Thursday, May 5, 2022

RAR #59: CHIEF THUNDERCLOUD

 In issue #83 of THE MARVEL FAMILY, the three Marvels contend with the ghost of ancient Indian Chief Thundercloud, who actually manifests as-- a big old cloud with a feather-headdress.





RAR #58: PALO

 



"Palo" was, for the first two issues of KEY COMICS, the sidekick of a white-guy adventurer named Jeffrey Quick. The title of the feature was "The Key" not because that was the name of the main hero, but because Quick carried around a heavy key on a chain, with which he, uh-- fought crime? I think something was said about Palo's tribe giving Quick custody of the possibly magical key, though it didn't actually do anything. Quick seemed to think he could sense crooks with the aid of the key, and he could throw it so that the chain looped around the neck of an adversary, and-- stopped him cold? The most one can say about Palo is that his broken English is overshadowed by the sheer dumbness of this concept. Apparently the editors realized after two issues what a dopey idea this was, since for the last three issues of KEY COMICS, Palo disappeared and Quick just narrated weird stories that involved keys. A textbook example of a publisher trying to come up with a novel idea but not thinking about whether or not it had any intrinsic appeal, even to undiscriminating kids.