The Nostalgia Train now takes me from the 40's to the '60s for one last look at the Silver Age, albeit at a character better known from prose and TV than from her few comics-appearances.
Perhaps appropriately for a one-season wonder, the TV show HONEY WEST-- which featured Anne Francis as a private detective who used karate to chop her way out of tight spots-- spawned but one issue from Gold Key Comics. Of course, Gold Key tended to bring out a lot of single-issue comic books, whether they were original concepts (like JET DREAM and TIGER GIRL from posts 8 and 9) or other TV-adaptations. Gold Key also brought out one single issue of THE AVENGERS, which not only ran longer than HONEY WEST but also had considerably more impact on American culture, thanks to the wittiness of the show's scripts and the charms of Diana Rigg. Speaking as a fan of the then-current show, Gold Key's AVENGERS was a witless, charmless disappointment.
Gold Key's HONEY WEST comes off considerably better, thanks to the art of Jack Sparling (also seen in TIGER GIRL). All the stories have the lady dick doing her karate thing, but the best one is probably the lead tale, titled, "All the Tough Guys Fall for Honey." This a joke, because, see, the action takes place aboard a ship, and when Honey shimmies up a mast, and the crooks go after her, she chops them and they "fall for her." Yuk, yuk-- but at least the art's nice.
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