Friday, November 2, 2012

Reading Room: STRANGE WORLDS "Weapon Out of Time"

Barbarians, advanced technology, and beautiful, half-clad women...
...so we're obviously back in the retro-cool era of the Golden Age of science fiction!
So, if the fountain was "Old Faithful", where would nearby Anthor be located?
And, what happened to Anthor and it's inhabitants, who obviously weren't around when Paleoindians first migrated across the Beringia land bridge between Asia and North America around 12,000 years ago (or earlier)?
Yeah, I know it's "just a comic book story", but I can speculate, can't I?
Was this meant to be the first in an ongoing series about Prof Chalmers and his time-viewer/matter analyzer?
Art for this wild story from Avon's Strange Worlds #2 (1951) is by Wally Wood.
The writer is unknown, but it's theorized to be Gardner Fox, who created comics' first barbarian, Crom, for Avon the previous year.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Reading Room: CAPTAIN SCIENCE "Tracking the Flying Saucers"

A dying alien gives an human without fear the ability to defend Earth...
...nope, it ain't the Silver Age Green Lantern!
It's Captain Science!
Appearing full-blown in the first issue of his own title in 1950, Captain Science was a bold attempt at a Captain Video-type comics hero, one more dependent on brains and technology than brawn.
Unlike Captain Video, who created advanced technology simply because he was really smart,  Gordon Dane was shown to be smart and had the advantage of possessing alien knowledge he could use in adapting and improving present-day tech to serve new uses as the situation required.
Visually, the art on his never-reprinted premiere appearance by Gustav Schrotter is adequate, but hardly distinctive.
We'll be presenting the complete Captain Science series over the next couple of months.
Watch for it.

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Reading Room: WORLDS BEYOND "Twice Alive"

Instead of the usual vampires or werewolves or zombies, here's a horror story...
Art by Sheldon Moldoff
...with a different, more "science fiction", approach to terror, from the HTF Worlds Beyond #1 (1951) from Fawcett.
Did the writers of the movie Fantastic Voyage read this tale when they were younger?
The art is by comics legend Bob Powell, but the writer is unknown.
The cover, by Sheldon Moldoff, shows a cavern (with bats!) instead of the inside of a human being, and probably was meant for another story, but it conveys the mood of "Twice Alive", if not the plot points.
Worlds Beyond was retitled Worlds of Fear with #2 and ran for another nine issues.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Reading Room: SUPERSNIPE "Haunted Money" Conclusion

When Koppy McFad learns his friend Betsy and her mother are being evicted, he changes to SuperSnipe and attempts to help them...unsuccessfully.
The mother-daughter duo decide to move to the abandoned Morblid Mansion that everyone in town believes is haunted.
SuperSnipe, unable to dissuade them, assists the pair in moving their few possessions to the decrepit house, unaware that it is, in fact, already occupied!
Three criminals await the arrival of another crook, who knows where over $200,000 was stashed before he was sent to prison.
To keep people away, the evil trio have rigged the place to appear "haunted".
But, the arrival of SuperSnipe and his friends have thrown their plans into chaos as the fourth fiend arrives...
BTW, this was not a Halloween issue!
It came out in late Spring, 1949.
But, we felt the subject matter lent itself to Halloween, so here it is!

Herlock Domes was another supporting character (like Gramps and Ulysses Q Wacky) who had his own backup strip in SuperSnipe Comics.
The characters crossed-over frequently with each other and popped into SuperSnipe's strip creating a fairly cohesive and consistent "universe" much like Marvel Comics did a couple of decades later (but on a smaller scale, natch).
Story and art for this tale from SuperSnipe Comics V4N12 (1949) by the highly-underrated George Marcoux, who did all the "SuperSnipe Universe" strips.

Monday, October 29, 2012

Reading Room: SUPERSNIPE "Haunted Money" Part 1

How do fanboys celebrate Halloween?
By getting into costume and battling crime and evildoers, whether human or incorporeal!
So, they're not specters, but sleazeballs!
How will our currently-unconscious hero overcome these foul fiends?
Be here tomorrow for the awe-inspiring answer...
Same Snipe-time!
Same Snipe-blog!
Herlock Domes was another supporting character (like Gramps and Ulysses Q Wacky) who had his own backup strip in SuperSnipe Comics.
The characters crossed-over frequently with each other and popped into SuperSnipe's strip creating a fairly cohesive and consistent "universe" much like Marvel Comics did a couple of decades later (but on a smaller scale, natch).
Story and art for this tale from SuperSnipe Comics V4N12 (1949) by the highly-underrated George Marcoux, who did all the "SuperSnipe Universe" strips.