Number 1448: Joe Kubert and the Dance Macabre

“Dance Macabre”* by Joe Kubert is another of his early works, this time from Black Cat #2 (1946). Over the past few years I've posted some of Joe’s work from those days when he was in his teens and early twenties. (See the links down below the story scans.) Even in his earliest artwork Joe showed signs of being a prodigy, but he constantly worked at his craft. Over time he became one of the greatest, and most respected comic book artists of all time. Because he had been mentored by artists like Mort Meskin he did the same with his Joe Kubert School. The history of comic art would be a much different place without Joe, and so I find virtually everything he did to be of interest.

*The name of the musical piece is actually “Danse Macabre,” written by Camille Saint-Saëns in 1874.

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More early Joe Kubert. Just click the pics:

Number 1435: “Who is the Black Cat?”

Who is the Black Cat? I just happen to know: Linda Turner, glamorous Hollywood movie star by vocation, masked crimefighter by avocation.

As far as superhero types go, I think Black Cat was as good as any, and being a pretty girl didn’t hurt. It is nice to see a babe kicking butt. There have always been female superheroes, of course, but Black Cat was succeeding in a comic book market where her male counterparts were being cancelled.

This particular story, from Black Cat #2 (1946) has what I always think of as a Batman plot, where a crime kingpin puts a bounty on information leading to the secret identity. I must have seen it used more than a few times, and it is entertaining. I like the Rook’s* gang of illiterate crooks. The panel sequence at the bottom of page 7 is funny. “How ya spell ‘cat’?”

“K-A-T, ya joik.”

The art is by Lee Elias.

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*Thirty years later Elias would do stories for Warren about a time-traveler called the Rook. No relation.

Another Black Cat story. Just click the thumbnail.