Here's what I bought off the stands in September, 1973:


Astonishing Tales #21: I unapologetically, unironically love this four-issue run from Isabella and Ayers. I was the perfect target audience. I remember I even did a reel-recorder dramatization of the story!
Avengers #118: Didn't really love the Avengers, but this was the Defenders crossover, so it was a must-buy again this month.
Black Magic #2: Not as disturbing as issue 1, so I bailed on this reprint from here on out. 
Brave & Bold #110: My first chance to see the inexplicably frequent B&B co-star Wildcat. I loved every issue from Haney and Aparo. 
Defenders #11: The wrap-up to the Avengers/Defenders war. I was solidly on Team Defenders. 
Detective #438: Aparo on Batman, and a fine set of reprints featuring major JLA-ers, backed with Simonson's astounding Manhunter. Outstanding value. 
Fear #19: "What new horror is this? It vaguely resembles a duck, but..." Howard's debut cracked me up!
Hulk #171: On a bit of a Trimpe kick at the time, I found this one appealing. Two brutish villains against one brutish hero, fine but trivial entertainment. 
Ka-Zar #1: For some reason I had decided to become a Ka-Zar fan. I don't think it lasted long, but I know I was there for this move to his own series. I read this one again recently in preparation for a jungle comics post; Mike Royer overwhelms Paul Reinman on the art, and I considered that a good thing. 
Marvel Spotlight #13: I thought Herb Trimpe was terrific on this fascinatingly out-there concept for a new superhero. The cover of this one, though...I was getting a bit tired of Romita's ubiquitous cover work.
Marvel Team-Up #16: I bought but never really loved MTU. I do remember really digging Gil Kane's work this issue, and thinking the Basilisk was an awesome design for a new villain. 
Mister Miracle #17: This continued to be a favorite, but I could see that it was weakening. 
Phantom Stranger #28: I continued to be very disappointed that Arnold Drake and Gerry Talaoc were doing what they were doing to one of my early favorites. I look a little more kindly on it now, especially Talaoc's wonky artwork, but it was a huge letdown after Wein and Aparo.
The Shadow #2: I had a subscription in place before this series started, so I got this one. Unfortunately, I learned that sub copies arrive long after the comics hit the stands! I loved the book though, and instantly remember Nico the Cigarette Fiend, a "freak" who smoked a mouthful of cigarettes at the same time!
Shazam #8: The reprint 100 page issues were great, unlike DC's own new Marvel Family stories. 
Special Marvel Edition #15: I was eager to see Marvel finally publish the Fu Manchu series they'd been teasing. I knew absolutely nothing about Fu Manchu, but the idea of adapting classic adventure characters excited me. I liked this one a lot, but never got fully on-board with Shang Chi. 
Supergirl #9: I don't know why I picked up this issue, but I did. 
Tomb of Dracula #15: I wasn't getting every issue yet, but I was quickly learning that every issue was very, very good!
Wonder Woman #209 (not shown above): I don't know why I hadn't learned my lesson yet, but I bought another issue of Kanigher, Estrada, and Colletta's juvenile nonsense. 

TOTAL COST: $4.40 

COVER OF THE MONTH: While it's not quite the masterpiece its predecessor was, I give it to Kaluta's SHADOW #2 cover. 

COMIC BOOK I DON'T HAVE BUT WOULD MOST WANT: I'll take a YOUNG LOVE #107 Super-Spec, thank you. In retrospect, I wish I had sampled at least one of these off the stands in the early 70's, and this one looks like a good example of the state of the art. 

DAKTARI #3, Dell Comics, October 1968




Clarence, the Cross-Eyed Lion" was a 1965 children's comedy film about Dr. Marsh Tracy, a (white) American veterinarian running the fictional Wameru Study Center for Animal Behavior in Eastern Africa. Producer Ivan Tors transferred the characters and concept to the small screen with Daktari, which aired for four seasons in primetime on CBS from 1966-1969.



