The Original Ragman

In a world full of flashy super heroes, crazy clown lunatics and big, cosmic battles...

...who fights for the common man?

Back in the day, in a small neighborhood in Gotham, that was the Ragman, as created by Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert.

Ragman #1

In Ragman #1 (August-September, 1976, by Robert Kanigher and the Redondo Studio, with cover and layouts by Joe Kubert), we meet Rory Regan, a Vietnam veteran who was helping his father run "Rags'n'Tatters" (a second hand store in an unsavory part of Gotham City).  Rory's dad found a large cache of cash, and decided to split it with his 3 older friends (a circus strongman, a world-class acrobat and a heavyweight boxer), though they suspected the money was not obtained legally.  The elder Mr. Regan should have heeded his instincts, as gangsters came to claim the money, shooting down power lines to execute the 4 old men, with Rory showing up as they were drying...trying to save them, he grasped his father's hand, and as they died, the four men passed on their strength and abilities to Rory.  Taking a costume made of rags he planned to use for a costume party, Rory went out to take revenge on the hoods who killed these men in "The Origin Of The Tatterdemalion". 

Ragman #2

The syndicate comes looking for their cash in Ragman #2 (October-November, 1976, by Kanigher, Kubert and the brothers Frank and Nestor Redondo) with "75-25 Or Die", as life continues for Rory Regan at Rags'n'Tatters (secretly and slowly distributing the mob million among the neighborhood residents).  Rory's journalist girlfriend, Bette Berg, who thinks Rory could do better than to stay in this neighborhood...yet, he won't leave as he feels he's the only one who cares about the people here, and advises her to leave him (which she won't do as she cares about him).  

This issue introduces the lady Opal, who is enamored with Ragman, as the criminals attempt to trap Ragman...not knowing of his full abilities and dedication and devotion to keeping his neighborhood safe, and a little bit of luck in knowing exactly where the junk in his neighborhood is.

Ragman #3

With his third appearance under a stunning Joe Kubert cover, in Ragman #3 (December-January, 1976/1977 by Robert Kanigher, Joe Kubert and the Redondo Studio), the tattered tatterdemalion of Gotham faces off against the gangster Mr. Big and his gang...

...all to save Teddy, a deaf-mute boy who happens to be the only witness to a murder (unless you count his cat), and thus could be a witness to put these criminals behind bars in the tale "See No Evil".

While Ragman did most of the heavy lifting in this issue, it was the cat who was the real hero (and Rory introduces Teddy to Bette, as the two head out to a date in Chinatown....).

This issue's letter page also states that Rory is Irish, not Jewish (as though one couldn't be both...).

Ragman #4

When a young boy dies of a drug overdose, Rory suits up to bring down the drug ring in his neighborhood in Ragman #4 (February-March, 1977, by Robert Kanigher, Joe Kubert and the Redondo brothers) in "The Dream Killers", the first of two stories in this issue.


This first story sees the Ragman facing off against Seriph and his gang (the owner of a crooked amusement park, Funland) , as well as helping Jeanne Wilson (though not successfully, as she dies).


The second, untitled story, is by Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert, and has Ragman dealing with 3 grave robbers looking for a hidden treasure in a silent story (as Kubert's images are powerful without words).

Ragman #5

The last issue of Ragman is a special treat, provided by Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert, as Ragman #5 (June-July, 1977) features "The Junkyard Of Death".

Yet again, the mob tries to use Opal as bait to draw out the man in rags, but this time, they also have found the million dollars that was hidden in the junkyard (and Bette suggests to Rory that they get married so they could adopt Teddy, and take him out of this area and out of the orphanage).

Yet, this dream, like the cash (and the promise of a next issue)....all goes up in smoke!

This issue also is where it is revealed that Joe Kubert had done the layouts for the earlier four issues, which he had not been credited in.

Batman Family #20

Ragman did return, with Batman Family #20 (October-November, 1978 by David V. Reed, Michael Golden and Bob Smith, under a Jim Starlin cover), and "Enter The Ragman".

This issue sees Batman and Ragman meeting for the first time, as the Gotham Associates Realty Corporation tries to swindle the residents of Ragman's neighborhood out of their homes, and Batman and Ragman have to work together to stop the crooked realtors.

Brave and the Bold #196

It took a few years for Ragman to return again, this time in Brave and the Bold #196 (March, 1983, by Robert Kanigher and Jim Aparo) with the story "The Two Faces Of Midnight".


This time around, Batman and Ragman work together to deal with the Dynamiters for Democracy...a terrorist group threatening Gotham.


This requires Batman and Ragman to switch costumes for a bit, seeing how the other half lives....

