[Kracalactaka]

according to GCD there is no such character as skybandit

there is a one page text story in Quality's Black Hawk 52 called The Sky Bandit

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=28278

[positronic1]

If you're picking superhero features, it's just too easy. Well, easy enough for Craig Yoe to fill two hardcover volumes of examples of SUPER WEIRD HEROES, and for Jon Morris to fill 3 hardcover handbook-style samplers: THE LEAGUE OF REGRETTABLE SUPERHEROES, THE LEAGUE OF REGRETTABLE SUPERVILLAINS, and THE LEAGUE OF REGRETTABLE SIDEKICKS. I mean, all you have to do for a start is to list anything and everything Fletcher Hanks ever created.

It's more challenging and fun if you exclude superheroes from consideration. It doesn't mean the feature needs to be done in some outre style, either... just conceptually "out there".

Here's my vote, from ACG's Hooded Horseman #26: COWBOY SAHIB




Some of the strangest, funnest features came from blurring boundary lines between genres. You might think by now just about everything imaginable has been done, or tried, at least, but there are still genre fusions that fairly BEG to be tried.

What were some of the biggest post-War genres? Romance? Jungle girls? Why not a title like JUNGLE LOVE? "The Romantic Misadventures of a Jungle Queen" Wonder what THAT would be like?

[SuperScrounge]

JUNGLE LOVE? "The Romantic Misadventures of a Jungle Queen" Wonder what THAT would be like?

"Does Bob really love me, or the gold in that lost city we discovered?"

Jungle Crime

"This is jungle. My name Tarzan. I swing on vine."

Children Crime

"Good grief! Another strangling victim! What's the lab report say?"
"Wah wah wah"
"Traces of a blue fiber, from a blanket?"

[The Australian Panther]

the Western genre seems pretty adaptable. Even back in the Golden Age there was WESTERN LOVE AND Western SF Cowboys,, Western Detectives.  Western Superheroes (Vigilante ) And there is also today Western Horror and Western Steam-Punk.
I would like to see more Pirate Comics. Pirate Love, Pirate Detective, Pirates in Wonderland, Pirate Wacky Races, True Pirate Tales,Pirate Cowboys, Pirates in Space (Been done) Twilight Zone Pirates,Pirate Mystics anybody?
Actually, when you think about it Golden Age SF really blended Genres mightily.   
I'll go away and have breakfast now.   

[positronic1]

It's true. I can barely stand to read a regular-old, boringly-normal "straight" Western. (Well... let's put it this way, it has to be pretty damn good. Like JONAH HEX good.) But if it's a Western superhero like Zorro, the Lone Ranger, or any of the seemingly endless legion of cloned rangers (Masked Raider, Masked Rider, Lone Rider, Black Rider, Ghost Rider, Hooded Horseman, etc.) then I'm in. Even better if it's a Western Marvel superhero, Like Kid... Anything (or The Anything Kid, just for variety). Was there a Kid Rider? Kid RANGER? The Masked Kid? The LONE Kid? Well, there should have been.

With some of these cloned rangers, it's kind of hard to say where it stops being a Western and becomes more of a bona-fide superhero story. I think the one I've seen that blurs the line the best is Charlton's GUNMASTER AND BULLET THE GUN BOY. I might be wrong about this, but I think this is the only cloned ranger story I've seen where the sidekick went the traditional Golden Age superhero route of being a boy with an identical costume to his adult mentor, except for wearing a simple domino mask.




One of the things I had the most difficulty wrapping my brain around is how Westerns just kept on being set in the then-contemporary "present" right on up through the 1950s. (But then again, the entire Western genre was invented by dime novels, and was contemporary with what we now call the "Old West" of the 1870s.) Science fiction, always being a somewhat risky marketing venture up to just about that time, could always be hedged by combining it with the ever-popular (up to that time) Western genre. When the evil underground Phantom Empire of Murania attacks the surface world, who are we going to turn to, to stop them? Why, none other than Gene Autry of Radio Ranch (because, let's face it, everyone loves a musical, so how can you miss with a singing cowboy?) DC's original Golden Age Vigilante was another contemporary Western/superhero genre fusion, and Greg Saunders was a singing cowboy with his own radio show, to boot! It's as if they just went and put Gene Autry in a mask, and swapped his horse for a motorcycle. But getting back to the sci-fi/Western fusion, Charlton Comics was never shy about trying to find new subgenres of Westerns. Not only did they bring us COWBOY LOVE, but who can forget Spurs Jackson and his Space Vigilantes, starring in SPACE WESTERN? Most people think the Nazis fleeing the fall of Berlin evacuated to South America, but the ever-reliable Spurs Jackson goes to Mars to perform a mop-up operation of leftover Nazis there.




