Coming Soon: The Best of 'Kathy'

NUELOW Games is soon releasing Kathy, a small collection of classic teen comedy comics illustrated by the team of Frank Frazetta and Ralph Mayo. If you like teen comedies, if you like the screwier sit-coms, if you just want to read some funny stories with goofy characters, you should check out this book.

You should also check out the book if you have an interest in comics as an art-form. In the course of the four included stories,Frazetta and Mayo trade off being the penciler or inker, and doing both art chores. It's an interesting display of how much an artists style can influence the look of a comic depending on what task he is performing.

You can explore the entire selection of NUELOW Games comics/rpg books by clicking here. It's a treasure trove of obscure comics from the Golden Age! And look for Kathy by Frank Frazetta and Ralph Mayo (with RPG content by Steve Miller and L.L. Hundal) within the next day or two!

Picture Perfect Wednesday: Natalie Wood

Night and Day With Natalie!

Judy of the Jungle Returns!

NUELOW Games has just released the second volume in the "Judy of the Jungle" series. It features some great "jungle girl" comics and short fiction, along with all-new material for use with jungle-themed d20 System roleplaying games. (Now... when I say the stories are great, I am biased, given that I edited the book. That said, out of all the Jungle Girls that graced the pages of comics back during the Golden Age, Judy's adventures are the ones that hold up the best. The artwork by Frank Frazetta and Ralph Mayo compares to favorably to any top artist working in comics today.)

Judy of the Jungle: Warriors of the Laughing Hyena is available at DriveThruComics, DriveThruRPG, and RPGNow.

You can click here to get your own copy, or to see previews.

And speaking of previews, here are some of the splash pages and spot-art from the book.
Click on the images to see larger versions.

If you decide to download Warriors of the Laughing Hyena, I hope you'll let me know what you think of the book. I can't make the projected Volume 3 better if I don't know what readers thought was wrong with Volume 2.

Picture Perfect Wednesday: Virginia Belmont

Born in 1921, Virginia Belmont was a formally trained linguist who specialized in Italian, and who enjoyed success as an actress both in Hollywood and in the studios of Rome during the 1940s and 1950s, playing mostly in westerns and other period films. Following her retirement from acting in 1957, she went to work for United Airlines and traveled the world with her husband Albert Califano. She passed away on May 6, 2014.

But her youthful beauty is captured forever on film and in photos.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Or as it is known among those who observe it, Drinko de Mayo. Here is genuine Mexican, Raquel Torres, showing some of the key elements of a successful Cinco de Mayo celebration.

Meet the first Muslim Superhero!

NUELOW Games latest comics/RPG release shines the spotlight on Kismet, Man of Fate. This long-forgotten superhero appeared in the four quarterly issues of Bomber Comics during 1944, with the first and final issues coinciding with the opening and closing of Ellliot Publishing.

Kismet was one of numerous Nazi-stomping comic book characters who appeared in comics magazines during the early 1940s, but he stands apart from the crowd not only for his ability to carry off running around shirtless while wearing gloves, a fez and a cape, but also because he is the first Muslim superhero. (There were earlier Muslim comic book heroes, but none were so obviously religious as Kismet, nor did they have superpowers.

I've edited a book for NUELOW Games that's part of the Complete Golden Age Oddballs series. For the first time anywhere, it collects all four Kismet stories under one cover, together with an all-new text piece and roleplaying game material for ROLF! and OGL d20 Modern. In addition to the Kismet stories, the also features all three published cases for Penny Parker, Debutante Detective.

By way of a preview, here are the first pages for all the Kismet stories.

Click here to see more previews, or to get your own copy of Complete Golden Age Oddballs: Kisment & Penny Parker.

Picture Perfect Wednesday: Cheyenne King

It seems like it's time for another visit with actress/model Cheyenne King.

Happy International Dance Day!

April 29 has been designated as International Dance Day by UNESCO. It also happens to be the birthday of of Jean-Georges Noverre (1727-1810), the creator of modern ballet. Ann Miller and friends wants everyone to cut rug, jump with joy, and otrherwise move to the music on this day!

It's Earth Day!

Here's a sketch artist's rendering of Mother Earth. If you see her, approach with caution. She has a tempestuous bearing, and often explodes with fiery rage. Unconfirmed reports indicate that she also has adverse reactions to immodest women.

By Amy Clark

Happy Easter!

I hope you have as much luck at finding Easter Eggs as Ann Miller did. She found the bunny that lays them!

The Milla Jovovich Quartery

It's laundry day, and Milla is waiting for the dryer cycle to finish. But the Milla Jovovich Quarterly must go on!

March 20: It's the first day of Spring...

... and Ann Miller is jumping with joy! Could there be a more Picture Perfect Wednesday?

At least once each month for all of 2014, Ann Miller will show up here in Shades of Gray to mark a special day. Keep checking back, or you may miss her!

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

Hey, look! She's Irish!

Picture Perfect Wednesday: The Return of the Purple Tigress!

