Misunderstood Masterpieces 1.26.10: Sheena (411Mania.com)

Cover of Sheena

Hot zebra-riding action is just the beginning!

Posted by Will Helm on 01.26.2010

…or, A Very Pointed Commentary on the Politics of Sub-Saharan Africa. With Nudity.

Since the early days of cinema, one of the easiest methods of "skirting" the taboo subject of nudity on film was accomplished by finding excuses to have characters in loincloths. First beginning popularly with the Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan series – though there are, of course, earlier examples, the "noble savage" of literature became a heroic archetype, often set against the backdrop of evil imperialism and modern civilization. Unsurprisingly, not long after publication of Tarzan of the Apes in 1914, films debuted featuring this character, complete with the stereotypical loincloth, heralding a genre that would continue to this day, for the most part.

While Tarzan was the original savage Caucasian, there were rival characters, most interestingly the female Sheena, Queen of the Jungle. Introduced by Will Eisner – creator of The Spirit – and Jerry Iger (collectively as "W. Morgan Thomas"). Sheena debuted in the pages of the British magazine Wags in 1937. Eventually, the character would prove popular enough to garner her own book, Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, in 1942. In the mid-50s, Sheena was adapted into a syndicated television series starring Irish McCalla, who became an early sex symbol of the medium.



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Behind-The-Scenes Of Disney-Marvel Deal

By Nikki Finke
DeadlineHollywoodDaily.com

EXCLUSIVE: The first thing you should know is that Bob Iger has comic books in his blood. And the second thing you should know is that his ties to Marvel go back two generations. His late great-uncle (his grandfather's brother) was illustrator/cartoonist Jerry Iger, who partnered with illustrator/cartoonist Will Eisner back in the 1930s to create -- you guessed it -- the comic book packager Eisner & Iger Studios. I couldn't make up this stuff if I tried... (Blackthorne Publishing has released three compilations of Jerry Iger-related comics: The Iger Comics Kingdom, Jerry Iger's Classic Jumbo Comics, Jerry Iger's Classic National Comics, and Jerry Iger's Golden Features. Will Eisner is no relation to Michael Eisner.)

And their first hire was Jack Kirby, who as you know later became the co-creator of many of Marvel's best known characters with Stan Lee. So Bob Iger had an unusually rich appreciation for the comic book biz dating back to his childhood when his great-uncle would draw for him. Fast forward to Monday's Disney-Marvel deal, which I've learned was 10 years in conception, and three months in negotiation between Iger and Ike Perlmutter for the 7,000 Marvel characters -- that's right, 7,000, not the 5,000 number every media outlet keeps reporting including me.

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Happy 110th B-Day, "Busy" Arnold from Providence! (Examiner.com)

By Sam Gafford

Today, May 20th, is the 110th birthday of Everett "Busy" Arnold, one of the prime movers of the Golden Age of comics! And he was born in Providence, RI, to boot!

Growing up in Rhode Island, Everett had a nasty habit of talking in class which earned him the nickname, "busybody". Shortened to "Busy", it would stick with him for the rest of his life. After graduating from Brown University in 1921, "Busy" worked in various printing companies and was the Eastern sales representative for NYC's Goss Printing Company during which time he sold presses to Eastern Color Printing which would later publish the first American comic book, Famous Funnies #1, in 1934.

After investing in several comic book enterprises, "Busy" formed his own company (Comic Favorites, Inc.) in collaboration with three newspaper comic strip syndicates. In 1937, "Busy" published Feature Funnies which mixed reprints of popular comic strips like "Joe Palooka" with new material purchases from the new comic "studios". These "studios" were companies built solely to supply the exploding comics market with material that they produced and then sold to publishers. For most of his new material, "Busy" relied on the successfull Eisner and Iger studio. Unlike many other small publishers of the time, however, "Busy" also cultivated an 'in-house' staff of creators.

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NEW SITE: Sheena Queen of the Jungle

Jerry Iger took credit for creating it, although Will Eisner said that was crazy, he created it, but whatever the true story, guys still dig Sheena's curves and cunning. So who can resist a new Sheena web ste with lots of art?

Check it out HERE!

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Will Eisner, granddaddy to the superhero generation (The Times of London)

As the comic-book ‘Oscars' approach, Paul Karasik celebrates the achievements of Will Eisner, a pioneer cartoonist who paved the way for an entire movement

NEXT WEEK AT THE largest comics convention in the world, the San Diego Con, the industry bestows the Eisner Awards for the best comics of the preceding year. Like all arts awards, they wrestle for resolution between the poles of commerce and art. The Eisners, which reach their twentieth anniversary this year, could not possibly be more aptly named.

Will Eisner (1917-2005) was a great cartoonist, but he was also a shrewd businessman with his finger on the throbbing, erratic pulse of popular culture, trying to predict, manoeuvre, and exploit the next trend using his very specific set of skills. He spent his life wrestling with those demanding twins, art and commerce.

In 1936 when he was 19, Eisner had his first professional work published in Wow, What a Magazine!, one of the first comic books to publish new work in the format that we are familiar with today. As he put it in an interview in 1984: “Pulp magazines were dying and pulp publishers were looking for other popular publishing ventures, and so comics represented that opportunity.”

Eisner himself never missed an opportunity. Overnight, dozens of new comic-book titles and publishers erupted to mine the bonanza begun by the 1938 publication of Superman in Action Comics. Simultaneously all these publishers were putting out beefy 52-page comic books. They needed stories and art, and they needed them last week.

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