Some Cavemen Are More Cavemen Than Others

Before we get back to Tragg & Lorn (and we will get back to them), let's stop in to check out a rather different caveman. From the pencil of Joe Beck (often aided & abetted by Otto Eppers) comes the world of Prehistoric Pete. 

Pete first appeared in Spotlight Comics back in 1944. Spotlight only lasted three issues, but it didn't take Pete down with it. He also appeared in an issue of Punch Comics, and enough issues of Red Seal Comics to bring him up to an even dozen stories.

Today, let's take a look at those first three tales from Spotlight -

Get the feeling that perhaps this was where Dogpatch might eventually evolve?

page art by Joe Beck and Otto Eppers from Spotlight Comics #s 1-3 (1944, 1945)

The Yankee Wasn't From Conecticut (or Can't Get Enough Dick (your choice))

Before we dig in to today's Dick Briefer brief, let's make a quick stop at the first page of the first issue (#3, because - comics!) of Boy Comics, from whence today's tales originated. And bring back a logo we haven't seen since the early days of this blog...

We'll not be looking closer at this guy...

(Obviously the victim of steroid shrinkage)

...because who knows what we might see!

But, also - it shows one of the big problems for today's feature. The early issues of Boy Comics are scarce. So much so that i've only ever seen microfiche copies of most of them. Out of his first dozen appearances, i only have 4 paper copies.

So, naturally, those will be the ones we look at today. 

Yankee Longago - The Boy Of To-Day In The Land Of Yesterday, like another Yankee recorded by Sam Clemens and popularized by Bing Crosby, isn't so tightly bound by time as most folks. In his first adventure, instead of leaping back to King Arthur's court, he found himself in the lands of King Cole (who was NOT a merry old soul). He quickly established himself as someone worthy of note by putting out Bad Bimbo's eye with a rubber band & paper clip. Shortly after, he was cranking out bicycles, parachutes, and weapons of war to bring about change in the land before returning home.

However, on his second 'trip in time' he did find his way to Arthur's time - back before Arthur was King. After helping him to pull the sword from the stone, Yankee winds up facing off against an evil Merlin before returning to his own time.

And now we come to his 3rd tale, the first i have on paper. So let's join with Yankee as he meets Al - the Alchemist (and a couple more famous characters)...

A couple issues later, Yankee was meeting up with Napoleon...
 

Having previously corrected "Chris" that he was seeing Brooklyn, not India, Yankee's travels brought him closer to home...
 

Our final tale today brings Ponce De Leon to meet Longago at the Fountain...
 

Between 1942 and 1946, Dick Briefer did about two dozen of Yankee's adventures.
I'll see how many more i can dig up on paper.

page art by Dick Briefer from Boy Comics #s 5, 7, 12, & 14 (1942, 1943, 1944)

ONES Upon A First Time Around

We've got a quickie today, only six pages long - but it counts double. Not only does she fit into the

feature, but also is the inaugural entry for another feature - one i'd yet to start simply because i don't know what i want to call it. It's a simple notion - spotlighting familiar names that were already used previously. Somehow, Before They Was Them lacks a certain je ne sais quois, n'est pas?

If you're unfamiliar, ONES Upon A Time features characters who were set up for ongoing series but only had One published appearance before disappearing into comic limbo.

Today's star appeared in Major Victory Comics #1 back in 1944. Major Victory came back for a second issue, but she did not. As is all too often the case, the creators' names are lost and unknown.

Meet Helen Goddard, who used the name Spider Woman decades before Jessica Drew -
 

SO many questions about why she had that costume just sitting around. What was she planning?

And, what do you think? Would the kid have turned out to be a sidekick, and that's why she introduced herself to him? 
Or was it just that the fields were barren, so she had none to give? (Yeah, it's one of them days - and the writing on T3C is starting to get a mite strange(r))

page art from Major Victory Comics #1 (1944)

The Captain Was Heroic

As you may have noticed, i've been off in my own weird world for a bit. And not simply because this one is so overrun with fools and villains lately. I've been deep diving into The Third Colony and getting all sorts of scattered things done...  Added a lost cave network, expanding the cast (we've passed 100 characters in the world now), working on scene renders and scripts, creating a dynamic party system (no - not handling members of your party as you trek down into a dungeon - handling guests, clusters, and conversations at a social gathering).

Don't worry, i'm not doing another graphic dump from the game today. Much of the recent work either doesn't lend itself well to that sort of thing, or it needs to be in the back room. (Like the current scene in work with Pairadax and Pink Cherry 'pranking' Kelly during her initial physical examination for Registration.) I was just rambling on why i've been cut off from the outer time flow.

Today, let's wander on back to places we've been before - sorta. Call it an Old School Triple or something.

We haven't run any Flash Gordon parodies in a bit, and we're behind on our Fan Press coverage - so let's combine and visit a zine we haven't looked at previously: LOC - Fandom's Forum.

Actually, we're just going to look at a few comics from LOC today. We should definitely be back sometime soon to take a deeper gander at the text and the (Major!) players involved. But, for now, let's join Tom Linehan as he brings us Flush Going -

Hmm...
Fan Press. Flash Gordon Parody. That's two, but i said a Triple, so we need one more familiar bit. 

Okay, we'll stick with Tom and LOC and we'll add in more early fanzine work from Kurt Busiek as he and Tom team for Captain Heroic and Side-Kick -
 

...but it doesn't stop there!...
 

It promises to continue, but did it?
Frankly - I don't know. I'm missing the next issue (#7 if anyone's got it and wants to enlighten us, or, y'know -Kurt, if you wanna speak up...?) and it didn't appear after that point so far as i can determine.

However, if we jump back almost 40 years, we can find Captain Heroic on Boom Boom Brannigan's turf... 

Hey! There's an Old School Triple!
It all worked out, i guess.

page art by Tom Linehan and ??? from LOC #s 3, 4, & 6 and Prize Comics #46 (1944, 1981, 1982)