Cave Girl--Story #3

We've reached the third story in Cave Girl's premiere issue (#11--1953) and, by golly, we discover that Cave Girl is too darn pretty for her own good!

In the previous story, Cave Girl discovered she didn't care for civilization, so she's heading home. Along the way, she pauses to save Alan Brandon, a rich big-game hunter, from a leopard.

Brandon is immediately enamored of the young lady. This, by itself, is understandable. What man wouldn't immediately fall for a beautiful woman who defeats a leopard in hand-to-hand combat to save his life. Heck, that's exactly how I met Angela.

But Alan is a bit too forward in expressing his admiration, so Cave Girl dumps him in a puddle, forgets about him and continues home.

Alan, though, refuses to give up. He trails Cave Girl, which isn't that hard since she leaves a trail of dead animals behind her after killing them in self-defense.

By now, its obvious that writer Gardner Fox and artist Bob Powell are having fun with the Jungle Girl genre, deliberately going over-the-top with the action. But at the same time, Powell draws the action in a truly exciting way. Cave Girl, I think, walks a nice line between being a parody and a straight-forward adventure story. It works on both levels.

Anyway, when Cave Girl twists her ankle, Alan is able to catch up with her and save her from a leopard. It's a hard day for leopards in the jungle. 

Sadly, at this point, he loses all his Man Points by going into Completely Despicable Mode. He's decided that he's gonna marry Cave Girl whether she wants to or not and takes her prisoner. But she manages to chew through her bonds during the night and get away.

When a frantic Alan runs into Luke Hardin, Hardin says he ought to horsewhip him, but unfortunaely fails to follow through. After all, Cave Girl's beauty would twitter-pate any man!

Even by 1953 standards, Alan really does deserve a horse-whipping. But I think his instant obsession with Cave Girl is intended to be another over-the-top parody and it can be looked at on that level. In either case, we have one more story in this issue before we say goodbye to Cave Girl, so we'll see if Alan can do anything to redeem himself. 

You can read this issue online HERE. 

Next week, we'll head back to Project Pegasus.