Jungle Frolics

Little Orphan Annie: Merchandise

2012-01-31T15:00:00.000-05:00

Harold Gray drawing his famous character. Note how many girls have a fashionable bob cut.

Little Orphan Annie's creator, Harold Gray, was born on his parents' farm in Illinois, but says he didn't like farm life. He wistfully dreamt of other things and started drawing comic strips to entertain himself, and in 1913 began getting his cartoons published in small town journals and, later, in his college yearbook.

In 1917, Gray graduated from Purdue University with a degree in engineering and, still a country bumpkin, walked into the offices of the Chicago Tribune looking for a job in the art department. Despite a letter of introduction by John T. McCutcheon, the Tribune's editorial cartoonist of many years, the art editor had no work for him.

After a stint in the army and odd jobs as a commercial artist, Gray went to work for Sidney Smith, creator of the extremely popular Gumps newspaper strip, in 1920. He assisted Smith with lettering and backgrounds. In 1922, Smith signed a million-dollar contract, $100,000 a year for ten years. Not surprisingly, Gray began submitting ideas for his own strips to Joseph Medill Patterson, owner of the Tribune. Patterson, who took an active interest in his paper's comic strips, rejected Gray's proposals, until he came up with Little Orphan Annie in 1924.

"Rare" doesn't even begin to classify this 1927 30-page booklet -- it's practically raw! Only a very small number were printed, and Gray handed them out at a convention for the American Newspaper Publishers Association (ANPA). It featured a summary of Little Orphan Annie's two and a half years of existence, with illustrations by Gray.

In one version of the story, Gray's original concept was a boy, Little Orphan Otto, and Patterson suggested changing the character to a girl, Little Orphan Annie. But as Gray himself told the story in 1951, he'd met a homeless waif on the street who was both tough and wise beyond her years, and she left an impression on him:

"She had common sense, knew how to take care of herself. She had to. Her name was Annie. At the time some 40 strips were using boys as the main characters; only three were using girls. I chose Annie for mine, and made her an orphan, so she'd have no family, no tangling alliances, but freedom to go where she pleased."

If Gray's story is accurate, it would have only made sense to title his strip "Little Orphan Annie", after the popular 1885 poem, "Little Orphant Annie", by James Whitcomb Riley.

In any case, the strip was accepted, and dailies debuted on August 5, 1924 in Patterson's tabloid, The Daily News. Gray was 30 years old. Sunday strips began appearing in the Tribune on November 2, followed by the dailies a week later. It was picked up by other papers in syndication, and soon became one of the most popular and lucrative comic strips around, making Gray a wealthy man.

Gray's 25-room Georgian mansion in Connecticut, room enough for dozens of orphans! He must have bought it simply because he could. After all, he and his second wife, Winifred, never had children.

The mansion, as depicted on this Christmas card from 1939. Every year from 1924 to 1967, Harold and Winifred sent out Christmas cards featuring Annie and Sandy, some to the multitude of fans who wrote to Gray.

Despite the strip's violence and gritty realism, and Gray's conservative views reflected in the characters of Annie and "Daddy" Warbucks, which often caused controversy, kids loved Little Orphan Annie. By the beginning of the 1930s, Annie was appearing in 320 newspapers and Gray was making more money than his mentor, Sidney Smith, through merchandising. (Smith had just signed a new contract in 1935 for $150,000 a year, when he perished in a car accident.) At the time of his death in 1968, Gray was a millionaire five times over.

Cupples & Leon, publisher of children's books, as well as collections of newspaper strips, reprinted Annie's adventures from 1926 to 1934, a total of nine hardcover volumes. The 92-page books, edited by Gray himself, sold for 60 cents each.

Little Orphan Annie, holding her rag doll, Emily Marie, who went missing shortly after she found Sandy and brought him home. He probably buried her. The cover for Little Orphan Annie, the first Cupples & Leon collection (1926), reprinting the strips from July 7, 1925 to November 30, 1925.

Little Orphan Annie In The Circus (1927), reprinting the strips from May 1, 1926 to September 4, 1926.

Little Orphan Annie And The Haunted House (1928), reprinting the strips from May 26, 1927 to October 7, 1927.

Little Orphan Annie Bucking the World (1929), reprinting the strips from January 2, 1928 to November 22, 1928.

Little Orphan Annie Never Say Die (1930), reprinting the strips from January 2, 1929 to May 4, 1929.

Little Orphan Annie Shipwrecked (1931), reprinting the strips from June 13, 1930 to November 22, 1930.

Little Orphan Annie A Willing Helper (1932), reprinting the strips from January 14, 1931 to December 18, 1931.

Little Orphan Annie In Cosmic City (1933), reprinting the strips from August 26, 1932 to December 31, 1932.

Little Orphan Annie And Uncle Dan (1934), reprinting the strips from September 25, 1933 to December 30, 1933. Gray must have just read "The Little Match Girl" when he drew this cover.

Whitman began publishing their Big Little Book series in 1932, and Little Orphan Annie got littler. There were many Annie books in the series throughout the 1930s and 1940s, and, like Cupples & Leon, Whitman adapted the newspaper strips into their diminutive format.

And there were others, including Whitman's even smaller Wee Little Books, and numerous comic books published by Dell, some of them giveaways, most of which reprinted the newspaper strip.

Wee Little Books issued six Little Orphan Annie stories. First Big Little, then Wee Little... The books got smaller, but Harold Gray's bank account got bigger.

The Little Orphan Annie radio show debuted on WGN Chicago, owned by the Tribune, in 1936, starring 10-year-old Shirley Bell, already a veteran radio performer, as Annie. She would play the 10-year-old urchin for the next ten years -- and make good money doing it. On April 6, 1931, the show was picked up by the NBC Blue Network and Ovaltine became the sponsor. For the next two years there was a San Francisco cast, with Floy Hughes as Annie, but they were dropped when technology allowed the original Chicago show to be broadcast from coast to coast. (During a contract dispute in 1934 and 1935, Bobbe Dean played Annie.) The show moved to NBC in 1936, and then Mutual on January 22, 1940, at which point Quaker Puffed Wheat Sparkies became the new sponsor, and Janice Gilbert the new Annie. The final show aired on April 26, 1942.

One of the Sparkies giveaway comics, 1941.

Every day millions of kids tuned in at 5:45 p.m. to listen to Annie's adventures, though half of the 15-minute time slot was taken up by an announcer vigorously hawking Ovaltine and the endless parade of Little Orphan Annie premiums, including a secret decoder ring and mugs to drink your Ovaltine from, which could be obtained by mailing the aluminum seal from the can, and perhaps a dime, to "Little Orphan Annie, Chicago, Illinois; or, if you live in Canada, mail it to Ovaltine, Peterborough, Ontario." Boys and girls were encouraged to get their mothers to pick up a can of Ovaltine from the grocery store because, "even if you have some at home now, you'll be needing another can pretty soon anyway!"

Ovaltine premium, 1935

Ovaltine premium: "talking" stationery

A secret society of six million kids

The first issue of Radio Orphan Annie's Goofy Gazette newspaper, 1939. Annie and Joe Corntassel, editors. There were only three issues. Published by Ovaltine, natch.

Mitzi Green as Annie, 1932

In 1932, RKO's Little Orphan Annie hit the movie theatres, starring 11-year-old Mitzi Green, a popular child actress of the 1930s. Paramount released their own version in 1938, with Ann Gillis playing Annie. Neither movie was a blockbuster, but for the kids it was probably a thrill to see Annie and Sandy on the silver screen. Unfortunately, there were never any animated shorts.


Ann Gillis as Annie, 1938. Sock 'im, Annie!

1938 movie song book

It would be impossible to make a complete account of Little Orphan Annie merchandise in a mere blog post -- it just wouldn't fit. Starting in the 1920s, there were everything from Little Orphan Annie sweaters to Christmas tree light bulbs. Perhaps a thousand blog posts would do it. But here's a few items and related paraphernalia:

Song book, 1925. (Not to be confused with the song used later in the radio show.) It didn't take long for spin-offs -- the strip had only been around for a year.

Yet another song sheet, this one from 1928.

Annie oilcloth doll, 17-inches tall


Board game, 1928

Little Orphan Annie sweater button to stick on your Little Orphan Annie sweater. Who'da thunk?

Colouring book, 1930

Annie mask, 1933. An Ovaltine premium.

Bracelet, mid-1930s

...and the box the bracelet came in.

Kids have to blow their noses, so this Little Orphan Annie hanky set had a right to exist.

Paper plate, 1934. How many kids scraped birthday cake off of Annie's face?


Playing jacks was a swell way to have fun in the 1930s. Today, kids are blowing off zombies' heads with shotguns.


Basically, a rubber stamp kit. 1935

Actually, there were a lot of printing sets available.

Annie watch, with box, 1935. It's hard to tell the time when your eyes have no pupils.

1930s

Pin, early 1930s. There were many Little Orphan Annie pins to be had. Gray's original colour artwork from the 1920s, used on this pin, was used on numerous other pins.

Wind-up toy. Watch Annie skip rope.

Dime bank, 1936

Rummy cards, 1935. Annie, with a big smile, encouraging Sandy to place bets.

Rummy cards, 1937. Annie, with a frown, discouraging Sandy's gambling addiction.

12-inch doll, 1930s

Pop-up book, 1935

Sandy gets a slice of the pie...and then carries it for Annie in her lunchbox.

Annie's Lucky Knife cutout book, 1937. There were at least three books in the cutout series.

There's everything else under the sun -- including the washing line -- so why not Little Orphan Annie clothes pins? (1938)

In the mid-1940s, Kellogg's Pep cereal contained a pin featuring one of zillions of comic strip characters, including Blondie, Dagwood, Brenda Starr, Dick Tracy, Felix the Cat, Flash Gordon, Henry, Popeye, Olive Oyl, The Phantom, and Superman. There were also pins for "Daddy" Warbucks and Sandy. In today's litigious society, if you dropped one of these pins in a box of cereal, you'd have a lawsuit on your hands.

Annie and Sandy shilling for Flare-Top ice cream cones, 1947.

Jigsaw puzzle, 1948. If you look closely, there are a few shapes in the pieces, including what might be a car and a word balloon. One of the pieces is definitely Sandy. Can you find Sandy, boys and girls?

La Reina de la Costa Negra

2011-10-03T10:34:00.003-04:00

Brunettes have more fun: Conan dyed his hair yellow and, much to his regret, suffered a serious status loss when he was relegated to Belit's sidekick.

It's ancient history: Marvel's Conan the Barbarian debuted with the October, 1970 issue. For years it was thought to be the first ever Conan comic.

And then Fred Blosser wrote an article published in The Savage Sword of Conan #26 (January 1978) describing a Mexican comic called La Reina de la Costa Negra ("The Queen of the Black Coast") #15, dated 1965 and published by Ediciones Joma. The comic was small, 5.25" x 7.5", and contained 32 black and white pages with colour covers. Glenn Lord, literary agent for the Howard estate, said it was an unauthorized publication he knew nothing about.

Marvel's August 1970 house ad for the Conan the Barbarian comic, excellently written and drawn by Roy Thomas and Barry Smith.

