Pink Rocket

Retro future purple monkey Korean pop from Dal*Shabet (2011).

A lazy, Sunday sexy taxi driver post.

Recharging

:: Long hours and changing sleep schedules is taking a toll. No energy for anything other than watching television and snoozing so I'll just post a funny comic book panel (From Beware #11, August 1952).

:: It'll be about a month until I can afford to buy the next chapter of Futura. So should I wait for the real thing I can scan or post the awful, low resolution microfiche copy I found online?

:: Zzzzzzzz...

Return of the Whispering Gorilla

In the original pulp story The Whispering Gorilla a crime-victim had his brain transplanted into the body of a gorilla. After fighting crime while becoming something of a celebrity the hero suffered a brutal beating at the hands of the local police, causing brain damage which reverted his human brain to that of a wild animal. When last seen, the Whispering Gorilla was being returned to Africa and set free to live among other apes in the hope that he would at last find peace. What no one anticipated is that the injuries suffered by "W. G." were temporary and he soon regained his human intelligence.

In the February 1943 issue of Fantastic Adventures the tale Return of the Whispering Gorilla was published. In this issue "W.G." is found alive and well (as well as a human brain can be after being placed into the body of a giant primate) in Africa. "W.G." is still fighting crime though this time it isn't petty mobsters he is attacking. This time he is fighting the incursions of the organized criminal cabal of the Nazi invasion into Africa.

In the 1940 issue of Fantastic Adventures the story was credited to Don Wilcox. In the sequel three years later it is David V. Reed penning the story with "permission by Don Wilcox". While many pulp stories are hit-and-miss when it comes to quality the move from the Whispering Gorilla as a Shadow-like mystery man to an heroic defender of the realm is welcome. Any sequel that features a gorilla pummeling Nazis is automatically superior to the original entry.


BONUS! "Introducing the Author" page profiling David Reed and featuring Fantastic Adventures editor Julius Schwartz many years before his tenure at DC Comics.

The Whispering Gorilla

The Whispering Gorilla is another example of where the storytelling of the the pulps influenced the several decades of the comic books that replaced them.

The Whispering Gorilla is a story of a crime-victim who had his brain transplanted into the body of a gorilla. Wasting no time, the protagonist quickly escapes to exact horrible revenge on those that preyed upon the innocents of the city and created his horrible condition. Over the course of the story the character says goodbye (after a fashion) to the wife he lost when his body was destroyed and accomplishes his mission, though a severe beating he receives at the clubs of frightened police reduces his human brain to that of a simple, instinctual animal.

While this is a pretty standard revenge plot that has a few touches of the Shadow thrown in an interesting aside to the story is that "W.G.", as he is known to be popularly called, is a public figure, albeit with a "secret identity." Most noteworthy is the idea that since people can not truly determine if the intelligent, talking gorilla attending their social gatherings is human or not, the populace at large treats him as if he is anyways, so as not to offend. Whether this respect is out of a healthy dose of fear or politeness is not clear.

This basic story of a person changed through circumstance to return in a more powerful and less helpless form would proliferate in the Golden Age of comics and absolutely saturate the Silver Age, particularly that of DC Comics, the comic book industry being where pulp veterans Otto Binder, Julius Schwartz and others moved to after the decline of the pulp market. You could barely pick up a Silver Age title without finding at least one brain transplant story in it. The Silver Age character of the Congorilla is a direct descendant of this type of story. Transformation is the primary theme of the comic book, carried over from the pulp heroes with their ritualistic costume and uniform changes. Modern comics still follow the old pulp formula and one of the greatest modern booms in comic book creativity, that of Marvel of the 1960s, is founded on the very same idea.





From Fantastic Adventures (May 1940). Story by Don Wilcox. Cover painted by Stockton Mulford. Interior illustrations by Robert Fuqua.

Memorial Day

Memorial Day isn't about a Midnight Madness weekend mattress sale or three days off from work, but a call for a nation to reflect on the sacrifices made by our citizens. No matter how you feel about the rationalization for any war, past or present, don't forget that it is human beings and not slogans, flags or banners that are in harms' way.

To those who fought,

To those who objected,

To those who came home,

To those who remained on the field,

To those who were reunited with their families,

To those who were orphaned and widowed,

To those who believed and did their duty,

To those who did not believe but served anyways,

To those who sent others into battle,

To those who led the charge.

These are the people Memorial Day is for. If one does anything today to mark the occasion it should be to pledge that the each conflict is the last one and work for it until it becomes true.

My Brother Was A Robot

The story My Brother Was A Robot from My Greatest Adventure #42 (April 1960) is uncredited but I suspect it may be from the mind or editorial office of Otto a.k.a. Eando Binder, a former participant in science fiction pulps of an earlier era who did some work for DC. While working at DC, Otto had a habit of recycling some of his ideas, particularly those of his popular pulp creation the robot Adam Link, into his later comic book works.

I'm presenting My Brother Was A Robot here not because it is particularly good, the plot is pretty dull actually and is an otherwise forgettable entry into the annals of comic history. What makes this story worth noting at all is that it features a robot beating the crap out of some crocodiles and a gorilla. Sometimes comics just don't get any better than that.

Click each picture to make ZAIUS-SIZED!

Happy Birthday, Steve Ditko

From Tales of Suspense #36 (December 1962).