Monday Mecha Madness MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU!

Though in the Star Wars Multiverse, They're known as "Droids"...

...they're actually robots, not androids!

So why aren't they called "bots"?
BTW, who knew R2D2 was such a wise-ass?
Next: If droids can't go into the Cantina, where do they go?

Note: Technically, the female could be an android!

The following tale features two droids...one good and one decidedly evil!

The final entry features R2D2, also hanging out with Ewoks...

These stories were from a trio of limited-edition anthology fanzines dubbed "Star Wars Fanbooks" sometimes called Star Wars Harvest Fanbooks, since the first one was titled...

Two others followed...

...all conceived, edited, and produced by Shelli Paroline in the late 2000s!

I wanted to present something both mecha and Star Wars-themed, and since almost every related comic/graphic novel had been reprinted multiple times (except for the Star Wars 3-D comics, which didn't play up the droids), finding something unique was proving near-impossible, until I remembered these, which featured very talented fans and neo-pros demonstrating their love for the "Galaxy Far, Far, Away"!

And, I was hoping to provide a link to the publisher's website listed in the Grand Comics Database HERE so others could purchase copies, but the site is now defunct.

And a search for copies anywhere else came up with zero/zilch/nada/nuthin' honey!

Mifipristone Madness TOPS "Anthony Comstock: Fanatical Reformer"

Is it any wonder MAGA cons are using the work of a puritanical, conservative con-man from the 19th Century...

...to promote and serve their anti-choice agenda in the 21st Century?

Both Federal and local Republican politicians are currently attempting to use the ancient Comstock Act's19th Century definitions of "obscene material" (which includes birth control printed information and contraceptive drugs) to prevent them from being provided to pregnant women today!

Written by George Hansen and illustrated by Lee Ames, this feature from Lev Gleason's TOPS #2 (1949) presents itself as a "review" of a biography of Comstock, Anthony Comstock: Roundsman of the Lord (1927)..which praised the man!

However, where the book put Comstock on a pedestal, the comic strip savaged him, taking the material from the tome and presenting it in a historical context.
BTW, you'll note the art here is larger than we usually present.
That's because the periodical it was presented in was tabloid-sized, like Marvel and DC Treasury Editions of the 1970s and 80s and the lettering would be unreadable in our usual 525-pixel wide format.
Editor Charles Biro conceived and produced the mag as an attempt to do an "adult oriented" magazine using the comic book format.
Sadly, it only lasted two issues and either issue is incredibly hard to find!
Happily, Fantagraphics worked with noted writer/artist/historian Michael T Gilbert to produce a superb book reprinting those two issues with an astounding amount of historical material about the periodical...
Note: We presented this post only a few months ago, but with Repugs in states banning abortion re-introducing this two-century old legislation as the reason to validate preventing women from receiving contraceptive drugs or even printed matter about birth control, we felt it was worth showing what the cons are using at the basis for their insanity!
And now that a Federal judge has (hopefully temporarily) stopped patients from being able to recieve needed medication by mail, it seems that (for now) their goal has been achieved!

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TOPS

Complete Collection of Charles Biro's Visionary 1949 Comic Book Series
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Space Hero Saturdays FANTASTIC WORLDS "Ace of Space"

Not to be confused with Space Ace (who went through several different incarnations)...

...this guy is a Cold War fighter pilot-type transposed to a Star Wars setting!

Darn those aliens!

Sending robot "drones" to do their fighting instead of going man-against-lizard as God intended!

Though the scripter for this tale from Standard's Fantastic Worlds #7 (1952) is unknown, the artwork is by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito, with a couple of panels redrawn by Mike Sekowsky!

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Friday Fun BASEBALL COMICS "Rube Rooky"

Is there anything Will Eisner hadn't done during his long, illustrious  career?

He took chances experimenting with genres like this baseball-themed 1949 comic book...

...which predated a rush of sports-themed comics from various publishers the next year.

Unfortunately, the big problem with being first is that, often, the world isn't quite ready for you, and Baseball Comics lasted only one issue.

But it certainly wasn't for lack of quality, as this Eisner-written and penciled tale, inked by Tex Blaisdell, proves.

There's more to Rube Rooky's one shot at stardom, and we'll be running it here at Friday Fun for the next few weeks, so don't miss it!

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Baseball Comics #2

(A follow-up published decades later)

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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Taylor History of Comics: Volume 3
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