PLANET COMICS #46 comic cover

Fiction House's main tactic for comics was to throw a babe up on the cover, which had the side effect of the company running a large amount of female heroes, including Sheena of the Jungle, Senorita Rio and Mysta of the Moon. Like DC's Wonder Woman many of these went the light bandage route but every now and then things would be majestically subverted, as in this issue of Planet Comics showing the Lord of Jupiter getting lifted to safety by an amazon who seems several inches taller than the hero.

CAPTAIN AMERICA film serial poster

Timely's star-spangled man didn't take long to make the leap to the big screen, getting his own Republic serial just three years after making his comic debut. Well, sort of - even by pre-MCU standards the adaptation was best termed as "loose". Not only did Cap trade in his iconic shield for his less iconic pistol, bit instead of being Steve Rogers, Super Soldier he was actually DA Grant Gardner for no readily apparent reason. In short it's unclear why Republic bothered leasing the rights at all. To top it all off Dick Purcell has a gut on him, and it's widely accepted that the light workout he goes through here was a factor in his fatal heart attack a few weeks after filming wrapped.

THE SUPREMES Costume Design

Not only does Bob Mackie pitch some great dresses but he also absolutely nails Di, Flo and Mary. What a showoff. 

SHIRLEY SLADE photograph

Congress wouldn't let women fight on the front lines of WW2 but many performed the endless list of other crucial duties that allowed the American war machine to work. Among these was the Women's Airforce Service Pilots (or WASPs), trained female pilots who conducted vital, unglamorous work such as ferrying aircraft around the country from facto and instructing rookie pilots. One of the best known was Sally Slade, who graced a Life feature on the WASPs in 1943 that included this fantastic shot of the 22-year dragging on a cigarette between runs.

BY LOVE DEPRAVED book cover

It would possibly be quicker to list the things post-WW2 America wasn't scared of. Of course, in this case the terrifying plague presented by lesbianism is just an excuse to get salacious white African woman on white African woman petting past the censors.

HONDA BALLADE CR-X advert

A classic combination of the compact, stylish CR-X and what appears to be Clare Grogan's stunt double. 

TOUCHDOWN OF COLUMBIA, APRIL 14, 1981, 10:20:53 PST art

What do you know, Mort Künstler is capable of painting something without foregrounding an unlikely semi-clad woman. Which is strangely disappointing. 

DAZZLER #35 comic cover art

Back in the day when comics sold to people under the age of 40 sales of even lower-performing titles were big numbers. As a result cancellation was something of a last resort instead of an annual exercise. Dazzler had been launched to tie in with disco but naturally by the time Alison's adventures were out the genre had become a lightning rod for hatred. Despite a change in direction the mutant songstress struggled to shift comics, so Danny Fingeroth had her switch to acting hopeful. To help promote the new format a series of nine covers were created by Bill Sienkiewicz, who was a serious heavyweight at the company. They didn't really help Dazzler but they looked superb.

CHER promotional photograph

What with all the plastic surgery, autotune and general descent into self-parody - however aware - it's easy to forget how dazzlingly beautiful Cher used to be.

MOTOROLA MDT 9100-T MOBILE DATA TERMINAL photograph

 

This incredible piece of Motorola  dashboard hardware was fitted to select police cruisers in America during the eighties. Anticlimactically it just enabled them to link to precinct computers instead of convert the cars to a flying mode or fire lasers.

WEIRD TALES VOL 8 #6 Magazine Cover

 

The daddy of the fantasy magazines, Rural Publishing's Weird Tales was at the vanguard of science fiction and horror pulp for much of the twenties and thirties before it was overtaken during World War II. Before then however the contents were written by some incredible talent, including Robert Bloch, Nictzin Dyalhis, Clark Ashton Smith, Seabury Quinn and H P Lovecraft. The original magazine folded in 1954, though a zombie version is still running.