Cave Girl--Story #4

Everyone falls in love with Cave Girl. It apparently can't be helped.

Over the course of the first three stories included in Cave Girl #11 (her debut issue despite the numbering), two men have fallen in love with the blonde Jungle Girl already. In fact, in this issue's final story (still written by Gardner Fox and drawn by Bob Powell), Luke and Alan haven't given up yet. They are attempting to cross the mountains that surround Cave Girl's home jungle, still determined to talk her into coming back to civilization and claiming her inheritence.

Both of them, though, have collapsed from the cold before we get past the first page of the story.

Cave Girl, in the meantime, has climbed these mountains as well as she helps a monkey mommy find her lost baby. But, predictably, she finds trouble instead. She is attacked by half-man, half-animal snowmen, who outnumber Cave Girl sufficiently to take her prisoner.

The snowmen find Luke and Alan unconscious in the snow and bring them along as well. In the most ill-timed conversation in the history of mankind, they explain that they want to take her back to the outside world while they are all being led to die horrible deaths at the hands of brutal animal-men. 

The leader of the snowmen is Gaa, who [drum roll, please] falls in love with Cave Girl. He orders Luke and Alan to fight to the death for her, with Luke winning and apparently killing Alan after a prolonged duel with spears. Gaa, though, rewards Luke by having him hung over a cliff to feed the buzzards.

As I've mentioned in earlier Cave Girl reviews, it doesn't take a literary genius to realize that Fox and Powell are having some fun with the genre, mixing in parody with the adventure. But Powell's engaging art and Fox's scripts work on both levels, as parody and adventure.  

Cave Girl--never a helpless Damsel in Distress--breaks free from Gaa , starts a fire to keep him away from her and makes a dangerous climb up a smoke-filled chimney. She rescues Luke with the help of Alan, who had faked his death earlier.

So Luke and Alan do okay in this story with their improvised plan to fake their death duel. But Cave Girl is still very much the Hero-in-Charge, improvising a tactic of her own that sends Gaa and a bunch of his fellow snowmen off a cliff. 

Still adament about staying in the jungle, she sends Alan and Luke home. Luke, at least, will pop back up as an occassional guest star in future stories, but Cave Girl has made her decision. She will always prefer the jungle over noisy, confusing civilization.

You can read this issue online HERE. 

That completes our look at the first issue of Cave Girl. We'll leave her be for the time being. If I keep reviewing her stories, then it is apparent that I will inevitably fall in love with her. I'm pretty sure my wife would get mad at me if that happens.

Next week, we'll return to Ben Grimm and Project Pegasus.

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.

Cave Girl--Story #2

Cave Girl #11 (1953) contained the title character's origin story and three more tales about the distaff Tarzan. A few weeks ago, we looked at the first story in this issue (and also explained why the first issue is #11). This time, we'll take a look at the second story. 

I had thought that first story was a little unfocused, featuring a major plot devise that should have been left for a seperate story. But as we turn the page to the next story, we discover that Gardner Fox (writer) and Bob Powell (artist) are much more focused and straightforward.

We pick up right were the first story left off, with jungle guide Luke Hardin now teaming up with Cave Girl. He talks her into returning to the city with him. Powell's art really shines here, giving us several hilarious moments in which Cave Girl reacts violently to automobiles and table fans.

Hardin, in the meantime, identifies Cave Girl as a missing heiress, which worries the family lawyer because he's been embezzling money for years on the theory that the entire family was dead.

The lawyer hires some thugs to do away with Cave Girl. But never bring a mere trio of thugs to a Cave Girl fight. She kills one in her hotel room and lures the other two into the jungle. They don't come back out of the jungle. 

There's a bit of a glitch in the story in that Cave Girl clearly kills all three of them, but they are still able to talk and rat out the lawyer. Oh, well--maybe it was a dying confession. 

Anyway, strange technology and murderous thugs don't sit well with Cave Girl, who heads back to her jungle. Hardin, though, hasn't given up on her yet, as we'll find out in a couple of weeks.

