Paragon Presents #2
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeParagon Presents #2 (1970) is one of the foundational issues of what would eventually become AC Comics, housing the debut adventure of Tara (Tara Fremont), the jungle she-cat who would go on to become a core Femforce member and one of Bill Black's most enduring original characters. The same issue advances the Captain Paragon serial — the character whose name the publisher itself carried — while simultaneously celebrating the public-domain jungle heroine Sheena in editorial and pinup form, establishing the dual DNA of original superhero storytelling and Golden Age reverence that would define AC Comics for decades. It also marks the first appearance of Janis Lawson, a supporting character who reappears consistently in the Tara mythos, cementing that this single issue was doing real world-building work for a universe still taking shape.
In "Dark Continent," Captain Paragon—now unraveling under the influence of LSD—collapses into a fugue state after a mysterious alien encounter, leaving his powers in the hands of Mara, a woman who escapes into the unknown. Found by Nicole Latimer, daughter of his long-lost friend Richard, the fractured hero stumbles through memories of a forgotten mission in Korea, where he first faced the enigmatic Shroud and was trapped in a supernatural trance for fifteen years. With Richard determined to uncover the truth behind his friend’s deteriorating mind, the two prepare to confront the lingering effects of both the drug and the past—on a story written, drawn, and inked entirely by Bill Black, with a cover by Bill Black.
In "Dark Continent," Roger Brant—known as Shade—takes a mysterious assignment from T.C. Fremont to design promotional materials for the enigmatic Dark Continent, a place shrouded in jungle mystery. As he begins the work, his curiosity turns to anticipation when he asks when he’ll finally meet Tara.
In "Lair of the Beast-Men!", a jungle mystery unfolds as Randall Crowley, master of the Beast-men and wielder of a giant electronic octopus, threatens the lives of Janis and Tara. With the Shade drawn into Randall’s mind to track Tara, the villain’s grip on reality begins to unravel as his crimes catch up to him in terrifying visions. The story’s fate hangs in the balance as the Dark Continent’s future rests in uncertain hands.
In the wreckage of a long-lost alien ship, Mara seizes the power once held by Captain Paragon and vanishes into the void. Meanwhile, Nicole Latimer, daughter of the late Richard Latimer, finds her father’s old friend in a state of terrifying disorientation—drugged, confused, and haunted by memories of a 15-year-old mission gone wrong. As Richard reluctantly agrees to help unravel the lasting effects of the LSD that’s warped Captain Paragon’s mind, the two begin a fragile experiment that could reveal more than just a cure—it might uncover what truly happened to the man who once saved him.
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Paragon Publications was founded by Bill Black in 1969, and Paragon Presents launched as one of the company's first comic titles in 1970 alongside White Savage. Because virtually all writing, penciling, inking, and editing during this era was handled by Black alone, the company could only produce about three issues per year total across all titles — making each individual issue a concentrated expression of his creative vision. Issue #2, subtitled 'Dark Continent,' was produced entirely by Black except for Dan Adkins's Sheena pinup and centerfold contributions, and it came at a moment when Black was simultaneously developing Captain Paragon (a character born directly from his legally shelved attempt to revive the original Captain Marvel) and constructing the jungle-adventure corner of his emerging shared universe.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Tara (Tara Fremont), the jungle she-cat, who would later become a major member of the Femforce super-team; the 1974 Paragon series Tara on the Dark Continent explicitly references this issue as Tara's debut adventure.
- First appearance of Janis Lawson, a supporting character who recurs throughout the Tara mythos and ultimately concludes the 'Beast-Men' storyline as a designated caretaker of the Dark Continent alongside Charles Lambert.
- All story content — script, pencils, and inks — credited solely to Bill Black, reflecting the one-man-band production reality of early Paragon Publications, where Black handled nearly all creative duties on the entire line.
- The Captain Paragon serial depicts the hero in an LSD-induced irrational state after a 15-year supernatural trance inflicted by the villain the Shroud during a Korean War mission; he is found by Nicola (Nicole) Latimer and placed under medical observation by her father Dr. Richard Latimer.
- The alien character Mara/Proxima appears in the Captain Paragon story, transferring power she has taken from Paragon to herself and escaping in an alien spacecraft — an early piece of the cosmic mythology that would underpin AC's later universe.
- The Shade (Roger Brant) appears in two separate story segments: one in which industrialist T.C. Fremont offers Brant a design job, and a second in which the Shade uses his ability to enter a villain's subconscious to defeat Randall Crowley and save Tara and Janis.
- The issue includes a multi-page editorial on Sheena's comics history (covering her 1930s–1950s appearances), illustrated by Dan Adkins, Bill Black, and R.H. Webb, along with photographs of Irish McCalla from the 1950s Sheena TV series — a signature blend of new fiction and Golden Age scholarship.
- The back cover is Bill Black's hand-drawn recreation of Dick Ayers's cover to The Ghost Rider (Magazine Enterprises, 1950 series) #8 (August 1952), an early example of the reverent Golden Age homage work that would become an AC hallmark. The Tara story material was later re-used as the basis for stories in Jungle Girl Retro Comics #4 (1997), and the Tara story itself was reprinted in Tara on the Dark Continent #2 (1979).
Cast · 21 characters
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Reprinted in Tara on the Dark Continent #2 (1979)
Key issues in Paragon Presents
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