 | AnthroOriginal Medium: Comic books Published by: DC Comics First Appeared: 1968 Creator: Howard Post image: © DC Comics. |
Cave men in comics go all the way back to Our Antediluvian Ancestors, one of several features by F.W. Opper (Happy Hooligan, Maud the Mule) that ran in Hearst papers as early as the first decade of the 20th century. The exemplar of the genre, of course, is Alley Oop. But Anthro, published by DC Comics in the late 1960s, had neither the distinguished pedigree of the Opper comic nor the long-lasting popularity of Oop. He's remembered mostly as an oddity — a quasi-serious comic by mostly-humorous cartoonist Howie Post (Jimminy & the Magic Book, Care Bears), published during a period when DC did quite a few very short-lived series.
There was no good reason for DC to have had so many unsuccessful
new titles in so short a time. The company was still in the habit
of introducing new concepts in Showcase, the try-out comic
they'd started in 1956 for the purpose of testing new ideas before
committing the company to a full-scale launch. But starting with
The Creeper, which had been featured in
the previous issue, they'd adopted the practice of moving new
characters out into their own comics after a single
Showcase appearance, without waiting for sales figures or
reader response, which kind of defeats the purpose. (Other 1968 DC
launches, such as The Secret Six and Bomba the Jungle
Boy, didn't fare much better.) Anthro's first appearance was
in Showcase #74 (May, 1968), and the first issue of his
title was dated July-August of the same year.
Anthro was a young man living in a world full of mastodons, exploding volcanos, and other clichés of fiction set in prehistoric times. His father was the local chief, and his mother was a captive from a raiding expedition. Anthro, who was just at the point of discovering girls, was interested in the daughter of the chief of Mom's tribe, who was trying to foist the wrong daughter off on him.
Post handled all the writing and art for the character, except the inking in #6, which was by Wallace Wood (Power Girl, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents). But that wasn't a very large task. Like The Hawk & the Dove, Angel & the Ape and other 1968 Showcase alumni, Anthro didn't last very long. His final issue was #6, dated August, 1969.
After that, he wasn't seen again until Showcase #100 (May, 1978), where every character ever featured in that title appeared. After Showcase #100, he wasn't seen again until the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover series (1985-86), where a majority of characters DC had ever published appeared. After Crisis, he wasn't seen again at all.
