Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Panel of the Week - Scarlet's Last Panel


The 1950's were not kind to Scarlet. Super-powered female characters were fading from the comic pages. In order to save his signature character, creator Russ Stamm dropped the "Invisible" from the title and focused on dramatic soap opera stories as opposed to those of intrigue, mystery, and adventure. One of the supporting characters, "Stainless Steel" grew in popularity and by 1954, he became the title character of the strip. After 13 years, Scarlet was driven out of her strip with absolutely no fanfare whatsoever. This week's panel from July 6, 1954 is the very last one to feature her that we have been able to find. It is the final known image of Scarlet by Russ Stamm (or anyone else for that matter) that was ever created.

I'm pleased to report that there are more new panels featuring Scarlet on the way! I've had the good fortune to have seen some the work being done on the new graphic novel and I can't wait to share. Scarlet may have ended her comic career badly in the last century, but we'll make sure she is treated well in this one!

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