Kung-Fu Christmas SAMURAI SANTA "Samurai on 34th Street" Conclusion

When Last We Left the Kung-Fu Kris Kringle...

......Sam, a down-on-his luck ronin working as a department store sales clerk, becomes the store's Santa Claus after the old one drinks himself into an early "retirement".

Returning home, still in his Santa suit, Sam stops a mugging and... 

Though inker Jim Lee has become a comics creative powerhouse as an editor/writer/penciler/inker, writer Phillip Clarke, Jr never became major contributor to the comics field.

Penciler Don Secrease has done a lot of work for AC Comics and his own strip, Terranauts, after premiering as a b/w comic, has become a webcomics mainstay!

Kung-Fu Christmas SAMURAI SANTA "Samurai on 34th Street" Part 1

Everybody, no matter their belief system, celebrates the winter holiday season...

...even martial artists, as this never-reprinted tale from Solson's Samurai Santa (1986) demonstrates!

The tale concludes right here on New Year's Eve!

Trivia: this hard-to-find book features the very first work by a writer/artist who became a superstar comics creative!
Let's meet him...

Yes, that Jim Lee!

BTW, do you have any idea how hard it is to find a Christmas-themed martial arts story?

SAVAGE FISTS OF KUNG FU "Master Plan of Fu Manchu" Epilogue

While our heroic martial artists didn't, in fact, meet...

....they do realize that others like them were involved in the conflict, and that everything turned out well!

Iron Fist and Shang-Chi continue to be major players in the Marvel print multiverse, with both also being featured in the Marvel Cinematic Universe!

But the Sons of the Tiger didn't quite hit that level of popularity, even though they saved the butts of both Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four's Human Torch...

...the group broke up and their amulets were found by Hector Ayala who utilized their power as the heroic White Tiger.

He was killed and his niece, FBI agent Angela Del Toro, became White Tiger II, until she was killed and resurrected by the ninjas known collectively as The Hand.

Hector's daughter, Ava is the current White Tiger (III), and a member of both Heroes for Hire and the Avengers!

Lin, Abe, and Bob all continue to infrequently-appear, but never together and never in costume.
In another weird note, as you see above and in the color version of the story featuring them, the Sons of the Tiger wear matching color costumes...

...much like the original X-Men's uniforms (and with a similar color scheme)!
But in the covers of their b/w magazine appearances, they all wear a similar design...but different color schemes (though they always have the red sashes denoting sensei status)...

...which are slightly-off-color model each time, even on the cover of the original b/w version of this three-part tale...

...which features Abe in a third version of his gi!

Well, that concludes our contribution to the RetroBlogs Summer Blogathon!

We hoped you enjoyed it and will bookmark this blog, because we have a lot more material (most of it never-reprinted) to re-present!

SAVAGE FISTS OF KUNG FU "Master Plan of Fu Manchu" Chapter 3: Hands of Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu

When Last We Left Our Martial Arts Heroes...

Iron Fist and the Sons of the Tiger each inadvertently-encounter members of supervillain Fu Manchu's Si-Fan organization as the criminals kidnap members of the Chinese and American delegations to the United Nations!

Though the heroic martial artists triumph in hand-to-hand combat, the delegates are abducted!

But there is hope for a rescue, as a man who has fought Fu previously is about to enter the situation...

Note: Fu Manchu himself appears in this segment, colored the lemon-yellow color we mentioned HERE, so this chapter may be NSFW / NSFS due to visual racial stereotypes!

The gray tones in the original version of this story are flat separations rather than a wash effect!

You'll see the difference compared to the other stories which were converted to color...

xxxxxxxxxx

C'mon, you knew the "blind beggar" was Fu, right?

Saturday:

An Epilogue that ties everything together, plus an interesting point...

Please Support Pop Art Martial Arts

Visit Amazon and Order...

Deadly Hands of Kung Fu Omnibus

Volume 2

SAVAGE FISTS OF KUNG FU "Master Plan of Fu Manchu" Chapter 2: Sons of the Tiger

We Have Already Seen...

...costumed martial artist Iron Fist stumbles upon a plot by supervillain Fu Manchu to kidnap the Chinese delegation to the United Nations, and despite his defeating the entire Si-Fan kidnapping team, the diplomats are abducted!

Meanwhile, the martial artists known collectively as the Sons of the Tiger arrive in NYC for a tournament and encounter some old friends...I mean "fiends"...

Odd that blind beggar keeps popping up...

Written by Chris Claremont and penciled and inked by Herb Trimpe, who usually couldn't do both due to deadline restrictions, this chapter suffered more than any other due to the color conversion.

Look at the b/w opening page, then compare it to the color version and note where detail is lost.

Also, the Sons of the Tiger wear red belts, which, in Kung Fu (unlike most martial arts) are the highest ranking!

So that aspect, at least, is not a mistake!

Anyway, the tale races to an astonishing finale with a couple of surprises...

TOMORROW!

Please Support Pop Art Martial Arts!

Visit Amazon and Order...

Deadly Hands of Kung Fu Omnibus

Volume 1

(which includes the b/w version of this story, but not the color version!)