A Marvelous Anniversary Part 7: Ka-Zar

Grand jungle finale to the week-long Fire and Water Podcast event celebrating the third anniversary of the FW Network and the 80th anniversary of MARVEL COMICS #1. This episode, Siskoid and Nathaniel Wayne review the last story in Marvel Comics, “Ka-Zar the Great!” by artist Ben Thompson, based on the pulp story by Bob Byrd.

All relevant images in the Marvelous Supplemental.

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7 responses to “A Marvelous Anniversary Part 7: Ka-Zar

  1. This was a fun episode but it reminds me of one of the things I have always found most fascinating about Golden Age Marvel/Timely…which is that their stuff often really isnt that good. Marvel had its trinity of Cap, the Human Torch, & Namor, and they did have some great stories thanks to the creators involved. There is a reason they were their most popular characters. And there were some bright spots like the original Destroyer. But much of their stuff, like Ka-Zar, was very bland and generic, even by the standards of the early comic industry where copying and respitition was the norm. Not to bash them too much, but compared to contemporary publishers like Quality, Fawcett, and DC/All American, the comics don’t measure up, which is probably not what many comic fans would think given Marvels prominence since the 60s.

  2. Impressive Pod cast/. Most Impressive. Huh was weird seeing Kaz-ar with brown hair. Hmm, a slightly different origin than the one in the 70s. Not my fav art, but it is of it’s time. No in the jungle or welcome to the jungle song? I’m use to his story with his brother. And when he married Shana. Mostly know them from the profile comics. And when he showed up in X-Men. glad he survived this long. And his few appearances in the X-Men comics. Huh so he was around since the first Marvel comic awesome.

  3. So weird to think Ka-Zar is actually the first Marvel character.

    I think Marvel is probably glad Stan didn’t bother reviving this actual character, and instead just took the name and basic jungle hero concept. I liked that Waid/Kubert series too, Siskoid!

    This was a fun series. We can all thank Ryan for suggesting it. Had it sucked, we would have blamed him for it!

    Chris

  4. I had it in my mind that there was a Ka-zar movie, but after a search, I was probably thinking of Kaspa the Lion-man, raised by a pride.

    Kaspa/Ka-zar/Tarzan, with Janna/Shanna/Sheena, you’d have a classroom that would keep a substitute teacher confused all day.

    Not to mention the son of a Wakandan explorer who was raised in the Scottish Highlands, and became known as Tartan.

  5. Whew! And I thought Savage Land Ka-Zar was derivative! This guy might as well have ERB tattooed on his arm. Great job on the analysis, fellas, probably more insightful than the story deserves. Michael above is right, Timely’s output pales next to the rest of the Mystery Men from the other publishers. If Stan had found any other job after the war, Martin Goodman would have had to stick to Men’s magazines.

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