{"id":32528,"date":"2025-03-31T17:02:38","date_gmt":"2025-03-31T17:02:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=32528"},"modified":"2025-03-31T17:02:38","modified_gmt":"2025-03-31T17:02:38","slug":"bob-powells-complete-cave-girl-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2025\/03\/31\/bob-powells-complete-cave-girl-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Bob Powell\u2019s Complete Cave Girl"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Gardner Fox<\/strong> & Bob Powell<\/strong>, with James Vance<\/strong>, John Wooley<\/strong>, Mark Schultz<\/strong> & various (Kitchen Sink\/Dark Horse Books)
\nISBN: 978-1-61655-700-3 (HB\/Digital edition)<\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> produced in less enlightened times<\/em><\/p>\n

Like every art form, comics can be readily divided into masterpieces and populist pap, but that damning assessment necessarily comes with a bunch of exclusions and codicils. Periodical publications, like pop songs, movies and the entirety of television\u2019s output (barring schools programming), are designed to sell to masses of consumers. As such the product must reflect the target and society at a specific moment in time and perforce quickly adapt and change with every variation in taste or fashion.<\/p>\n

The situation is most especially true of comics – especially those created before they had won any kind of credibility: primarily deemed by their creators and publishers as a means of parting youngsters from disposable cash. The fact that so many have been found to possess redeeming literary and artistic merit or social worth is post hoc rationalisation. Those creators striving for better, doing the very best they could because of their inner artistic drives, were being rewarded with just as meagre a financial reward as the shmoes just phoning it in for the paycheck. That sad state of affairs in periodical publication wasn\u2019t helped by the fact that most editors thought they knew what the readership wanted – safe, prurient gratification – and mostly they were right.<\/p>\n

Even so, from such swamps gems occasionally emerged…<\/p>\n

The entire genre of \u201cJungle Girls\u201d is one fraught with perils for modern readers. Barely clad, unattainable, (generally) white paragons of feminine pulchritude lording it over superstitious primitives is one that is now pretty hard to digest for most of us hairless apes, but frankly so are most of the attitudes of our grandfathers\u2019 time.<\/p>\n

However, ways can be found to accommodate such crystallised or outdated attitudes, especially when reading from a suitably detached historical perspective and even more so when the art is crafted by a master storyteller like Bob Powell. After all, it\u2019s not that big a jump from fictionalised 1950s forests to today\u2019s filmic metropolises where leather armoured (generally white) Adonises with godlike power paternalistically watch over us, telling us lumpy, dumpy, ethnically mixed losers how to live and be happy…<\/p>\n

Sorry, I love all comics in all genres from all eras, but sometimes the Guilty Pleasure meter on my conscience just redlines and I can\u2019t stop it. Just remember, it\u2019s not real…<\/p>\n

As businessmen or employees of such, editors and publishers always knew what hormonal kids wanted to see and they gave it to them. It\u2019s no different today. Just take a look at any comic shop shelf or cover listings site and see how many fully-clad, small-breasted females you can spot. And how many equivalent male inamoratii there aren\u2019t..<\/p>\n

Cave Girl<\/strong> was one of the last entries of the surprisingly long-lived Jungle Queen genre and consequently looks relatively mild in comparison to other titles as regards suggestive or prurient titillation. Here the action-adventure side of the equation was always most heavily stressed and readers of the time could see far more salacious material at every movie house if they needed to. And the pages were so damn well drawn…<\/p>\n

End of self-gratifying apologies. Let\u2019s talk about Bob.<\/p>\n

Stanley Robert Pawlowski was born in 1916 in Buffalo, New York, and studied at the Pratt Institute in Manhattan before joining one of the earliest comics-packaging outfits: the Eisner-Iger Shop. He was a solid and dependable staple of American comic books\u2019 Golden Age, illustrating a variety of key features. He drew original Jungle Queen Sheena <\/strong>in Jumbo Comics<\/strong> plus other JG featurettes and Spirit of \u201976<\/strong> for Harvey\u2019s Pocket Comics<\/strong>. He handled assorted material for Timely titles such as Captain America<\/strong> in All-Winners Comics<\/strong>, Tough Kid Comics<\/strong> plus such genre material as Gale Allen and the Women\u2019s Space Battalion<\/strong> for anthologies like Planet Comics<\/strong>, Mystery Men Comics<\/strong> and Wonder Comics<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Bob was recently revealed to have co-scripted\/created Blackhawk<\/strong> as well as drawing Loops and Banks<\/em> in Military Comics<\/strong>, as well as so many more now near-forgotten strips: all under a variety of English-sounding pseudonyms, since the tone of the times was rather unforgiving for creative people of minority origins. Eventually the artist settled on S. Bob Powell and had his name legally changed…<\/p>\n

Probably his most well-remembered and highly regarded tour of duty was on Mr. Mystic<\/strong> in Will Eisner\u2019s Spirit<\/strong> Section<\/strong> newspaper insert. After serving in WWII, Bob came home and quit to set up his own studio. Eisner never forgave him. Powell – with his assistants Howard Nostrand, Martin Epp & George Siefringer – swiftly established a solid reputation for quality, versatility and reliability: working for Fawcett (Vic Torry & His Flying Saucer<\/strong>, Hot Rod Comics<\/strong>, Lash Larue<\/strong>), Harvey Comics (Man in Black<\/strong>, Adventures in 3-D <\/strong>and True 3-D<\/strong>) and on Street and Smith\u2019s Shadow Comics<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