...however briefly!

Among The Others

Ragman did appear again, but mostly just in the background of bigger things, with Red Tornado #3 (September, 1985) and Crisis On Infinite Earths #5 (August, 1985), showing Ragman was willing to work with others (but mostly, he was just a face in the crowd, in this case, standing next to Jonni Thunder, drawing an end to this heroes journey....).

Treasure In The Trash

Still, Ragman wouldn't go away, and the character returned, with a slightly altered history, as a part of a legacy of Jewish protectors, using a mystical rags that took the souls of criminals to repent (starting with Ragman #1 of October, 1991 by Keith Giffen, Robert Loren Fleming, and Pat Broderick) for an 8 issue mini-series.  This Ragman came back for another 6 mini-series (with covers by Joe Kubert), and a few team-ups with Batman...

....as well as joining in larger mystical events such as the Day of Judgment 5 issue mini-series of 1999 and the Day of Vengeance 5 issue mini-series of 2005, before joining the mystic group of Shadowpact, along with Nightmaster, Nightshade, Enchantress, Blue Devil and Detective Chimp for its 25 issue run.

A different character than Joe Kubert's original.....but, thematically similar, finding treasures in the trash..... 

Robert Kanigher's Other Wonder Women

Some of you might remember writer Robert Kanigher as Sgt. Rock and Easy Company co-creator (with Joe Kubert), or as an editor (and then writer) of Wonder Woman (being the first writer to take over Wonder Woman from creator William Moulton Marston).  You might even know he co-created the Suicide Squad, the Metal Men, the Haunted Tank and the Sea Devils, as well as writing the first Barry Allen Flash story in Showcase #4...but he also created a little more as well!

Black Canary

Along with artist Carmine Infantino, Robert Kanigher created the original Black Canary (Dinah Drake) in the Thunderbolt feature in Flash Comics #86 in August, 1947 (with a dinosaur on the cover, not Black Canary, but hey, Kanigher later co-created the "War That Time Forgot" series, where dinosaurs fought soldiers), missing only Flash Comics #89, and she took over the feature from poor Johnny Thunder with Flash Comics #92 (February, 1948, which also introduced her boyfriend, and later husband, Larry Lance...and father of the second Black Canary who was in the Justice League and Birds of Prey).   

Kanigher and Infantino did all her individual features up until the last issue of Flash Comics #104 (February, 1949) and two unpublished stories as well (that got published in DC Special #3 in April-June, 1969, and Adventure Comics #399 in November, 1970, and all these tales plus her two Brave & the Bold #61 and 62 by Gardner Fox and Murphy Anderson, and two Adventure Comics back-ups from #418 and 419 by Denny O'Neil and Alex Toth are in the Black Canary Archives!). 

Harlequin

Black Canary also took over Johnny Thunder's spot in the Justice Society of America, and while there, she faced the Harlequin.  Not Batman's foe, but the foe of the original Green Lantern, a lady named Molly Mayne (still a little crazy, and in love with Alan Scott, the original Green Lantern!).  Harlequin first appeared in All-American Comics #89 (September, 1947 by Kanigher and artist Irwin Hasen).

Harlequin returned many times, in All-American Comics #91, 93, 94 and 95, as well as Green Lantern #29, 31, 32, 33, 34 and 36, and Comic Cavalcade #28, using hologram projecting glasses and a wooden mandolin as weapons, even working with the Injustice Society in All-Star Comics #41 (June-July, 1948) where she met Black Canary.  Molly still loved Alan, and finally did marry him later, during Roy Thomas' Infinity, Inc. run.  Sadly, most of her individual appearances have not been reprinted.

Mademoiselle Marie

Originally just a member of the French Resistance during World War II, Marie fought the Nazis starting with Star-Spangled War Stories #84 (August, 1959) by Kanigher and artist Jerry Grandenetti.  Mlle. Marie's appearances lasted through Star-Spangled War Stories #91 (wherein her feature was taken over by the dinosaurs of the War that Time Forgot), but Marie soldiered on, meeting Sgt. Rock, Johnny Cloud, the members of the Haunted Tank, the Hellcats and the Unknown Soldier (all World War II heroes, co-created by Kanigher).

Marie's final fate was hinted at in Detective Comics #501-502 in 1981, and her murder solved by Batman and Checkmate #21-22 made Mademoiselle Marie a "legacy" name, naming the World War II Marie...Anais Guillot.  DC Universe: Legacies #4 hints that Marie might have indeed survived World War II...and has a son that looks like Sgt. Rock!  Marie also had a World War II one-shot in November, 2010 by writer Billy Tucci and artists Justiniano and Tom Derenick, with a cover by Brian Bolland as well.

