Who's Hunting Who?

In the fourth stop on our Summer Vacation itinerary, we stayed close to home – within sight of Metropolis, in fact. “The Big Game Hunt of Metropolis,” in Superman 97 (May 1955) tells us all about it.

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Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen, gets an odd piece of mail – an invitation to hunt wild animals at Jack Borden’s Safari, an animal preserve located just outside Metropolis.

Editor Perry White thinks it’s a great idea – there might be a story in it – and tells Olsen to get Clark Kent to come along, too. Clark has been ruining his health working nonstop on his exposé of the Swindle Syndicate, a crime ring. White thinks Clark could use some off time.

But when Kent waves him away, Jimmy decides to go to Borden’s Big Game Hunt alone.

Sure enough, there are plenty of wild beasts. When a rhino charges Jimmy, Borden tells the cub reporter to point his rifle and shoot. Oops! There aren’t any bullets in the rifle – it’s a camera! Jimmy hits the dust, sure that he’s about to be gored or trampled – but Borden just laughs as the beasts licks Jimmy’s face. “Old Leatherside is as tame as a mouse! He only came charging eagerly for some tidbits to eat!”
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Yes, the Big Game hunt is a tourist resort, full of tame critters – a safari photo-op for would-be bwanas. And when the enthusiastic Jimmy tells Clark about it, Kent decides to join in the fun the next day. Little do both Planet staffers know that the Swindle Syndicate has Kent in their sights.

Through a tricky little double-cross, the Syndicate has pulled a variation on the Folger’s Coffee switch. Instead of switching Instant Folger’s Coffee for fresh-brewed, the Syndicate has switched some REALLY wild animals for the tame ones.

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So when a gorilla runs up to give Clark a hug, they find out the great ape isn’t playing around. Clark uses some super-breath to blow the critter into meeting a tree head-first. Then, as Jimmy is running for safety, an un-tame tiger strikes Clark, ripping off his Kent clothes.

Jimmy is captured and caged by members of the Swindle Syndicate, who had set the whole thing up – including Jimmy’s original invitation – to get that pesky reporter Kent into a little deadly jeopardy-by-leopardy (kinda rhymes, huh?).

The thugs head into the brush to find Kent’s body and instead discover the Kent clothes. Obviously the tiger just et him up, they figure. It must be only a coincidence that Superman has happened. Drat! They’re caught in a dead-fall trap.

The tale ends with Clark doing a fig-leaf routine and the final exposure of the Swindle Syndicate.

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This little tale would have been just as at home in an issue of Jimmy Olsen, wouldn’t you agree? But no matter where it was read, it’s loads of fun.

Our next slideshow from our Summer Vacation involves an uncharted island and a wedding ceremony. Hmmm…

See you next Friday!

Looking into GeekBlip

Got a note from Geekblip.com saying our little blog was popular. Hope those fine folks know that while STAR TREK month was temporary, Super-Posts are forever!

Hi Ho, Into the Past We Go!

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Our third stop on our summer vacation was not only a place but a time. England … May, 1588. Queen Elizabeth I of England and King Phillip II of Spain, two of the world’s most powerful monarchs, were only peripheral characters for this tale which began …

On a Metropolis street corner?

That’s what we find in this story from Superman 89, cover-dated May, 1954.

Yes, a news shill for the Evening Compass is shouting the latest front-page story, about the cruelest pirate in history: CAPTAIN KENT THE TERRIBLE!

And, sure enough, the news story lists Metropolis reporter Clark Kent as the only living descendant of this foul scurvy cutthroat.

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At the Planet offices, there’s a funny aside when Perry White wishes Clark could make the competing newspaper walk the plank! But then he assigns Clark to dig up the true dirt on this slander-by-ancestor.

Interestingly, as Clark transforms into the Man of Steel, we read by his thought balloon that “I was only an ADOPTED SON of the Kents.” Why is that interesting? Why, because nobody else in this story seems to know that Clark was adopted. Yes, to the world he is the Kents’ natural son. Evidently, the latterly-common knowledge of Clark’s adoption has not yet been shared with the world at large.

So, round and round Superman spins, into the past, to investigate these foul allegations.

Upon arriving in 16th Century England, he immediately intervenes in an ambush of Queen Elizabeth I’s ambassador, saving the royal messenger.

He then heads to the Sea-Side Inn for news of the infamous Captain Kent, but nobody has heard of the fellow – at the inn or at the wharf. No one, that is, until the Ambassador enters the inn with a Captain’s Commission for Superman – er, “Kent,” himself, for saving the ambassador’s life. The swash in Superman “Kent” ’s buckle has given the Queen an idea – she wants him to be “Captain Kent, the cruelest, deadliest pirate of all time,” in the hope that the Spanish will try to recruit him. Once recruited, “Captain Kent” is to mislead the Armada when Spain’s feared invasion is prepared.