While "Clarence" was promoted as a comedy, Daktari was a drama, albeit one suitable for a juvenile audience. Dell published four issues of DAKTARI based on the series--a pretty skimpy serving for a series that ran for four years, but, at least after splitting with Western Publishing, Dell published almost everything they put out on a sporadic, inconsistent schedule. After a four-month gap between the first two issues, there was about a year's gap between the final three issues. I skipped over this one earlier, but now I have obtained an issue to sample, so let’s take a closer look at this comic adaptation of a televised jungle program...


The lead-off story is "The Dangerous Search". (Story titles in this comic are all rendered in some inappropriately fancy font, and the lettering throughout is sub-professional quality; it's legible, but awkward.The caption establishes that Chet Pomeroy, famous author of popular books about the jungle and its creatures, has gone down in a plane crash near Dr. Tracy's Wameru Study Center. Marsh and his staff are releasing a healed zebra when Hedley, their jungle-savvy British friend, arrives with the news that Pomeroy and his pilot, who were guests at Wameru the previous week, have not been heard from after failing to arrive at their destination. Dr. Tracy (the "daktari" in Swahili) is alarmed to further learn that a vial of a radioactive isotope disappeared from the local university when the writer's plane took off, and the pilot is suspected of stealing it!


Arming themselves under the assumption that the pilot, should he be alive, is "more dangerous than a water buffalo", Tracy and Hedley take the jeep in search of the missing men, leaving his daughter Paula, native Mike, and assistant Jack behind, with strict orders to monitor the radio.


Judy, the comic relief chimp, gets up to antics that for some reason require all three to chase after her, leaving the radio unattended.


Marsh Tracy and Hedley see smoke indicating a crash, but it is on the other side of a great chasm. They radio back to the Center for assistance, but the call goes unanswered.


A page later, they try again, and this time the staff has returned, and answers the call. His request is an odd one, and it requires that Judy the Chimp come along for the rescue attempt...


They spend a page driving to the scene--padding evocative of so many cinematic time-wasting scenes from the 60's and 70's!--and meet up with the daktari and Hedley. Their plan is to toss a light rope across, have Judy cross with a heavier rope, then have her tie that...which she manages to do!

The group crosses the rope bridge, nearly losing Jack when the heavy rope comes loose:



From here they tread carefully, prepared for a desperate, dangerous, isotope-stealing pilot...


The pilot and Pomeroy have survived, but the pilot, displaying surprising rage over the class difference between himself and the author, is furious to find that the isotope, worth over $250,000, is missing from its case! Angrily, he strikes out at the writer, but Dr. Tracy shoots him from the nearby brush.



It was only a tranquilizer dart! The gang march back, with the injured writer on a litter and the pilot walking ahead of the barrel of Hedley's pistol, leaving the missing isotope. "Radioactivity is better left alone. We know the spot. They'll send men in who know how to find it."


That was a very kid-friendly adventure, with any mild level of suspense resolved immediately: Jack is rescued the panel after he loses his hold, the pilot is shot immediately after pistol-butting the writer, and the crew gets the second radio message shortly after missing the first, with no recriminations (and no justifications for the urgency of attending to the radio). There's a sense of intentionally damping any thrills in this story, making it one of the tamest jungle comics stories I've read in the course of this project.


All the stories in issue 3, as was the case for issues 1 and 4, were illustrated by Bob Jenney from scripts of unidentified authorship. Jenney's an artist I don't think I'd ever heard of before, but he'd been around for a long time, with work appearing in early issues of MORE FUN COMICS, an issue of JUNGLE COMICS, and early issues of Warren's black and white horror comics magazines. He even inked (most of) a single issue of POWER MAN AND IRON FIST. He also drew Dell's inexplicably unfaithful "adaptations" of the Universal monster films DRACULA, FRANKENSTEIN, THE CREATURE, and THE WOLF MAN. I salute the man as a veteran of several decades from the earliest days in the comics industry. I cannot, however, offer praise for the pedestrian artwork in this issue. Jenney makes a worthy if occasionally awkward attempt to capture some of the actors' likenesses, but expends little to no effort in establishing a moody, exciting jungle environment. He's just telling the story and doing it as simply as possible.


The second story is The “Terrorists” (quotation marks as used on the title lettering). It begins with Judy the chimp causing panic by firing a machine gun randomly on the grounds of the facility.