Rose and Thorn

There were two women with the Rose and Thorn name..and they were both created by Robert Kanigher!  The first as a foe of the Golden Age Flash in Flash Comics #89 (November, 1947 with art by Joe Kubert) who only had one other published golden age story in Flash Comics #96 (though parts of another unprinted story were reprinted in Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane #113, among other places....).  The Thorn was a split personality (the good girl being Rose Canton), faced the Flash with poison darts, and she returned to face Black Canary (and the JLA) in JLA: Year One #2, as well as the JSA in All-Star Comics #72-73....and then more of her history was revealed in Infinity Inc. and especially in Infinity Inc. Annual #1...with the Harlequin as well!

The second Rose and Thorn started in Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane #105 (October, 1970) in a story written by Kanigher, with art by Ross Andru (who had worked with Kanigher on Wonder Woman as well).  Rose Forrest was a police detective's daughter, traumatized by the death of her dad at the hands of the 100 (an evil crime syndicate based in Metropolis).  This caused Rose to develop the split personality of the Thorn (hiding her short blond hair with a brown wig)...and working to take the mobsters down, occasionally making a wild and wacky Lois Lane cover (and co-starring in the main feature).   

Kanigher wrote most of the back ups (with Cary Bates writing a few), and other artists on the series included Gray Morrow, Dick Giordano, Rich Buckler and Don Heck by the back-ups end in Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane #130.  Rose and Thorn came back in Superman #336 (June, 1979, by Len Wein and Curt Swan), and in two issues of Brave and the Bold (#188 and #189, written by Kanigher, and art by Jim Aparo) with Batman.

After the Crisis on Infinite Earths, in Dan Jurgens' Booster Gold fighting a new, expanded 100 (now the 1000, in Booster's earliest issues as he settled into Metropolis) and even helped in the Superman title crossover Panic in the Sky, as well as working with the new Green Arrow (Connor Hawke) for a short time as well as having a few tales in the Showcase revival of the mid-1990s, as well as appearing in the early issues of Joker's gal pal, Harley Quinn (no relation to the earlier Harlequin...though Thorn didn't make the covers of #3 and #14 of Harley Quinn), unlike the next Kanigher creation!

Poison Ivy 

The character that brings most of them together!  Kanigher and Shelly Moldoff (ghosting for Batman co-creator Bob Kane) introduced Poison Ivy in Batman #181 (June, 1966) basing her look off popular pin-up girl Bettie Page!  (You can see it in Carmine Infantino's cover for the issue, and she was used as Catwoman was considered "too sexy" to use in the comics of the time).  Pamela Isley was just a seductive thief to start (and was back pretty quickly...in Batman #183) before disappearing again (though that first tale was reprinted in Batman #208, with cover art by noted good girl artist Nick Cardy).  Kanigher even brought her back to face the Thorn in  Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane #116 (November, 1971, with art by Dick Giordano, who also drew Wonder Woman and Green Arrow/Black Canary back-ups for a time).   

Len Wein and Dick Dillin brought her back as a member of the Injustice Gang of the World (a team of villains including Scarecrow, Chronos, Mirror Master, Shadow-Thief and the Tattooed Man) to face the JLA in Justice League of America #111 (May-June, 1974) and Black Canary was there in the team's second appearance in Justice League of America #143. 

With DC Special Series #6 (November, 1977), Poison Ivy joined forces with Grodd, Sinestro, Bizarro and Kanigher created Wonder Woman foe, the Angle Man to fight the JLA with the Secret Society of Super-Villains!  Later still, she joined forces with all DC villains in the Crisis on Infinite Earths!

After the Crisis on Infinite Earths (where she faced Phantom Lady, a heroine who looked like a pin-up girl), Poison Ivy joined the Suicide Squad (another series originally co-created by Kanigher, though this version included DC villains (like Deadshot and Count Vertigo) thanks to an update by writer John Ostrander, and she was there on and off from issues #33 to #66), and that team faced Checkmate! (which later included a legacy of Mademoiselle Marie!).

Poison Ivy also grew...becoming a champion of the plant kingdom, and even getting a greener hue....and becoming friends with Joker's gal pal, Harley Quinn! 

In the Harley Quinn series, you can see more of the pin-up girl in the art of Terry and Rachel Dodson...and more so in her later appearances as well, like in Gotham City Sirens, and she was even part of the Birds of Prey with Black Canary to start of the New 52!

All of this shows us one thing...that if it wasn't for Robert Kanigher, there'd be a lot less complex female characters for women to cosplay at comic conventions or for writers and artists to explore in the pages of DC Comics!