The Other Guys-Non-DC & Marvel Reviews
Aug 9, 2017 15:33:38 GMT -5
shaxper, kirby101, and 2 more like this
Post by codystarbuck on Aug 9, 2017 15:33:38 GMT -5
Tarzan would offer readers a new adventure series, from Western. Gaylord Dubois and Jesse Marsh created an adventure series, set in ancient Africa, featuring two firends; one white, one black. They are Dan-El (the white dude) and Natongo (the black man). Together, they are the Brothers of the Spear.
Now, the title may have sounded like a euphemism for a gay couple; but, it was classic adventure. Natongo is the son of a Zulu chieftan, while Dan-El is his blood brother, a member of a lost tribe of white Africans (the Aba-Zulu). Dan-El learns that he is the rightful king of the Aba-Zulu. In the earliest years, Dan-El and Natongo gain their respective kingdowms, marry, and start a family. The series was a bit of a mix of Tarzan and Prince Valiant, with the Brothers sharing adventures in and around their kingdoms. Russ Manning would do some of his earliest work on the back-up series.
The series continued in Tarzan, until ERB Inc took the series to DC. At that point, Brothers of the Spear was spun off into its own title, with art by Filipino artist Jesse Santos.
Santos had that classic Foster/Hogarth style, which matched the material well. He soon became THE fantasy adventure artist for Western, where he would go on to co-create a couple more adventure series, which we'll get to, in a minute. Santos left the series after 12 issues and was followed by another Western mainstay, Dan Spiegel.
The title would last 17 issues under Gold Key and a last 18th issue, under the Whitman name, featuring reprints of earlier stories. As we can see, Western's use of painted covers (a staple of 60s and early 70s Gold Key adventure and horror series) did a lot to help sell these, as they were on par with the best fantasy novel covers and pulp illustrations. Essentially, that is what Brothers of the Spear is, classic pulp jungle/lost world adventure.
As I mentioned, Jesse Santos helped start another adventure series for Western. Inspired by the success of Conan, at Marvel, Western launched Tales of Sword and Sorcery, Featuring Dagar, The Invincible (better known as Dagar the Invincible).
Joining Santos on the series was writer Donld F Glut. if the name sounds familiar, you probably owned a copy of the Empire Strikes Back novelization, watched Filmation classic cartoons (Shazam and Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle), episodes of Duck Tales or GI Joe, or Masters of the Universe. Glut also wrote fantasy and sci-fi novels and many tie-in books for children. At Western, he got to indulge in a love of fantasy and adventure.
The series is filled with evil wizards, monsters, sword play, scantily-clad women and beefcake; everything a fantasy fan could want. It wasn't quite Conan; but, it was one of the better attempts to cash in on it, thanks to Santos' classic line work and Glut's imaginative stories. Here's a typical example:
Like other Western adventure series, it was published quarterly, which stretched 18 issues over several years. A last 19th issue, featuring the dreaded reprints (and a line art cover reproduction) was put out under the Whitman banner, in the last days of Western's comic publishing.
Glut and Santos had a bit of a mini-fantasy & adventure empire going. They also created the series Tragg and the Sky Gods.
The series tells the story of the prehistoric couple, Tragg and Lorn. In the ancient past, aliens landed on Earth, in a golden spherical ship, resembling the sun. The neanderthals believed them to be sky gods. The aliens were benevolent scientists, who took a pair of neanderthal women and genetically modified them, with elvolvo-rays. The two women had children, Tragg and Lorn, who were intelligent and more advanced than their brethren. They would help their tribe advance, while they waited for the return of the sky gods. However, they didn't return and the tribe turned on Tragg and Lon, driving them out. On the alien planet, a revolution came, driving out the scientists. A new group comes to Earth, looking for sport. Tragg & Lorn end up battling the aliens, as well as prehistoric beasts and men, in adventures that mixed sci-fi and fantasy.
