MONSTER MASHUPS #159

 Here lie the feminine fear-figures of MONSTER MARRIAGE SHOP, starting with --

URURU THE WEREWOLF.

ROBIN THE HARPY.

HARNIS THE SUCCUBUS,

CAMILLA THE VAMPIRE.

MEISA THE GORGON.

YUKO THE UNICORN.

KANAME THE AKANAME (scum-sucking demon)

ARK THE SELKIE.

SARA THE SALAMANDER and EYERENE THE CYCLOPS. 

BAPHOMET THE DEMON.

RAR #102/103: BLACKHAND AND RUNNNG DOG

 TIM HOLT #39 brings back an Evil Indian trope not much seen since colonial days: the cannibal Indian. Blackhand plots to devour hero Red Mask and four famous westerners in the belief that he'll gain the supernatural power he needs to beat the Whites.

The negatively named Running Dog devises a giant rattle filled with rocks in TH #41, into which he places victims-- and then it's "shake, rattle and pulverize."

 

 

  

CROSSOVER MADNESS

RED MASK unites with four famed westerners-- Jesse James, Billy the Kid, Grat Dalton and Wild Bill Hickock-- to battle a common threat in a mere six pages.

 

MINING POLITICAL MINEFIELDS

 For whatever reasons, I've never encountered the word "systemic" in any context but its current political meaning. So I was intrigued to learn, courtesy of Rachel Carson's 1962 SILENT SPRING, that it also had a biological connotation:

What makes an insecticide a systemic is its ability to permeate all the tissues of a plant or animal and make them toxic. -- Chapter 3

I know that the term "institutional racism" dates back to 1967, but a quick online search does not say when "systemic racism" came into vogue. I have no reason to think that the coiner of the term knew of the biological association, but it would be appropriate given the portrait of "whiteness" by authors like Kendi and Higginbotham is one of irredeemable toxicity. That amply explains why the "anti-racists" think it's OK to stigmatize white people even if they've committed no specific sins against POC, because they've all absorbed, as by cultural osmosis, the toxic nature of racists-- though the same authors would rage against "typing" POC by their cultures.

CROSSOVER MADNESS

 

RETURN OF THE BAD MEN is an efficient B-western in which one of Randolph Scott's usual stolid heroes is forced to contend with a gang of famous outlaws, including several who never knew one another in history: the Daltons, Bill Doolin, Billy the Kid (a very brief appearance), the Youngers, three bandits I'd never heard of, and the standout Sundance Kid, portrayed by Robert Ryan as a cruel sociopath. Anne Jeffreys plays a fictional lady outlaw, niece of Bill Doolin, and when she's challenged for being in a man's business, she name-checks Belle Starr as her model. This was a loose sequel to another outlaw-teamup, BADMAN'S TERRITORY, which I have not been able to re-screen yet.  

RAR 101: SANCHO THE YAQUI

 I've only read the opening of the Mex-western "Yaqui Gold" (CHAMPION COMICS #3, 1940), but probable sidekick Sancho makes a forceful debut. ADDENDUM: This ongoing serial petered out in three episodes, as if the author was told by his editor to wrap things up, in order to make room for a new feature. The muddled ending states Sancho's not just a sidekick, but "The Black Panther," the ruler of a new Aztec rebellion, albeit one that never gets started. He covets the lead White girl for a potential bride, but she doesn't accept him or the lead White suitor either-- which is so atypical an ending that I think the author meant to elaborate some more involved plot and was forced to just throw up his hands and whip together the existing conclusion.         

RAR 100: APACHE CHIEF

 APACHE CHIEF is technically the first RA superhero to join any version of the Justice League.