Up next is the gorgeous vixen Tasmia Mallor, the indigo-hued Super Heroine Shadow Lass.
I have to say that initially, she really didn’t stick out in any way for me, in fact, Tasmia didn’t appear in too many of the early Legion Of Super Hero issues I had growing up.
I actually only started appreciating her character in the 1989 LEGION OF SUPER HEROES revamp. In this she was portrayed as a stoic type, sort of councilwoman “planetary protector”. It was this version that I started accepting as the “real” version, which led to me being completely BLOWN AWAY by how sultry and sexy she was during the old Mike Grell run (when I took the time to bring out those musty old issues.)
You see, the 1989 LEGION run was supposed to be in the future of the original Legion of Super-Heroes, and all the members are shown as older, grown up people. Seeing Tasmia as a young, hot chick after seeing her motherly for so long… WELL! I became an instant fan!
You know, I’ve always thought that Shady’s costume looked an awful lot like Vampirella’s for some reason…Same bathing-suit with the tummy part cut out, and the fancy insignia on the belly button area.
First appearance Adventure Comics #365
Created by Jim Shooter & Curt Swan
I don’t really remember too much about The Enchantress growing up. She didn’t make too many appearances in the so-called “bronze age”, at least in the comics I was reading at the time.
The first time I actually took notice of her was in the Jackson Guice pencilled Dr. Strange, and man, after that I was constantly vigil about noting whenever she was in any issues I read!
As I slowly started building my back-issue library of the Marvel Comics Silver age, I was actually kind of surprised at how often she appeared in key issues. My first assumption of her was the sassy and sexy gal in Dr. Strange, so I had no idea she was such an established and respected villain in the Marvel Pantheon!
While I loved Jack Kirby and John Buscema’s depictions of Ms. Amora Incantare, it wasn’t until I finally completed my Avengers collection that I discovered the “golden era” of The Enchantress. I’m talking the Avengers run from about issue #9-30 or so.
In those early Avengers issues, the only “feminine touch” the group had was the Wasp. And not to knock on Jan too much, but she really never struck me as the sultry type. She was firmly set as the wife to Henry Pym, (yeah, yeah, I know, they weren’t married at that point, but you get my meaning) and that left a space to fill for an “alluring” female character.
Enter The Enchantress! As a member of Baron Zemo’s Masters of Evil, she was hands down the sexiest and most intriguing character in the strip, and would continue to dominate that role until Wanda joined the ranks in issue #16.
Back then, The Enchantress (and her right-hand man The Executioner) appeared in so many issues, it was almost like they were co-stars of the book! And hey, there were no complaints from me! If there was one thing illustrator Don Heck could do, it was draw exotic girls, and his interpretation of Amora just has to be the DEFINITIVE version in my book- In fact, the illustration above (the far right head shot) is probably my very favorite drawing of The Enchantress, ever! Don’s take infused shades of Veronica Lake into Jack Kirby’s creation, and to me it was the perfect amalgam.
Of course, once Wanda joined, there were TWO exotic chicks Don Heck had to draw, and those stories that featured both the Scarlet Witch AND the Enchantress were just as good as it gets!
The Enchantress
First Appearance: Journey into Mystery #103
By Stan Lee & Jack Kirby
Favorite Artists:
Don Heck
John Buscema
Jack Kirby
Jackson Guice (!)
My first exposure to Black Canary was during the Alex Savuik / Mike Grell art run of Green Lantern / Green Arrow, and one of my first memories of seeing Dinah Lance out of costume was of her trying to down some of Ollie’s hot chili recipes- tears are streaming down her cheeks as she gasps something like “Best paint-remover I ever tasted!” Ahahahhha! I remember thinking, “Wow, Her hair’s BLACK! Nice!”