"The Queen of the Black Coast" was an eerie Conan tale by Robert E. Howard published in the May 1934 issue of Weird Tales (with a cover by Margaret Brundage, which you can see here in an earlier post). Conan, about 24 years old, commandeers a ship called the Argus and soon closes ranks with a feared pirate ship called the Tigress, manned by the Black Corsairs and led by a merciless warrior woman named Belit. The crew of the Argus are slaughtered to the last man, except for Conan, who is making a shambles of the pirates. Belit, a virtual goddess in the eyes of her mates, rescues Conan from certain doom and declares him king to her queen. For the next 2 or 3 years (which takes place in a mere paragraph), Conan and Belit are the terrors of the sea, plundering merchant vessels and trading posts along the southern coast of what we know as Africa.

Then, in what is to be their last adventure together, they follow an inlet into a dark, tangled jungle where treasure lies buried amongst ancient ruins. When the treasure is found, Conan steps forth to retrieve it, only to be halted by Belit. She orders some of her Corsairs to fetch it, and they die horribly in a booby-trap. Conan is perplexed by this unnecessary sacrifice, nor does Belit account for her actions. Returning to the ship, they find their water casks have been broken open. Conan takes 20 men with him to search for drinking water. Suspecting that they are being followed, Conan orders the others to keep moving ahead while he deals with the situation. Instead, he is rendered unconscious by the narcotic black lotus plants surrounding him. When he awakes, he finds his team dead, ripped apart and half eaten. He returns to the ship and finds that the rest of the crew have suffered the same fate. And Belit, his lover, is dead, hanging above the deck, her noose a string of jewels.

With sword, bow, and a quiver of arrows Conan sets forth into the jungle, choosing a pyramid upon which to position himself for the final battle. The battle comes in the form of enormous hyenas which he fells with arrows, and then a bat-winged ape. Conan is overpowered by the terrible beast and separated from his sword. Then, Belit's ghost appears momentarily, long enough to startle the ape, and in that brief instant Conan picks up his sword and cuts the thing in half. At dawn, Conan sends the Tigress out to sea, driven by the wind-filled sails. He sets it afire with a flaming arrow, Belit and treasure aboard.

Hugh Rankin's illustration for the climactic battle in Robert E. Howard's "Queen of the Black Coast", from Weird Tales, May 1934.

In The Savage Sword of Conan #44 (September 1979) an article by one Douglas Menville shed new light on the La Reina comic. Menville had found a copy of La Reina #2 in a book store in 1968, and it was dated October 8, 1958. He had contacted Marvel in 1970 to disabuse them of the notion that Conan the Barbarian was the first comic book adaptation of Howard's hero. At the time, Roy Thomas didn't think this possible one-off was significant. In 1974, Menville found another copy, #16 (December 16, 1965), and Thomas found copies of #3 and #4, and a Robert E. Howard fanzine editor had a xerox of #10. Issues 2, 3 and 4 were dated October 8, 15 and 22, 1958, respectively, meaning it was a weekly comic. But it must have had an erratic publishing history if #16 was dated December 8, 1965. (Logically, the first issue should have been dated October 1, 1958.)

Belit was the star of the book, a blond Conan el Cimeriano her sidekick, and the Black Corsairs were replaced by Vikings, their ship renamed the Venganza ("Vengeance"). Since Howard hadn't chronicled the 2 or 3 years of their piracy, Ediciones Joma, pirates themselves, had free rein to do so. But #16 featured the other half of Howard's story, with the hyenas and winged ape, and grim and gory (and faithful to a point) as the comic is, Belit does not die. Was #16 intended as the last issue? Not according to The Last Celt (1976) by Glenn Lord, an indispensable (if now woefully outdated) Howard biography/bibliography, which estimated that "at least 45 issues" were published during 1965 and 1966.

The 2nd series, from E.M.A., swiped a lot of great Joe Kubert art from his "Viking Prince" stories in DC's The Brave and the Bold, published at the same time during the late 1950s. Ironically, this cover, from Brave and the Bold #24 (July 1959), seems almost as if Kubert swiped the cover from Cuentos de Abuelito #17! (See below.)

As it turns out, the 1958 La Reina series, published by E.M.A. (Ediciones Mexicanas Asocidas), ran at least eleven issues. Ediciones Joma, however, published their own series, starting with #1, dated August 25, 1965, and possibly ending with #53, dated August 24, 1966.

But there was still an earlier La Reina series published in 1952-53 by Ediciones C.E.M.S.A. (Corporacion Editorial Mexicana S.A.), which ran weekly. The full title was Cuentos de Abuelito (roughly, "Grandpa's Stories") presents La Reina de la Costa Negra. It was digest-sized, 4 1/2" x 5 3/4". The first seven issues featured "Kun'ga, La Diosa de Oro" (The Golden Goddess), starring a jungle girl named Leala. Conan and Belit began appearing with issue #8, and starred in every issue up to #61, with the exceptions of issues 20, 22, 27, 29 and 31. Those issues featured La Monje Loco ("The Mad Monk"), a ghoulish horror host with roots going back to the days of radio serials who presented tales of terror, often while playing the organ. Belit and, occasionally, Conan were featured on the covers until #46. Leala began dominating some of the covers from #47-57, and then the two heroines had to share the covers of #58-61 with La Arana, a rip-off of the old pulp hero, The Spider. There were no more La Reina stories after Cuentos de Abuelito #61, though that comic continued until #134 in the early 1960s.

Apparently it's hell on the artist to whip out a 36-page comic every week, so once in a while La Reina was replaced by La Monje Loco (The Mad Monk), who drooled over his organ and cackled as he presented his horrific tales. Here's the cover for #31 (January 23, 1953).

But not to worry: this back cover ad promises more adventures of Conan and Belit every Monday.

Issues 10-12 of Cuentos adapted the latter part of Robert E. Howard's story, except that Belit survives to have more adventures. Howard's yarn was retold with new art and writing in Joma's 1965-1966 La Reina series in issue #16, in which she again survives.

Not much is known of the motley crew of Mexican pirates. The first issue was written by Loa and Victor Rodriguez and drawn by Salvador Lavalle. Riol de Man wrote other early issues, and, later, Raphael Silvaquiros, with covers by Hector Gutierrez, who signed his name "Hecky". Other artists included J. Kstro and A. Ramirez.

Following are covers to the first series, Cuentos de Abuelito, published by Corporacion Editorial Mexicana S.A. (C.E.M.S.A.) in 1952/53:

Cuentos de Abuelito #8 (1952) presents La Reina de la Costa Negra, the first appearance of Robert E. Howard's Conan in comic book form.

Cuentos de Abuelito #10 (1952) presents La Reina de la Costa Negra.

Cuentos de Abuelito #15 presents La Reina de la Costa Negra

Cuentos de Abuelito #17 presents La Reina de la Costa Negra

Cuentos de Abuelito #41 presents La Reina de la Costa Negra

Cuentos de Abuelito #42 (1953) presents "La Reina de la Costa Negra".

Cuentos de Abuelito #46 presents La Reina de la Costa Negra. Sometime after #42 the price was raised to 30 cents.

Cuentos de Abuelito #47 presents La Reina de la Costa Negra. Jungle girl Leala dominates the cover.

Cuentos de Abuelito #48 presents La Reina de la Costa Negra

Cuentos de Abuelito #50 presents La Reina de la Costa Negra

Cuentos de Abuelito #52 presents La Reina de la Costa Negra

Cuentos de Abuelito #55 presents La Reina de la Costa Negra

Cuentos de Abuelito #56 presents La Reina de la Costa Negra. No Belit on this cover.

Cuentos de Abuelito #58 presents La Reina de la Costa Negra. No Belit again, but Conan himself is present, along with The Spider rip-off, La Arana.

Cuentos de Abuelito #59 presents La Reina de la Costa Negra

Cuentos de Abuelito #60 presents La Reina de la Costa Negra

The scan is too small to make out the issue number. Someone identified it as Cuentos #8, but that's not possible, as #8 is clearly shown above.

Can't make out the number on this issue of Cuentos, either. We'll let Conan and Belit do the making out.

Following are covers for the second series, La Reina de la Costa Negra, published by Ediciones Mexicanas Asocidas (E.M.A.) in 1958/59:

La Reina de la Costa Negra #2 (October 8, 1958)

La Reina de la Costa Negra #3 (October 15, 1958)

La Reina de la Costa Negra #11 (January 1959)

Following are covers for the third series, published by Ediciones Joma in 1965/66:

La Reina de la Costa Negra #2 (September 1, 1965)

La Reina de la Costa Negra #4 (September 15, 1965)

La Reina de la Costa Negra #6 (September 29, 1965)

La Reina de la Costa Negra #7 (October 6, 1965)

La Reina de la Costa Negra #8 (October 13, 1965)

La Reina de la Costa Negra #10 (October 27, 1965)

La Reina de la Costa Negra #11 (November 3, 1965)

La Reina de la Costa Negra #12 (November 10, 1965)

La Reina de la Costa Negra #13 (November 17, 1965)

La Reina de la Costa Negra #14 (November 24, 1965)

La Reina de la Costa Negra #15 (December 1, 1965)

La Reina de la Costa Negra #16 (December 8, 1965)

La Reina de la Costa Negra #17 (December 15, 1965)

La Reina de la Costa Negra #18 (December 22, 1965)

La Reina de la Costa Negra #20 (January 5, 1966)

#26 (February 16, 1966)

La Reina de la Costa Negra #27 (February 23, 1966)

La Reina de la Costa Negra #28 (March 2, 1966)

La Reina de la Costa Negra #33 (April 6, 1966)

La Reina de la Costa Negra #35 (April 20, 1966)

La Reina de la Costa Negra #36 (April 27, 1966)

La Reina de la Costa Negra #37 (May 4, 1966)

La Reina de la Costa Negra #39 (May 18, 1966)

La Reina de la Costa Negra #40 (May 25, 1966)

La Reina de la Costa Negra #42 (June 8, 1966)

La Reina de la Costa Negra #44 (June 22)

La Reina de la Costa Negra #46 (July 6, 1966)

La Reina de la Costa Negra #47 (July 13, 1966)

La Reina de la Costa Negra #49 (July 27, 1966)

La Reina de la Costa Negra #50 (August 3, 1966)

La Reina de la Costa Negra #51 (August 10, 1966)

La Reina de la Costa Negra #52 (August 17, 1966)

Nelvana of the Northern Lights: Canada's answer to a lack of comic books

2011-04-13T14:28:00.006-04:00

What's black and white and red all over? The cover of TRIUMPH-ADVENTURE COMICS #1 (August 1941), whose two-colour cover promised fun, mystery and adventure for kids suffering from the dearth of American comic books at Canadian newsstands during World War 2. The War Exchange Conservation Act introduced in December of 1940 banned the import of non-essentials, such as periodicals, mostly of the fiction variety. Toronto's Hillborough Studios, founded by unemployed artists Adrian Dingle and Rene and Andre Kulbach, filled the void with their cheaply-printed black and white publication, promising "clean and wholesome" thrills for all ages.

Nelvana protects Canada's frozen north from invaders. "If every boy and girl in this great continent of ours", says she, "makes a gigantic effort to buy war savings stamps, the tyranny now on this earth will vanish into its own nothingness!"

