Issue(s): Astonishing Tales #15
Cover Date: Dec 72
Title: "And who shall call him savage?"
Credits:
Mike Friedrich - Writer
Gil Kane - Penciler
Tom Sutton - Inker

Review/plot:
Ka-Zar and Zabu have been out of the Savage Land since the Man-Thing arc in issues #12-13, but this is the first part (#14 was a reprint) of the "urban jungle" status quo that lasts until this series is renamed and renumbered as Ka-Zar #1 after issue #20. The series will get more super-hero oriented as it goes on, but this issue is a grime and gritty crime story...

...with Ka-Zar encountering a drug gang.

In the 1980s, all gangs are depicted as being multi-racial, presumably to avoid racial profiling. The gang here however is almost entirely black except for two white red-headed guys.

Ka-Zar is remaining in the city to support Dr. Wilma Calvin, who was injured in the previous arc, and it turns out that one of the gang members is her son.

The word "pussy-willow", previously reserved for Aunt May, is used as a curse substitute for the drug gang.

Meanwhile, Ka-Zar declared Bobbi Morse to be "friendly".

Mike Friedrich and Gil Kane are a whole different thing, compared to, say, Gerry Conway and Barry Windsor-Smith from earlier issues, but the down-to-Earth setting is a nice change of pace.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• Wilma Calvin was injured in Astonishing Tales #12-13.
  
• The main drug pusher - alias: The Pusher - reports to Morgan, the crime boss "seen in recent issues of Captain America" (starting with Captain America #152).

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Why is everything sideways?

Some combination of browser issues, HTML coding, and image parameters, no doubt. Fnord will most likely look into it now that you asked, but you may want to try another browser in the meantime (it all appears fine in my Chrome under Windows 7).

I've stripped the metadata from these images and it should be fine now, although if your browser has cached the images you'll have to clear the cache for the page (Control-F5 or your OS' equivalent). Thanks for letting me know!

I could not help but think of Jethro Tull's song "Pussy Willow" when I saw the above panel with the Pusher, although I've never known of any street gangs of any stripe who were fans of flute-based progressive folk-rock. Anyway, I do wish to reiterate a point I made in a previous post (as I am wont to do): Gil Kane, for all the criticisms, drew one BADASS Zabu!

What an interesting combination of artists with the master horror illustrator Tom Sutton inking over Gil Kane's pencils. The trademark Kane facials and nostrils are more intense, and piggybacking off my previous comment, Zabu looks particularly intimidating. Ka-Zar's looks of rage are really ramped up, as well as the gang members' fear and anxiety when confronted by the jungle lord and his "tabby". My personal favorite is when Ka-Zar is interrogating Vinnie/Percy on the rooftop and tells him "There is another law in the Savage Land... What Ka-Zar wants--Ka-Zar gets!"