Unusual Heroes: Tigress #1 (Basement Comics, 1997)

With a busier schedule and some out-of-town trips I was unable to post as many Halloween comics as I would have liked, but no worries...I will save the rest for next year. Now that October has faded into memory, time to get back to the good ol' obscure stuff.

Tigress #1 is based off of the below illustration by Mike Hoffman, which is inspired by the beautiful artwork of a man that goes by the name of Frank Frazetta. It amazes me how many people Frazetta's art has inspired to pick up a pencil and begin drawing, and Hoffman is no exception. He captures the essence of Frazetta's style perfectly here, with a story to go along with it that would make Wally Wood proud.

The story involves a strange, uncharted world full of prehistoric dinosaurs, giant bugs, and....well cat-women. A rocketship approaches the planet, responding to a beacon sent by a lost rocket years before.

 

The crew land and find themselves face-to-face with Tigress, the cat-woman who holds a mysterious past with the previous astronaut of the missing rocket. Tigress befriends the crew and leads them to the crash site of the missing rocket, but before they know it they are attacked by a giant dinosaur.

Things get hairier as the crew find themselves at the mercy of the other cat-people, and Tigress is captured by her own people and tied to a stake for her role in helping the humans.

The first issue of Tigress might be a very simple science fiction story...but that's why I like it. It's more of an ode to the aforementioned artists/writers than anything else, which is right up my alley. Unfortunately Tigress only lasted two issues, but the character has appeared in various other series under different publishers since then. Any fans of Frazetta or Wood might be inclined to check this out.