Another memory I have of Black Canary being particularly alluring was in some old issue of I think the BRAVE AND THE BOLD that my friend had because he liked BATMAN. In this issue, Bats and Dinah teamed up to fight the Penguin, at some point, Black Canary gets captured, the baddies strip her down to her bra and panties(!) and tie her up to a chair. I remember later telling my friend that I had to pick up that issue, and he laughed and said, “Ahhh, you only want it ‘cause Black Canary’s in her underwear!”
Well….it was true, but in the end, the issue had already sold out and I never got a copy for myself, otherwise it’s probably a good bet that a scan from that comic woulda been posted here!
12/08 Edit: Okay, found that issue and here's that memorable scene with Black Canary I was talking about...
When I would see her in the pages of the newly revamped JUSTICE LEAGUE, my mind NEVER accepted the girl wearing that costume as the SAME Canary I grew up with. Uh-Uh! So you can guess how happily ecstatic I was when I saw this awesome Brian Bolland cover when Action Comics #609 came out:
YES!!! As Black Canary kicked off a new solo adventure story, the first thing writer Sharon Wright did was have Dinah LITERALLY throw the blue spandex costume in the incinerator, much to the chagrin of Ollie, who mutters, “You’re lucky I didn’t succumb to toxic fumes!”
Black Canary
First Appearance Flash Comics #86 by Robert Kanigher and Carmine Infantino.
Favorite Artists: Neal Adams, Mike Grell, Alex Savuik
They say clothes make the person, and if it truly does, that would go a long way in explaining why I thought one-time Tony Stark fiance Whitney Frost was so darn sexy! I mean, as Madame Masque, she kept her identity under a golden mask (to cover up a scarred face) all the time, so you would think there wasn’t much to go on, attractive-wise, but as for the rest of her body, man, could that woman accessorize! Whitney always wore the sexiest and most fashionable outfits, which always made her look cute and fun despite her metallic features, and there was even this memorable scene (for me) where they showed her getting up in the middle of the night wearing a sexy negligee! That golden mask never looked better!
Unfortunately for Tony and Whitney, it all came to a head in the awesome IRON MAN issues #115-116 where Whitney betrays Tony to save her dying father, the villainous Count Nefaria. It really bummed me out to see her leave the strip, because I think that John Romita Jr.’s pencils in these two issues have her looking the best she’s ever looked in any of her appearances!
I was so intrigued by the mystery of Whitney’s hidden face that for years I tried in vain to dig up her “origin”, but back in the days before the internet, it really was hard to find information about comics, and the more obscure they were, the more impossible! Your only real chance to find backgrounds on older strips were the Marvel Origin Books like "Origins", "Son Of Origins" "The Super Hero Women" and "Bring On The Bad Guys" But these series were pretty selective and only covered (more or less) the basics. So if you didn’t know someone who already knew her origin or had the key issues, you were outta luck. And back then, there wasn’t a whole lotta people interested in Madame Masque.
Turns out there’s kind of this long and convoluted history to Madame Masque. Although her “first appearance” was in Iron Man #17 as an associate of Midas, she first FIRST appeared (in the “flesh”, i.e.: no golden mask) as Whitney Frost in Tales of Suspense, then was revealed as the Big M, the daughter of Avengers and X-Men baddie Count Nefaria. Then she finally appeared in the Midas back story as Madame Masque before turning up (in disguise) as secretary Krissy Longfellow, and FINALLY revealing herself as the Madame Masque we know and love...
This was all overwhelming to me, as the first time I laid eyes on her, all she was to me was a gun-totin’ hottie with a killer bod who just happened to have a golden mask for a face. And since those issues had both Tony Stark AND Jasper Sitwell fighting over her, it seemed a lot of people agreed! This, in my opinion, is THE definitive version of Whitney, from her first reappearance in Iron Man #103 to her tearful departure in at the end of Iron Man #116.
When she eventually returned in IRON MAN #139, I have to admit I was pretty disappointed with her depiction; she’d clearly been delegated to a second story villainess, and emotionally she’d gone to that crazy place all Tony’s ex-fiances tend to go (see: Marianne Rodgers), and all her subsequent stories just haven’t “done it” for me, either. Sigh.
