I know I’ve already posted a black and white British reprint of an issue of Whiz Comics, but since I like to indulge myself every chance I get here’s another. This one is Whiz Comics #74 UK, a 32 page reprint of Whiz Comics #141.

What sold me on this one was the great cover by Pete Costanza, who seems to have perfectly predicted the classic 1970′a punk look. It’s another late entry Captain Marvel story with a strong SF angle to try and jump on the then ongoing space/flying saucer trend. It’s a nice premise, visiting alien tourists acting like British holidaymakers in Spain (I’d say ‘Ugly Americans’, but our reputation as international travelers doesn’t usually involve destructive drunken rowdiness) that’s sadly let down by the execution. Of course the space tourists turn out to be crooks — you expect more and better from writer Otto Binder. Though it’s nice seeing him showing Captain Marvel on the verge of a nervous breakdown from trying to be a good host to his ‘guests’. Once again, there’s some wonderful art by the great Kurt Schaffenberger — he did very good work for DC, but (in my opinion) doing Captain Marvel is when he really shined.

This issue also includes reprints of Lace O’Casey, a two-fisted South Seas adventurer type of which there were many back then, a type of hero who seems to have sprung directly from the Pulps. Periodically back in the 20th century people in the US had fantasies of leaving the horrors of what certainly must have seemed like the end of civilization to run away to some little South Seas island. Lance lasted long enough he caught the first wave of this during the Great Depression and was still running in Whiz during the post WWII malaise when that kind of escape fantasy was once again popular. Sadly for most of his impressive run Casey was exceptionally dull; see for yourself how such a revolutionary (hey, it’s fueled by fears of the utter collapse of the capitalist system), romantic, sexy (half naked ‘native’ girls) got so thoroughly dulled down,

All of the above pretty much goes double for the Golden Arrow (who’s on the cover, all be it in a circle) story from this issue. For those out of the know Golden Arrow was pretty much what you’d get if you combined The Lone Ranger with Tonto; a freelance Western crime fighter who used a bow and arrow instead of guns and bullets. And, believe it or not, there was more than one of those back in the Golden Age too.

And, speaking of “malaise” (it’s a word you just don’t get to use all that often) here’s a 50′s adventure of Ibis the Invincible that shows just how dull the adventures of an ancient Egyptian with an all powerful magical gimcrack and his stunningly beautiful common law wife Taia could get. Me, I’d prefer to remember them as they were in the late 40′s, travelling the country in a super car Ibis manifested out of nothing and Taia in a nicely abbreviated outfit, discovering their new world while living in spectacular sin. It sure beats this entry where “newspaper gal” (!) Taia is shown putting on make-up. What the hell?

And finally, here’s another further evidence that the UK had their own Charles Atlas types. I really do try not to read things into innocent old comics but snarky off color comments about ”He was ‘SHRIMP’ to the boys at the baths!” pretty much writes themselves. The ‘flexible as whalebone’ thing doesn’t help (wait, what, since when whalebone is ‘flexible’?).