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Therefore, Superman has to become the evil ancestor he came back in time to investigate!

Soon, Superman is putting on a show for his crews, seeming to be a murderous swab, forcing captives to walk the plank, destroying villages, and such.

Before long (in comic-book time), Captain Kent is face-to-face with King Phillip of Spain himself, offered a dukedom to lead the invasion of England. The Queen’s plan is going perfectly!

Except that Supes discovers that he was recognized as a British spy, and the Armada has left without him!

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So, in haste, “Captain Kent” grabs his ship and breaks it into pieces, scattering the bits throughout the fog-laden English Channel, thus convincing the Spanish that there’re whole tons of British ships playing peek-a-boo in the mist. This scares off the Spanish Armada, and saves the day – and history.

Back in the present, a fortuitous fellow shows up at the Planet offices with proof that the wicked Captain Kent was in actuality a British agent. The Kent family honor is saved!

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Being the snide type, I urge you to correct Perry’s “300 years ago” goof in the last panel. Three centuries earlier than this story would have been 1654 – a little later than the 1588 loss of the Spanish Armada in the English Channel.

Next stop on our vacation tour? How about a lion hunt – in Metropolis?!?!

See you next Friday!

Superman on Pet World!

The next stop on our summer vacation was a weird planet of doughboys. Not the Pillsbury kind, but strangely pliant, gooey guys Superman called “yeast men.”

We’ll have to blame this unwanted trip on Perry White, because the whole nightmarish experience started with Perry’s assignment to Clark of a story about a medical researcher who has a theory that “people can sometimes acquire immunity to harmful substances by being exposed to them long enough.”

Well sir, our Man of Steel sets right out to try out that theory on a Green Kryptonite meteor that has recently landed in the desert. He figures the best way to keep the Green K nearby all the time is to manufacture a collar out of it. This he does, and puts on the neckpiece, just in time to go all woozy right in front of … some visiting aliens!

As most aliens seem to be nowadays, this group is out prospecting for a representative example of Earthian life. So they snag this critter in the blue suit and take him back to their world, where they give him a few intelligence tests and decide he’s just about a smart as a monkey.

Meanwhile, as you can imagine, the Collar of Green K is blunting the edge of Superman’s super-wits and super-abilities.

Finally, after graduating to watch dog and nabbing a break-in artist, Superman has eventually proven he has enough smarts to try the “grown-up” obstacle course. A part of this involves a walk through super-hot fire, which he takes gladly.

While the yeast-men are mourning the supposed death-by-burning of their latest pet, the Man of Steel bursts into view, finally freed of the diabolical Kryptonite neckpiece, which melted in the flames. He quickly constructs a device to communicate with the yeast-men in their weird, whistling language, and is soon accepted as a full entity.

The doughboys are sad to see him go, but they send Superman homeward with good will, to a predictable dénouement with Lois Lane and a stray kitten.

Wow! What a silly adventure! Yet, what if the Green K HADN’T melted, friends?!? What then?

See you next week with another instalment of our Super-vacation!

Something involving time-travel, I think ...

Welcome Back from Vacation!

What a summer! My pal Superman and I have been on a wild vacation to outer and inner space. As the famous Dr Suexx-Ur of Krypton wrote, “Oh, the places we’ve been!”

Our first stop was Atlantis.:

As told in Superman 67, cover-dated Nov-Dec 1950, Clark Kent accompanied Lois Lane and Professor Hubble in the scientist’s new deep-sea bathysphere, descending “ a depth never before reached by man.”

While they are down there, a monster crab attacks, and Clark escapes briefly to rescue them as Superman. But one of his super-punches accidentally knocks a hole in the ocean floor, below which is – a glass-domed city! But the force of Superman’s blow has cracked the dome. So Superman pulls the bathysphere inside after him, and he seals up the crack from the inside.

He quick-changes back into Kent and slips inside, so that all three explorers can share the mystery as … they are escorted under guard from the capsule and taken, as invaders, before Queen Paralea.

Lois is amazed at the inhabitants’ appearance. “Look at all those magnificent men! Everyone of them as handsome as Superman! (sigh)”

However, along with this hypermasculinity appears to come hyperaggressiveness (extra Y chromosome, anyone?) Some guy named Hajar is leading a revolt against the Queen, who is in dutch with some of the population over her “democratic ways.”

