The Adventures of Pussycat
Encyclopedia
Comics
Comics denotes a hybrid medium having verbal side of its vocabulary tightly tied to its visual side in order to convey narrative or information only, the latter in case of non-fiction comics, seeking synergy by using both visual and verbal side in...
feature that ran throughout various men's adventure
Men's adventure
Men's adventure is a genre of magazines that had its heyday in the 1950s and 1960s. Catering to a male audience, these magazines featured glamour photography and lurid tales of adventure that typically featured wartime feats of daring, exotic travel or conflict with wild animals.These magazines are...
magazines published by Martin Goodman
Martin Goodman (publisher)
Martin Goodman born on was an American publisher of pulp magazines, paperback books, men's adventure magazines, and comic books, launching the company that would become Marvel Comics....
's Magazine Management Company in the 1960s. The feature's creative staff came largely from Magazine Management's sister company, Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
.
Men's magazine feature
A bawdy but non-pornographic, tongue-in-cheek secret agentSecret Agent
Secret Agent is a British film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, loosely based on two stories in Ashenden: Or the British Agent by W. Somerset Maugham. The film starred John Gielgud, Peter Lorre, Madeleine Carroll, and Robert Young...
strip, The Adventures of Pussycat was launched following the success of Harvey Kurtzman
Harvey Kurtzman
Harvey Kurtzman was an American cartoonist and the editor of several comic books and magazines. Kurtzman often signed his name H. Kurtz, followed by a stick figure Harvey Kurtzman (October 3, 1924, Brooklyn, New York – February 21, 1993) was an American cartoonist and the editor of several comic...
and Will Elder
Will Elder
William Elder was an American illustrator and comic book artist who worked in numerous areas of commercial art, but is best known for a zany cartoon style that helped launch Harvey Kurtzman's Mad comic book in 1952....
's color comic strip Little Annie Fanny
Little Annie Fanny
Little Annie Fanny was a comic strip created by Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder for Playboy in October 1962. The inspiration for the comic strip was Harold Gray's Little Orphan Annie. The comic follows the escapades of Annie Fanny, a tall, blonde, amply breasted, round buttocked, curly-haired young...
, published in Playboy magazine from 1962 to the 1980s. Long-established comic-book artist Wally Wood
Wally Wood
Wallace Allan Wood was an American comic book writer, artist and independent publisher, best known for his work in EC Comics and Mad. He was one of Mads founding cartoonists in 1952. Although much of his early professional artwork is signed Wallace Wood, he became known as Wally Wood, a name he...
— whose own similar 1968-1974 Sally Forth
Sally Forth (Wally Wood)
Sally Forth was a comic strip created by Wally Wood for a military male readership.Wood's sexy action-adventure character, who is often seen nude, began as a recruit in a commando outfit. She first appeared in June 1968, in Military News, a 16-page tabloid from Armed Forces Diamond Sales...
would run in armed services
Armed Services
Armed Services is a collective term that refers to the major organisational entities of national armed forces, so named because they service a combat need in a specific combat environment. In most states Armed Services include the Army also known as Land Force or Ground Force, Navy also know a...
publications — drew layouts for the 1965 premiere, in which Pussycat, a secretary for S.C.O.R.E. (Secret Council of Ruthless Extroverts) is recruited to fight the agency's archenemsis, L.U.S.T. Artist Jim Mooney
Jim Mooney
James Noel "Jim" Mooney was an American comic book artist best known as a Marvel Comics inker and Spider-Man artist, and as the signature artist of DC Comics' Supergirl, both during what comics historians and fans call the Silver Age of comic books...
provided finished pencil art and inking
Inking
Inking is the process of using a liquid known as ink, which contains natural or man-made pigment.* Inking is work done by a Inker, one kind of commercial artistIn biology:...
over Wood.
The feature premiered in Male Annual #3 (1965), and ran in at least Male Annual #4-5 (1966-1967), Stag Annual
Stag (magazine)
Stag was the name of various American men's magazines published from the 1930s through at least the 1990s.-Publication history:The first, published by Leeds Publishing Corp., beginning with vol...
#3 (1966), and in issues of Men and Stag.
As Mooney recalled in 2000, "[I]n the early '70s, I did work for Goodman's men's magazines, a strip called 'Pussycat'. Stan
Stan Lee
Stan Lee is an American comic book writer, editor, actor, producer, publisher, television personality, and the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics....
wrote the first one I did, and then his brother Larry
Larry Lieber
Lawrence D. "Larry" Lieber is an American comic book artist and writer, and the younger brother of Marvel Comics' writer, editor and publisher Stan Lee....
wrote the ones that came later".
The later strips abandoned this "ditzy spy" format and turned her into a savvy investigative reporter, who continually managed to find herself in situations where her clothes were torn off, voluntarily removed, or otherwise caused to "be elsewhere" by various events and situations. Usually, this was played to her advantage, as she used the distractions to stop the nefarious plots of the bad guys and get her story.
Other talent from Goodman's Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
who contributed to the Pussycat series include writer Ernie Hart
Ernie Hart
-Early life and career:Ernie Hart was part of the Timely Comics "animator" bullpen, separate from the superhero group producing comics featuring the Human Torch, the Sub-Mariner and Captain America...
