Monday, April 30, 2012

YANG "Slave" Conclusion

China.
1890.
Benevolent mandarin Chung Yuan is murdered by assassins sent by the evil warlord Chao Ku.
The mandarin tells his son, Chung Hui, to "...be Yang to all men...the source of rightousness" with his dying breath.
Chung Hiu defeats the assassins and tracks down Chao Ku.
He is about to kill the warlord when a girl distracts him and renders him unconscious with a drug-tipped ring.
The girl is Yin Li, daughter of Chao Ku.
But, unlike her father, she is not evil, and doesn't want Chung Hui dead.
The unconscious man is loaded on a slave ship destined for America where he'll be put to work on a railroad.
When the opportunity arises, the man known to the slavers as Yang breaks free and dives overboard...
This origin story from Yang #1 (1973) was written by Joe Gill and illustrated by Warren Sattler, who handled the series' entire 13-issue run.
The title was popular enough to produce a spin-off series called House of Yang about other Chung family members which was published the months the bi-monthly Yang didn't come out.
So, for a year, there was a Yang-related title every month!

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Monday, April 23, 2012

YANG "Slave" Part 1

In 1972, the hottest Western on tv was an "Eastern" called Kung Fu...
...which inspired this very well-done series from Charlton Comics.
But Yang is not your average man!
Be here next week for the conclusion of this startling story and some long-hidden background about the series!

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Monday, April 16, 2012

HOW THE WEST WAS FUN! "Timmy Goes West"

Not the first time a tornado threw someone into a strange locale...
...but add time travel and a shy specter into the plot and, as they say, hilarity ensues...
Curiously, this was the only story (out of several tales) in this issue featuring Timmy in the Wild West!
If the storyline continued, it would've been in the next issue, which I don't have.

Timmy was one of numerous Casper the Friendly Ghost clones who materialized during the 1950s.
Almost every comic company had one, even Marvel/Atlas (Homer the Happy Ghost), but not DC, who tended to establish, rather than follow, trends.

Our Western-themed tale appeared in Charlton Comics' Timmy the Timid Ghost #7 (1957), illustrated (and possibly written) by multi-talented (editor/art director/writer/illustrator) Al Fago.

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Monday, April 9, 2012

RIFLEMAN "Outlaw's Pony" Conclusion

While visiting town for supplies, Lucas McCain and his son, Mark, hear the Bragan boys have just robbed the local bank.
Sending Mark home, Lucas joins the posse searching for the outlaws.
The posse encounters the fleeing robbers.
Lucas, using his rifle, wounds one of the thieves at extreme range, causing him to fall off his horse.
That horse, with the robbery's proceeds (but no rider), bolts away.
But, the robbers, even with two on one horse, manage to evade capture.
Mark, heading home, encounters the riderless steed and brings it back to the homestead.
When Lucas returns home after dark, he examines the horse's saddlebags, finds the stolen money, and heads back to town to return it to the bank...
(BTW, you'll note that, in the first panel below, the robbers are on two horses, even though they say they need to grab a horse!
In the following panels, they have only one horse!
It's a continuity error.)
The back cover of the comic has a feature about the customized Winchester Lucas uses...
There are a couple of inaccuracies about the weapon as shown in the series...
1) In the opening credits, Lucas fires thirteen times without reloading.
Pretty good trick for an eleven-shot rifle!
2) Though the show is set in the mid-1880s (as shown in newspaper headlines and a plaque on the Lucas ranch house), the version of the Winchester rifle shown (even before modification) wasn't manufactured until 1891!

The script for this tale from Four Color Comics #1009 (1959) was penned by Eric Freiwald and Robert Schaefer, while the art was provided by Dan Spiegle, one of the primary illustrators for Dell (and later, Gold Key) movie/tv adaptations due to his knack for rendering likenesses of actors.

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Monday, April 2, 2012

RIFLEMAN "Outlaw's Pony" Part 1

In the 1950s & early '60s, Westerns dominated the tv screens of America...
 ...and a series needed something unique to separate it from the rest of the herd (as it were).
Let's look at the first comic story based on one of the more unusual shows, about a reluctant expert with a rifle who just wanted to own a stretch of land and raise his 'tween son...
We'll see what happens during that half-hour...next week!
The script for this tale from Four Color Comics #1009 (1959) was penned by Eric Freiwald and Robert Schaefer, while the art was provided by Dan Spiegle, one of the primary illustrators for Dell (and later, Gold Key) movie/tv adaptations due to his knack for rendering likenesses of actors.

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