Friday, June 9, 2017

Making a Splash: Shanna the She-Devil

Check it out, Groove-ophiles! In 1972, new Marvel publisher Stan Lee came up with three titles that he hoped would lure in female readers: Claws of the Cat, Night Nurse, and Shanna the She-Devil. He thought it would be cool to have ladies write (and in the case of The Cat, draw) these new mags. T'was up to newly-minted editor-in-chief Roy Thomas to hire the creators and help in their development. For jungle queen Shanna, Roy hired Carole Seuling (ex of direct sales pioneer Phil Seuling) to write, George Tuska to pencil, and Vinnie Colletta to ink the first issue. Steve Gerber was tasked with beefing up the dialogue for the first couple issues, and wound up writing the rest of the series (and even using Shanna in some of the Daredevil issues he wrote), but he claimed no part in creating Shanna. With the second issue, Ross Andru took over as penciler, with Colletta remaining on the inks. Pretty sweet art team, don'tcha think? Okay, okay, Groove-ophies! Don't get your vines in an uproar! Here are the sensations splashes from Shanna the She Devil issues 1-5 (August 1972-May 1973). Look out, Tarzan!






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3 comments:

  1. Dale HoustonJune 9, 2017 at 11:03 AM

    I look at those pages and all I see are Vince Coletta's inks. Man, he made a lot of comics pages look less good than they could.

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    1. keythd23June 12, 2017 at 1:32 AM

      Vince Coletta. Uniting comics fans everywhere with hatred for his inks (I still contend Mike Esposito was an even worse inker than Vinnie).

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  2. SMRJune 10, 2017 at 2:50 AM

    Ditto--I love Ross Andru, especially on super-hero women (his Wonder Woman was definitive to me), but Vinnie spoils the show. Every time. Still, thanks for posting these--I do want to read these stories one of these days.

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