Now I know many of you must have been wondering, as I was... "Has a gypsy fortune-teller ever been the star of her own comic book?"  At most comic publishers, the answer to that question would be something best paraphrased as "Are you out of your ever-loving mind?!?"... BUT not at Charlton Comics, who brought us ZAZA THE MYSTIC (I'm thinking she may possibly have been from the gypsies of Hungarian extraction, and pronounced her name as "Zsa Zsa").

[positronic1]

I would like to see more Pirate Comics. Pirate Love, Pirate Detective, Pirates in Wonderland, Pirate Wacky Races, True Pirate Tales,Pirate Cowboys, Pirates in Space (Been done) Twilight Zone Pirates,Pirate Mystics anybody?

All of those probably existed in the world of Alan Moore's WATCHMEN, where pirates were the most popular comic book genre, and Tales of the Black Freighter was one of the most popular comic books of the mid-1980s. In our universe, we got EC's PIRACY (probably Moore's direct inspiration) and very few others. I think I recall seeing a story or two where Zorro battled traditional pirates (in the very early 1800s), and of course, I suspect you're being highly influenced by THE PHANTOM, where the ongoing battle against piracy (specifically the Singh Brotherhood) continued for 400 years worth of the original Phantom's descendants. Gotta love The Phantom! WHY is it taking so long for Hermes Press to get to the Sy Barry years!?! Oh, the humanity!! I think it's because of The Phantom that I could never be taken in by the 'romantic view' (e.g. Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean) of pirates as 'swashbuckling adventurers'. The Phantom portrays them as they really are -- seagoing criminals. To me, a real pirate comic would be more like a historical/seafaring version of Lev Gleason's CRIME DOES NOT PAY.

I highly recommend Reiji Matsumoto's CAPTAIN HARLOCK SPACE PIRATE, if you haven't read it. Just recently out in a nice hardcover collected edition of 3 volumes from Seven Seas Entertainment. The retro-manga cartooning style may take some getting used to, if you're not familiar with it, but it grows on you. I guess when you remove the idea of "space pirates" from the very real-world historical context, it's easier to see them as the good guys battling oppressive authoritarian forces. PLANET COMICS had an interesting ongoing feature of a similar nature, Star Pirate, in its later issues, with some nice Murphy Anderson artwork. Even before that, they briefly ran the series Quorak, Space Pirate (one of the few with the villain as the star of the series, but then again so was Mars, God of War). Better/Nedor/Standard/Pines countered with their female SF version, Tara - Pirate Queen, in the last half-dozen issues of WONDER COMICS (showcased by some very nice Alex Schomburg covers). The final episode of Tara appeared in THRILLING COMICS #71.

[positronic1]

Oh look. I swear I didn't know of the existence of this film when I mentioned the idea of a JUNGLE LOVE comic book (which would have been a much more risque Fox title, probably, in the early '50s). But Paramount Pictures already did it as a Dorothy Lamour/Ray Milland film in 1938.



Now, ironically enough, Fox Features did do a DOROTHY LAMOUR, JUNGLE PRINCESS comic book for 2  issues (formerly JUNGLE LIL) in 1950, and it contains early work by Wally Wood. Wow, that kind of fired up my imagination -- until I actually saw it. Sorry to say, it doesn't hold a candle to the better work on Sheena, Tiger Girl, or Rulah.

[Florian R. Guillon]

I would like to see more Pirate Comics. Pirate Love, Pirate Detective, Pirates in Wonderland, Pirate Wacky Races, True Pirate Tales,Pirate Cowboys, Pirates in Space (Been done) Twilight Zone Pirates,Pirate Mystics anybody?

I highly recommend Reiji Matsumoto's CAPTAIN HARLOCK SPACE PIRATE, if you haven't read it. Just recently out in a nice hardcover collected edition of 3 volumes from Seven Seas Entertainment. The retro-manga cartooning style may take some getting used to, if you're not familiar with it, but it grows on you. I guess when you remove the idea of "space pirates" from the very real-world historical context, it's easier to see them as the good guys battling oppressive authoritarian forces.

Great manga, but sadly unfinished. The ending can be seen in the first animated series from 1978, which adapts the plot, adding new characters. The current series Captain Harlock Dimensional Voyage is a retelling of the original plot, mixed with elements from animes and other mangas involving Harlock, but the art style is less cartoony. And if you want some space pirate oddity, keep in mind there's a Captain Harlock unfinished manga that adapts Der Ring Des Nibelungen.