Most of the magazine is filled with forgettable material: the lead feature is "Spanner" Preston, a squadron leader in the Royal Canadian Air Force, in a comic with almost no dialogue, and captions that merely describe what can already be seen in the panels. There's also Tang, a cowboys-and-Indians adventure starring a horse; Clue-Catchers, a comic destined not to catch on; and some filler material. But one strip stands out: Nelvana of the Northern Lights.

The splash on page 18 introduces Nelvana, her name in enormous bold font set before an explosion of radiating lines, presumably the aurora borealis, scintillating at her command in all its glorious majesty, as if declaring "She's way better than that 'Spanner' Preston guy!" Nelvana of the Headlights is shown wearing a fur-trimmed miniskirt and a skin-tight costume with gloves, boots and flowing cape. Being a hyperborean demi-goddess impervious to the cold, she has no need for a toque or any other seasonal wear.

Sometimes Nelvana is in a real jam and resorts to calling home for assistance.

Her origin is capsulized in a mere caption on the first page, explaining that her father, Koliak, King of the Northern Lights, married a mortal (it wasn't just a one-nighter that produced Nelvana), which angered the other gods, and so he was forbidden to be seen by mortal eyes ever again, except as pretty colours. His daughter, Nelvana, having inherited her mother's traits, can be seen by mortals, but her brother Tanero "must never be seen by those of the white race", presumably so he won't knock up another earth woman, like his father did. However, Nelvana, with the help of her magic cape, can turn Tanero into a Great Dane, collar included, whenever the need arises, and only in this form can he be seen by the white man. (Tanero is visible to the Inuit, and one wonders if he can be seen by other non-white races, or if he can be seen by Metis, if they're looking hard enough.)

Nice colours. Too bad they aren't where they belong.

In her first adventure, Death Stalks the Arctic, Eskimos (as they were called back in those politically incorrect days) are facing starvation due to the mysterious disappearance of fish and seal. Tadjo, a tribal leader, summons the other tribes, and they build a snow altar and call upon Nelvana. The aurora borealis dances in the sky and Nelvana appears, descending upon the altar along a beam of light. Tadjo explains the situation, and Nelvana promises to investigate, with the help of her brother. (Nelvana has an eloquent command of the English language, while her subjects sound like Johnny Weissmuller, the standard set-up between white goddess and primitive worshipers ever since H. Rider Haggard's She.)

The blond Tanero, dressed as Flash Gordon, arrives in similar style, and Nelvana turns the handsome hero into a mutt and flies off, dragging him by the collar. Hundreds of miles north we find several ships dropping thousands of lighted capsules into the water, which attract a great percentage of all forms of marine life within a huge radius. Nelvana discovers that the capsules are time bombs meant to blow up the Eskimos' food supply! But Nelvana can do more than fly and turn her brother into Marmaduke. She can control the north's magnetic energy, and so raises the bombs into the sky, where they explode harmlessly.

"Arf! Arf! and awaaaay!"

Toroff, the rat-faced villain behind this dastardly scheme, calls upon his men to kill the dog, but to bring the girl alive. "I have a plan!" he sneers, which is usually the case when the girl involved is beautiful and wears a revealing outfit. The story is continued next month, which is rather presumptuous of the publishers.

By the second issue it's clear who wears the pants in this magazine: it's still "Spanner" Preston, but he's been relegated to backup feature, while Nelvana gets the cover and the lead. In the second part of her adventure, Nelvana sees that Toroff's ships are armed with "thormite" rays, which melt the ice, clearing a path so the enemies of freedom and justice can continue their mission. The fickle Toroff has changed his mind about Nelvana, however, ordering his men to "destroy the girl and dog without fail!"

We learn that Nelvana can make herself invisible, and that her brother -- at least in his human form -- has "the speed of the killer whale" and "the grace of the polar seal", as well as the strength to tear apart a ship. In fact, he seems more and more like Bill Everett's Submariner.

Nelvana in the hidden land of Glacia. You can get there by following the Pole Star.

In the third installment of this interminable adventure, Nelvana has discovered the secret of Toroff's plan: kill all the whales and turn them into oil to run his fleet of deadly ships. (The disappearance of seal and fish in the first issue was collateral damage; the disappearance of caribou mentioned in that story is inexplicable.) A busy little beaver, Toroff is also forcing Eskimos to work for him in a mine shaft deep under the "Isle of Mystery", somewhere in the Northwest Territories, where they're digging for "the precious heat-generating zircondium ore (z736)", which can be used to power their weapons. (The plot gets more and more convoluted. Adrian Dingle admitted he made this stuff up as he went along.)

Issue #4 sported a three-colour cover, and with issue #5 the title was changed to TRIUMPH COMICS. (The Adventure part of the logo was almost microscopic to begin with, anyway.) In this issue Nelvana reveals another power: by bathing enemy "war birds" in rays of light she could disrupt radio communications and fuse delicate instruments, causing the planes to lose control and crash. Issue #6 wrapped up Nelvana's first adventure (for some reason listed as chapter 5), but she was to have other continued adventures starting with #8, predating Stan Lee's lengthy soap operas by over 20 years.

Hillborough Studios' debts kept piling up and they were taken over by another comic book firm in Toronto, Bell Features. There wasn't much to take, except for TRIUMPH. Adrian Dingle was given the exalted art director position at Bell Features, and drew many of their covers.

Formerly a printing outfit supplying advertising posters and placards for street cars, Cyril Bell and his brother Gene reckoned they could exploit the War Exchange Conservation Act and make a lot more money producing comic books. The brothers hired writers and artists, some of them barely old enough to be a superhero's sidekick, and their first effort was WOW COMICS, in full colour, but the press they bought required them to run each sheet through the rollers four times to lay down the colours. What might have been a day's work at a reputable printer took two months, and the registration for each colour was off -- way, way off. Still, WOW #1 (September 1941) sold out all 52,000 copies. Eventually the Bells came to their senses and switched to black and white, like their competitors, adding more titles, like DIME, JOKE, ACTIVE and COMMANDO, and creating a very lucrative business.

Cy Bell recalled the acquisition of Hillborough: "He [Adrian Dingle] started out as an opposition of mine. When I put out DIME and WOW and ACTIVE and some of our first books, TRIUMPH came on the market. Their book came out two or three times, but on the second or third edition they failed to show. So I went around to see the reason it didn't show and they said they couldn't finance it and they were going to go out of business, so I gave them the deal that I would take over the title, continue publishing their book, and that they would work for me. That's how I acquired the Kulbach brothers, and Adrian Dingle, who became, later on, our art director."

Cy Bell, 1971

At first they had a bullpen, employing some 60 artists, but Bell figured his art staff would be more productive if he stopped paying them a salary and they worked from home: "Originally they all worked for us upstairs...but there was too much foolery going on, we couldn't get work out of them, so we sent them all home and they came back each week and Adrian Dingle paid them so much per page -- depending on their talent." $6.50 per page, according to Johnny Canuck creator, Leo Bachle.

"Every Friday when the boys got their cheques," said Bell, "we'd adjourn down at the old Piccadilly hotel, which was on King Street, just where the North American Life Building is now. They eventually tore it down. But every Friday afternoon the boys got their cheques and they went over there and had a general comic book session. That's where a lot of the stories were hashed over and future episodes were talked about..."

TRIUMPH #7 (February 1942) was the first issue published under the Bell Features imprint, but the only noticeable difference was that the covers were now in full colour. This issue presented Nelvana in a stand-alone story, where she's replaced by an evil German doppelganger named Mardyth. Hitler himself also shows up, though his face is never shown, nor his name uttered. Were they afraid he'd sue for slander?

Next, Nelvana went to "the strange frozen world of Glacia" deep beneath the arctic ice, where she battles giant mammoth-men and thwarts Vultor's plan to invade the ancient city.

Nelvana discovers fashion.

Nelvana adopted a Lois Lane look for a while when she moved to Nortonville, Ontario (a place the locals would probably refer to as "the bush"), and assumed a secret identity, Alana North, spy-smasher. In TRIUMPH #25, Nelvana, along with Corporal John Keene of the RCMP, battles the "ether people", who enter our world through speakers to complain about the quality of 1940s radio programs and deliver an ultimatum: stop playing the Andrews Sisters or the earth will be destroyed!

Nelvana's adventures were getting shorter and shorter -- and so was her time on this earth. With the end of the war came the end of the embargo on American comics, and Superman leaped across the border in a single bound. The anemic Johnny Canuck couldn't compete with his colourful rivals, Batman, Captain Marvel, Captain America, Flash, Sheena, Archie, Wonder Woman, and countless funny animals. It was over.

Some Nelvana stories were reprinted in a one-shot of her own title in 1945, but after issue #31 of TRIUMPH she appeared only once more, in SUPER DUPER COMICS #3 (May-June 1947), published by F. E. Howard, who purchased the rights to some of Bell Features' characters after Cy Bell threw in the towel. Once again it was written and drawn by Adrian Dingle, this time in full colour. In fact, Adrian Dingle was Nelvana's sole writer and artist from beginning to end, with the exception of TRIUMPH #31, which was written by John Hollis Mason.

Dingle continued to paint, but looked back on his comic book career with fond memories: "The era of the comic book was a very exciting one in my career. It meant a great deal to me. We had rather grandiose illusions of where it might end because the American distribution was cut off and Canada was then getting ready to distribute comic books across the border and we had all sorts of wonderful ideas of solid gold Cadillacs and everybody was talking exorbitant salaries..."

Adrian Dingle, 1971

Of his time at Bell Features, he said "Cy Bell was a very dynamic character. I enjoyed working with him, he was always so full of enthusiasm, and we lived in a sort of a world of fantasy in those days drumming up these scripts for comic books, and Cy was always a part of it. He was a most magnetic person to work with, he really was. He was astounding. We had some marvellous personalities in the whole group..."

Adrian Dingle died in 1974, and was posthumously inducted into the Joe Shuster Canadian Comic Book Creators Hall of Fame in 2005. Canada Post issued a Nelvana stamp in 1995.

Nelvana ain't so tough, not when anyone can lick 'er. She got her own stamp in 1995, part of a book of stamps celebrating Canadian superheroes: Nelvana, Johnny Canuck, Captain Canuck, Fleur de Lys, and, stretching it a bit, Superman, created by writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian artist Joe Shuster. The image used for this stamp was taken from the cover of her 1945 self-titled one-shot.

"Nelvana of the Northern Lights" pg.1, from Super Duper Comics #3

Nelvana pg. 2

Nelvana pg. 3

Nelvana pg. 4

Nelvana pg. 5

Nelvana pg. 6

Nelvana pg. 7

Nelvana pg. 8

Little Orphan Annie strip 1985

2011-04-01T10:40:00.001-04:00

I'm a big fan of Harold Gray's Little Orphan Annie, especially the strips produced during the '20s and '30s. Annie was quite the character in them there days. She was tough, bold and somewhat belligerent. She had to be. She often lived on her own or on the streets, mostly during the Depression. She had a tremendous work ethic, though, and managed to take care of herself, as well as help others. Smart, independent, resourceful, a real survivor. She charmed her way into the good graces of strangers -- but also made a lot of enemies. She stood up to bullies and gave them a black eye or a bleeding nose. And she always managed to out-smart thieves and murderers and creeps; occasionally "Daddy" would come to the rescue and beat their faces in. It was a brutal world, but worth living in for the sweeter moments.

