Featuring: Ka-Zar
Release: August 31, 1939
Cover: October 1939
10 cents
Credits: Ben Thompson
From the famous character created by: Bob Byrd
12 pages
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“From the famous character created by Bob Byrd”… I don’t think Ka-Zar was actually yet famous.
Marvel Comics #1 is the comic that started it all. We’ve been slowly reading through its 68 pages. We read the first story, the introduction of the Human Torch, right in the beginning, to coincide with the introduction of the new Human Torch. We soon after read the Sub-Mariner story to prepare for Namor’s return to the modern Marvel Universe in Fantastic Four #4. We took X-Men #1 as an excuse to read the Angel story, despite there being no real connection between that Angel and the Angel of the X-Men.
What’s left to read? The inside front cover has some gags.
There’s a Western story that introduces the Masked Raider. I don’t know if we’ll find an excuse to read it.
There’s a one-off jungle story called “Jungle Terror”.
A one-off text story about racing called “Burning Rubber”.
And this, the story of Ka-Zar.
Unlike the other tales which are (more or less) original concepts, Ka-Zar is adapted from prose stories.
He was introduced in his own magazine, Ka-Zar #1 (1936), and written by none other than Martin Goodman (under the pen name Bob Byrd), who was also the publisher, and remains the publisher of Marvel in 1965.
We’ve already met Ka-Zar when we read Human Torch #5. We saw he rode an elephant and generally worked with the animals to defend Africa from Sub-Mariner’s war upon the Earth.
The character bears at least some similarity to the Tarzan character of Edgar Rice Burroughs (down to the letters in the name). He was neither the first nor the second nor the last character to bear such a resemblance.
Marvel Comics #1 retells the origin of Ka-Zar from the original prose story.
Continue reading “PRELUDE: Marvel Comics #1, Story F”