Western didn't exactly have huge hits (apart from certain licensed books); but, Tragg was a cult favorite. The sophisticated mix of sci-fi and fantasy proved engaging and it was a favorite of many. Mike Grell made an homage to it in the pages of Warlord (#8), as Mariah is nabbed by a flock of pteranodons and Travis Morgan and Machiste give chase. They meet a man called Tragg, who turns out to be a cyborg. The connection failed to alert many Warlord readers, especially later ones, who never saw Tragg, thanks to Western's spotty regional distribution and short-lived series. Internet blogs I have come across totally miss the connection.
Glut was the rare Western writer who actually crossed over characters, in his series. Tragg's brother Jam would appear in Dagar the Invincible and Doctor Spektor crossed over with both Tragg and Dagar.
Scrolling back a bit, to the 1960s, Western launched another fantasy series, with a bit of a sci-fi flavor. It was created by Otto Binder and Frank Thorne, and was calle Mighty Samson.
Set in a post-apocalyptic future, in the environs of the ruined city N'Yark. Samson is a barbarian warrior, who runs around fighting mutated animals, brigands, rival barbarians, scheming wizards and the like. It bears more than a little resemblance to the later animated series Thundarr the Barbarian, created by Steve Gerber. The main difference is Thundarr's Sunsword (a rip-off of the Star wars lightsabers) and Ookla. Otherwise, Samson trolls around in the ruins of a civilization destroyed by nuclear war. N'Yark is partially flooded, giving us the sights of skyscrapers jutting up from the ocean, an image carried forward to Mark Schultz's Xenozoic Tales.
Issues 1-6 featured art by Frank Thorne, before he moved on to other things, like Red Sonja, Ghita, Moonshine McJuggs and Lann.
Jack Sparling followed Thorne and was then followed by Jose Delbo. The series was great fun, mixing the mythical Samson with elements of both sci-fi and fantasy. If you liked Thundarr, you definitely want to check this out (and see where they swiped elements).
When Western lost the Tarzan comics, they soldiered on with the above adventure series. A direct result of the loss was Jungle Twins, from Gaylord Dubois and Paul Norris.
It features typical Tarzan-style tales of jungle adventure. The Twins are Kono and Tono, two white boys whose parents were killed in a plane crash, in remote Africa. they are raised as part of the local tribe and go on a series of adventures. Kind of the Hardy Boys-meets-Tarzan. They weren't quite in the caliber of Tarzan (Norris wasn't a Russ Manning stylist) and the stories lacked the spark of things like Turok. Speaking of whom...
Turok was the series that bridged all three eras of Western, from the Dell banner, to Gold Key, to Whitman, lasting 132 issues, one of the longest non-licensed books at Western. It debuted in 1954, in Dell's Four Color, before gaining its own series. Rex Maxon drew the early adventures and the creator is disputed. Early writers were Matthew Murphy, Gaylord Dubois, and Paul S. Newman. Dubois shaped the series, which features mandan Native Americans Turok and Andar, who are trapped in a "lost valley," filled with dinosaurs and prehistoric men. They battle these "honkers" and cave men, with their knives and arrows (dipped in a solution derived from a poisonous berry. Amazingly, their primitive arrows are able to penetrate the thick dinosaur hide and kill the monsters (when necessary). The adventures tended to be somewhat formulaic, as Turok and Andar wander around, disturbing honkers and ticking off cavemen; or else, rescuing cavewomen or helping out a tribe of people. Truok wasn't necessarily a series you needed to collect every issue; but, you could usually find an entertaining story there. if you loved dinosaurs and lost world stories, it was heaven!
Turok, being one of the longest running Western titles, was also one of the most popular; and, when Valiant licensed the titles to launch the Valiant universe, Turok would quickly follow onto the heels of Magnus, Robot Fighter and Dr Solar. That revival would launch him into a popular video game and, later, an animated video, though I found the later stuff to be a bit of a mixed bag. it started well; but, like a lot of Valiant, it kind of lost its way (especially after Shooter was fired). I grew up with classic Turok and preferred adventures with honkers and cave people, rather than super-intelligent dinosaurs and high tech arrows. To each their own, though.