Annie (the character and the strip) reflected a lot of Gray's conservative politics, and it's hard to imagine that a strip so dependent on the creator's philosophy was able to continue after his death in 1968, except that kids liked Annie and probably didn't notice -- or care -- that Gray was dead, as long as the strip lived on. It just barely survived until that consummate professional, Leonard Starr, came along in 1979.

Here is a complete Annie story, which ran from September 22, 1985 to January 11, 1986. This swell yarn was written and drawn by Starr. It's an eerie mystery, as well as a heart-breaker. I really liked it, so I collected the strips myself, but for some reason it looks like I clipped them from the newspaper using a pair of garden shears.

Unfortunately, the print was terrible back then, so I did my best to make the images legible. Minor caveat: the December 31 daily is missing, but it makes no difference in the scheme of things. A new storyline begins in the last panel of the January 5, 1986 Sunday comic, with a sort of anti-climax to the preceding story continuing for the rest of the week, which I included.

The scans are nice and big for those of you whose eyes are shot.

Sunday 9/22/1985

9/23 - 9/25/1985

9/26 - 9/28/1985

Sunday 9/29/1985

9/30 - 10/2/1985

10/3 -10/5/1985

Sunday 10/6/1985

10/7 -10/9/1985

10/10 -10/12/1985

Sunday 10/13/1985

10/14 - 10/16/1985

10/17 -10/19/1985

Sunday 10/20/1985

10/21 -10/23/1985

10/24 - 10/26/1985

Sunday 10/27/1985

10/28 - 10/30/1985

10/31 - 11/2/1985

Sunday 11/3/1985

11/4 - 11/6/1985

11/7 - 11/9/1985

Sunday 11/10/1985

11/11 - 11/13/1985

11/14 - 11/16/1985

Sunday 11/17/1985

11/18 - 11/20/1985

11/21 - 11/23/1985

Sunday 11/24/1985

11/25 - 11/27/1985

11/28 - 11/30/1985

Sunday 12/1/1985

12/2 - 12/4/1985

12/5/ - 12/7/1985

Sunday 12/8/1985

12/9 - 12/11/1985

12/12 - 12/14/1985

Sunday 12/15/1985

12/16 - 12/18/1985

12/19 - 12/21/1985

Sunday 12/22/1985

12/23 - 12/25/1985

12/26 - 12/28/1985

Sunday 12/29/1985

12/30/1985 and 1/1/1986 (12/31/1985 is missing)

1/2 -1/4/1986

Sunday 1/5/1986

1/6 - 1/8/1986

1/9 - 1/11/1986

Girls Read Comics

2011-03-19T14:09:00.090-04:00

In THE GREAT COMIC BOOK HEROES (1965), Jules Feiffer wrote: "Well, I can't comment on the image girls had of Wonder Woman. I never knew they read her -- or any comic book. That girls had a preference for my brand of literature would have been more of a frightening image to me than any number of men being beaten up by Wonder Woman."

Perhaps Feiffer, who was 15 years old in 1944, was too infatuated with the budding curves of the opposite sex to notice what they were reading; or maybe he hadn't noticed them at all, because he "stayed in the house all day and drew pictures."

A 1944 report by the Market Research Company of America showed that 95% of boys and 91% of girls aged 6-11 read comics; 87% of boys and 81% of girls aged 12-17; 41% of males and 28% of females aged 18-30; and 16% of males and 12% of females over the age of thirty. The younger girls and boys were reading a dozen comics a month on average. These statistics don't include the daily newspaper strips or Sunday funnies.

Girls might not have been as interested as the boys were in superdummies punching each other in the face, but there were alternatives available in abundance: Archie and other teen humour comics; funny animal comics; romance comics; and career girls, like Millie the Model, Tessie the Typist and Katy Keene.

Below is some photographic evidence that girls read comics. A few of the photos are contrived, others taken surreptitiously. I was able to date a number of the photos by identifying some of the comics.

Girl reading the comics section, 1903. No Little Nemo, yet, but by this time there were countless other strips available, including Rudolph Dirks' Katzenjammer Kids, Outcault's Buster Brown, Jimmy Swinnerton's Little Tigers, Frederick Burr Opper's Happy Hooligan, and Bunny Schultze's Foxy Grandpa.

Circa 1910.

Kids sitting on the newsstand. The girl is reading Girls' Romances #13 (March 1952); the boy is reading the first issue of Tom Corbett, Space Cadet (technically, Four Color #378, February 1952). Presumably, the boy with the cowboy hat is reading a western title.


Girls sitting on store floor. One is reading Ha Ha Comics #85 (Sept. 1952); behind them can be seen Tarzan's Jungle Annual #1 (Aug. 1952; Dell Giant), and on the racks Thrilling Romances #21 (month unknown, 1952), Kathy #12 (month unknown, 1952; Standard), Bobby Benson's B-Bar-B Riders #15 (July 1952), Felix the Cat #32 (June 1952), and Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse (actually Four Color #411, August/September 1952).

The lady is holding a pile of comics, including Fox's Western Outlaws (#18, November 1948). The girl is reading some kind of "funnies".

Comics for sale, half price. Good to have them at twice the price when you're out in the middle of nowhere. The ones I can make out are Mutt and Jeff #18 (Summer 1945); Captain Marvel, Jr. #31 (July 1945); New Funnies #101 (July 1945); Gene Autry (actually Four Color #75, month unknown, 1945); there's also Blue Bolt and what might be some Big Little Books on top. The tough-looking proprietor is grimacing, as if he's about to say to the small boy "This ain't a library, kid!"

Boston, 1950. The girl at the left is holding Buster Bunny #4 (1950; no month given)

At a London newsstand, 1935.

This girl doesn't care to have storybooks read to her. Instead, she's immersed in an unknown comic book. There's a copy of Dell's Tarzan #83 (August 1956) beside her.

Newburgh, NY, late 1930s. A few piles of comics and lots of Big Little books. A mini convention. The girl at the right is reading a comic, but I can't make it out.

Reading Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #83 (August 1947).

Not one of these fine gentlemen is giving up his seat for a lady. You can blame comic books for their bad manners. The boy directly above the girl is reading Marvel Mystery Comics #70 (March 1946). The boy leaning against the dresser is reading an issue of Four Favorites, published from 1941-1947. On the floor is Science Comics #1 (March 1951), a Canadian one-shot that had at least two different covers.

1955

Waiting for the parade to start, Minnesota, 1946. These young ladies have decidedly diverse tastes. The girl at right is reading the very violent Crime Does Not Pay #44 (March 1946); her friend is reading Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #70 (though the cover says Vol.6 No.10; July 1946); the next one is reading Future World #1 (Summer 1946), a comic destined to last only two issues; the rest are reading celebrity gossip rags.

Who needs the tintinnabulation of rock and roll when you can read Tintin instead? (1959)

1958

Comics in bed. The boy is reading Felix the Cat #4 (August/September 1948); no old comics for her: Thoroughly Modern Millie is reading Leading Comics #41 (February/March 1950), originally a superhero title, but with #15 (Summer 1945) the contents changed to "funny animals".

By the expression on her face you'd think she was reading a horror comic -- or, at least, a horrible comic. 1950s.

Picnic with a comic book, Oregon, 1941.

A girl and her dog making themselves at home at a well-managed newsstand with lots of titles, arranged in alphabetical order. On the stand can be seen copies of Patches #7 (April 1947), Patsy Walker #10 (April 1947), Picture Stories From American History #3 (Spring 1947), Raggedy Ann and Andy #10 (March 1947), Real Life Comics #38 (date unknown), Rusty #12 (April 1947), The Shadow #12 (March 1947), Sparky Watts #5 (1947; this title didn't give dates), Star-Spangled Comics #67 (April 1947), Super Magician Vol. 5, #8 (February/March 1947), Superman #45 (March/April 1947), Terry and the Pirates #3 (April 1947), Thrilling Comics #59 (April 1947), True Comics #58 (March 1947), True Sport Picture Stories Vol. 3, #12 (March/April 1947), Whiz #84 (April 1947), Wonder Comics #11 (April 1947), and Zoot #6 (March/April 1947). There's also Sensation, but I can't make out which issue it is.

Kids reading the Sunday funnies: front and back, Joe Palooka and Nancy.

Parisian comic book market, 1949. This girl is obviously a comic book junkie. (Photo by Walt Girdner)

Melbourne, Australia 1950s

New York City tenement, 1943. The boy 3rd from left is reading an oldie goldie, Zip Comics, probably #7 (August 1940), with cover damage along spine and under the "Z". The boy next to him is reading Action Comics #62 (July 1943).

1938. The girl on the left is reading Detective Comics #18 (August 1938); the girl on the right is reading The Cocomalt Big Book of Comics (1938; a one-shot premium).

Mississippi, 1920s. I have it on good authority they used to fight over the comics section.

This Pennsylvania drugstore seems to carry only the Dell line of comics, but these two girls are spellbound just the same. On the rack can be seen Tarzan #105 (June 1958); Chip 'N' Dale #14 (June 1958); Donald Duck #60 (July 1958); Uncle Scrooge #22 (June 1958); Will-Yum! (actually Four Color #902, month unknown, 1958); and Beetle Bailey #15 (June/July 1958). There's something on the rack called Billy and his Steam Roller, but it's actually a Wonder book, not a comic.

Girls reading the funnies while waiting for a train in Scotland. (1935)

"Comics is good learnin'," insists this progressive school teacher. Window row: girl reading Funny Films #12 (August 1951), boy reading New Funnies #170 (April 1951), girl reading New Funnies #168 (February 1951). Next row: the boy's comic is obscured, the girl is reading Walt Disney's Donald Duck (actually Four Color #300, November 1950), the boys are reading New Funnies #169 (March 1951) and, in his first comic book appearance, Francis the Talking Mule (actually Four Color #335, June 1951), and the girl is reading Marge's Little Lulu #32 (February 1951).

Girl with a leg brace reading Superman #72 (September/October 1951).

Girl reading an issue of Crime and Justice -- and looking quite thrilled, I must say -- one of many "how to" manuals, according to Dr. Frederick Wertham in his article, "What Parents Don't Know About Comic Books", published in the November 1953 issue of The Ladies Home Journal. That brand-new copy of The Haunt of Fear (#19, November 1953) contains the notorious story, "Foul Play", in which a baseball game is played using body parts.

Girl reading what might be Marge's Little Lulu.

Business is booming. The girl on the left is reading Rusty Riley (actually Four Color #418, August 1952), and leaning on her feet is Goofy #46 (month unknown, 1951); the girl on the right is reading Tip Topper #16 (May 1952); leaning against the wonderfully-painted stand is the back cover of a comic advertising Suzie (an Archie publication), and Little Beaver #3 (October-December 1951; technically it's an issue of Four Color, but I don't know which number); the girl at the top left is holding Krazy Kat #3 (November 1952).

Leaving on a London train, 1939. The girl on the left is reading Mickey Mouse Weekly (Vol. 4, #153, January 7, 1939).

Curled up in a chair and reading Whiz Comics #92 (December 1947).

New York, 1947 (photo by Ruth Orkin). The girl in the foreground is reading a comic that has an ad for what seems to be the new Hedy Devine comic.

