Reading Room SPACE WARS "Strange World"

A never-reprinted short story that could've been produced as an episode of the original Twilight Zone...

...from Charlton's Space War #22 (1963).

Was this a longer tale edited down to only three pages?

It certainly feels like it, since there are many unanswered questions like...

If these people are Tibetan, why are they dressed like the Flintstones...and why do they speak English?
How would they know anything about the Earth-Uranus War?
And why is it we have no idea how only Heffner survived?
Pencils by Dick Giordano, inks by Vince Colletta.
The writer is unknown, but the Grand Comics Database postulates Joe Gill as the most likely candidate.

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Wednesday Worlds of Wonder ORBIT "Marooned Off Vesta"

 We All Know Isaac Asimov!

Amazing Stories March 1939 Art by Robert Fuqa

The Three Laws of Robotics!

Several seminal series including Foundation, Galactic Empire, and Robots...all of which have been unified into one massive universe!

Literally hundreds of novels, novellas and short stories!

Amazing Stories, March 1959 Art by Virgil Finlay

But did you ever read his very first story?

(The pages above are from the tale's first publication in 1939 and it's (1959) 20th Anniversary appearance in the same magazine!

Now here's the never-reprinted 50th Anniversary adaptation of that tale, scripted by JD Scott and illustrated by Michael Davis.

It appeared in #2 of Eclipse's sci-fi anthology Orbit, which featured adaptations of stories from Davis Publications' Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine! and several of Asimov's own stories!

When the prose version of this story was reprinted in 1959 for its' 20th Anniversary appearance in Amazing Stories, Asimov penned a sequel, "Anniversary", featuring the characters gathering to celebrate their survival and then having a new, related, adventure!

The two tales have usually been reprinted together since.

But there's been no graphic adaptation of "Anniversary"...yet!

Next Week: A New World of Wonder!

Reading Room: CAPTAIN SCIENCE COMICS "World War III with the Ants"

I'm Having Serious Problems with Ant Infestation...

...but never anything like this ant-ageddon (or ant-pocalypse) from Youthful's Captain Science #6 (1953)!

As for who was responsible for writing and illustrating this cult comic classic, theories run from Harry Harrison (who became a major sci-fi novelist and editor), to Dick Ayers to Lou Cameron, but nobody knows for certain.

BTW, this story came out over a year before the classic giant-ant film THEM!

Monday Mecha Madness SPELLBOUND "Too Human to Live!"

They say Artificial Intelligence will Replace Humans in Many Jobs...

...even as co-workers...and management!

Pencilled by Vic Carrabotta and inked by Jack Abel, and likely plotted by editor Stan Lee, this cautionary tale from Atlas' Spellbound #16 (1953) has a clever twist ending that would've been appropriate for an episode of The Twilight Zone!

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Reading Room CAPTAIN SCIENCE COMICS "Spawn of Saturn"

Welcome to the Cover Featured Tale from Captain Science #1 (1950)...

...except it's not about Captain Science!

In fact, the story's title isn't mentioned on the cover at all!

(You can find the actual Captain Science stories from #1 HERE and HERE.)

It's interesting to see a sci-fi tale where a handsome starship captain doesn't go on a landing party to a potentially-dangerous locale!

The writer is unknown, but the art is by Walter Johnson, who not only penciled and inked his own work, but ran a studio that supplied material to a number of comics companies, so some of his "signed" jobs (like this one) show elements of several artists' styles.

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