So, that is the pulp fantasy adventure side of Western; next, we'll look at their flirtations with superhero adventurers. I'll look at the Dell attempts, with Nukla and Brain Boy, as well as the Gold Key heroes Magnus, Robot Fighter and Dr Solar, and maybe a licensed superhero or two.
Now, the title may have sounded like a euphemism for a gay couple; but, it was classic adventure. Natongo is the son of a Zulu chieftan, while Dan-El is his blood brother, a member of a lost tribe of white Africans (the Aba-Zulu). Dan-El learns that he is the rightful king of the Aba-Zulu. In the earliest years, Dan-El and Natongo gain their respective kingdowms, marry, and start a family. The series was a bit of a mix of Tarzan and Prince Valiant, with the Brothers sharing adventures in and around their kingdoms. Russ Manning would do some of his earliest work on the back-up series.
The series continued in Tarzan, until ERB Inc took the series to DC. At that point, Brothers of the Spear was spun off into its own title, with art by Filipino artist Jesse Santos.
Santos had that classic Foster/Hogarth style, which matched the material well. He soon became THE fantasy adventure artist for Western, where he would go on to co-create a couple more adventure series, which we'll get to, in a minute. Santos left the series after 12 issues and was followed by another Western mainstay, Dan Spiegel.
The title would last 17 issues under Gold Key and a last 18th issue, under the Whitman name, featuring reprints of earlier stories. As we can see, Western's use of painted covers (a staple of 60s and early 70s Gold Key adventure and horror series) did a lot to help sell these, as they were on par with the best fantasy novel covers and pulp illustrations. Essentially, that is what Brothers of the Spear is, classic pulp jungle/lost world adventure.
As I mentioned, Jesse Santos helped start another adventure series for Western. Inspired by the success of Conan, at Marvel, Western launched Tales of Sword and Sorcery, Featuring Dagar, The Invincible (better known as Dagar the Invincible).
Joining Santos on the series was writer Donld F Glut. if the name sounds familiar, you probably owned a copy of the Empire Strikes Back novelization, watched Filmation classic cartoons (Shazam and Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle), episodes of Duck Tales or GI Joe, or Masters of the Universe. Glut also wrote fantasy and sci-fi novels and many tie-in books for children. At Western, he got to indulge in a love of fantasy and adventure.
The series is filled with evil wizards, monsters, sword play, scantily-clad women and beefcake; everything a fantasy fan could want. It wasn't quite Conan; but, it was one of the better attempts to cash in on it, thanks to Santos' classic line work and Glut's imaginative stories. Here's a typical example:
Like other Western adventure series, it was published quarterly, which stretched 18 issues over several years. A last 19th issue, featuring the dreaded reprints (and a line art cover reproduction) was put out under the Whitman banner, in the last days of Western's comic publishing.
Glut and Santos had a bit of a mini-fantasy & adventure empire going. They also created the series Tragg and the Sky Gods.
The series tells the story of the prehistoric couple, Tragg and Lorn. In the ancient past, aliens landed on Earth, in a golden spherical ship, resembling the sun. The neanderthals believed them to be sky gods. The aliens were benevolent scientists, who took a pair of neanderthal women and genetically modified them, with elvolvo-rays. The two women had children, Tragg and Lorn, who were intelligent and more advanced than their brethren. They would help their tribe advance, while they waited for the return of the sky gods. However, they didn't return and the tribe turned on Tragg and Lon, driving them out. On the alien planet, a revolution came, driving out the scientists. A new group comes to Earth, looking for sport. Tragg & Lorn end up battling the aliens, as well as prehistoric beasts and men, in adventures that mixed sci-fi and fantasy.
Western didn't exactly have huge hits (apart from certain licensed books); but, Tragg was a cult favorite. The sophisticated mix of sci-fi and fantasy proved engaging and it was a favorite of many. Mike Grell made an homage to it in the pages of Warlord (#8), as Mariah is nabbed by a flock of pteranodons and Travis Morgan and Machiste give chase. They meet a man called Tragg, who turns out to be a cyborg. The connection failed to alert many Warlord readers, especially later ones, who never saw Tragg, thanks to Western's spotty regional distribution and short-lived series. Internet blogs I have come across totally miss the connection.