Oh, and I grew up pronouncing Whitney's name as Madame mas- KAYE (you know, like risque...)
Took me a while before I realized it was more or less just a variation of the word "Mask"... D'oh!
Madame Masque
First Appearance : Iron Man #17
by Archie Goodwin and George Tuska
Favorite Artists:
George Tuska
John Romita Jr.
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supervixens!@greyvictory
When I was growing up, my favorite stories to read were the ones centered around animals, whether it be Charlotte’s Web, Ribsy, Dominic or The Cricket In Times Square. Whenever there was a story featuring funny animal cartoons, that also was immediately snatched up.
One day a 7 year old me wandered into the neighborhood KRESS store. I would frequently browse through the store’s toy section and then hang out at the magazine rack reading the coloring books and other kid books there, usually ones like Tom and Jerry and Bugs Bunny. This time, I spied a new kid’s book at the rack featuring a new character I’d never heard of called Top Cat. I picked it up, and began reading the story “Top Cat: Candidate For Mayor” right there on the tiled floor. It featured Top Cat and his cohorts, a mismash of colorful cats with intriguing names like “Spook” “Choo-Choo” and “Fancy-Fancy”.
I totally DUG the characters, and ran home to fetch the change I'd saved in the top drawer of my dresser. The book cost about 42¢ in all, probably the best 42¢ I spent for all the times I read and re-read that storybook over the years. In fact, it is one of the few children’s books that I managed to hang onto all these years (most books I loved as a kid were lost or thrown out years ago and had to be re-purchased through ebay and whatnot) and the scans you see above and below are indeed from the original book I bought oh so many years ago.
So I loved the storybook I had about Top Cat, but that’s about where my mania ended, for the Top Cat show was NOT a show that was airing anywhere on television at the time. I was only vaguely aware that it WAS a show since it was being sold alongside other Hanna-Barbera books like Flintstones and the Jetsons. I would flip through the TV Guide every so often, hoping to see that they’d start airing the show here, but to no avail. When Hanna Barbera released a TV show comprised of classic characters for a series called Laff-A-Lypics, I remember watching in hopes that they’d bring Top Cat and his gang onto the show, but if they did, I never saw them. Eventually I put the book away, and there Top Cat remained, regaled to be no more than a beloved storybook character.
In the mid-eighties, this wonderful record series released by TeeVee Tunes came out. Dubbed “Television’s Greatest Hits!”, these double record sets featured themes songs of classic TV shows! I bought these mainly because they had fave TV theme songs of mine like “Love American Style” and “The Courtship Of Eddie’s Father”, not to mention the greats like “Mary Tyler Moore” and “My Favorite Martian”…
I’d sit there and listen to the song, and the first thing that hits you is the style and vocals of the song, you can clearly tell this came out during the golden era of Hanna- Barbera because it sounded so much like the theme for The Flintstones. It was also pretty catchy! A new facet of the show was grooved into what little I knew about the Top Cat Show, and that song became one of the more-played tracks on that side!
OK, that was that, though. Now we move right up to present day. One day I’m flipping around the TV schedule because I felt like watching some “Good Times” on Nick at Night. Scanning the bars of the program guide, I see this channel called “Boomerang”, and it’s line-up consists of older classic Kids Cartoons. Then right there at 10:00 that night, I see the show “Top Cat” listed! Wow! So I FINALLY get to see the show that’d been a mystery to me practically my whole life!
The show started with the blaring horns of the Top Cat theme song that I’d gotten to know so well over the years, and it was a real treat to actually see Top Cat moving for the first time! I only wished the other cats were in the credits as well. Then the show started, and...well, where to start ?!
Reading a book and looking at pictures of Top Cat and his “Intellectual Close Friends” is one thing, but MAN, actually HEARING THE VOICES along with the images…these voices really MADE the characters. In fact, I’d wager that until I’d heard the voices, I didn’t understand the characters at all, they provided so much in the way of “completing” the overall character.
I’d pictured your generic cartoon voices for the show, but these REALLY had the feel of those old sixties TV shows, and I’d later learn that, like the Flintstones was based on the Honeymooners, Top Cat was based on real TV show Sgt. Bilko! It took me a while to get used to hearing the voices, but once I settled in, It was the best thing about the show- these voice actors were the real deal, pros who knew how to use their talents to really bring the characters to life.
First off of course was Top Cat. With his Phil Silvers styled voice, he immediately became the shyster and con-artist he was supposed to be! Voiced by Arnold Stang, every line of dialog was like poetry to listen to- Top Cat really became the smooth talker he was!
The voices attached to the other cats in the gang really “fleshed out” the personalities as well. Reading my childhood book, they were merely members of Top Cat’s “gang”, but with distinct voices attached to them, they developed into cool individual characters with identifiable traits.
Spook had sort of a beatnik demeanor, usually peppering his dialog with “That’s like, outta sight, man!” slang and, along with Fancy Fancy (who seemed to be channeling Cary Grant somehow), were the “normal” cats, usually depicted hanging out or wooing some Gal Cats until T.C. calls them in, and it always made me laugh to think that they were so loyal to Top Cat that they’d drop a romantic interest in a second if he beckoned.
Choo-Choo is another one whom I just love hearing talk. Choo Choo’s got one of those traditional Hanna Barbera voices, slightly dippy and lispy, but so animate that almost every line he says is hilarious! Choo Choo's voice was provided by Marvin Kaplan, famous as Henry the Telephone Repairman on ALICE.
One thing that shocked me was that the character of Brain. I guess his name was supposed to be a joke of sorts as he’s the most clueless of the gang, but whoever wrote "Candidate for Mayor" must have took his character at face value, because in that story, he was really written as the “brains” of the outfit! So it was a bit of adjusting for me to see him as such a space case!
And then there’s Benny, probably my favorite character in the show. Reading the book as a kid, I couldn’t have imagined him with such a Joe E. Ross type of voice, but once I heard Benny as voiced by Maurice Gosfield, I knew that that was the only way he could have sounded! With his raspy voice and Barney Rubble-ish naivete, every scene he’s in is a joy to watch. Someone uploaded a short clip that I think captures Benny pretty well- The unsure right hand man who nonetheless totally trusts Top Cat no matter what the situation.
Checking up on the stats of the Top Cat show, I was shocked to discover that Top Cat had only a one season run of 30 episodes! Heck, no WONDER I never got a chance to see this show when I was growing up…in the annals of Hanna Barbera, the series practically made a nosh in the HB canon.
But I’ll ultimately tell you one thing that I’m positive of: If Top Cat HAD been on the air when I was growing up, there is no doubt in my mind that this would have been my favorite Saturday Morning Cartoon. This show REALLY delivers, lovable characters and terrific storylines, all made during the heyday of Hanna Barbera when they absolutely could do no wrong! This show is as great as I’d imagined it would be my whole life!
I’ve also discovered that TOP CAT had gotten the DVD treatment some time ago, and I'm moseying my way over to Amazon to grab that DVD box set while it’s still available! But until then, I’m gonna keep tuning in every night to Boomerang at 10:00 to enjoy what I’d waited to see for almost 35 years!
More Twelve Inch goodness from Peter Murphy, the man who, along with Tones-On-Tail (later: Love and Rockets) created the dramatic Bauhaus. These are a few of my favorite discs of Peter's years before he broke out with songs like "Cuts You Up" and the like.
2.Final Solution
While we’re on the subject of 80’s groups, there was this terrific locally-based band called Hat Makes The Man that me and my friends just loved. The band had a regular gig at Waikiki club Wave Waikiki that we checked out every weekend, but the group would pop up in other places too, and the bunch of us always made an attempt to see them wherever they happened to play. Merchant Street Block Party? Check! Mid-Pac Carnival? We’re there! Pearlridge Shopping Center Centerstage? Yep! We went to that one, too!
But it was the Wave Waikiki gigs that we remembered the fondest- I remember, we’d sit outside before the club opened, and listen to Hat Makes The Man rehearsing inside. The great thing about that was that you’d hear the group playing songs they never did in their onstage repertoire, and I distinctively remember hearing them doing “Teenage Lobotomy” by the Ramones in their practice sessions, and wishing they’d do it in their set!
Between the years 1984 and 1985 they managed to release two terrific albums, one their self-titled debut “Hat Makes The Man”, and a live album featuring new songs called “Searching…For The Fertile Fields”. The former was only available as a cassette at the time, although they did release “Fertile Fields” on Vinyl.
At some point, the band moved up to the “mainland” to try their luck, until, eventually, each member went onto different projects, most notably drummer Frank Quimby Orral with Poi Dog Pondering… ( a group that almost seems like a continuation of HMTM; several other Hat members have helped on some of the early releases, and heck, the first album even featured different versions of Hat songs!)
Marti Nica Kerton (vocals, percussion, violin)
Byron Lai (lead guitar)
Frank Quimby Orrall (vocals, drums)
Peter Bond (vocals, rhythm guitar)
Matthew Harlan Miller (bass guitar)
I recently picked up this nifty little contraption that can rip vinyl albums into MP3 files, a must if you're gonna be listening to music in you car, walking around, etc... and immediately set about deciding where to start converting all those glorious albums in my collection that never made it to CD for one reason or another.
Rummaging around through my old 12" dance singles, I came upon my collection of Vicious Pink records. Vicious Pink! Why, I hadn't thought of them in YEARS, and yet, once upon a time they were sandwiched right up there with Stephen "Tin Tin" Duffy and Book of Love for most played records of the day!
I believe the album versions of these songs may have been released on disc at some point, but to my knowledge, I never saw anything released on CD regarding these dance versions (the only TRUE versions, BTW!, at least in MY opinion!)
Thought some of you might enjoy taking a trip back with Josephine Warden and Brian Moss, the dynamic duo VICIOUS PINK!
Jean Grey, telekenetic mutant,founding member of the original X-Men, and sporter of not one but TWO of my favorite super-heroine costumes! First Up; Marvel Girl!
Okay, at first glance, Jean Grey’s outfit seems to be nothing more than a green dress with yellow gloves and boots.Then looking closer, you realize…Yep, It’s a dress, alright!
So why do I love this costume so much?!
I don’t know, but I WILL say that in the era where Sue Storm was wearing the same outfit as Reed Richards and Wanda Frank & Janet Van Dyne were wearing one-piece bodysuits, Jean’s dress outfit was positively original and sexy!
I know that a lot of people had an aversion to the new costumes of the Original X-Men, especially John Byrne ,who seemed to be obsessed with the original outfits (Kitty Pryde and later Jean in the Hidden Years reflect this) and Neal Adams, who quickly changed the Angel’s Yellow ‘n’ Suspenders look to a more sleek style, but hey, one of the first classic comics I read was Avengers #53, and John Buscema’s depiction of the X-Men will always be THE defining look of the group.
One of the first 12¢ comic back issues I bought was Issue #39, which of course, featured the X-Men for the first time in their “new” outfits, as illustrated by Don Heck and Werner Roth, but it wasn’t til my friend James got this hardcover book published by Grandreams which reprinted the Neal Adams Sentinels stories that I really fell in love with Jean’s Marvel Girl outfit. He really made her look terrific in that dress!
For some reason, the green Marvel Girl outfit is one of the things that IMHO Byrne didn’t seem to care much for , and as I’d mentioned before, he couldn’t wait to find a reason to get her out of the green dress and back into the yellow and black suit in The Hidden Years strip. But that’s okay, because she gave the costume to Candy Southern to wear, and my didn’t she look nice in it!
