"A Mate for Konga" (1962)

"Not one... but two!  'A Mate for Konga'" shouts the Steve Ditko Dick Giordano cover (either inks alone, or pencils and inks) shown above. (Correction courtesy of Nick Caputo.)  Charlton's The Return of Konga  (January, 1962) appeared between no.'s 4 and 5 of the company's Konga series, and it contains two Konga concoctions and a six-page filler piece called "The Monster Hunter."  All feature Bill Molno on pencils and inks.  His art, here as elsewhere, is beautifully spare and eccentric.

Here is Molno's superb (if a little out of scale) splash panel for "Mate," depicting Konga and his grown-in-a-jar mate, Torga, as they show up, unannounced and uninvited, on the shores of San Francisco.  That's Konga in back, staring on, puzzled, as Torga goes ape:

Anyway, as our story begins, Konga is living all alone on a "far tropical isle," and not looking too thrilled about it....

Before he knows it, though, he'll have plenty of company--evil Soviet company.  (In 1962 pop culture, "Soviet" equalled evil.)  It seems that a cracked but brilliant Soviet scientist knows where Konga is and longs to use the apes' giant body cells so that he can give them "specialization," which I guess means giving them the ability to form into specific body parts, which is not what "cell specialization means," but this is a Charlton comic.  Normal-sized cells are useless, as they're not big enough to specialize.  In these expressionistic panels, Molno presents the scientist as a raving nut, which, in 1962, also went with "Soviet":

More horror-film imagery as an "august body of high Soviet officials" (all evil, we can presume) agrees to underwrite the prof's giant-cell-gathering expedition.  But of course.  In 1962, Soviet science equaled weird science, at least in comic books:

To the island they go, in an awesome panel featuring one of Molno's most memorable sea scenes:

Of course, once landed, they soon encounter Konga:

                                                                     "You rang??"

In the story's most inspired-by-King-Kong panel, Konga stands there, hoping these Soviet humans are good humans.  I guess he hasn't read many comic books....

So much for that hope.  In an image almost straight out of the 1957 B-movie classic, The Amazing Colossal Man, a giant hypo pops forth....

And Comrade Professor gets his jar of giant cells....

Back to the lab, where Konga's cells, placed into a jar, form into an "entity" that looks very Konga-like--only, for the moment, much smaller:

Two panels later, it's a whole different kettle of cells....

Torga is coaxed into a cage, where she is later joined by Konga, who finds the lovely Torga the answer to his prayers....

Or maybe not....

              

Using the knowledge gleaned from his successful specialization of giant Konga cells, the evil professor wants to "build a race of Soviet supermen" from human cells.  But his scheme is put on hold by his superiors, who arrive by sub to take Konga and Torga to San Francisco without delay as part of a scheme to steal American nuclear plans.  Love these panels and their red color scheme:

Conveniently, an earthquake happens just as the giant apes are loaded for their journey to SF.  The evil professor, of course, attempts to retrieve his records....

And the bad guy (and his notes) go bye-bye:

After a long trip by Soviet sub, Konga and his mate are released just off the coast of San Francisco:

This sets the stage for my favorite "Mate for Konga" panel, wherein evil Torga goes on a brief SF-trashing rampage.  She ignores Konga's cries to split the scene, preferring instead to split some buildings....

The Soviets accidentally kill Torga with a shot meant to dissuade the giant apes from retreating to the sea, and a sad Konga carries her off....

Thus ends one of the craziest and most enjoyable of all Joe Gill/Bill Molno Chartlon efforts.  

Lee