He was particularly prolific in many titles for Magazine Enterprises (ME), including early TV tie-in Bobby Benson\u2019s B-Bar-B Riders<\/strong>, Red Hawk<\/strong> in Straight Arrow<\/strong>, Jet Powers<\/a> <\/strong> and the short but bombastic run of quasi-superhero Strong Man<\/strong>. Bob easily turned his hand to a vast range of War, Western, Science Fiction, Crime, Comedy and Horror material: consequently generating as by-product some of the best and most glamorous \u201cGood Girl art\u201d of the era (remember, this is pre pornhub and MTV), both in comics and in premiums strip packages for business. In the 1960s he pencilled the infamous Mars Attacks<\/strong> cards, illustrated Bessie Little\u2019s Teena-a-Go-Go<\/strong> and the Bat Masterson<\/strong> newspaper strip, before ending his days drawing Daredevil<\/strong>, Human Torch<\/strong> and Giant-Man<\/strong> for Marvel.<\/p>\n

This captivating compilation gathers all the Cave Girl<\/strong> appearances – written by equally gifted and ubiquitous jobbing scripter Gardner F. Fox – from numerous ME publications.<\/p>\n

The company employed a truly Byzantine method of numbering their comic books so I\u2019ll cite Thun\u2019da <\/strong>#2-6 (1953), Cave Girl<\/strong> #4 (1953-1954) and Africa, Thrilling Land of Mystery<\/strong> #1 (1955) simply for the sake of brevity and completeness, knowing that it makes no real difference to your enjoyment of what\u2019s to come.<\/p>\n

This splendid tome includes a Biography<\/em> of Bob, an incisive Introduction<\/em> from Mark (Xenozoic<\/strong>, Superman: Man of Steel<\/strong>, Prince Valiant<\/strong>) Schultz, and an erudite essay – \u2018King of the Jungle Queens\u2019<\/em>– by James Vance & John Wooley, diligently examining the origins of the subgenre (courtesy of the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, William Henry Hudson\u2019s novel Green Mansions<\/strong> and a slew of B-movies); its development in publishing; the effect of the phenomenon and Powell\u2019s overall contributions to comics in a far more even-handed and informed way than I can manage…
\n\"\"
\nThat done, it\u2019s time to head to an Africa that never existed for action and adventure beyond compare. Cave Girl<\/strong> started as a back-up feature in Thun\u2019da<\/strong> #2: a primeval barbarian saga set in an antediluvian region of the Dark Continent where dinosaurs still lived. In \u2018The Ape God of Kor\u2019<\/em> the mighty primitive encounters a blonde stranger who can speak to birds and beasts, and helps her escape the unwanted attentions of a bestial tyrant. When that\u2019s not enough to deter the monstrous suitor, Thun\u2019da and Cave Girl have no choice but to topple his empire…<\/p>\n

In #3, the wild woman met \u2018The Man Who Served Death!\u2019<\/em> – a criminal from the outer world whose hunger for gold and savage brutality necessitates his urgent removal from the land of the living. Cave Girl\u2019s beloved animal allies are being wantonly slaughtered to appease \u2018The Shadow God of Korchak!\u2019 <\/em>next, forcing the gorgeous guardian of the green to topple the lost kingdom\u2019s debauched queen, after which the tireless champion tackles a trio of sadistic killers from the civilised world in \u2018Death Comes Three Ways!\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

A rather demeaning comedy sidekick debuted in \u2018The Little Man Who Was All There!\u2019<\/em> (Thun\u2019da<\/strong> #6) as pompous \u201cpigmy\u201d (sorry, so sorry!!) bumbler Bobo<\/em> attaches himself to Cave Girl as her protector. From there the forest monarch sprang into her own title, beginning with Cave Girl<\/strong> #11. \u2018The Pool of Life!\u2019<\/em> delved back in time to when a scientific expedition was wiped out, leaving little blonde toddler Carol<\/em> Mantomer<\/em> to fend for herself. Happily, the child was adopted by Kattu the wolf<\/em> and grew tall and strong and mighty…<\/p>\n

The obligatory origin dispensed with, the story proceeds to reveal how two white explorers broach the lost valley and reap their deserved fate after finding a little lake with mystic properties. Time honoured tables are turned when explorer Luke Hardin<\/em> deduces Cave Girl\u2019s true identity and convinces the wild child to come with him to Nairobi and claim her inheritance. Already appalled by the gadgets and morass of humanity in \u2018The City of Terror!\u2019<\/em>, Carol\u2019s decision to leave is cemented by her only living relative\u2019s attempts to murder her for said inheritance…
\n\"\"
\nEn route home, her wild beauty arouses the desires of millionaire hunter Alan Brandon<\/em>, but his forceful pursuit and attempted abduction soon teaches him he has a \u2018Tiger by the Tail!\u2019 <\/em>before, her trek done, Cave Girl traverses high mountains and finds Alan and Luke have been captured by beast-like primitives and faces the \u2018Spears of the Snowmen\u2019<\/em> to save them both.<\/p>\n

