Clarence Linden "Buster" Crabbe (1908-1983) was a 1932 gold medial Olympian swimmer in the 400-meter freestyle who parlayed his win into a film and television career, playing at various times Tarzan, Flash Gordon, and Buck Rogers. He appeared in more than 100 films, often playing a "jungle man;" he also starred as a good-guy version of Billy the Kid in thirteen movies and cowboy hero Billy Carson in twenty-three movies. On television, footage from his films were shown on The Gabby Hayes show, and later on his own The Buster Crabbe Show, a New-York City-based series; from 1955 to 1957 he starred in Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion, with his real-life son Cullen playing the child role of Cuffy Sanders.
Two comic books series were named after him: the twelve-issue Buster Crabbe Comics ("Your Television All-American Cowboy") from 1953 to 1955, and four issues of The amazing Adventures of Buster Crabbe in 1954.
In "Buster Crabbe and the Mankiller," Treasury Agent Jim Winters is sent to investigate a bank robbery that netted the crooks nearly half a million dollars. There he meets his old friend Buster, who happens to have roamed into town with his sidekick whiskers (picture Al "Fuzzy" St. John). Buster and Whiskers are deputized to help Winters. Meanwhile, a wild animal show has come to town -- that's "wild animal" singular; the only animal is a caged, very gentle tiger. Walton, the tiger's owner, wakes up the next morning to discover the cage door open and the tiger missing. Then Jim Winters' mangle and clawed body is discovered. While the sheriff and the rest of the town go on a hunt for the tiger, Buster and Whiskers stay behind to investigate the robbery. you know and I know -- and Buster suspects -- that the bank president and the sheriff are in cahoots for the robbery. buster and Whiskers confront the gang and thew four outlaws are no match for Buster's lightning fast draw and accurate aim. Later that day, the tiger wanders back into town and goes into his cage on his own. Good artwork from Allen Ulmer.
Al Williamson drew the next story, "The Ogre," as well as providing the superb and interesting cover at fo=r the comic. A couple of hunters are camping out getting ready for the opening of the season, when a large, ugly, man-like, furred monster comes out of the woods and confronts them. Could this be the ancient Indian legend of "Kagagak" come to life? The hunters run into town to warn the townspeople, but are no believed (the hunters are Easterners, so who would believe them?), but white /wing, an ancient Indian, tells of the equally ancient myth of Kagagak. Buster decides that he and Whiskers would go investigate. At the abandoned campsite, Buster finds a large footprint that could not have been made by either man or animal. It leads them to an extinct volcano and a cave at the bottom of the crater where they are attacked by the creatures. Buster frightens them off with gunfire -- the noise scares them.. He figure these primitive monsters mean no harm and decides to keep their existence a secret, later telling the hunters that what they saw was a hermit dressed up to scare them.
Whiskers takes the stage in the next story, "Whiskers and the Ghoul Gang." Whiskers is spinning tall tales of his brave exploits against outlaws, when the sheriff and his friends decide to pull a joke on him, telling him about the murderous "Ghoul Gang." Before the sheriff leaves town on an errand, he deputizes Whiskers "in case" the Ghoul Gang show up (he also manages to swap the bullets in Whiskers' gun with blanks). Suddenly the Ghoul Gang -- six men in ghostly sheets -- "rob" the bank. whiskers shoots at them to no effect and they ride off, supposedly to the cemetery. in the end, the last laugh is Whiskers'. The artwork by Bob Powell and Howard Nostrand has the desired comic effect.
The rest of the issue is taken up by various fillers: a two-page text story about Black Bart, a one-page humor story in which homer on the Range is frightened of cactus at night, a one-page telling of the history of Rawhide in the West, a five-page story in which Buster narrates the true story of the 1887 "Showdown" between Sheriff Commodore R. Owens and the notorious Blevins Brothers, and a wordless one-page humor story about "Whiskers' Nag." The back cover carries ads for items that might appeal to a youngster in 1952: saddlebags for your bicycle ($2.69 a pair), western ensemble for your bicycle (a bar blanket with two holsters, a saddle skirt, a tail streamer and two handlebar streamers -- all for just #3.25), an 18-inch brown and yellow plush stuffed "Jackie Rabbit" ($3.95), a giant piggy bank that can hold over $2,000 in silver ($3.95), two pounds of hard candy (Black Walnut Flakes and Chicken Bones -- just $1.50), and a two-way electronic walkie-talkie telephone ($3.00 each) -- what kid wouldn't want all of these?
Enjoy.
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=97663&comicpage=&b=i
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