This spread is from JUNGLE ACTION #10 by Don McGregor, Gil Kane and Klaus Janson. Comments and excerts on PANTHERS RAGE and 70s TChalla from hither and yon: PANTHERS RAGE is pretty much forgotten now. Though its an outstanding comic, it also reads at times like a comic from the 1970s. Making the Panther a volunteer schoolteacher in Harlem wasnt an evil thing for the previous writer to do, but it was, as McGregor so pointedly acknowledges, a pretty stupid thing to do. TChalla isnt an African-American looking for his place in the world, hes an African, all caps, but more importantly, hes the spiritual and political leader of an entire country. If he wants to dick around above the Upper West Side and teach poor kids, thats sweet, but what McGregor realized (immediately, and irritatedly), was that this effectively meant the character had abandoned Wakanda, and all of his people along with it. Whatever in-story reasons there were for that choice are never brought up in the comic... like the character, McGregor realized that no explanation would be acceptable. He left, they suffered. The why doesnt matter. The long captions that McGregor is famous for are really pervasive in PANTHERS RAGE, but they only add to the story, working on a deeper level to intensify and deepen a readers understanding of the events. TChalla passes through a physical and emotional gauntlet before Killmonger is finally is defeated, and McGregors writing brilliantly conveys TChallas complete exhaustion from all his ravaging battles. McGregor is amazing at conveying the doubts even a great king like TChalla feels with the burdens of his office, even as the Panther escapes the latest fate that traps him. Waiting for the trade. Writing for the trade. Interestingly, with one exception, the characters are all Africans or of African descent, a rarity for the time. I think the PANTHERS RAGE storyline in JUNGLE ACTION is a key or emblematic work of its decade because it has all of the qualities that came to define a major form of expression within mainstream comics, and it came out during a decade when multiple works began to lean in that direction. As described, PANTHERS RAGE sounds like a book that could be solicited today. Its driven by prose. The art is allowed a level of freedom of design and depiction because of the presence of that prose. Its storyline is the result of sitting down and thinking through the logical, real world implications of past narratives (an African king teaching in Harlem is a king that has abandoned his subjects). There is a shift in tone to the more serious and somber. It borrows elements from outside genres (horror, mostly) to thwart expectations inherent to the main genre (the superhero story)... The basic plot of what TChalla faces in the 7th through 9th chapters of PANTHERS RAGE might most concisely be described as Education Through Suffering. Buckler, Graham & Kane turned in some outstanding work but McGregor was so verbose, he made Roy Thomas look like a mime. But it wasnt just the density of verbiage, it was that EVERY single glance and movement had to have some hidden, deeper, philosophical meaning. The whole run just became a bit of a chore for me to read through. (Billy) Graham can flipflop from Kirby sci-fi to hard realism between panels, and manages to make it all look cohesive. Embracing lovers, a broken marriage, a desperate run, and a little boy getting caught crying by the bank of a river all look exactly as they should. Buckler never did anything more meaningful and totally knockout! Too busy cloning. Not that PR isnt full of swipes! I was trying to think of other comics where a violent threat ends without the use of more violence, and the only story that popped to mind was Alan Moores first SWAMP THING story, where Jason Woodrue is trying to destroy the flesh in the world so plants, the green as Woodrue calls it, can rule supreme. Swamp Thing, recently having come to peace with his inhuman nature, confronts Woodrue. Woodrue asks him, Why do you want to stop me? Swamp Thing looks at him, with great calm in his eye, and says Because you are hurting the green. Woodrue quickly feels his power escape him. The power of peace beat the power of violence. Its a tremendously satisfying moment because it comes from the characters themselves. Bimonthly was a pain in the ass. Boy, can I ever recommend these. I actually never owned any, but my brother Rob, had them all. They were a breath of fresh air and something very uniquely bronze age. There had been so many attempts to ape Kirby and Marvels silver age in the early 70s, but copying anything only makes it second best. Writer Don McGregors intelligent and passionate novel explored the country and its ruler, chronicling the often complex and contradictory impulses felt by people in real life. There is pulse-pounding action and excitement in this arc, but with an interesting philosophical side. Its really like no other comic written before and since, and works extremely well as a complete novel. Its my favourite BLACK PANTHER, as well. Ive tracked down most of the JUNGLE ACTION issues; I might be missing three now, Im not sure, I got clump of about five recently. ...Instead, he plays it like some bastard version of Shakespeare, predating the soap-dripping mouth of Chris Claremonts Phoenix love poems completely, choosing instead to channel Robert E. Howards barbarian violence through a Jack Kirby view of the world. If it didnt move as fast as it does, it might make one tone-deaf, and honestly, theres times when PANTHERS RAGE hits the wall of monotony that jam-packed 70s comics always do when read in quick succession. If it reads strangely today, thats to its benefit--it shouldnt seem like something that just fell off the rack. Its nothing like what we have nowadays, because it does things differently. Lastly, Black Panther can’t be an “African American” until he renounces his Wakandan citizenship.
Posted on: Sun, 06 Jul 2014 22:16:24 +0000
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