Boris and friend perusing a Harvey Comics rack loaded with competitors. Visible are Let's Take a Trip (Spring 1958, the only issue); Steve Donovan, Western Marshall (actually Four Color #880, February 1958), a TV comic, of which a mere three issues were published from 1956-1958, this issue being the last; and The Lone Ranger #116 (February 1958; Dell).

Margaret Brundage: the Frank Frazetta of the 1930s

2010-11-02T20:14:00.016-04:00

original painting for the November 1935 issue of Weird Tales

Margaret Hedda Johnson was born in Chicago on December 9, 1900. In the early 1920s she attended the Chicago Academy of Fine Art where she studied fashion design. Afterwards, she became a freelance artist as a fashion illustrator for various newspapers. She married Myron "Slim" Brundage in 1927 and they had one son, Kerlyn. The marriage didn't last long and they separated, leaving Margaret to care for her child alone, as well as a mother in poor health, with little, if any, financial support from her husband. They divorced in 1939.

Desperate to get away from the mundane world of fashion -- and of black and white art -- she brought her portfolio to WEIRD TALES, "the magazine of the bizarre and unusual", whose offices were located in Chicago. The magazine was founded by publisher Clark Henneberger in 1923, and Farnsworth Wright took over as editor in 1924 after former editor Edwin Baird was fired. After seeing a drawing of an Oriental dancer, they gave her work as a cover artist for another of their titles, ORIENTAL STORIES, despite her limited knowledge of colour reproduction. Her first cover was for the Summer 1932 issue. (ORIENTAL STORIES would soon be renamed THE MAGIC CARPET; it only ran sporadically from October 1930 to January 1934.)

Brundage's first cover: Oriental Stories, Summer 1932 issue

She moved on to the more famous WEIRD TALES with the September 1932 issue, and would paint a total of 66 covers for the magazine, including all nine of the Conan covers. One of those covers helped make the issue a sell-out. Illustrating "The Slithering Shadow", a Conan tale by Robert E. Howard, Brundage's cover showed a naked blonde in bondage being whipped by a scantily-clad brunette, set against a crimson background and exaggerated shadows.

She became the most prolific of the magazine's cover artists, with an unbroken streak from June, 1933 to September, 1936. (There was no August issue for 1936.) Her lurid covers were sensational and controversial, if their letters page, “The Eyrie”, is any indication. While fans -- and many of them were female -- didn't object to the nudity, some thought the covers were misrepresenting the magazine as sleazy trash rather than as a distinguished periodical of weird fiction. But Brundage's nude covers sold issues, and that was all that Wright needed to know. She signed her name "M. Brundage". This is how she was credited in the magazine until the February 1935 issue, where her full name is given, identifying her as a woman. (This may have been an attempt at mollifying the critics who thought the covers were sexist and misogynistic.)

original painting for the January 1936 issue of Weird Tales

Brundage's fashion training all but went out the window. Occasionally she would sneak in a pretty dress, but usually her soft-skinned heroines were either completely naked or covered in nothing more than a wisp of gossamer. With wide eyes and parted lips, these damsels in peril were being menaced by monsters or dagger-wielding cultists; often they were in bondage being whipped by evil priestesses; sometimes they were the ones in control, running naked through the snow with wolves. In any case, they were young and built like goddesses. There was little, if any, background in the composition, but always there were sexy, shapely females to titillate the viewer. Actually, there was a female on all but three of Brundage's covers (the April, May and August 1935 issues being the exceptions). Of Brundage's 66 WEIRD TALES covers, a dozen featured bondage and/or flagellation.

original painting for the January 1935 issue of Weird Tales

Brundage visited Farnsworth Wright at the WEIRD TALES offices at least once a month. A particular scene from a story was chosen for her to illustrate, often one of bondage and sadism or with lesbian overtones, and Brundage would submit a few pencil sketches. Wright would then choose one to be rendered for the cover. Not surprisingly, writers would sometimes fit a bondage and whipping sequence into their yarn hoping to make the cover.

Brundage rarely used models to work from. Occasionally a friend would pose for the female figures, but she usually worked from the pure ether of her imagination. She was paid $90 per cover, always rendered in pastels, her chosen medium, and usually measuring 20 inches in height, but with varying widths. She was rarely asked to make corrections and, under Wright's editorship, never asked to cover up her nudes. "They would always pick the one with the least amount of clothing," Brundage said. What's more, she was asked "to make larger and larger breasts".

original painting for the August 1934 issue of Weird Tales

WEIRD TALES was sold in 1938 to a New York publisher, where the editorial offices were also located. Dorothy McIlwraith was brought in to assist Wright. Office politics and health issues forced Wright to resign by 1940, and he died later that year from Parkinson's disease. McIlwraith became the new editor.

original painting for the October 1935 issue of Weird Tales

Because Brundage could no longer deliver the artwork in person it had to be shipped, which meant she had to create covers in much less time. This, coupled with the fact that the pastels would smear during shipping causing a need for corrections and more shipping, marked the end of Brundage's reign as leading cover artist for the magazine. She made one attempt at oils, which the editors didn't like, and after the October 1938 issue she only did eight more WEIRD TALES covers, the last being for the January 1945 issue. (She did no covers for the 1939 issues.) The magazine went to bi-monthly status after 1939, so even if she had remained Queen of the Pulps her earnings would have been halved. In the late 1930s under new ownership the covers were no longer risque. Wright's two other discoveries, Virgil Finlay and Hannes Bok, both amazing artists, were on hand to provide technically proficient and bizarre covers (respectively), and help bring the magazine back to its weird roots. The magazine continued until September 1954.

Brundage, one of the few women artists working for pulp magazines, lived mostly in obscurity and poverty. She continued painting and gave some brief interviews in the 1970s. She died April 9, 1976, predeceased by her son, who died in 1972.

original painting for Brundage's first Weird Tales cover, September 1932

Her covers for Weird Tales are highly valued by collectors, and the originals sell for large sums at auction. The cover for the September 1932 issue of Weird Tales (her first for that magazine) sold for $50,000 in 2008, and in 2010 the cover for the January 1936 issue sold for $37,000. Often overlooked, often underrated, the best of Margaret Brundage's pastel covers for the pulps deserve to be hanging in museums!

Here's a selection of WEIRD TALES covers:

October 1932

March 1933

cover for a CONAN story, June 1933

July 1933

cover for a CONAN story, September 1933

October 1933

November 1933

December 1933

January 1934

March 1934

April 1934

CONAN cover, May 1934

CONAN cover, August 1934

cover for a CONAN story, September 1934

October 1934

November 1934

cover for a CONAN story, December 1934

January 1935

February 1935

June 1935

cover for a CONAN story, November 1935

CONAN cover, December 1935

January 1936

March 1936

cover for a CONAN story, July 1936

November 1936

January 1937

March 1937

June 1937

September 1937

October 1937

November 1937

January 1938

March 1938

May 1938

June 1938

August 1938

July 1942

(Note: Four of the images used here are courtesy of Mr. Door Tree's very excellent blog, Golden Age Comic Book Stories. Highly recommended.)

Before There Was Hit-Girl...There Was Tomboy!

2010-07-31T02:16:00.013-04:00

Not long after seeing the very excellent KICK-ASS movie, I came across a reference to one of the most obscure comic book characters ever: Tomboy. Clad in a makeshift costume comprised of a domino mask, green t-shirt, tiny cape, black skirt, and red boots and gloves, this preteen girl looked as if she were dressed for Halloween. The reality is, after school she was beating the hell out of every murderous gangster she could find!

Tomboy made her debut as a backup feature in the first issue of CAPTAIN FLASH (November 1954) and stayed for all four issues of that magazine before the company, Sterling Comics, folded. Tomboy was never seen again, nor was Captain Flash.

Almost nothing is known about Sterling Comics, Inc., though I was able to piece together this much: the company, whose product was distributed by Leader News, was owned by Sidney Chenkin, Eleanor Grupsmith, Peter V. D. Voorhees, and Martin Smith (editor), and published a grand total of five titles: CAPTAIN FLASH No.1-4 (November 1954-July 1955); THE TORMENTED No.1 & 2 (July & September 1954), which became SURPRISE ADVENTURES with the third issue (March 1955), lasting until No.5 (July 1955); AFTER DARK No.6-8 (April 1955-September 1955); and MY SECRET CONFESSION, which lasted only one issue (September 1955).

The owners of Sterling had two other corporations: Nesbit Publishing Co. and Feature Television Productions, each of which published only one title. Nesbit's SUPERIOR STORIES, a sort of "Classics Illustrated", ran for four issues (May/June 1955-November/December 1955), and Feature's THE INFORMER for five issues (April 1954-December 1954), after which the numbering was taken over by Sterling's AFTER DARK.

As it turns out, Martin Smith's real name is Martin W. Grupsmith (presumably married to Eleanor), who, under variations of his name and the pseudonym "Marcus Goldsmith", had worked for the Iger and Sangor comic studios supplying scripts and text stories for DC, American Comics Group (ACG), and others during the 1940s, before putting together his own publishing company. (Smith was also listed as business manager for ACG in 1946, and the address given, 420 DeSoto Avenue in St. Louis, is the same address given later for his Sterling company, though that address changed from title to title and even issue to issue.)

It's not known who wrote the Captain Flash and Tomboy stories. It may or may not have been Martin Smith. However, all of the Captain Flash stories were drawn by prolific comic artist Mike Sekowsky (who also drew THE INFORMER, MY SECRET CONFESSION, and issues 3 and 5 of SURPRISE ADVENTURES), while the first Tomboy story was drawn by veteran comic artist Mort Meskin (and erroneously thought to be by Simon and Kirby on occasion). The next three Tomboy adventures were drawn by Edvard Moritz, of whom little is known except that he worked for a number of comic book companies beginning in the early 1940s and later painted covers for CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED, paperbacks and science fiction magazines, and some Tom Swift books in the 1960s. (He's sometimes credited as Edward Moritz and Ed Moritz.)

Remarkably, there's no origin story for Tomboy -- not even a smidgen. 12-year-old Janie Jackson puts on a mask and cape and gleefully wades into whole gangs of villains simply because she doesn't like them. And despite her lack of any special powers, you have merely to "mention the name Tomboy and the underworld shudders and crawls into its hole." And with good reason: she's vicious!

In the first story, "The Claw", we meet Janie, already in costume as Tomboy, swinging into action. A thug is on a rooftop enjoying a shootout with the police below. Tomboy dropkicks him, punches his face and flips him over her shoulder. When the police arrive she's standing over the unconscious punk's sprawled out form, one foot resting triumphantly on his belly. She doesn't wait to be thanked.

Janie lives with her parents and older brother, Bill. Tomboy is already the talk of the town, but her family is totally oblivious to the fact that little Janie is the pugilistic daredevil risking her life every day fighting crime. This is most unfortunate for Bill, who has a rather unhealthy infatuation with Tomboy, and for Janie's father, police lieutenant Charles Jackson, who wouldn't have a city left to defend were it not for the wild exploits of his daughter. The Claw, Tomboy's "most dangerous enemy", calls Lieutenant Jackson at home: "I'm giving you one hour to release my man, copper, or you won't have a waterfront left in this city! And don't bother to tell Tomboy -- we'll take care of her in our own way!" Those words, "and don't bother to tell Tomboy", must have stung terribly. The intimation seems clear: the police can't get the job done themselves; instead, they have to rely on a little girl to beat the criminals to a pulp and round them up!