, and artists Al Hartley
Al Hartley
Henry Allan Hartley , known professionally as Al Hartley, was an American comic book writer-artist known for his work on Archie Comics, Atlas Comics , and many Christian comics...
and Bill Everett
Bill Everett
William Blake "Bill" Everett, also known as William Blake and Everett Blake was a comic book writer-artist best known for creating Namor the Sub-Mariner and co-creating Daredevil for Marvel Comics...
. Contributing separately was the notable "good girl art
Good girl art
Good girl art is found in drawings or paintings which feature a strong emphasis on attractive women no matter what the subject or situation. GGA was most commonly featured in comic books, pulp magazines and crime fiction...
" cartoonist
Cartoonist
A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...
Bill Ward
Bill Ward (comics)
William Hess Ward , known as Bill Ward, was an American cartoonist notable as a good girl artist and creator of the risqué comics character Torchy.-Early life and career:...
.
Comic book
Eight five-page episodes were collected in a one-shot, black-and-white comic bookComic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
cover-dated October 1968, and titled The Adventures of Pussycat on its trademark
Trademark
A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...
ed cover logo and simply Pussycat in the copyright information in its postal indicia
Indicia
In philately, indicia are markings on a mail piece showing that postage has been prepaid by the sender. Indicia is the plural of the latin word indicium, meaning distinguishing marks, signs or identifying marks...
. The cover price of 35 cents was the same as that of the same publisher's black-and-white Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
magazine The Spectacular Spider-Man
The Spectacular Spider-Man
The Spectacular Spider-Man is the name of several comic books and one magazine series starring Marvel Comics' Spider-Man.The character's main series, The Amazing Spider-Man, was extremely successful, and Marvel felt the character could support more than one title. This led the company in 1968 to...
, released the same year but with an original, newly published story.
The one-shot has no ads except a back-cover advertisement for Jade East cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
. It also contains an unclothed but non-nude centerfold. In addition to seven reprinted stories, the comic included an original five-page Pussycat tale, "The Hidden Hippie Caper", by writer Larry Lieber
Larry Lieber
Lawrence D. "Larry" Lieber is an American comic book artist and writer, and the younger brother of Marvel Comics' writer, editor and publisher Stan Lee....
and artist Jim Mooney
Jim Mooney
James Noel "Jim" Mooney was an American comic book artist best known as a Marvel Comics inker and Spider-Man artist, and as the signature artist of DC Comics' Supergirl, both during what comics historians and fans call the Silver Age of comic books...
.
Larry Graber is credited as the comic book's art director, and Lew Holloway as associate art director.
Episodes
Source unless otherwise indicated:
- "Pussycat" by Wally WoodWally WoodWallace Allan Wood was an American comic book writer, artist and independent publisher, best known for his work in EC Comics and Mad. He was one of Mads founding cartoonists in 1952. Although much of his early professional artwork is signed Wallace Wood, he became known as Wally Wood, a name he...
(layouts), Jim MooneyJim MooneyJames Noel "Jim" Mooney was an American comic book artist best known as a Marvel Comics inker and Spider-Man artist, and as the signature artist of DC Comics' Supergirl, both during what comics historians and fans call the Silver Age of comic books...
(finished art)
-
- Male Annual #3 (1965)
- "The Madly Mirthful Misadventures of a Lively Little Lass" by Bill WardBill Ward (comics)William Hess Ward , known as Bill Ward, was an American cartoonist notable as a good girl artist and creator of the risqué comics character Torchy.-Early life and career:...
(artist)
- "The Madly Mirthful Misadventures of a Lively Little Lass" by Bill Ward
- Male Annual #4 (1966)
- "The Mirthful Misadventures of a Naughty Nonsensical Nymphet!"
- Stag Annual #3 (1966)
- "The Cool and Carefree Capers of a Curvy Cuddly Chick" by Bill Ward (artist)
- Male Annual #5 (1967)
- "The Cavortin' Case Of The Booby-Trapped Bra" by Bill Ward (artist)
- Male Annual #5 (1967)
- Reprinted in Stag Annual #7 (May 1970) and Popular Cartoons vol. 12, #50 (April 1980)
- "Damsel in Disguise" by Bill Ward (artist)
- Stag, issue number unknown, 1967
- "Another Capricious Caper of the Country's Most Cataclysmically Cuddlesome Curvaceous Cutie" by Bill Ward (artist)
- Men, issue number unknown, 1967
- "The Madly Mirthful Misadventures of a Most Generously Endowed Modern Miss" by Bill Ward (artist)
- Men, issue number unknown, 1967
- "The Hidden Hippie Caper" by Jim Mooney (artist)
- The Adventures of Pussycat (Oct. 1968)
- "Two Weeks with Play" by Jim Mooney (artist)
- Stag Annual (1970)
- "The Newest Misadventure of our Cuddly Little Cutie" by Jim Mooney (artist)
- Stag Annual (1971)
- "Bust Out at the Big House" by Larry LieberLarry LieberLawrence D. "Larry" Lieber is an American comic book artist and writer, and the younger brother of Marvel Comics' writer, editor and publisher Stan Lee....
(writer), Jim Mooney (artist), signed - "The Castaway Cutie" by Jim Mooney (artist), signed
- "High Voltage! or ... I Get a Charge Out of You!" by Larry Lieber (writer), Jim Mooney (artist), signed
- "Bust Out at the Big House" by Larry Lieber
- Male Annual #3 (1965)
External links
- Thompson, Steven Paul, "Pussycat, Pussycat ... A Look at Marvel's Most Curvaceous (and Obscure) Super-Spy", Amazing Heroes #172 (Oct. 1989)