Hunt Bowman, the Conan Clone of Planet Comics

During the 1940s and 1950s, a Flash Gordon-Conan clone named Hunt Bowman appeared in Fiction House's Planet Comics series.  In a ruined post-Apocalyptic Earth control;ed by evil Voltamen from the Planet Volta (where else would they come from), one "brawny barbarian" leads the fight for freedom.

 His associates are the Martian Princess Lyssa and Bruce, a human who happens to be inhabiting a Voltaman's body (coincidentally the body of the king's son).

So far so good.  Sounds like a lot of opportunities for beefcake and buddy-bonding, if not outright gay sumbolism.  Hunt Bowman sounds like a male stripper's name, and look at his weird short-shorts and leather-fetish harness that leaves his nipples free for the clamps.

And his best friend is named Bruce.

But Planet Comics was not known for its beefcake.  Quite the opposite.

Here are two panels from a story about Hunt and Lyssa escaping from a Voltamen craft to the ruins of New York City.

In the first, Hunt's arm and shoulder get a quarter of the space, and Lyssa's breasts about half.

In th second, Hunt's body is completely covered by Lyssa's bare legs.

The covers are even worse.  Every single one shows Lyssa or some other half-naked babe being menaced by a monster, with Hunt absent.  In the one cover where he's present, he looks like a midget dwarfed by the gigantic Lyssa.  Actually, he's far, far away.

This is the only cover giving Hunt substantial space without blocking him with girls' legs, although he's stil pushed off to the side, while a girl's body occupies the center stage.

There's a Hunt Bowman on Facebook.  Somebody named their kid after the barbarian hero.