Tomboy has no mercy when it comes to bad guys: she kills the whole Claw gang at the end, following an incredible airplane stunt that not even James Bond would attempt. Then she goes home for dinner. The first issue of CAPTAIN FLASH was the only one published before the newly formed Comics Code came into effect. Perhaps it was time for Janie to repeal the capital punishment. She did, but she still had plenty of fun punching faces (which she did very frequently -- and even took out two guys with one punch!), beating guys up with pool balls, microphone stands, and slamming heavy wooden chairs into their ugly mugs.

There are a few similarities between Tomboy and KICK-ASS's Hit-Girl: Tomboy isn't much older than the 11-year-old Hit-Girl; each wears a domino mask, skirt and cape and have the same hair style (except that Hit-Girl's hair is purple); Tomboy's father is a policeman, as was Hit-Girl's father before he became a Batman-like vigilante; and each girl can take on an entire gang single-handedly -- while enjoying every second of the brutal action. (Of course, Hit-Girl is infinitely more lethal.) And I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that the artist on the strip, Ed Moritz, has almost the same last name as Chloe Moretz, the actress who played Hit-Girl.

It's really too bad that Tomboy's career was cut short by the cancellation of CAPTAIN FLASH. It could have been the distribution at fault. Leader News Co. (whose most famous client was Bill Gaines' notorious EC line) was the weakest of about ten magazine distributors, and they declared bankruptcy in 1956. It could have been the indifference to superheroes at the time, who had fallen out of favour after the war. Besides, it's hard to stand out when the racks are glutted with 500 other comic books.

Tomboy was nobody's sidekick. She should have had her own title. But she didn't, so the few of us that will ever know about her -- or care -- will have only the four stories to enjoy. Here are all four of them. Hopefully you'll be as thrilled by the adventures of Tomboy as I am!

From CAPTAIN FLASH #1 (November, 1954)

From CAPTAIN FLASH #2 (March 1955)

From CAPTAIN FLASH #3 (May 1955)

From CAPTAIN FLASH #4 (July 1955)

Alex Schomburg

2010-07-19T22:08:00.012-04:00

Alex Schomburg was born in Puerto Rico on May 10, 1905 and moved to New York City in 1917. He and his three older brothers opened a freelance art studio, which they sold in 1928. Alex started illustrating covers for pulp magazines in the 1930s, and by the end of the decade was working in the comic book field, where, during the next ten years, he created over 500 covers for titles such as Captain America, The Human Torch, and Sub-Mariner at Timely (later Marvel Comics), and covers for comics featuring any mix of those characters, including All Select, Daring, Marvel Mystery, All Winners, Young Allies, USA, and Kid Komics; he also drew covers for Miss Fury, The Green Hornet, The Black Terror, Real Life, and numerous science fiction and jungle girl titles, such as Wonder, Thrilling, and Exciting, which, at least for a time, starred Tara, Pantha, and Judy of the Jungle, respectively.

Stan Lee called Schomburg the Norman Rockwell of comic books and admired his "cartoony" style: "One could never be sure if Alex was an illustrator who approached his work like a cartoonist, or a cartoonist who chose to render his artwork like an illustrator." In the 1950s he left the comic book field and started supplying covers and interior illustrations for science fiction magazines. After a 30-year hiatus, he returned to Marvel Comics in 1977 to draw the cover of The Invaders Annual #1, featuring the heroes he'd illustrated so often during the Golden Age.

His action-packed superhero covers of the 1940s were cluttered with figures and background detail, while his lovely, leggy lasses of the jungle and outer space were often beautifully rendered with an airbrush. For the "good girl" covers (Thrilling, Exciting, Wonder, and Startling, the last a science fiction mag which starred Lance Lewis, though the covers tended to prominently feature his sexy girlfriend, Marna, with Lance relegated to a background prop), Schomburg usually signed his name "Xela". He kept busy until his death at age 92 on April 7, 1998.

Judy of the Jungle appeared in Exciting Comics #55-69 (May 1947-September 1949), though she was only featured on the covers of #57-66 (September 1947-March 1949); Princess Pantha appeared in Thrilling Comics #56-74 (October 1946-October 1949), and was featured on the covers of #58-71 (February 1947-April 1949).

Here are a selection of those covers:

An Illustrated History of Heidi Saha

2010-01-18T11:35:00.012-05:00

Much of what's written about Heidi Saha on the internet takes place in fan boy forums, and most of the comments are directed at a rare magazine called An Illustrated History of Heidi Saha, published in 1973 by James Warren with a print run of about 500 copies. The item was available only through the mail, as advertised in his Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella magazines, along with a 2 x 3-foot poster. Usually only the cover is ever seen, showing a close up of a lovely, blonde 13-year old wearing a fur bikini and holding a spear. This infamous magazine, it is said, contains nothing but questionable photos of the young girl. Taking advantage of the notoriety of a book that few have seen, dealers have fetched $1000 and even more on eBay. Some critics, who haven't even seen a copy and claim to have no desire to, have condemned it as child pornography, an abominable publication that should be burned, solely based on its lurid reputation.

I remember seeing those little black and white ads for the Heidi book in the back section of Warren magazines in the '70s, amidst other ads for monster masks, t-shirts, puzzles, posters, books, and Super 8 films. I wondered what "Heidi Saha" even meant. In the poster, she was standing in a fur bikini, a dagger strapped to her waist, a spear in her hands. Was it a movie or comic book version of the Johanna Spyri classic given a barbarian or cave girl twist? I had no idea -- until I found a copy 20 years later. It was in a cluttered used book store, on a very busy street, but few people bothered to walk up the stairs to that lonely old shop. The slim magazine was tucked away on a shelf filled with books of a fantastic nature. When I saw it I thought, "Wow! At last, I'll find out what this Heidi Saha thing is about." I flipped through the pages -- then I closed it and slid it back into its spot. They wanted a hefty $15 for the magazine, but I had another reason for not buying it.

So who was Heidi Saha and what really lurks in the 36 pages of her magazine?

Heidi Elizabeth Saha was born January 30, 1959. Her mother, Taimi, was a stage mother whose only claim to fame was having written a short story, "Progress Report," for the May, 1974 issue of the science fiction magazine, Perry Rhodan.

Her father, Art Saha (1923-1999) was the son of Finnish parents, William and Henrikka Saha. He served as a Merchant Marine in World War 2 and graduated from Columbia University. He moved to Cooperstown, New York and became active in science fiction fandom. He was a member of the Futurians, and a friend of Donald A. Wollheim, publisher of DAW Books, and Forrest Ackerman, the world's greatest science fiction fan. He became an editor at DAW, putting together numerous "best of the year" anthologies, for which he won many awards. He served as President of the New York Science Fiction Society, also known as the Lunarians, as well as President of First Fandom. He is also credited with coining the term "Trekkie" in 1967, to describe fans of Star Trek.

With so much science fiction in her life, it's little wonder that Heidi would become involved with the fandom aspect of the genre. She would attend many science fiction and comic book conventions, entering and often winning the costume contests, beginning in 1963. She was Wilma Deering (Buck Rogers's girlfriend); Sheena, queen of the jungle; Shanna of Triskelon (at the New York Startrekon); a "Bergey Girl" (after the "Good Girl" pulp magazine covers by artist Earle K. Bergey); Lakla (from A. Merritt's 1919 novel, The Moon Pool); and countless others. She had fans and admirers, young and old alike, including Forrest Ackerman, editor of Warren's Famous Monsters of Filmland, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Gene Roddenberry, and actor Kirk "Superman" Alyn, all of whom were photographed with her. And through it all she didn't ignore her scholarly duties. Indeed, she was an honour student, delivering speeches and winning awards and medals for essays.

But the trouble started when a 14-year old Heidi went to a few conventions dressed as Vampirella. The costume was skimpy, to be sure, but that wasn't the problem. Angelique Trouvere, a young lady in her early twenties about to become another popular fixture at conventions, also went as Vampirella to the Sixth Annual New York Comic Art Convention. She remembers seeing Heidi for the first time in the waiting area for the costume contest:

"Heidi Saha was tall and very pretty -- her baby face sported blue eye shadow and lipstick red lips. As she peered out from under the long black bangs of her wig she reminded me of a beautiful doll.

"Someone told me that she was 14 years old and I remember thinking how young she was and that she must be rich because her bat wing earrings were gold, as were her armband and bracelets. Her boots were an exact replica from the famous 6-foot tall Jose Gonzales poster. It was a well-made and detail oriented costume that knocked my socks off.

"Heidi's costume was made of polyester and cut like a swimsuit but it still looked great. She even had a paper-mache bat! I love attention to details! Man! I would've loved to have had a paper-mache bat..."

As it turns out, the costume was made by Perdida Boardman. She and her husband were friends of the Sahas, and Taimi, usually the proud seamstress of Heidi's costumes, asked Perdida to create a more professional looking outfit. Taimi, in a fit of jealousy, tried to have Angelique barred from competition, on the grounds that her Vampirella costume was somehow indecent. Organizer Phil Seuling bowed to the pressure, and Angelique covered up the "offending area" with flesh-coloured band-aids.

The lovely (and built) Miss Trouvere went on stage sometime before Heidi "and the audience went wild". Heidi went on last and struck the pose used in the 6-foot Jose Gonzales poster of Vampirella, her out-stretched arm holding a bat. The crowd "went crazy". Unfortunately, a rumour had gotten around that Heidi was there operating in a professional capacity for James Warren. When it was announced that Heidi had won third place, the reaction wasn't kind. "Poor Heidi. She stood on that stage, holding her pose like a real trooper amid the boos and heckling. It must have hurt like hell," says Angelique. "However, If the crowd had a problem with James Warren or her parents, they shouldn't have taken it out on an innocent kid!"

She was a real trooper: she posed again as Vampirella at TorCon 2 in Toronto. Angelique didn't attend.

Warren denies that there was any deal with Heidi's parents before her appearance as Vampirella to publish the book and poster: "It was my way of paying them back for Heidi wearing a Vampirella costume, promoting a Warren property. But it wasn't a quid pro quo, it was because they wanted to promote her into the movies. My guess is that they were grooming Heidi to be a movie star and if she had her own magazine and her own poster, it was a step in the right direction."

An article appeared in the November, 1973 issue of Vampirella under the headline: "TWO VAMPIRELLAS STUN 5,500 AT 1973 COMIC ART CONVENTION", accompanied by photos of both Angelique Trouvere and Heidi. It read, in part, that a Ming the Merciless costume won first prize, but that "it was undoubtedly the two Vampirellas who captured the hearts of the 5500 fans gathered for the five-day affair. The first of them was a well-proportioned brunette actress, known professionally as Destiny, who is as ravishing as Vampi herself. The other was everybody's favourite fan, 14 1/2 year old Heidi Saha, whose distinguished costume was one of the three grand-prize winners."

The caption under Heidi's photo read: "Miss Heidi Saha, a 14 1/2-year old comic fan, caused quite a stir at the Hotel Commodore when she made her entrance in her award-winning VAMPIRELLA costume. It was like having Vampi come to life!"