Once they disarm the ape, Paula discovers that Judy found it in a crate of firearms hidden under a bush. Jack suggests that these could belong to the gang of terrorist Yomo Yayatta, cached before he was jailed ten years ago. That theory goes out the window when they find markings indicating the weapons were manufactured in 1965—only three years ago!


Marsh confiscates the weapons, and we then see three white men—Smythe, Royal, and another—alarmed when they discover their hidden hardware has been heisted! They spot Hedley toting the crate off in his jeep, then lure him into a trap by pretending to be wandering in from the jungle on the verge of collapse.


The men’s plan all along has been to reignite the fear of terrorists in the locals, and to further that plan, they tie Hedley to a tree, douse him with sugar, and wait for the red ants to eat him alive—a favorite torture method of Yayatta.


Meanwhile, Daktari Tracy has determined the guns were stolen in London, and he and the rest of the crew drive out in search of Hedley, who hasn’t reported back on schedule. They find him covered in ants and rescue their comrade from death by insect.



Our trio of “terrorists” assume that the villagers will be terrified, but in fact they have armed themselves, prepared for the last decade to defend themselves should terror again reach their community. As the cowardly British flee in their jeep, Judy gets hold of a machine gun again, and her wild gunfire causes them to crash and be captured.


OK, the ant torture was a bit rougher than I expected from this juvenile entertainment, but Jenney’s art keeps the visuals tame enough that Dell wasn’t likely to get too many complaints (Dell, of course, self-policed rather than submitting to the Comics Code Authority). And the “comedy” antics of Judy, whose bullets never strike anything living, fortunately, balance the more serious element of terrorism. And although the quick wrap-up felt overly convenient, it was refreshing to see the natives as being entirely capable of defending themselves, without the least bit of concern or doubt on the part of our story’s lead characters.


Finally, in “Look Your Best”, the splash tells us that “…all isn’t danger and excitement in Africa…sometimes there’s only the excitement!” Said “excitement” is that much of the team’s grooming tools and fashionable finery has gone missing on the day of a pending visit from important Americans. The gang blame Judy, and track her through the jungle, but they are unable to reach her (or Clarence the cross-eyed lion, who is also missing).


When the VIPs arrive, the crew, unable to dress properly for the occasion, looks a mess, but Judy and Clarence are all gussied up with Judy’s stolen goods:



This bit of silliness does evoke the sort of light-hearted coda that would be common at the end of a 1960’s kid’s show, filling up a couple of minutes before the ending credits. That’s a nice touch, so I won’t pick on the story for not being at all funny.


I feel kind of bad for doing so, but I’ve got to rank this one as Jungle Junk. I never watched the tv show, but I remember classmates from Elementary School talking about it, so maybe they would have liked this comic. I don’t, though. The comic itself feels like it was “filmed on a set”, not in a genuine African jungle. The plots are unengaging, the personalities are limited (to be charitable), the art is boring, and any sense of threat falls flat with immediate relief damping even the briefest moment of thrills.


Coming next, Dell’s offshoot Gold Key with another adaptation of a 1960’s Ivan Tors production, COWBOY IN AFRICA!

OUTSIDERS #11
Cover by Jim Aparo

As this run of WONDER WOMAN borrowed from DC's romance comics for its vibe, I'm convinced that the "Dolphin" feature was going the other direction: I think it was originally intended as a superhero-tinged ongoing feature in one of DC's romance comics that was abandoned when editorial decided such a thing wouldn't go over so well with the romance readers. That's why the story, which ended on a cliffhanger and was drawn by their top romance artist, was too short for the full issue of SHOWCASE where they finally dumped it, and so had to be backed up with an Aquaman reprint.

Tim Trench got some unlikely back-up solo stories in DETECTIVE COMICS...one of the more obscure 70's DC backups, right up there with Melba, Tracey Thompson and Space Marshal. 

Nice to know that some regions were spared. I'm glad you enjoyed it, but trust me, Skynrd loses its luster long before the 5000th listening...

HOPPY THE MARVEL BUNNY #6

I can't bear to leave this project incomplete, so I've ordered some low grade copies of these two series.