Showing posts with label spies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spies. Show all posts

Monday, July 29, 2024

NoKo Crushers MADAM ZERO "Rockets of the Red Mist"

Perhaps Falwell was inspired by this forgotten  heroine's never-reprinted final tale from Fiction House's Fight Comics #84 (1952)!
Anonymous Commie-buster Madam Zero made only three appearances in her short-lived career!
A mistress of disguise, she always surprised the (also anonymous) secret agent who narrated these stories and who played the helpless "Steve Trevor" to her plain-clothes "Wonder Woman"!
Nothing is known about her real identity, motivations, or even which department she worked for!
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Monday, May 15, 2023

Russkie-Smashers HUMAN TORCH COMICS "Atomic Ray Gun Toy Terror!"

The Human Torch's return to his own title in 1953...
...after several appearances in other books featured this tale about the perils of toy ray guns!
(I kid you not!)
Though this story from Atlas' Human Torch #36 (1953) was illustrated by Dick Ayers, Carl Burgos (the character's creator/original writer-artist) redrew both the Torch and Toro's flaming forms!
Trivia: Though a number of the 1950s Torch and Toro tales were reprinted (with minor modifications) in the 1970s (after the Comics Code loosened up), this story was too violent to reprint until the 2000s!
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(which features this tale)

Monday, March 6, 2023

Russkie-Smashers T-MAN "Death Trap in Iran" & "Trouble's Double"

What happens when you combine Russkies and Iran in a kick-ass 1950s spy story?
But, that's not all!
There's also this sanitized-for-your-protection, Comics Code-modified reprint from Quality's T-Man #31 (1956), which waters down all the kool hard-boiled elements from the original tale...and makes the Russkies into generic "Communists"!
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Friday, June 29, 2012

Reading Room: JET DREAM "Demon Dogfight"

...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.

Friday, June 22, 2012

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! ;-)

Saturday, June 16, 2012

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.

Friday, June 8, 2012

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!

Monday, June 4, 2012

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!)

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Reading Room: JET DREAM "Farmer Brown Fiasco"

It's difficult fitting a team into only four pages...
...so Jet Dream usually had solo action stories or a team-up with one of the Stunt-Girl Counterspies!
Unfortunately, because of the 4-page per story limitation, the individual Stunt-Girls never had any real characterization.
Add Joe Certa's passable art using the same facial features for all the female characters, and the only things differentiating the women were hair color and stereotyped accents.
Script for this tale from Man from U.N.C.L.E. #17 (1968) by Dick Wood, art by Joe Certa.

Monday, May 14, 2012

Reading Room: JET DREAM "Day of Infamy"

Is one of the Stunt-Girl CounterSpies a traitor?
Jet Dream must discover the truth in only four pages before it tears the team apart...or worse!
Didn't Ting-a-Ling do something similar because her family was threatened several issues ago?
Script for this tale from Man from U.N.C.L.E. #16 (1968) by Dick Wood (who also wrote the earlier tale so he should have remembered), art by Joe Certa.
(To be fair, Ting wasn't a member of the StuntGirls at that point...nit-pick, nit-pick...)