JUDOMASTER "Part III: JudoMaster is Born"

When Last We Left Our Hero...

Rescuing a villager from the Japanese, Sgt Rip Jagger is shot and wounded.
As the Japanese close in on him, a number of guerrillas, armed only with poles, knock out the heavily-armed soldiers and take Jagger and the villager to their hidden base, where he learns the person he rescued was the leader's granddaughter!
To reward him, Rip was trained in martial arts by Bushuri, the field commander of the guerrillas and second in-command of the group...

The first issue of JudoMaster (#89* in 1966) was out six months after this tale appeared in the final issue of Special War Series in 1965.
The series would continue until #98 in late 1967.

We mentioned previously that Frank McLaughlin had created 2-3 page features about martial arts in Charlton's spy comic, Sarge Steel.

This issue presented another of those features...

Note how McLaughlin, like any true martial artist, emphasizes that the best path is, when feasable, to not fight!

Trivia: Bushuri may look familiar to readers who know the Japanese films of the 1950s/60s...

..which made their way to American art houses and television.

I'm very sure McLaughlin had seen some of them including, likely, Yojimbo and Seven Samurai, so he used the actor I consider the "Sean Connery of Japan", Toshiro Mifune, as the visual model for Bushuri!
Sadly, though DC has reprinted other 1960s Charlton Action Heroes, they haven't done so with JudoMaster!

*Charlton took an existing Western comic called GunMaster (which, ironically, McLaughlin was inking) and retitled it JudoMaster.

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Animated feature with the only appearance of Rip Jagger in any DC movie/TV project.

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JUDOMASTER "Part II The Dojo!"

We Have Already Seen...

Rescuing a villager from the Japanese, Sgt Rip Jagger is shot and wounded.

As the Japanese close in on him, a number of guerrillas, armed only with poles, knock out the heavily-armed soldiers and take Jagger and the villager to their hidden base, where he learns the person he rescued was the leader's granddaughter!
To reward him, Rip will be trained in martial arts by Bushuri, the field commander of the guerrillas and second in-command of the group...

To Be Concluded as JudoMaster is Born...

Friday!

BTW, you've previously-seen Frank McLaughlin's work on this blog...when he contributed the Iron Fist chapter to the "Master Plan of Fu Manchu" Marvel multi-martial arts hero team-up HERE!

Support Pop Art Martial Arts

Visit Amazon and Buy...

Batman: Soul of the Dragon
Animated feature with the only appearance of Rip Jagger in any DC movie/TV project.

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JUDOMASTER "Introducing Rip Jagger...JudoMaster"

Here's a Never-Reprinted Origin Story of a Silver-Age Hero...

...conceived by a comic creative who was an active martial arts teacher/practitioner!

To Be Continued When We Enter...The Dojo...

Wednesday!

Illustrator Frank McLaughlin, who was Charlton Comics' Art Director as well as occasionally penciling and inking covers and stores, had been doing short features about martial arts in the back of the spy comic Sarge Steel.

McLaughlin pitched a costumed hero who utilized Asian martial arts instead of the usual Western boxing and wrestling most non-superpowered heroes utilized.

Editor Pat Masuli, also a martial arts buff who attended the same dojo as Frank, gave the OK and assigned writer Joe Gill to work with McLaughlin, who had no scripting experience at that point.
(The Sarge Steel features were non-fiction illustrated demonstrations of martial arts moves.)
The project was, like Spider-Man's debut in Amazing Fantasy #15, published in the final issue of an ongoing anthology comic, Special War Stories #4 (1965).

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Visit Amazon and Buy...

Batman: Soul of the Dragon

Animated feature with the only appearance of Rip Jagger in any DC movie/TV project.

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