Even the usually astoundingly high-quality scripting of veteran Gardner Fox couldn\u2019t do much with the formulaic strictures of this subgenre, but he always tried his best, as in Cave Girl<\/strong> #12 which opened with \u2018The Devil Boat!\u2019<\/em> – a submarine disgorging devious crooks in death-masks intent on plundering archaeological treasures found by Luke. Then when an explorer steals a sacred cache of rubies he learns that even Cave Girl can\u2019t prevent his becoming \u2018Prey of the Headhunters!\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Fantastic fantasy replaces crass commercial concerns as \u2018The Amazon Assassins\u2019<\/em> seeking to expand their empire ravage villages under Cave Girl\u2019s protection. The Women Warriors have no conception of the hornet\u2019s nest they are stirring up…<\/p>\n

Cave Girl<\/strong> #13 took its lead tale from newspaper headlines as the jungle defender clashed with \u2018The Mau Mau Killers!\u2019<\/em> butchering innocents and destabilising the region, after which \u2018Altar of the Axe\u2019<\/em> features the return of those formerly all-conquering Amazons. They believe they can counter their arch-enemy\u2019s prowess with a battalion of war elephants. Their grievous error then seamlessly segues into a battle with escaped convict Buck Maldin<\/em> as \u2018The Jungle Badman\u2019<\/em> who is beaten by Cave Girl but allows greedy buffoon Bobo to claim the reward – and quickly regrets it…<\/p>\n

Powell reached a creative zenith illustrating for Cave Girl<\/strong> #14 (1954), his solid linework and enticing composition augmented by a burst of purely decorative design which made \u2018The Man Who Conquered Death\u2019<\/em> a dramatic tour de force. When a series of murders and resurrections lead Cave Girl to a mad scientist who has found a time machine, she is transformed into an aged crone, but still possesses the force of will to beat the deranged meddler…<\/p>\n

A tad more prosaic, \u2018The Shining Gods\u2019<\/em> sees a rejuvenated Cave Girl (and Luke) stalking thieves swiping tribal relics, only to uncover a Soviet plot to secure Africa\u2019s radium, after which the queen of the jungle is \u201csaved\u201d by well-intentioned rich woman Leona Carter<\/em> and brought back to civilisation. Happily, after poor Carol endures a catalogue of modern mishaps which equate to \u2018Terror in the Town\u2019<\/em>, Cave Girl is allowed to return to her true home…
\n\"\"
\nOfficially the series ended there, but ME had one last issue ready to print and deftly shifted emphasis by re-badging the package as Africa, Thrilling Land of Mystery<\/strong> #1. It appeared in 1955, sporting a Comics Code Authority symbol. Inside, however, was still formulaic but beautifully limned Cave Girl exposing a conniving witch doctor using \u2018The Volcano Fury\u2019<\/em> to fleece natives, restoring \u2018The Lost Juju\u2019<\/em> of the devout Wamboolis before foiling a murderous explorer stealing a million dollar gem, and crushing a potential uprising by taking a fateful ride on \u2018The Doom Boat\u2019<\/em>…<\/p>\n

And then she was gone.<\/p>\n

Like the society it protected from subversion and corruption, the Comics Code Authority frowned on females disporting themselves freely or appearing able to cope without a man, and the next half-decade was one where women were either submissive, domesticated, silly objects of amusement, ornamental prizes or just plain marital manhunters. It would be the 1970s before strong, independent female characters reappeared in comic books…<\/p>\n

Whatever your political leanings or social condition, Cave Girl<\/strong> – taken strictly on her own merits – is one of the mostly beautifully rendered characters in pictorial fiction, and a terrific tribute to the talents of Powell and his team. If you love perfect comics storytelling, of its time, but transcending fashion or trendiness, this is a treasure just waiting to be rediscovered.
\nBob Powell\u2019s Complete Cave Girl<\/em> compilation \u00a9 2014 Kitchen, Lind and Associates LLC. Cave Girl is a trademark of AC Comics, successors in interest to Magazine Enterprises and is used here with permission of AC Comics. Introduction \u00a9 2014 Mark Schultz. \u201cKing of the Jungle Queens\u201d essay \u00a9 2014 James Vance and John Wooley. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Gardner Fox & Bob Powell, with James Vance, John Wooley, Mark Schultz & various (Kitchen Sink\/Dark Horse Books) ISBN: 978-1-61655-700-3 (HB\/Digital edition) This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times Like every art form, comics can be readily divided into masterpieces and populist pap, but that damning assessment necessarily comes with a … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Bob Powell\u2019s Complete Cave Girl”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[191,351,290,239,102,125,225,127,169],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-apes-monkeys","category-dinosaurs","category-drama","category-fantasy","category-humour","category-mystery","category-nostalgia","category-spy-stories"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-8sE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32528"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32535,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32528\/revisions\/32535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}