Fox's script is solid and clever, but it is really Powell's vibrant art that truly brings the essentially silly character of Cave Girl to life.

You can read the story online HERE. 

Next week, we'll return to Project Pegasus.

Cave Girl--Story #1

The popularity of Tarzan spawned a lot of imitators, several of whom (such as Ki-Gor) became strong, individual characters in their own right.

A number of the Tarzan clones were women--an obvious route to take, particularly in comic books, where an attractive lady could be made to look pretty Hubba Hubba in a leopard skin outfit.

Cave Girl, written by Gardner Fox and drawn by Bob Powell  (both covers and interior art), had a four issue run published by Magazine Enterprises in 1953-54. Her adventures were continued in a comic titled Africa beginning in 1955.

Fox's scripts were clever and fast-paced, with Powell's vivid art bringing each story to life.

It begins in Cave Girl #11 (1953). At first, I assumed that it was #11 because it replaced another title on Magazine Enterprises publishing schedule and kept the same numbering. But I learned from a helpful member of a comic book group on Facebook that, in this case, #11 was chosen to give the impression that the book had been around for awhile and was already popular. I'm not sure how many readers the fake numbering system would have attracted, but in a decade when the comic racks were stuffed with hundreds of issues from dozens of publishers, I guess every little edge you can get would be worth it.

The first story in the issue is "The Pool of Life," which recounts Cave Girl's origins. We start off by learning that its a bad idea to take your young daughter on a safari, especially if that safari is about to be wiped out by angry natives.  Fortunately, young Carol is carried off by a giant eagle before she too is killed.

Since the eagle is planning on eating her, perhaps its not so fortunate. But a wolf manages to kill the eagle and Carol is raised by wolves. (Which makes me think that perhaps Fox and Powell were thinking of Mowgli as much as Tarzan when they created the character).

The eagle has carried her beyond a nigh-unclimable mountain range called the Barriers of the Moon into a remote area called Dawnworld, presumably because it is populated by Neanderthal-like tribes. This is where Cave Girl grows up, becoming a friend of all animals and learning to use spears, knives and bows effectively.

She also grows up to be pretty darn cute, so it's probably inevitably that one of the Beast Men wants to have her as his mate. She objects quite violently to his advances and, using her knife, then her spear, then her bow, soon leaves a trail of Beast Men corpses strewn around the jungle. Eventually, though, she is knocked out and taken captive.

The story veers away here to show us two men making the dangerous climb over the mountains, in search of a literal fountain of youth--the titular Pool of Life. One of these guys in Luke Hardin, who will be a regular in the series. For now, though, he's the guide for Alfred Manderson, who desperately wants to be young again.

This is where I have a small criticism of the story. The addition of the Pool of Life storyline does seem to be abruptly tagged onto Cave Girl's origin tale. Since the book contains three Cave Girl stories, it might have been better to hint at the Fountain's existance in this story, then have it be the main focus of the next story.

In the end, though, the story remains great fun, so my criticism does turn out to be a nitpick.

While Hardin and Manderson make their way into Dawnworld, Cave Girl is calling on her jungle friends for help. A leopard, a lion, a gorilla and an elephant all show up to help, leaving yet another trail of Beast Man corpses strewn around the jungle.

In the meantime, Hardin and Manderson find the Pool of Life. Manderson shows his appreciation by shooting Hardin, then drinking from the Pool. It does make him younger. In fact, it makes him a bit too young, eventually causing him to de-age out of existence.

Cave Girl finds the wounded Hardin, who wants to take her back to civilization. That leads into the next story, which we'll look at in three weeks.

As I mentioned earlier, I think the origin tale and the Pool of Life should have been two different stories, but Powell's lively art still makes Cave Girl's premiere appearance worthwhile reading.

Next week, we'll begin another occasional Wednesday series as we look at Ben Grimm's involvement with a goverment program called Project Pegasus. I will mix up other comic book reviews amongst the Cave Girl and Project Pegasus reviews. Leave a comment if there are any specific issues, series or genres you'd like to see me cover.