both the classic and animated
series!