Issue(s): Jungle Action #11
Cover Date: Sep 74
Title: "Once you slay the dragon"
Credits:
Don McGregor - Writer
Billy Graham & Klaus Janson - Penciler
Klaus Janson - Inker

Review/plot:
The Black Panther leads an assault against Killmonger's village of N'Jadaka.

On the way in, T'Challa has another humorous encounter with Killmonger's hapless followers Kazibe and Tayete.

Despite native dress, the battle is fought with modern or even futuristic weapons.

Killmonger's lieutenants Baron Macabre, Malice, and the newly introduced Lord Karnaj defend the village...

...but Killmonger himself is not present.

Panther's assault was planned based on information that Taku got in conversations during his attempts at friendship with the captured Venomm, and Taku is conflicted about the fact that he used the information. He is also driven over the edge when a child is caught in the crossfire during the assualt.

W'Kabi's respect for the Panther is bolstered with this attack, and his lust for war is tempered by the change in Taku.

This issue also has the resolution to the murder mystery that Monica was framed for back in Jungle Action #9. It turns out that the hand-maiden Tanzika was responsible for Zatama's death.

A back-up feature for this issue shows how all the clues were laid out and it's clear that a lot of thought and planning was put into this.

Quality Rating: A-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Before writing for Marvel in 1973, Don McGregor put out some fanzines and wrote for Warren's Eerie, Creepy, and Vampirella b&w magazines. His stories were nearly all of the "relevant" type, extremely dialogue-heavy, and extremely violent.

Weirdly enough, the back-up feature was not reprinted in Essential Black Panther V.1, though a lot of unpublished extras were.

Don also designed most of these splash pages, with Steranko in mind. Only later
he discovers Eisner's work that innovated the "title as objects in the picture" idea.
He has a lot of original sketches on his Jungle Action scripts.

McGregor's an interesting writer but probably an acquired taste, in part because he's unusually verbose, both with the dialog and the narration. Seems to me he has some things in common with Doug Moench, who's also eclectic but particularly drawn to noirish material. Later, McGregor wrote one of the first graphic novels ("Sabre" from '78 with art by Paul Gulacy). I particularly like his hard-boiled detective series from the 80s, "Nathaniel Dusk" (DC) and "Detectives Inc." (Eclipse), two vols. each. The great Gene Colan did some of his finest impressionistic work on three of them (Marshall Rogers on the other): pencils with no inks. Slow-paced, atmospheric, hard-hitting, really refreshing stuff for that time. McGregor always hurls himself into researching his subjects and isn't shy about exhibiting the knowledge he acquires along the way. Laughed when I searched this site and saw he was writing Spidey in late '92 and having him muse about city water towers. Very typical of his nostalgic, quirky, yet oddly endearing style.

His classic early Black Panther stories ("Panther's Rage") are finally set to be reissued in an affordable color TPB edition as part of the "Epic Collection" in October. (FF 52-53 will also be reprinted as a prelude.)

Interesting that Black Panther had foes named "Venomm" and "Karnaj (Carnage)" long before Spider-Man.