[positronic1]

The current series Captain Harlock Dimensional Voyage is a retelling of the original plot, mixed with elements from animes and other mangas involving Harlock, but the art style is less cartoony. And if you want some space pirate oddity, keep in mind there's a Captain Harlock unfinished manga that adapts Der Ring Des Nibelungen.

Funny you should mention it. I noticed in the most recent volume of Dimensional Voyage a direct reference to HARLOCK SAGA (the anime series based on Wagner's Ring cycle). So apparently they haven't cast that aside as some 'parallel universe' (as fans have previously viewed it) and are incorporating it (or parts thereof, at least) into Dimensional Voyage. Seems like a significant re-writing of Mimay's backstory, but I'm no expert.

[paw broon]

As this has now gone beyond what we have on CB+, there were some odd, perhaps even bizarre, ideas in older British comics. For instance, The Beano featured Jimmy and His Magic Patch for years.  Jimmy had short trousers which were patched on the posterior and the patch was magic, letting him wish to be in a specific time in history and the patch would transport him there.  Time travel, magic, schoolboy, adventure and a bit of silly humour.
The Inky Top Imps was another DC Thomson strip from The Topper featuring a group of kids who had adventures but at one point, they found a magic fountain in their hideout which, when they drank the water, gave them various powers.  Silly and really odd.  Sandy Calder did good work on the art.

[positronic1]

I had to stare at that picture of Jimmy for while before I could decide what direction he's supposed to be moving in time! I mean, yes, obviously you would look to the speed lines first as an indicator of direction. There would be no ambiguity to the reader looking at it when it was first published, of course, but you didn't mention when it was published. Somehow I would expect the magic patch to be a "puller" rather than a "pusher", based on the position of Jimmy's feet, where his heels seem to be dragging as if he's being hauled backwards. On further reflection though, the only thing that makes sense is that the magic patch is pushing Jimmy into the past -- but it seems counter-intuitive to his body positioning. Shouldn't his body be arched backwards as if he was being kicked in the arse?

[paw broon]

Here's the Wiki on Jimmy:-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_and_his_Magic_Patch

[roxburylib]

Spirit of Frankenstein was an odd feature in Adventures into the Unknown (#8 here). He has a mind waiting to be aroused.

[Isaura Luiza Paramysio]

I think the Black Condor very bizarre, his origin's story with he learning to "flap wings" with the condors, or in the third chapter he replaces a killed senator who is look-alike him.

not is "bizarre", but unusual, and love them for it, the first cross-dresser heroes, Madam Fatal and Red Tornado.

pardon my weak english

[SuperScrounge]

There is actually an earlier cross-dressing 'hero', Isaura. The Cat Man made two appearances in Amazing-Man #5 and #8. Scans can be found in the Centaur section.

[drrockso20]

If you're picking superhero features, it's just too easy. Well, easy enough for Craig Yoe to fill two hardcover volumes of examples of SUPER WEIRD HEROES, and for Jon Morris to fill 3 hardcover handbook-style samplers: THE LEAGUE OF REGRETTABLE SUPERHEROES, THE LEAGUE OF REGRETTABLE SUPERVILLAINS, and THE LEAGUE OF REGRETTABLE SIDEKICKS. I mean, all you have to do for a start is to list anything and everything Fletcher Hanks ever created.

It's more challenging and fun if you exclude superheroes from consideration. It doesn't mean the feature needs to be done in some outre style, either... just conceptually "out there".

Here's my vote, from ACG's Hooded Horseman #26: COWBOY SAHIB




Some of the strangest, funnest features came from blurring boundary lines between genres. You might think by now just about everything imaginable has been done, or tried, at least, but there are still genre fusions that fairly BEG to be tried.

What were some of the biggest post-War genres? Romance? Jungle girls? Why not a title like JUNGLE LOVE? "The Romantic Misadventures of a Jungle Queen" Wonder what THAT would be like?

that spread for Cowboy Sahib got used(along with quite a bit of other Public Domain comics art) in the RPG setting book Weird Adventures, would be neat to figure out where all such examples came from originally

also his stuff is kinda old hat at this point but I'm kinda surprised that in the earlier posts from years ago that no one suggested any of Fletcher Hanks's characters

[positronic1]

that spread for Cowboy Sahib got used(along with quite a bit of other Public Domain comics art) in the RPG setting book Weird Adventures, would be neat to figure out where all such examples came from originally

There's a RPG sourcebook based on PD comic characters?  Link, please.

[Electricmastro]

Pete the Pooch: