Friday, May 7, 2010

Friday Night Fights--1960's TV Style!!

This current bout of Friday Night Fights is Minimum Clonage--we can't re-use any fighters during these twelve rounds. So let's check ny list so far:

Spider-Man
Judomaster
Marl Kincaid


Hmmm, I seem to be getting more and more obscure, don't I? Well, why stop now? Let's travel back to the realm of TV series that lasted only a single season back in the 1960s, shall we? As the into to his show went every week:

Out of the night comes a man who saves lives at the risk of his own. Once a circus performer, an aerialest who refused the net. Once a cat burglar, a master among jewel thieves. Now a professional bodyguard. Primitive... savage... in love with danger. The Cat!

Yes, we're talking about Thomas Hewitt Edward Cat--T.H.E. Cat!! The man who is the perfect comic book premise!! The who was Jon Sable two decades early!! The man played by Robert Loggia!!

Sadly, his televised adventures are currently unavailable, but remember--this was the 1960s, when every TV show was constitutionally guaranteed a least a brief run as a comic book by Dell or Gold Key or someone. T.H.E. Cat was no different, thanfully, because now we can have this masterpiece of a Friday Night Fight!!

First, our villain:

There must be an awful lot of dead people around, then...

Anyhoo, King Leer (seriously!!) kidnaps Cat's gypsy nightclub singer girlfriend Maria, and absconds with her to his evil castle hideout. Cat has foiled several hideous death traps...but his luck is about up:







Now, I'm willing to bet a lot of money you've never seen a Friday Night Fight where T.H.E. Cat throws a hyena at a henchman. Even Spacebooger must be in awe of this awesomeness...

I'm sad I can't use any more T.H.E. Cat, because even though Thomas Hewitt Edward Cat lasted only 4 issues (and 26 episodes), this Dell run had a surprising number of good fights. Maybe next time around.

An unknown writer and artist Jack Sparling brings us an "ex-wire walker, trapeze artist, fighter, and now Man of Mystery, who works for the law--and sometimes outside the law!!" who throws a hyena at a henchmen in T.H.E. Cat #2 (1967). That's an actual quote, by the way, from issue #1...

You, gentle reader, have two choices: read of of my T.H.E. Cat fanfic, or jet over to Spacebooger's and vote for the fight you regard as the greatest this week. Keeping in mind, of course, how hard it would be for any fight to top an ex-acrobat ex-jewel thief turned bodyguard throwing a hyena at a henchman...

2 comments:

SallyP said...

That...that was AWESOME!

Chad Carter said...

Simply jaw-droppingly cool. You've completed me, sir.