National Cartoonist Society Profile: Bob Montana

Name? er...Montana. Born? yes sir! Stockton, California, 1920. Male? yes, six dailies and a Sunday every week!Color? just a blue pencil. Scars? no thanks, don't smoke. Sex? went on first National cartoonist Society U.S.O. tour ...slept with Bill Holman, Al Posen and Dick Wingert. Education? art school drop-out. (Boston Museum, Phoenix Institute and Art Student's League) Service? bus boy New York hotel, Sgt. United States Army. Decorated? yes! murals for Fort Monmouth latrine. Occupation? Wife and four children. Hobby? "Archie" since 1941. Nine hundred and fifty papers (give or take four hundred and fifty) Awards? four children Home? seldom. Live in Rome, Cuernavaca, London, Meredith New Hampshire Pet Peeve? yes, but it died. Work Tip? if you drink don't ink! If you had your life to live over? I'd marry a rich cartoonist!

Foreign Favorites: Barbarella

In 1962 the French publication,V-Magazine, was intoduced to a new sexy astronaut who traveled the universe righting wrongs and chasing all the handsome males from the planets she encountered. Jean-Claude Forest's Barbarella was an instant hit with fans, but failed to find any favor with the French authorities, who in the later years banned her saucy reprint book versions. As an early forerunner to space-heroines in comics, Barbarella had numerous bizarre adventures that often left her skin-tight spacesuit in pieces, whether fighting off villains like the sadistic hunter Strikno, or using her ray gun on weird, gelatinous creatures. One thing though was for certain, Forest's elegant fine line drawings helped set the mood for the haunting and evocative romantic exploits she had with both man or machine. When the campy film adaptation starring Jane Fonda in the title role arrived on the silver screen in 1968, Forest tried desperatly to revive the feature in both France and Italy. It was not until years later in 1981, when the strip resurfaced in the pages of L'Echo des Savanes with Jaen-Claude now just providing scripts and Daniel Billon the illustration, but unfortunately the liberated heroine tales did not survive long.

Marvel Spotlight: Ghost Rider

With a successful Marvel Entertainment big budget feature starring Nickolas Cage in the title role, Ghost Rider debuted in Marvel Spotlight #5 with stories by Archie Goodwin and artist Mike Ploog in 1973. Having had a popular Western hero of the same name steadily losing interest with readers over time, Marvel Comics gambled that bikers would be more popular in 1973 that cowboys with their new version of this rider with a tortured soul. Jonny Blaze was a clean-cut cyclist who became the unwilling host of an evil spirit named Zarathos who changed him into a "demon biker" with a wicked super-charged chopper motorcycle and flaming skull head. Often taking on Satan and his horde of demons, this self-titled series lasting eighty one issues in its first incarnation, after its five issue try-out introduction.

The Ghost Rider even was once rescued by his Western counterpart when he was unable to overcome an evil coven assembled against him, until they combined their otherworldly powers to save the day in the historic Ghost Rider #56. In 1990 a new series was launched with more gruesome hard hitting tales showcasing the violence and gore when compared with their earlier hot rod inspired incarnations. Produced by foreign born artists Javier Saltares and Mark Texeira, it new look suited the character well enough to keep the sales going strong for Ghost Rider to still be published to the present day.