Thursday, August 22, 2019

Reading Room LARS OF MARS "Terror from the Sky"

Commies and atomic weapons!
As the song says, "They go together like Love and Marriage..."
Could this be an attempt to set up an ongoing Lex Luthor-esque arch-enemy (but with lots of hair) for our hero in this final story from Ziff-Davis' Lars of Mars #10 (1951)?
Consider the fact that this Lars tale was produced by the duo who created the short-lived character, writer Jerry (Superman) Siegel and and artist Murphy (Buck Rogers) Anderson (who also did a lot of work on Superman during the Silver and Bronze Ages) and you'll see a lot of Man of Steel-style elements.
And, yes, Raskov returned the next issue with new super-scientific weapons...
Trivia:
The cover paintings for both issues of Lars of Mars were painted by Allen Anderson, who was not related to interior artist Murphy Anderson!
Here's a "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon"-style fact (done in four degrees)...
1) Ziff-Davis also published a short-lived adaptation of an actual sci-fi tv series, Space Patrol, illustrated by Bernie Krigstein.
2) Krigstein illustrated the first issue of another Ziff-Davis sci-fi series: Space Busters!
3) Bernie was replaced on interior art for the second (and final) issue of Space Busters by...Murphy Anderson!
4) Allen Anderson did the painted cover for the Space Busters issue illustrated by Murphy! (Norm Saunders had painted the first issue's cover!)
featuring the covers of both issues of Lars of Mars!

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Thanx for posting!