In 1944, the mysterious Purple Tigress was capturing hearts and breaking heads throughout Guardian City. Who was this mysterious woman? No one knew, and when her crime-busting exploits came to an end, still no one knew. But if you click here you can learn all her secrets, as they will be revealed by Steve Miller in the soon-to-be released e-book Golden Age Oddballs.

The Purple Tigress adventures are among the six stories featured in Golden Age Oddballs. As we wait for the book to be released by NUELOW Games, here are some modern visions of the mysterious crime fighter.

The Purple Tigress, as seen by Terry Beatty

The Purple Tigress and Friend, as seen by Butch.

(Despite what you might assume from Butch's drawing, and her striped bikini, the Purple Tigress is not a cat-themed superhero. In fact, she draws her name from the Purple Tiger Beetle of all things.)

Diana Danger, Space Girl!

Incarna Comics publishes several "retro" titles... and one which is in the early stages of development is Diana Danger, Space Ranger. Here are some portraits of the title character, who keeps alive the tradition of space-faring women in tight suits and fishbowl-like helmets!

By F. Newton Burcham

By F. Newton Burcham

By F. Newton Burcham

For up-to-date info on Incarna Comics, visit their Facebook page here.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here's hoping no one tears through your heart the way Ann Miller has gone through the one in the picture.

'Ginger and Snap' : Coming from NUELOW Games

Early in 1948, Eastern Color Printing published the first issue of Club 16, a humor anthology series focused mostly around high-schoolers and young professionals. The quarterly title lasted four issues, and it was gone again by year's end.

 From the first issue ot the last, one of the features was "Ginger and Snap." Ginger and Snap were fraternal twins and each story saw them trading places or otherwise impersonating each other. Since Ginger was a girl and Snap was a boy, all the stories feature light-hearted exploratons of gender role reversals. "Cute' is the perfect word to describe the stories by Mickey Klar Marks and the illustrations by Dave Tendlar, and not in a sarcastic way.

I immediately developed a fondness for "Ginger and Snap" when I discovered the series during one of my hunts for comics for NUELOW Games to re-publish as part of its comics/rpg hybrid line. It's not like anything else we've put out, so the Trading Places Twins are getting a book of their very own. Here's the splash page from the first story, as it will appear in NUELOW's "Ginger and Snap." (Click on the image for a larger, more readable version.)

The first appearance of Ginger and Snap.

When I made a post similar to this in a Facebook forum, announcing the plans to do a "Ginger and Snap" book, one of the commentors said,"Where the mind goes by today's standard would make a book like this a little ...,"

And he's right. If Ginger and Snap were to be fully rebooted instead of just re-issued, it would probably look something like this:

Joke ad for Ginger and Snap, by Karl M.

Look for Ginger and Snap, later this week from NUELOW Games. Meanwhile, click here to check out the other comics offerings... guaranteed better than 99 percent of the crap currently at your Friendly Neighborhood Comics Shop.

Coming Soon: Judy of the Jungle

I'm editing a projected series of three pdf e-books for NUELOW Games reprinting the "Judy of the Jungle" series from 1947 - 1949 issues of Nedor's Exciting Comics. The series is a great example of the Jungle Girl adventure comic genre that thrived during the 1940s; Judy didn't exactly break new ground, but the art and writing has weathered the passage of time better than most of her contemporaries.

You can take a look at the possible covers here. (And while you're visiting the NUELOW Games blog, this post may be of interest if you're a gamer, as it has some RPG rules inspired in part by Judy.

With most of these series, there's invariably a panel or sequence of panels that I notice become funny if taken out of context. With Judy, it's an entire page. The page that introduces her, in fact. But I'm not sure if it's funny or creepy.

First off, Judy seems to be wearing make-up and a cocktail dress... in a hut that she shares with her father in the deepest, darkest African jungle. That's a bit weird--but not as weird as the fact that she wears that dress for most of the series. (It becomes tattered as time goes on.)

But there's nothing weirder (or more disturbing) than the vibe that Panel Three excudes. No wonder Judy's dad thinks he's made a mistake and it's time for his daughter to go somewhere else, where there are other men. (Click on the image of a more readable version, one that will show you that the text does not make the drawing any less skin-crawlingly disturbing as I thought it might when I read it.)

I should say a little about the process by which we select the comics that get revived in NUELOW Games editions -- just because the comment about thinking Panel Three might be less disturbing when I read it might make more sense.

Step One: My partner (L.L Hundal) or I suggest a character or comic strip to the other that we like. The other person takes a quick glance at a couple sample stories --and sometimes even just a couple of pages. At this point, we just look at the art, because when it comes to comics, it the art isn't appealing, you lose readers right then and there. If we agree the art is good, the we put the material on the "Maybe." (In the case of "Judy of the Jungle," the title alone made it a "Maybe" and insured her a place in at least one ROLF! product.

Step Two: I do research to determine that the series in question is in the Public Domain. If there are trademark complications (such as with Black Cat), I make a note of it to make sure Hundal knows to be careful about presentation if I end up not being directly involved in a project for whatever reason when it comes to deciding what title it should be published under. (For example, we will never be able to just do a book called "Black Cat," even if we can publish Black Cat stories and fiction to our heart's content. As can be seen in numerous of our products.