Up Next: Phoenix!
The Mighty Dave Cockrum strikes again with this totally awesome outfit, one of my favorite designs, and I don’t care that he designed practically the same identical suit for Ms. Marvel… In fact, that costume is gonna show up any time now on this list!
Man, I just love this outfit, and it only got better when Byrne took over! Funny thing, one big difference in the way the two artists depicted the costume for me was that in Cockrum’s drawings, the green part of her costume always seemed like cotton material, for some reason, with leather boots and gloves, whereas Byrne’s illustrations always looked completely slick, like some kind of cosmic latex!
And another thing I mentioned before, John Byrne just loved drawing girls in pretty clothes, and Jean was no exception- in fact, he really draped Ms. Grey in some wonderful outfits over the years, but my favorite has to be the green off-shoulder dress she’s wearing in Uncanny X-Men #114. Just so damn pretty!
Call me stubborn (yes) and hard headed (yep, yep), but as far as I’m concerned, the Jean Grey that we knew and loved has passed away, and I refuse to subscribe to any of those revisionist storylines that sprout up regularly like evil baobabs seeking to invade and destroy my planet! Argggh…
Jean went out in a thoughtful, unselfish and poignant way, and that’s how I want to remember her.
Jean Grey:
First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #1 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Jean Grey:
First Appearance: X-Men #1 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
First Appearance in new Marvel Girl Costume:
X-Men #39 by Roy Thomas and Don Heck
Favorite Artists:
Werner Roth (X-Men 48,49)
John Buscema (Avengers #53)
Neal Adams (X-Men #56-65)
First Appearance in Phoenix Costume:
Uncanny X-Men #101 by Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum
Favorite Artists:
Dave Cockrum and John Byrne
This is part of an ongoing series spotlighting my favorite Comic Book Super-Heroines.
If you would like to view past entries, please visit the Archives at:
supervixens!@greyvictory
The Blue-Nosed Witch by Margaret Embry
Illustrated by Carl Rose
Well, here's the story of a little witch named Blanche who is constantly getting into trouble because of her youth and carefree attitude (re: always arriving late for the meetings). She belongs to an order of responsible, adult witches, and is only a member because of her ability to turn her blue nose on and off!
The Tale begins on the eve of Halloween Night, where the witches have big plans to perform a flight formation later that night. Afraid of being late, Blanche sets her alarm clock extra-early, and, ends up flying out much, much too early for the coven meeting. She meets up with children her own age who teach the young witch how to have fun trick-or-treating on Halloween Night!
I first read Margaret Embry's story of Blanche The Blue Nosed Witch in a "Collier's Junior Classics" Collection entitled "Harvest Of Holidays". I was completely taken in by the imaginative story and the characters you immediately fall in love with. It also has a timeless quality to it that all great stories seem to have: a "Once-upon-a-Time" feeling.
One day browsing the neighborhood Library I came across a bound library copy of The Blue Nosed Witch. As a child it never crossed my mind that the story might have been excerpted from an actual book! Quickly leafing through the pages I discovered to my surprise and excitement that the version I had read in the Collier's Junior Classic series was only an abridged excerpt of a longer, more detail story! Quickly leafing through the pages, I found a complete story chock-full of beautiful illustrations by Carl Rose on almost every page. Oh, the Joy!
Whereas the Collier's version had Blanche getting up to early for the Witches' Meeting and meeting up with kids who take her to one house for treats, in the actual book, Blanche and the kids go on to many more houses and have a few adventures on the way as well! Then when the kids decide it's getting late and go home, Blanche roams around by herself (and her cat Brockett) before realizing that because of all her adventures, she's going to end up being late for the Coven meeting, after all!!
This wonderful story has become a tradition for me and must be taken out every Halloween. I believe this book belongs in company of Charles Shulz' classic cartoon "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" and Robert Bright's "Georgie's Halloween" as essential Halloween Treats!
