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Tweak says, "Fire the arrows!"

peur_evol (peur_evol) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-05-03 11:43:00

Entry tags:

creator: jerry siegel, creator: john buscema, publisher: charlton, status: public domain

NATURE BOY

Charlton comics was notorious for being the lowest of the low-budget publishers, but they were never afraid to take risks that other companies wouldn't dare to. While other companies were eliminating their superhero titles in the mid-1950s to produce more popular western and horror titles, Charlton was actually pushing for creators to come up with new heroic titles to fill the void at the end of comics' golden age. Nature Boy was one of these short-lived characters.
Created by what would seem to be a "dream team" of talent, veteran writer Jerry Siegel and talented illustrator John Buscema, the series just never took off, ending after just three issues.
Charlton went out of the comics business in 1986, and Nature Boy has now fallen into the public domain.

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psychop_rex
2009-05-04 02:48 am UTC (link)

I'm not terribly surprised that he got cancelled so quickly - I mean, has 'Nature Boy' EVER been anything but a mildly pejorative term? In my mind, it generally equals something like 'sissy' - the sort of thing that a redneck school bully would call a kid with glasses who liked to catch butterflies. It just doesn't sound heroic. (I'm reminded specifically of 'Ravishing Ronald, the denatured boy', from that one Bugs Bunny cartoon where he's a wrestler - 'Bunny Hugged', I think it was called.)
That being said, this IS an interesting origin - a guy who can control the forces of nature would be pretty damn powerful, and being granted those powers through the mercy and compassion of the various monarchs of natural forces is an idea with some oomph to it - it somewhat reminds me of a scene from 'The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus' where the leaders of the various fairies and nature spirits gather together and decide to give SC the gift of immortality. Shame about the name and the nondescript outfit - this guy could've really gone places.

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