Tuesday, May 5, 2020

THE GREEN LAMA Jumps from Pulps to Comics (1941)


The Green Lama was one of the relatively few pulp heroes to make the transition into comic books at the same time. The Shadow had the most success at it, with Doc Savage a very distant second. There were also a few adventures of the Phantom Detective and Jim Hatfield, which you may have seen posted here. There was a Black Bat, too, but so unlike the pulp character that he doesn't really count.

The Lama made his debut in the April 1940 ish of Double Detective, and starred in short "novels" in thirteen more issues. I have a couple of the Adventure house reprints, but have yet to read one. A hero romping around in what appears to be a ladies bathrobe somehow lacks appeal. Maybe I'm a bit prejudiced against him, too. Prior his his arrival, Double Detective featured extra long novelettes by guys like Cleve F. Adams and Richard Sale, which to me are of far more value than the adventures of a third-class pulp hero.

The Lama made the jump to comics in Prize Comics #7 in December 1940, and had a longer career there than in the pulps. He eventually got his own book. The stories, including this one, were supposedly written by Kendell Foster Crossen, the same guy who wrote the pulp stories, as "Richard Foster." The art on this one (better than most) is credited to Al Plastino, who later did a lot of work on Superman and the Super family. 








4 comments:

Rick Robinson said...

I have a couple of the pulp story collections from Altus Press, but have not read any of them.

Cap'n Bob said...

Pretty good artwork, standard pulp/comic story. But I can help but wonder what happened to all the adventurers that were so common back then. Where are today's international thrill seekers?

Evan Lewis said...

They've retired to Tacoma and become babysitters.

Cap'n Bob said...

Another scammer asswipe invades your blog. Congrats. And I mean "Clara Benet."

I don't babysit anymore. Too old and untrustworthy. And I don't do diapers, unlike people who walk five mutts a day and police up their turds.