MISS FURY An Example
I did a review of the Golden Age and deservedly forgotten MISS FURY comic penned by Tarpé Mills, where I said the writing had some clever ideas, but was turgid and slow, too wordy.
Not everyone has the same taste as mine, so, in all fairness, allow me to display a page taken from MISS FURY which shows a good example of everything both right and wrong.
This will also give me a chance to post two more cheesecake shots I could not fit into the column.
Things done wrong: First, the main character is offstage. Miss Fury is offstage more than she is onstage in her book, or seems like. Second, everything is dialog. Lots of dialog. Third, the compositions of the shots are either flat mid-range or close-ups.
Things done right: But, on the other hand, the villainess has a complex rather than simple motive. And she is a villainous villainess, believe you me. The body count of men she has killed exceeds the body count of men she has seduced, at this point in the story.
Second, the girls are glamorous, so she is pictured in her bath. Hot Zam!
And, speaking as an amateur cartoonist myself, I note with admiration the posture and poses of the models, which are elegant fashion-plate poses rather than drawn in the more lurid style of a modern cheesecake artist, as J. Scott Campbell or Terry Dodson.
Third, plenty of soap-opera elements to go around. This is a plus if you like soap opera. Gary still does not know he is a father!
Tarpé Mills is remembered for being the first female to elbow her way into the boy’s club of comics in the 1940’s. She dropped her first name, June, so as to hide which sex she was, lest boy readers recoil. However, any boy who cannot see this was written by a girl is too young to have met girls. Hmph! I don’t need your clothes to make me glamorous!
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
