Savage Tales Presents: Avenger!

With a couple of reservations, I really liked the late Bronze Age second coming return of Savage Tales, not least because of the so-called Savage Sisters, a couple of gun-toting babes who appeared on a few of the covers and subscription ads, but sadly never got their own strip.

This time round, the book was less barbarians and more bullets, with historical adventure and military action to the fore. Editor Larry Hama was clearly trying to do a Two-Fisted Tales for the '80's, and with Mike Golden, Archie Goodwin, John Severin, Gray Morrow and Herb Trimpe on board, he had a good chance at doing it.
Unfortunately, he also had a few artists who, to be kind, weren't quite professional enough for the big time yet, and there is a fair amount of filler in Savage Tales pt. 2.
Not so here though, with Archie & John in the first issue contributing a story that is the very definition of a good tale well told. After all, if you're going into battle, you want guys who know what they're doing by your side.

John Severin's Eagle

Eagle was a little strip from the mighty John Severin, that appeared in the last few issues of The Rook, and that probably went completely unnoticed at the time. It's less a story than a brief incident, and can't help but be reminiscent of John's work for Harvey Kurtzman in EC's Two-Fisted Tales.
It also has the slight feel of an unsold newspaper strip, and in fact, in the '50's, Severin had collaborated with writer Colin Dawkins on a similar strip called American Eagle. Maybe this was their attempt to bring the character back.
It's just Severin doing what he did best, and you can never get enough of that.

Kung Phew / Kung Fooey / Kung Fool / Kung Fooey

Seeing as how the Bronze Age humour mags usually focused on the same movies and TV shows each month, have you ever compared and contrasted how each one parodied a specific show, like say Kung Fu?
Huh? What's that you say? Who's got that amount of free time? Hush your mouth.

That was John Severin of course, with his version for Cracked. Now here's Stu Schwartzberg & Mike Ploog, from the premiere issue of Crazy:

And here's Mad's take, courtesy of Dick De Bartelo & Angelo Torres:

And because we're gluttons for punishment, let's close with Crazy's second go at the same material, by Marv Wolfman, Marie Severin & Herb Trimpe. I'd say this one's got the best script, while Ploog's has the best art. How 'bout you?