Step Three: I either read the entire series (if it's one of the very short-lived ones that we favor due to their obscurity), or I read the first installment, followed by a random selection of one or two later chapters. If the writing appeals to me, we note the series for future use in one of our comics/rpg projects. (Sometimes, this approach backfires on us. I completely misjudged "Rocket Man" and "Lady Satan" because of this. The art for the most part remains high quality on both strips, but the writing is absolutely horrid on many stories after the first few. For this reason, I'll be writing new "Rocket Man" scripts for future issues of Science Sleuths.)

Step Four: We process the comics pages, assemble books, write new material, edit, publish... and hope that some folks out there think the stuff is as cool as we do.

(And then there's Step Three-Point-Five... where I make posts like this. Hundal doesn't like it when I sometimes poke fun at the comics were:) )

If you've read this far, maybe you'll also like to take a look at NUELOW Games's comics selections. Questions, comments, or reviews -- feel free to leave them here or at DriveThruComics in the comments section.

New from NUELOW Games: 'Real American No. 1'!

The latest project I've completed for NUELOW Games is one I think it more worthy of attention than most of the ones I've done. It's a little book collecting episodes from Dick Briefer's ahead-of-its-time superhero series "Real American No. 1."

Comic Books: Making Fun of Bigots Since 1941

"Real American No. 1" premiered in Daredevil Comics #2 and ran as a back-up feature there until #11. Starring the Bronze Terror (who secretly is Jeff Dixon, a "full-blooded Indian" and successful attorney devoted to fighting for justice inside and outside the courtroom), "Real American No. 1" drew heavily on troubles facing Native Americans in the modern era for its background and conflicts. There wouldn't be another series like it again until the 1970s, with the arrival of characters like Marvel's Red Wolf.

NUELOW Games' Real American No. 1 contains the four best of Briefer's Bronze Terror stories (as selected by yours truly) and a roleplaying game presentation of Jeff Dixon and his girlfriend Lilly Weaver for use with ROLF!: The Rollplaying Game. By way of a preview, here are the splash pages for the included stories; I hope you'll check it out.

Click here to see more previews of Real American #1, or to buy and download a copy from DriveThruComics.

Picture Perfect Wednesday: Raquel Torres

Raquel Torres and Shades of Gray proudly present "How to Safely Peel an Onion."

As 2014 gets underway...

... we turn to Kay Francis for a refresher on the unifying theme of this blog.

You might want to avoid 'Chinatown After Dark'

Chinatown After Dark (1931)
Starring: Rex Lease, Billy Gilbert, Carmel Myers, Barbara Kent, and Frank Mayo
Director: Stuart Paytom
Rating: Three of Ten Stars

Jim Bonner (Lease) tries to unravel the mystery of his brother's disappearance, while being hounded by an incompetent police detective (Gilbert) and a sinister Chinese criminal mastermind (Myers).

There a scraps of interesting story elements scattered throughout this poorly written, unevenly paced, wretchedly acted,, and badly staged Yellow Peril-style thriller. Most fascinating to me was the casual yet nasty racism on display when the chief homicide detective assigns the investigation of the murder of a well-to-do Chinese man to an officer he states won't be able to solve the case.

Although I reference a mystery in my summary above, there are actually three different mysteries in the film, none of which are handled very well. First, the reason why the villain wants the Chinese dagger is the film's first focus is revealed way too early. Second, the disappearance of the hero's brother (and the hero subsequently coming under suspicion of murder) would easily have been resolved by the hero doing to the police--something which he never really did not have a reason to do, other than there wouldn't be a movie. Third, the question of "how will the hero clear his nane?" was never really a question, because of the ineptitude with which the two previous questions have been handled.

Watching this film, I repeatedly found myself saying, "that would make an interesting story" as some plot nugget or off-hand reference came and went on the screen. Unfortunately, that interesting story is not found in "Chinatown After Dark."

What is also not really found, since this film headlines Carmel Myers, was the elaborate costumes that I imagine some of the audience went looking for. Although little known today, Myers was a huge star during the Silent Ere who was known for wearing spectacular and exotic outfits in her films. Here, while she is midly exotic in her look, there is nothing particularly amazing about her costume; I suppose, in some ways, that can be taken as a reflection of how her star steadily faded after she made her transition to talkies.

I think this film is probably only of interest to hardcore lovers of old films... and even then, you probably don't need to rush to see it. But, if you have nothing better to do, you can watch it right here, right now by clicking below.

Welcome to the first Picture Perfect Wednesday of 2014....

... welcome to the Year of Ann Miller!

Each month for all of 2014, Ann will make an appearance honoring a special day, like, for example, New Year's Day. We hope you'll check back regularly to see what day she shows up on.

Why is this the Year of Ann Miller, you ask? Why not? (If there must be a reason, we could say it's in observation of the 10th anniversary of her moving onto that great dance floor in the sky.)

But while we wait for Ann's next appearance, hope you have a Happy New Year and that 2014 is nothing but smooth sailing for you. Olga San Juan is setting a course toward a great year!