Monday, November 2, 2015

Comics Are For Cavemen Like Anthro

It’s tough growing up….dealing with disapproving parents, looking for love, and trying to find your way in the world.

And, it’s been that way since the days of the dinosaurs!

Starting with Showcase #74 (May, 1968), Howie Post put teenage angst into the caveman days by introducing Anthro…the first boy on Earth!

Anthro and his family had to deal with plenty of turmoil in those days of the Cro-Magnon; his father Ne-Ahn (leader of the Bear Tribe) was a respected man (well, Neanderthal) in his community, his younger brother Lart was injured, and then there was that girl Embra who followed him around (and her father, Chief Tugg didn’t approve of Embra marrying before her older sister, Ita…and Embra had to fight off Nima as well).


All this drama sounds like an episode of Happy Days or maybe issues of Archie Comics

Anthro lasted six issues from July-August 1968 to July-August 1969, with Howie Post doing all the writing and most of the drawing (inker Wally Wood chipped in on issue #6) and Anthro popped up in major DC crossovers like Showcase #100, and the Crisis on Infinite Earths (where his marriage and expecting a child with Embra was revealed; and appearing in issue #2, the same issue that has Kamandi, the LAST boy on Earth…)...

...and Final Crisis, as well as a small run in Tales of the Unexpected…where he fought to be remembered along with Dr. 13, Infectious Lass and I, Vampire (collected in Doctor 13: Architecture and Mortality, by Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang)!



Pretty likely Anthro will be remembered, as tales of youth seem to be eternal!

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