Space Hero Saturdays FANTASTIC COMICS "Space Smith and the Crustaceans of Ganymede"

Space Smith Doesn't Seem to be Quite Himself...

...as another artist fills-in for Fletcher Hanks, bringing a rather Buck Rogers-esque feel to the strip!

While the scripting on this story From Fox's Fantastic Comics #7 (1940) has that Fletcher Hanks "feel", the art, definitely, is not Hanks!

It looks like the artist is trying for the same look as Dick Calkins' original Buck Rogers newspaper strip, which was incredibly-popular at the time!

The next issue would feature a totally-Fletcher Hanks tale....for the last time!

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Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
Complete Newspaper Dailies
Volume 1: 1929-1930
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Friday the 13th Fun TIPPY'S FRIEND GO-GO "Egg-Head in Friday the 13th"

One of the better Archie clones of the 1960s was Tippy Teen, who had both her own book...

...and two spin-off titles featuring a Riverdale-like ensemble of supporting characters who had their own features, including Egg-Head...who was called that only because he wore glasses and looked like a nerd!

If the story doesn't make much sense, the fact it was from Tower's Tippy's Friend Go-Go #15 (1969), which was the last book of the series and the company was already winding down to close the doors a month later, might have loosened the editorial standards a tad...

You'll note the art appears exactly like the Archie Comics "house look"!

That's because the Tippy Teen books were illustrated almost entirely by moonlighting Archie artists, though which particular one did this tale is unknown!

BTW, Egg-Head was not the only Tower Comics character to bear that name!

One of the original members of the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Squad (a non-superpowered backup team for the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents) was named...Egghead!

I'm not sure how "well-trained" and "highly-skilled" the "super-brilliant strategist" was since he died in his second appearance...

Tales Twice Told WEIRD WORLDS "Creature"

What happens when you take a 1950s comic story, and redo the art...

...but re-use the original dialogue and captions...a couple of decades later?
Read for yourself...

With a script taken almost verbatim from the (then) 20 year-old tale "Lost Kingdom of Althala" (which we showed you Tuesday), this story from Eerie Publications' Weird Worlds V1N10 (1970) had a complete redo on the art by Argentine illustrator Oscar Fraga, whose work in the American comics market was exclusively for Eerie Publications and consisted solely of re-illustrating 1950s stories!

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The Worst of Eerie Publications
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Wednesday Worlds of Wonder MAN-GODS FROM BEYOND THE STARS Part 2

We Have Already Seen...

Art by Neal Adams

In the far-distant past...

technologically-advanced aliens visit the Earth on a mission of exploration.

Their mandate is to observe, but not interfere.

In the present (1975)...

scientists discover ancient cave paintings that tell of god-like beings who came down among the primitive humans.

But, the paintings don't tell the whole story...

Next Wednesday: The Conclusion!

Written by Doug Moench, illustrated by Alex Nino. this tale from Marvel Premiere #1 (1975) has never been reprinted!
As we said last week, When Jack Kirby returned to Marvel in 1975, while he did take on writing and illustrating two of his greatest co-creations, Captain America and Black Panther, his new projects (Eternals, Machine Man/Mister Machine, and Devil Dinosaur, were all set firmly outside the Marvel Universe, as was the one-shot Silver Surfer graphic novel Kirby and writer Stan Lee produced (which you can read HERE),often referring to Marvel characters as fictional, 
All that went by the wayside, when Kirby left Marvel to do animation design for Hanna-Barbara and Ruby-Spears along with his own independent comics projects.
It appears the Marvel creatives couldn't wait to incorporate the new characters and within months, all of Kirby's characters were guest-starring in various titles including Thor, Hulk, Ka-Zar, and even What If?, firmly integrating them with links to everyone from the Norse and Greek gods to Thanos himself (who was retroactively made the son of two Eternals).

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Eternals by Jack "King" Kirby

Monster-Size

A HUUUGE HardCover, reprinting the entire Kirby run at Original Art Size (15"x22"), 1 1/2 times the size of the printed comic book and other trade paperbacks!
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Tales Twice Told STRANGE WORLDS "Lost Kingdom of Athala"

Here's a tale that would make a great "popcorn" CGI action flick!

It's hokey, doesn't make much sense, but boy, it's loaded with action and it looks great!

Written by Gardner Fox, penciled by Joe Orlando & Wally Wood, and inked by Wood, this fast-paced story from Avon's Strange Worlds #4 (1951), would make a great Saturday afternoon flick, thanks to current state-of-the-art special effects!

EXTRA: Here's the b/w inside cover for this issue, which featured an illustrated preview of all the stories in the issue by Wally Wood.

Note the heavy use of "craftint" texturing which Wood used to create a distinctive "look" for his art...

The script was re-used, almost verbatim, in 1970 by Eerie Publications, but the artwork for the retelling was nowhere near as good.

You'll see that version on Thursday!