In 1980 Paragon Publications published Star Fems, a T&A title featuring hot babes wearing scanty lingerie while they traveled through space.
While there were a few other features included in the book the title of the series refers to a trio of Golden Age Planet Comics heroines brought together as the Star Fems. This book lasted only two issues, though the concept was later picked up by AC Comics (A revivified Paragon, responsible for Fem-Force and other exploitation titles) as a reprint.
The Star Fems team consisted of Mysta of the Moon, Gale Allen and Futura, all of whom were brought together across the far reaches of time and space to do things and stuff. In 1980 there was not much of a built-in audience for the Golden Age characters and not many people outside of hard-core historian fans and comic professionals knew of or had access to a Planet Comics run. None of that mattered though because they had giant breasts and there is always an audience for that ready to shell out cash.
That Star Fems is a labor of fan-love is obvious. Someone who admired the original serials attempted to make the characters contemporary but they did it through a pen held by a horny fanboy with a tingling groin driving him to distraction. All the stories typically featured impossibly contorted poses of barely-dressed or topless women, though admittedly within the Star Fems stories there was less of it. The Futura connection in these issues is actually very tenuous. In the revival series the characters were given various super powers and any existing resemblance, characterization and back story that existed did not really carry over from the Golden Age books. This is Futura in name only. Other than the creator personally liking the old serials there was no real reason to use the vintage characters. It would have been just as easy to create an original concept using three super heroes, something that could have retained more creator rights than public domain characters.
The two issues by Paragon and the reprint story by AC Comics have a sort of fanzine aspect about them with the expected quality of art and story. The second issue it should be noted, was drawn by Jerry Ordway, who would later do extensive work for DC Comics. To give some credit to the 1980 series the basic personalities and unstated sexual equality of Mysta, Gale and Futura stayed much the same as they were in the original serials. But where the Planet Comics characters were strong, independent women the Star Fems were strong, independent women who flashed their panties and had giant breasts.
Depending on where you work some of the images are not very safe for display, so here is the link to the online archive to enjoy at your convenience.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
FINO (Futura In Name Only)
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7/20/2008 06:00:00 AM
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Labels: futura, gale allen, mysta of the moon, star fems
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Futura and the Top-Heavy Star Fems
Godland wasn't the first comic book series to be published as an homage to Jack Kirby. Back in 2002 the company AC Comics put out, among a few other titles, a book titled Fighting Yank using several Golden Age public domain characters. Decidedly for an older audience, Fighting Yank ran for five issues and featured the title character, Miss Masque, Pyroman, Rulah and others. Several of the characters are currently enjoying a revival in the Alex Ross-helmed Project Superpowers series.
Fighting Yank #3 (2002) published a "Palpitatin' Pin-Up" accomplished in a Jack Kirby and 60s Marvel house style by artist Eric Coile. Like most of the AC Comics product their line skewed to the horny fanboy market and this page featuring the "Top-Heavy Star Fems" of Planet Comics was no exception. While the characters were always traditionally drawn as beautiful women with a high skin to fabric ratio, Coile knew his audience and took pains to render the Golden Age stars of several Planet Comics serials with endowments far in excess of how they were drawn in the original books.
From Left to Right: Warner Bros. Martian, Futura, Mysta of the Moon, Gale Allen.
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7/10/2008 11:00:00 AM
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Labels: futura, gale allen, Jack Kirby, mysta of the moon, planet comics, Pulps



