Saturday, May 12, 2018

Holiday Reading Room "American Indian Day"

Want to bet Don the John ignores this long-standing holiday?
A somewhat sanitized version of history, but it's well-intentioned.
Also note it points out "Who could blame the Indians for fighting desperately to keep their homes and hunting grounds?", disputing the still-popular concept of Manifest Destiny which goes hand-in-hand with American Exceptionalism!
Why is this comic entitled "Every Day is a Holly Day" instead of "Every Day is a Holiday"?
Because it was given away to kids by grocers who sold Holly Sugar!
Illustrated by John Rosenberger, it's a unique pamphlet covering a number of American holidays, including both Lincoln and Washington's Birthdays (before they were combined into "Presidents' Day"), Mothers' Day (though not Fathers' Day), Flag Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and a couple of holidays we've largely abandoned...Pan-American Day and American Indian Day!
We'll be presenting the other chapters on the dates they fall upon.
Watch for them!
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Friday, May 11, 2018

Friday Fun REX DEXTER "Meets Lord Marvel"

Regular Friday Fun readers might note a couple of changes in Rex Dexter as of this story...
...from Fox's Mystery Men Comics #4 (1939) read on and see if you can find them!
Here's the two major changes...
1) the title drops "...of Mars here on Earth-2000 AD" for "...Interplanetary Adventurer".
Not a major change in itself, except the opening paragraph also says "In 1939..." then concludes with "...A century later...", moving the series several decades later from 2000 to 2039-2040, where it remains for the rest of the series!
Why?
I have no idea!
2) Rex and Cynde adapt the costumes designed by Lou Fine for the cover of Mystery Men Comics #2...
...which they'll continue to use, on and off, for the remainder of the series!


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Thursday, May 10, 2018

Trump Reading Room UNITED STATES MARINES "The Secret of Korea"

What influenced Don the John's concept of Korea?
Perhaps this 1952 NSFW (due to racist stereotypes) comic story...
...remember Don the John boasts of his intellectual development stopping at age 9!
Since Don the Con has never been much on reading, odds are the semi-literate future PotUS learned a lot from comics, as we theorized regarding his obsession with a "Space Force"!
Ironically, this tale from Magazine Enterprises' United States Marines #5 (1952) is a reworked version of an equally-NSFW anti-Japanese propaganda piece that appeared in Magazine Enterprises' United States Marines #3 (1943)...
The more things change, the more they stay the same, eh?
BTW, while I'm pleased Don the John apparently secured the release of American citizens held by North Korea, did any one else think it odd that two of the three freed American citizens needed a translator to understand and respond to Don the John?
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Wednesday, May 9, 2018

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder CARSON OF VENUS "Duare: Princess of Venus"

...now let the fun begin!
OK, it's an unlikely coincidence, but remember, Carson thwarted a previous kidnapping attempt HERE.
Apparently, when he's not nearby, potential kidnappers are far more successful!
The adaptation of Pirates on Venus races along with this action-packed chapter from DC's Korak: Son of Tarzan #52 (1973).
Considering this was a bi-monthly series, writer Len Wein and artist Mike Kaluta felt the pressure to deliver a serialized tale that would hold the audience's interest for two months at a time...and they always delivered!
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Tuesday, May 8, 2018

Reading Room SENSATION MYSTERY COMICS "Last Dream"

Wonder Woman lost her cover feature in Sensation Comics as of this issue (#107)...
...when the book was retitled Sensation Mystery, and featured "mysteries" like this one!
In 1952, horror comics became the "hot" genre, with most comics publishers going "all in" to see who could be the goriest!
DC, though, tried to stay relatively innocuous, refusing to go for the gore.
While their sales didn't skyrocket as many other publishers' did, they managed to stay below the radar during the whole "Seduction of the Innocent" mania.
And, it certainly made reprinting any of the material produced during this period a breeze after the Comics Code was imposed!
This John Broome-written, Carmine Infantino-penciled, and Frank Giacoia-inked tale was typical of DC's output during this period.
(Some say Sy Barry inked it, but expert art identifier Martin O'Hearn thinks it's Giacoia, and I agree with him.)
Straightforward, logical, and effectively-told, it's almost a template for the various stories the anthology would carry until the book's cancellation a year later with #116.
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(which features this story...but in black and white!)

Monday, May 7, 2018

Reading Room FANTASTIC COMICS "Space Smith and the Headless Men of the Gold Comet"

Newspaper comics had Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, and Brick Bradford...
...but comic books had the even wilder exploits of adventurers like Space Smith!
Wow!
Dianna's no mere helpless female sidekick, as this tale from Fox's Fantastic Comics #4 (1940) proves!
Fletcher Hanks was no stranger to visualizing assertive women.
His Fantomah strip in Fiction House's Jungle Comics presented a jungle heroine with super-powers on a par with Wonder Woman (whom she pre-dated by a year)!
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Sunday, May 6, 2018

FLYING SAUCERS Cover Gallery

Here's the cover art by Gene Fawcette...
...to the story we've been running the past few days.
Oddly, when the issue was reprinted a couple of years later, the art was altered...
...and I've never heard an explanation as to why!
For the record, I like the original cover better!
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