Emanuel Maris edited and published the program booklet for Creation Convention 1974, which took place in January, and included a poem he'd written about Heidi Saha, to the metre of Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven". It was meant as a criticism of Taimi, and what he perceived as her exploitation of Heidi. It wasn't an unfair satire, but it probably had no business being in a program booklet:

There's a girl that I know,
Who's mom has her for show,
and she's bringing her to the convention

When she gets there, mom knows,
the men will eye her clothes,
With a word she commands her 'bout the floor

And her costumes have shown,
from a tailor are borne,
For her, the portrayals have no meaning

In the line at the ball,
She is there standing tall,
Sometimes all of her faults are forgiven

I've a feel of unrest,
when looking at the best,
and then to know she will wind up winning

And I see all around,
that fine costumes abound,
And hear voices of those who sit booing

And it's whispered that soon,
If we all call the tune,
Then the judges will lead us to reason

And the prizes will pass
to those who stand fast
And the audience will echo with laughter

SEIDI?

HA HA HA HA HA HA

To make matters worse, Maris included a photo of a barely legal model, "reminiscent of Heidi", from the men's magazine, Gallery. Some of the artists and writers he was acquainted with congratulated him "for having taken such bold action." Others never spoke to him again.

Art Saha ran up to him in the lobby screaming, "That's not my daughter!" Maris says Heidi's father was so irate he had him off his feet, up against the wall, throttling him. Phil Seuling had to pull Art off of him. Jim Warren had little to say to Maris, except that he was sorry to hear his father had passed away a few days before the convention. Reportedly, Heidi was grateful. That year, Heidi made her last appearances in costume. She retired from competition, and Warren Publications discontinued their ads for the magazine and poster.

"That's the Heidi Saha story," as Jim Warren says. At least, that's the story of the fandom celebrity. For mild-mannered Heidi Saha, civilian, the story continues. She graduated from high school in 1977 and has lived a quiet small town life since. In 1996, Heidi sold her Vampirella costume at auction (Sotheby's), including the brass wrist bands, the bat earrings, leather boots, wig, and even the brush, all said to be in fine condition. She came out of retirement briefly in 1999 to write an obituary, "Arthur Saha, My Father", which appeared in the January, 2000 issue of Locus, a magazine covering the latest in the world of science fiction. (Arthur Saha died in November of 1999.)

Ads for An Illustrated History of Heidi Saha and the large poster started appearing in issues of Warren magazines in the fall of 1973. The copy read, "Fandom's own famous and fabulous femme, HEIDI SAHA, has thrilled thousands of Comix and Sci-Fi fans with her stunning costumes and winning manner. Now you can have the pinup of a lifetime: HEIDI SAHA as Queen of the Jungle..." The book was described as "a pictorial biography of Fandom's Pulchritudinous Princess".

The magazine was filled with black and white photos of Heidi, mostly supplied by her parents, from infancy to age 13. The project was largely the work of Forrest J. Ackerman, who had been the editor of Warren's Famous Monsters of Filmland since the first issue in 1958. The Saha's were old friends of Forry's, and he remembered the first time he saw Heidi, at the costume ball for the World Science Fiction Convention in Washington, D.C., in 1963. "The next time I saw Heidi was at a Lunacon several years later. Now about 10, she was a dimpled darling and I delighted in her request to be photographed with me..." That photo was printed later in an issue of Famous Monsters.

Perhaps some of the magazine's notoriety stems from the captions accompanying the photos. Forry was famous for his alliterative sentences and bad puns, and he stayed true to form when writing the Heidi book. Though he was obviously being playful ("a girl who makes mirrors look good"), to some readers his words might come across as inappropriate by today's standards: "...she's Lilith, Lolita & Lorelei melded into one fantastic young colt around whom there's already a cult."

There's also the paeans of praise which abound throughout the book: "In the so-called real world, among the beasts of science fiction and Comicdom...there now walks a great beauty. The young Goddess known as Heidi: supple, blonde reed of womanhood, bending in the wind of the sighs of her would-be wooers, her stricken swains. Heidi the delightful, the full-of-life dweller on the pink cloud of fantasy and wonder. Heidi -- unbelievably refreshing, soft and shy, wildly exciting -- Heidi -- a poetic blend of fantasy and wondrous reality."

Forry even included Heidi's measurements: "At the present time she neatly distributes 35" 24" 36" into a 5'7" frame weighing 120 lbs. and topped by a heavenly cascade of honey-blonde hair." As for her eyes, Forry assures us that they "vary from feline yellow to sea green."

He noted that it was getting increasingly difficult at conventions to get a photo with Heidi. "I'll be lucky if I can get close enough to ask!" He made another pun (a good one, but in dubious taste) about Arthur C. Clarke: "take one look at those pictures of him and Heidi and you can't help but wonder if (stand in line) he isn't waiting for Childhood's End?!"

For Heidi, it might have been thrilling to have a magazine devoted to her -- or it might have been embarrassing for a girl who'd just entered high school to have childhood pictures of herself in print, especially when the book contained captions such as, "According to legend, Heidi stuck a star on her popo-nappie when she was only 3 days old and announced in grammatically perfect Finnish, 'Look, ma, I'm the Big Diaper!'"

Warren says that as cheap as it was to print the magazine, the company made no money from it. He probably didn't expect it to. It would have been of no real interest to the readers of his horror comics. No pictures of Heidi as Vampirella were included, as the book was put together earlier. It was nothing more than a family photo album, with humorous comments and anecdotes thrown in by Forrest Ackerman.

Today it might be of interest to Warren magazine completists or to fans who were there and would like to recall the good ol' days of early conventions. Otherwise, An Illustrated History of Heidi Saha is an innocuous piece of memorabilia, celebrating a wonderful young fan girl. As for those who might pay $1000 to glom onto a copy "strictly because he thought it contained a nude shot of a preteen girl," as Angelique Trouvere says, "then he got what he deserved."

Acquanetta

2009-10-15T14:00:00.103-04:00

Acquanetta was born Mildred Davenport on July 17, 1921, and, depending on your source, was of either black or American Indian origin. A few writers have claimed she was Cheyenne Indian; possibly they're confusing this with reports of her being from Cheyenne, Wyoming, or having been born in Ozone, near Cheyenne. However, by most accounts she was born on an Indian reservation and raised in Norristown, Pennsylvania. These conflicting reports may be due to the possibility that she has both black and Indian blood in her. (Adding to the confusion regarding her ethnic origins, some still report that she was born in Venezuela!)

Acquanetta herself said, “My mother was Arapaho, and I was born on the Arapaho Reservation in Wyoming, near the Wind River. Of course I have no recollection of that, because I was given away to my father when I was approximately three years old. My father took me to Pennsylvania and gave me to his then-wife, and I grew up in Norristown, Pennsylvania, where I went to school." She also claimed that her father's grandfather "was the illegitimate son of the King of England.” (For the sake of brevity -- if not credibility -- we'll disregard her frequent claims of royal heritage.)

In the February 14, 1952 issue of Jet, "The Weekly Negro News Magazine," Acquanetta was featured on the cover (as "Hollywood's Jungle Girl") and in a three-page article which reported that she was a graduate of the West Virginia State College for Negroes. Here they give her age as 30, though subsequent articles give an age that suggests she was born in 1923, which is often -- and erroneously -- still given as her year of birth.

The Arizona Republic for August 22, 2004, reported that Acquanetta's brother, 85-year old Horace A. Davenport, was present at her funeral. A retired judge, Horace Davenport was, according to the Pennsylvania Bar Association, "the first African-American judge in Montgomery County." Horace said that he'd never seen any of Acquanetta's movies.

Bill Feret, in his 1984 book, LURE OF THE TROPIX, said of Acquanetta, "She has never clarified her ambiguous origins, which over the years have varied between being an Arapahoe Indian from Wyoming, a Latin from Venezuela, or a black girl from Pennsylvania..." Certainly, her exotic and sultry beauty and the ambiguity of her past add to the mystique.

After high school, she left her past behind: "I went to New York and became a model, and lived at the Barbizon Women's Hotel." At first she modelled for Harry Conover, then she met John Robert Powers, who added her to his list of lovely models. "I went from a small amount of money a week, in a small town, to $100 an hour on some jobs, which in those days was incredible." She admits to having worked as a paid escort: "In those days, men liked to have attractive women to escort them places. So it was almost like a job."

According to a Life magazine article from the August 24, 1942 issue, "Burnu's origins are veiled in mystery. A year ago in New York she read some newspaper stories about Pan-American relations. So she decided to pose as a Venezuelan..." She even affected an accent. Said Acquanetta, "I looked the part -- I was dark and exotic..."

Acquanetta met a press agent for Universal Studios producer Walter Wanger, who got her a job with the producer and dubbed her the 'Venezuelan Volcano.' According to Life, "The volcano blew up, however, when Burnu was unable to produce any identification for the Screen Actors Guild, finally insisted her parents were Arapaho Indians from Ozone, Wyo. where she says she was born in 1921...After seeing her dance and swim, Hollywood has decided, in any case, Burnu's future is more important than her past."

Acquanetta, as usual, remembered things differently: "I met some people from Rio de Janeiro, and they wanted me to come to South America and perform at the Copacabana in Rio. I was a natural performer and a dancer, and that's what they wanted me to do at the Copa. So I packed my things and got on a train. We stopped in Hollywood and went out to the Mocambo."

The heads of casting for MGM, Warner Brothers and Universal were present and Walter Wanger "went wild" over her. She did a screen test for Universal and, when they found out she had done a test for MGM the day before, they signed her without even seeing the rushes. Wanger tried to get her the female lead in ARABIAN NIGHTS (1942): "...unfortunately they had already signed Maria Montez. That started the big so-called 'feud' between the two of us. She said no, she would not geev up thees role -- it was to be her first starring role, in Technicolor and all that." She ended up with a small speaking part in ARABIAN NIGHTS as Ishya, one of the harem girls, and was told that Burnu Acquanetta was too long for any marquee. She opted to call herself Acquanetta.

"Universal found there was so much reaction to my appearance, my presence, whatever, that they threw me into the so-called bread-and-butter pictures. Those were the films that they spent less money on, but made the most money off of."

Her next role was a bit part in RHYTHM OF THE ISLANDS (1943), an obscure, low-budget musical. The two leads were Allan Jones and Jane Frazee, with Andy Devine and Ernest Truex along for comic relief. Acquanetta played Luani, the Cannibal King's daughter, in love with Andy Devine, whom she saves from the cooking pot. Though she had been billed in ARABIAN NIGHTS as 'Acquanetta', she was billed as 'Burnu Acquanetta' for RHYTHM OF THE ISLANDS.

Next, she was cast in her most famous role as the silent ape-woman Paula Dupree in CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN (1943), directed by Edward Dmytryk. Acquanetta had done a screen test and was pronounced "perfect for the role." She didn't mind playing an ape-woman: "Whatever I was given, I did my best. I became a character actress. I am a natural actress. They tell me that when I was a little girl, I used to gather the neighborhood children and put on shows! I did write a play when I was in junior high school, and I was in a play when I was in grammar school."

In CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN, Beth Colman brings her ailing sister to the Crestview Sanatorium, run by Dr. Walters (John Carradine) who has been conducting secret experiments in his basement laboratory, hoping to create a race of superhumans. Stealing Cheela the ape from the circus, Dr. Walters then murders his nurse and transplants her cerebrum into Cheela, and with glandular injections from Dorothy the ape turns into the lovely Acquanetta, whom he renames 'Paula Dupree'. Dr. Walters brings Paula to the circus, and discovers her mysterious power over wild animals when she enters the lions' cage and rescues the unconscious trainer from one of the beasts by terrifying it with her deadpan expression. Impressed, Fred hires the silent and mysterious woman as his assistant, but when it becomes apparent to her that Fred is in love with Beth Colman, Paula becomes jealous and in her fury begins reverting back to her simian form. That night, the ape-woman attempts to kill Beth, but instead kills another woman who stumbles upon the scene. Paula is scolded by Dr. Walters for jeopardizing his work. After receiving a desperate phone call from Dorothy at the sanatorium, Beth demands to see her, and Dr. Walters decides that she too may be of use to him in his experiments. By now, Paula is once again Cheela the ape, and is freed from her cage by Dorothy. Cheela kills Dr. Walters and returns to the circus where she once again saves Fred from rampaging lions, and is shot dead for her efforts by a confused police officer.

Acquanetta sat for two and a half hours at a time while a makeup artist applied rubber and clay to her face. She found the experience exhausting: "You could hardly breathe. It was kind of scary."

"It was interesting to work without speaking in CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN. It was more difficult, a challenge. But you know, I read an article once that said I was not an actress at all, and that in fact I couldn't even talk. They didn't understand that this was deliberate, and that I had to project more because I had to do it with my body language, my eyes, my face. Every movement had to mean something!"

Acquanetta says she and Edward Dmytryk "had great rapport. In fact, we dated briefly. What a career he should have had -- what a talent. He was my favourite director." She also says that they "used to sit and talk for hours."

Next on Acquanetta's schedule was THE MUMMY'S GHOST (1944), directed by Reginald LeBorg. Lon Chaney was returning to his role as the 3000 year old mummy, Kharis, and Acquanetta was to be his long lost love Princess Ananka, now reincarnated. She had begun working on the movie when an accident occurred: "We were shooting a scene where I walk along a path and then fall, and these scabs [non-union workers] had put real rocks down on the path. They were supposed to put down papier-mache rocks, but they didn't -- these scabs painted real rocks white! I fell and struck my head, and that's all I remember. I woke up in Cedars Of Lebanon Hospital."

Leborg's version of events that day differs: "In the morning of the first day of shooting [August 23, 1943], Acquanetta was on the set at 9:00 but she was walking very awkwardly -- she was scared, I think because this was her second or third film. In the second shot, she was supposed to walk from a lawn, up a couple of stairs and into a house. She slipped and fell, and hit her head, and for half an hour she was unconscious. They took her to the dispensary and gave her smelling salts -- she was all right, but she had a slight concussion. [Producer Ben] Pivar didn't want to take any chances, so the role was recast with Ramsay Ames."

In any case, being out of commission, Acquanetta's role went to Ramsay Ames. Henry Sucher and Griffin Jay, the team who wrote the screenplay for CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN, also wrote THE MUMMY'S GHOST, with Brenda Weisberg.

Acquanetta eventually got to work with Lon Chaney, in DEAD MAN'S EYES (1944). This was the third in the Inner Sanctum series of movies and was based on a mystery from the radio program of the same name. Chaney starred as Dave Stuarts, an artist, with Acquanetta as his model, Tanya Czoraki. Jealous over his affection for Heather, she blinds him by putting acid in his eye-drops. Heather's father bequeaths his eyes to Dave and when the old man is murdered the artist becomes the prime suspect.

Reginald LeBorg directed Acquanetta's next movie, JUNGLE WOMAN (1944), her last for Universal. The good reviews for CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN and the success of their Mummy series encouraged Universal to make a sequel. Dr. Fletcher obtains Cheela's carcass for research purposes, but to his surprise discovers faint life signs. Her health restored, Cheela escapes into the surrounding jungle. Dr. Fletcher and his large, simple-minded assistant Willie search for the ape, but Cheela has once again transformed into Paula. In lieu of an ape, Willie brings back Acquanetta, an equitable trade, to say the least. Supposing her to be mentally disturbed, Dr. Fletcher places her under his care for observation. His daughter Joan and her boyfriend Bob drop by, and once again Paula becomes infatuated with another woman's man. Oblivious to the others present, Paula introduces herself to Bob, speaking for the first time: "Hello! My name is Paula!" Her speech is laconic, delivered in a child-like manner. Bob leaves, and Paula watches from her bedroom window as he drives away. She gives off a low and disturbing wail, testament to her lonely and unhappy existence. Dr. Fletcher discovers that the brooding, sexually frustrated Paula can crush steel in her bare hands. When Bob and Joan return the following evening, Paula dashes outside to meet him at his car: "Hello, Bob! I have been waiting for you!" Bob rudely ignores her and he and Joan take a moonlit canoe ride in the lagoon. Willie pursues Paula through the jungle, and she kills the annoying lummox. Next, she swims underwater, overturns the canoe, and tries to pull Joan under but fails. By the following evening, through circumstantial evidence and forensic science, Dr. Fletcher concludes that Paula is some kind of dangerous monster that must be destroyed. He fills a hypodermic syringe with a sedative, and goes in search of Paula, who is stalking Joan through the jungle. Paula ferociously attacks Dr. Fletcher, but he manages to inject her with the sedative; unfortunately, he gives her too much and she overdoses. In death, Paula reverts to her ape-woman form.

Acquanetta named LeBorg as her other favourite director. However, she said, "I just did it because I was assigned to it. But once I accepted it, I did it to the best of my ability."

LeBorg may have been one of her favourite directors, but she certainly wasn't one of his favourite actresses. "She was a nice-looking girl, but she had a squeaky, high-pitched voice. A lower-class Maria Montez. Again, as with Ramsay Ames, she developed a little later, after a few pictures, but unfortunately..."

Next, she went to Mexico "at the instigation of President Roosevelt, as one of the emissaries of Hollywood. Somehow during the trip I made lots of contacts with important people there, producers, and they wanted me to come to Mexico and do films. I did not speak Spanish at the time, but they said, 'If you live here we'll get tutors.' "

Acquanetta was fascinated with Mexico and wanted a release from her contract. Universal wouldn't allow it. They wanted to keep the Captive Wild Woman series going, and offered her an extended contract and more money. Somehow, she managed to get out of her contract. "Universal never forgave me for that."

One more movie in the series was released, JUNGLE CAPTIVE (1944), with Vicki Lane taking Acquanetta's place. "It bombed, and that was the end of that series." Nevertheless, CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN and JUNGLE WOMAN gave Acquanetta the unique distinction of being the only female to play the monster in a movie series!

She didn't go to Mexico, after all. Instead, she signed with Monogram: "At Monogram, I had the approval of my scripts because I had been so unhappy about my pictures at Universal. And I disapproved of every one! The scripts they submitted were mostly cowboy things. Had I done them, I probably would have become a western star!" Concluding that she was difficult, Monogram simply let Acquanetta's contract expire.

She had been absent from the screen for two years when RKO signed her for the only big-budget movie she would star in: TARZAN AND THE LEOPARD WOMAN (1946). Acquanetta played Lea, high-priestess of a leopard-worshipping cult who terrorize the jungle with their steel claws and inevitably run into Tarzan. The shapely Acquanetta, fetching in her leopard-skin bikini, dominated the posters, which read: Sworn... to bring back Tarzan's body for her fiendish jungle rituals! And Beauty veils her lust for human blood!

In 1948, Johnny Weissmuller, who had been making Tarzan movies for sixteen years, was about to start the Jungle Jim series for Columbia. Weissmuller wanted Acquanetta: "...he wanted me to play opposite him in the series, but I declined to do that, because it was to be shot on the backlot somewhere."

At some point in the 1940s, Acquanetta married a Mexican millionaire named Luciano Baschuk and divorced him in 1950. According to a January 10, 1952 article in Jet, she "sued the millionaire for divorce but lost the suit when the court could find no record of a marriage. Baschuk denies there ever was a marriage but the former West Virginia state coed insists they were married in Mexico [five years earlier]." They had a son, Sergio, who died in 1952 at age five.

In April, 1951, Acquanetta married illustrator/painter Henry Clive, who she sometimes modeled for, in Juarez, Mexico when he was 71 and she was 29. She was his sixth wife. They divorced in 1952. Henry Clive said, "I still think she is the finest girl I have ever known. I'll love her always..." One of his paintings shows Acquanetta in Cheyenne Indian garb with long braids, a look she would keep for the rest of her life.

After an absence of five years, Acquanetta had a supporting role in THE LOST CONTINENT (1951). In search of a missing rocket, Cesar Romero and his crew find themselves on an uncharted prehistoric island where they encounter dinosaurs and meet Acquanetta, the last of her tribe, who guides them up the sacred mountain where the rocket crashed. The opening scenes of a military installation are from ROCKETSHIP X-M.

Acquanetta retired from the movie business soon after. "I'm a good actress, I know that I'm a good actress, but I feel that I have never really achieved my acting potential, or had the right opportunities." She said directors and producers "were always trying to get these young girls in amorous situations. That never happened with me. That's why I never did any of these big Technicolor extravaganzas." She added, "I maintained my self respect. I had it then, I have it now."

In 1953 she became a disc jockey, working four hours a day for radio station KPOL in Los Angeles. According to Jet, she presented "the tops in popular music, plus baseball scores, race results and latest news flashes."

Acquanetta met her third husband, Jack Ross, "who was working at a Lincoln-Mercury store in Culver City. Jack and I were married; I bore a son, Lance, in California; we moved to Arizona and we bought the Lincoln-Mercury dealership in Mesa, Arizona." Soon, she was appearing in commercials for her husband's business, and began hosting a show called Acqua's Corner at a local television station, a job she held throughout the 1960s: "I was on live for almost ten years, five days a week for an hour and a half, and what I did was introduce movies...every 15 minutes I had five minutes to come on and talk! So instead of doing commercials, I started to talk about community events and to interview people. My commercials became totally different than anything anyone had ever done. I would also say, 'By the way, we also sell automobiles!'" She and her husband were prominent philanthropists in the area. They had four sons and divorced in the 1980s.

In 1974 she had a book of her poetry published, "The Audible Silence," illustrated by Emilie Touraine. In 1990 she was featured in a TV movie, GRIZZLY ADAMS: THE LEGEND CONTINUES, after an absence of 39 years. She continued to live in the Phoenix area and became known locally as the 'Leopard Woman'. She didn't smoke, or drink alcohol, tea or coffee.

She seemed to have nothing bad to say about her co-stars. Asked if she enjoyed working with John Carradine, she replied: "Oh, very much so. I think of him a lot. He was great. I always think of him as Dracula, always picture him in my mind's eye wearing that cloak!" To which she added: "Milburn Stone was a gentleman, a real nice person, and Evelyn Ankers, too." Asked how she got along with Lon Chaney, she said: "Beautifully. He was a good friend." She had this to say of J. Carrol Naish: "...he was always offering suggestions and being very helpful and kind and gentle. What a nice man!" And asked if she liked working with Johnny Weissmuller, she said: "Oh, yes, very much so. He was a nice man."

If she had one pet peeve, it was that her name was often misspelled. Acquanetta died August 16, 2004 at the age of 83 from Alzheimer's disease.