Glut was the rare Western writer who actually crossed over characters, in his series. Tragg's brother Jam would appear in Dagar the Invincible and Doctor Spektor crossed over with both Tragg and Dagar.
Scrolling back a bit, to the 1960s, Western launched another fantasy series, with a bit of a sci-fi flavor. It was created by Otto Binder and Frank Thorne, and was calle Mighty Samson.
Set in a post-apocalyptic future, in the environs of the ruined city N'Yark. Samson is a barbarian warrior, who runs around fighting mutated animals, brigands, rival barbarians, scheming wizards and the like. It bears more than a little resemblance to the later animated series Thundarr the Barbarian, created by Steve Gerber. The main difference is Thundarr's Sunsword (a rip-off of the Star wars lightsabers) and Ookla. Otherwise, Samson trolls around in the ruins of a civilization destroyed by nuclear war. N'Yark is partially flooded, giving us the sights of skyscrapers jutting up from the ocean, an image carried forward to Mark Schultz's Xenozoic Tales.
Issues 1-6 featured art by Frank Thorne, before he moved on to other things, like Red Sonja, Ghita, Moonshine McJuggs and Lann.
Jack Sparling followed Thorne and was then followed by Jose Delbo. The series was great fun, mixing the mythical Samson with elements of both sci-fi and fantasy. If you liked Thundarr, you definitely want to check this out (and see where they swiped elements).
When Western lost the Tarzan comics, they soldiered on with the above adventure series. A direct result of the loss was Jungle Twins, from Gaylord Dubois and Paul Norris.
It features typical Tarzan-style tales of jungle adventure. The Twins are Kono and Tono, two white boys whose parents were killed in a plane crash, in remote Africa. they are raised as part of the local tribe and go on a series of adventures. Kind of the Hardy Boys-meets-Tarzan. They weren't quite in the caliber of Tarzan (Norris wasn't a Russ Manning stylist) and the stories lacked the spark of things like Turok. Speaking of whom...
Turok was the series that bridged all three eras of Western, from the Dell banner, to Gold Key, to Whitman, lasting 132 issues, one of the longest non-licensed books at Western. It debuted in 1954, in Dell's Four Color, before gaining its own series. Rex Maxon drew the early adventures and the creator is disputed. Early writers were Matthew Murphy, Gaylord Dubois, and Paul S. Newman. Dubois shaped the series, which features mandan Native Americans Turok and Andar, who are trapped in a "lost valley," filled with dinosaurs and prehistoric men. They battle these "honkers" and cave men, with their knives and arrows (dipped in a solution derived from a poisonous berry. Amazingly, their primitive arrows are able to penetrate the thick dinosaur hide and kill the monsters (when necessary). The adventures tended to be somewhat formulaic, as Turok and Andar wander around, disturbing honkers and ticking off cavemen; or else, rescuing cavewomen or helping out a tribe of people. Truok wasn't necessarily a series you needed to collect every issue; but, you could usually find an entertaining story there. if you loved dinosaurs and lost world stories, it was heaven!
Turok, being one of the longest running Western titles, was also one of the most popular; and, when Valiant licensed the titles to launch the Valiant universe, Turok would quickly follow onto the heels of Magnus, Robot Fighter and Dr Solar. That revival would launch him into a popular video game and, later, an animated video, though I found the later stuff to be a bit of a mixed bag. it started well; but, like a lot of Valiant, it kind of lost its way (especially after Shooter was fired). I grew up with classic Turok and preferred adventures with honkers and cave people, rather than super-intelligent dinosaurs and high tech arrows. To each their own, though.
So, that is the pulp fantasy adventure side of Western; next, we'll look at their flirtations with superhero adventurers. I'll look at the Dell attempts, with Nukla and Brain Boy, as well as the Gold Key heroes Magnus, Robot Fighter and Dr Solar, and maybe a licensed superhero or two.