Interestingly, Queen Paralea seems to have a taste for milquetoast, as Clark’s meek and mild ways seem more charming than all those he-man brutes surrounding her.

When Hajar’s men begin their revolt and Superman appears to save the day, Paralea at first assumes that her wonderful Clark must have thwarted the bad guys. No, Lois assures her, it was the mighty Superman, who now conveniently presents himself for introductions. But even Superman can’t hold a candle to Clark in the Queen’s eyes: “He still doesn’t NEARLY measure up to Clark. Now Clark’s the man I’d REALLY marry – if he’d have me!”

Thus, an engagement is made, much to Lois’s chagrin – “I just can’t imagine what Clark sees in that goo-goo-eyed blonde!”

But it isn’t a stripper who climbs out of the three-story birthday cake at the wedding. No, it’s Hajar’s men, itching for the final showdown. Superman mops up the bad guys, while afterwards the Queen is happy that her meek-and-mild Clark is unhurt.

And it’s for this reason, she announces, that she must call the wedding off. The royal life in Atlantis is much too dangerous for a sweet guy like Clark. “I must sacrifice my feelings and call off this marriage FOR YOUR SAKE!” *sigh*

Well, friends, Atlantis was only our first stop in our whirlwind vacations across our world and beyond. Come join me next time and I’ll tell you about a strange world whose folk had a funny way of showing affection for my Super-Pal. Or am I being too “cagey”?
See you some time next week!

Superman and I Are Going on Vacation

STAR TREK Newspaper Strip, 10 -- The End of the Story

Here are the last five panels of the STAR TREK newspaper strip story from 1980. We learn the fate of Anton Zauber, and end with a bit of the old knight-takes-rook.

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STAR TREK Newspaper Strip, 9

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Drat those laser scalpels!

STAR TREK Newspaper Comics, 8

Only two more instalments after this one!

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STAR TREK Newspaper Comics, 7

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The dark-haired gal is Dr Chapel, and the "blonde" is Rand, if you could not tell. Also, check out the classic Kirkian hand gestures in the last of these five strips. Kirk is either symbolically asking the universe for help in ... GRASPING ... the correct ANSWER ... tothisdilemma.

Or, perhaps, the hand dryer in the bridge potty didn't finish its job.

STAR TREK Newspaper Comics, 6

By now we can tell that Joann (ex-Mccoy) Zauber is "torn between two lovers," as the song went.

We can guess that if McCoy's (ex)wife is named Joanna, then that's why he would have named his daughter "Joanna."

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STAR TREK Newspaper Comics, 5

They continued the use of the diagnostic bed from STTMP, you notice. Also, compare the faces of McCoy in the first strip with his image in the second strip. I suppose the artist had more reference art for close-ups than for medium shots.

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STAR TREK Newspaper Comics, 4

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You would think that if McCoy had some "Starfleet patents," then Starfleet would get the royalties, huh? Work-for-hire and all that.

STAR TREK Newspaper Comics, 3

I left space for what seems like a missing date at the top of this one.

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STAR TREK Newspaper Comics, 2

I've left a blank space where the "missing" strip would go. I'm not 100% sure whether this was a 6-day or 7-day strip, or what. Mom never cut out and sent me any Sunday "big" strips, so if there were any, they weren't carried by the Tulsa World.

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STAR TREK Newspaper Comics, 1

Here are some STAR TREK newspaper comics from March 1980 and forward. I've grouped them into 5-day conglomerations.

Instead of reading a strip per day, you can read almost a week's worth at once!

Since our local OKC papers didn't carry the strip, my mom actually cut out each day's strip from the Tulsa World, and saved it for me. Isn't that a Mother's love?

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STAR TREK IV Promo Flyer

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Chart Trek, and No More Best of Treks

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I was "fascinated" in December 1994 when I bought this book.

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In 1991 I had sent in this article, and heard nothing back from editors Irwin & Love.

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So it was an interesting experience to see this book on the shelf at Waldenbooks, buy it, and then read my article.

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I hadn't been paid!

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I got no responses from the address I had for Irwin & Love.

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So I wrote to the legal department at Penguin, and at last I received a $75 check.

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Needless to say, that was the last of my doings with Messrs Irwin & Love.

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Then the larger trade paperbacks labeled The Best of the Best of Trek 1 and 2, they reprinted a couple of my articles, but as far as I know, phht! that was the end of The Best of Trek paperback series.

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About Star Trek V ...

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In 1991, The Best of Trek #15 came out, with this article I wrote about STV: The Final Frontier.

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I am proud of the title, you know. I think it's a pretty true observation.

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What do you think?

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