Here's a fun little 3-page story (illustrated by THOIA fan fave, King Ward, no less!) from the August 1947 issue of It Really Happened #10. Yep, if you love seeing big-shot bullies get their butts handed back to 'em as much as me, then this is the post for you! To make matters cooler, this story is based on the actual real life of junior Judo master, Carol Tegner, who started flippin' fools 2-3 times her size at the early age of 6! I've also included some actual real-life photos of her at the end of the post below, demonstrating her awesome abilities at the age of 19 in 1956!
6 comments:
That's a really interesting little comic! 3 pages and it almost seems like an advertisement but it's not. Somebody read an article and had a 3 page filler strip.
I do like the staged pictures of Carol. She looks like she about to put the hurt on somebody, though the kids in the bottom panel don't seem that interested (a couple are looking straight at the camera!)
A judo story from 1947, roughly three decades later everybody was Kung-Fu fighting (hee-ya!)
If I am not mistaken, the crimefighting heroine Black Cat (Linda Turner) was teaching judo moves in her comic too.
I agree that this feel a bit like an expanded Charles Atlas ad. But without all the queasy gender vanity of the classic beach bully set-up. What would that 98-pound kid's girlfriend have done if he'd tossed that beach stud on his can without even buffing up first? That would make a neat story.
I was just talking to a friend and martial arts aficionado about this story prior to commenting. I wanted to say that 1947 felt like pretty early days for comics to name check judo specifically. I feel like the form had been gaining US pop culture cachet since the thirties (but don't quote me), but in comics? He, like JMR, mentioned that Black Cat was doing judo in the forties, too. Now I would love to track down just when judo was first mentioned there, but Harvey's Black Cat has a long history and it's gonna take some time to pinpoint. I just read her debut story in POCKET COMICS #1 (August, 1941), and no martial arts of any kind get named, just kitty claw powers. I'll keep looking. Sporadically.
...actually, that didn't take as long as I thought it would. Jiu jitsu is mentioned by name in Black Cat's second appearance from POCKET COMICS #2 (page fifty-five, panel one), cover dated September, 1941. Just in time to inspire four-year-old Carol Tegner? I'd like to think so.
Sweet! Thanks for the info dig :) Also, there are more pix of her online at the age of 5 in 1942 that everyone should immediately check out as well, like this one:
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/1942-press-photo-carol-tegner-evelyn-290237306
Speaking of Black Cat and judo moves, check out more of both in the AEET archives here:
https://andeverythingelsetoo.blogspot.com/2018/01/black-cat-judo-tricks.html?m=0
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