- The Adventures of Pussycat
"The Adventures of Pussycat" was a risqué, black-and-white,
comics feature that ran throughout variousmen's adventure magazines published by Martin Goodman's Magazine Management Company in the 1960s. The feature's creative staff came largely from Magazine Management's sister company,Marvel Comics .Publication history
A
bawdy but non-pornographic , tongue-in-cheeksecret agent strip, "The Adventures of Pussycat" was launched following the success ofHarvey Kurtzman andWill Elder 's color comic strip "Little Annie Fanny ", published in "Playboy" magazine from 1962 to the 1980s. Legendary comic-book artistWally Wood — whose own similar 1968-1974 "Sally Forth" would run inarmed services publications — drew 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.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 who contributed to the "Pussycat" series includewriters Stan Lee ,Larry Lieber , andErnie Hart , and artistsAl Hartley ,Jim Mooney andBill Everett . Contributing separately was the notable "good girl art "cartoonist Bill Ward.Comic book
Eight five-page episodes were collected in a one-shot, black-and-white
comic book cover-dated October 1968. The cover price of 35 cents was the same as that of the same publisher's black-and-whiteMarvel Comics magazine "The Spectacular Spider-Man ", 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 . It also contains an unclothed but non-nude centerfold.Many of the episodes were reprinted throughout the seventies in bawdy "cartoon and joke" pulps of the time that were made up of off-color jokes and cartoons (including many by Bill Ward.
Quotes
Artist
Jim Mooney : " [I] n the early '70s, I did work for Goodman's men's magazines, a strip called 'Pussycat'. "Stan [Lee] wrote the first one I did, and then his brother [Larry Lieber|Larry[ Lieber] ] wrote the ones that came later". [http://www.twomorrows.com/comicbookartist/articles/07mooney.html "Comic Book Artist" #7 (Feb. 2000): Jim Mooney interview] ]Episodes
"Includes episodes not reprinted in the comic above. This list is incomplete, and except for the first episode, the order is uncertain"
* "Pussycat" Wally Wood
* "Damsel in Disguise" Bill Ward
* "Bust Out at the Big House" Larry Lieber (writer), Jim Mooney (artist), signed
* "The Castaway Cutie" Jim Mooney (artist), signed
* "High Voltage! or ... I Get a Charge Out of You!" Larry Lieber (writer), Jim Mooney (artist), signed
* "The Cavortin' Case Of The Booby-Trapped Bra"
* "The Hidden Hippie Caper" Jim Mooney (artist)
* "Two Weeks with Play" Jim Mooney (artist) — "Stag Annual" 1970
* "The Newest Misadventure of our Cuddly Little Cutie" Jim Mooney (artist) — "Stag Annual" 1971Footnotes
References
* [http://www.newsfromme.com/archives/2005_06_15.html#009980 POV Online: "The Marvel Age of Huge Breasts" by Mark Evanier]
* [http://www.perpetualcomics.com/column.asp?colid=347 Tony's Online Tips, July 2, 2003]
* [http://comics.ign.com/articles/624/624620p1.html The Fred Hembeck Show: Episode 14 — Marvel's Pussycat adventures] (sporadically disabled link; cached version [http://216.239.51.104/search?q=cache:FJPeqK3iB6gJ:comics.ign.com/articles/624/624620p1.html+%22fred+hembeck%22+%22pussycat%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us) here] )
* [http://www.comicboards.com/gsmb/view.php?trd=050802144008 What's Up, Pussycat?]
*Thompson, Stephen Paul, "Pussycat, Pussycat ... A Look at Marvel's Most Curvaceous (and Obscure) Super-Spy", "Amazing Heroes" #172 (Oct. 1989)
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