Wednesday Worlds of Wonder ORBIT "Marooned Off Vesta"

 We All Know Isaac Asimov!

Amazing Stories March 1939 Art by Robert Fuqa
The Three Laws of Robotics!
Several seminal series including Foundation, Galactic Empire, and Robots...all of which have been unified into one massive universe!
Literally hundreds of novels, novellas and short stories!

Amazing Stories, March 1959 Art by Virgil Finlay

But did you ever read his very first story?

(The pages above are from the tale's first publication in 1939 and it's (1959) 20th Anniversary appearance in the same magazine!

Now here's the never-reprinted 50th Anniversary adaptation of that tale, scripted by JD Scott and illustrated by Michael Davis.
It appeared in #2 of Eclipse's sci-fi anthology Orbit, which featured adaptations of stories from Davis Publications' Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine! and several of Asimov's own stories!

The Three Laws of Robotics!
Several seminal series including Foundation, Galactic Empire, and Robots...all of which have been unified into one massive universe!
Literally hundreds of novels, novellas and short stories!
But did you ever read his very first story?

When the prose version of this story was reprinted in 1959 for its' 20th Anniversary appearance in Amazing Stories, Asimov penned a sequel, "Anniversary", featuring the characters gathering to celebrate their survival and then having a new, related, adventure!
The two tales have usually been reprinted together since.
But there's been no graphic adaptation of "Anniversary"...yet!

Next Week: A New World of Wonder!

Reading Room: CAPTAIN SCIENCE COMICS "World War III with the Ants"

I'm Having Serious Problems with Ant Infestation...

...but never anything like this ant-ageddon (or ant-pocalypse) from Youthful's Captain Science #6 (1953)!

As for who was responsible for writing and illustrating this cult comic classic, theories run from Harry Harrison (who became a major sci-fi novelist and editor), to Dick Ayers to Lou Cameron, but nobody knows for certain.

BTW, this story came out over a year before the classic giant-ant film THEM!

Monday Mecha Madness SPELLBOUND "Too Human to Live!"

They say Artificial Intelligence will Replace Humans in Many Jobs...

...even as co-workers...and management!

Pencilled by Vic Carrabotta and inked by Jack Abel, and likely plotted by editor Stan Lee, this cautionary tale from Atlas' Spellbound #16 (1953) has a clever twist ending that would've been appropriate for an episode of The Twilight Zone!

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Taylor Illustrated History

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Reading Room CAPTAIN SCIENCE COMICS "Spawn of Saturn"

Welcome to the Cover Featured Tale from Captain Science #1 (1950)...

...except it's not about Captain Science!

In fact, the story's title isn't mentioned on the cover at all!

(You can find the actual Captain Science stories from #1 HERE and HERE.)

It's interesting to see a sci-fi tale where a handsome starship captain doesn't go on a landing party to a potentially-dangerous locale!

The writer is unknown, but the art is by Walter Johnson, who not only penciled and inked his own work, but ran a studio that supplied material to a number of comics companies, so some of his "signed" jobs (like this one) show elements of several artists' styles.

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Space Hero Saturdays SKYROCKET STEELE "Chapter 2"

Three Years Ago, We Left Space Hero Skyrocket Steele in a Cliffhanger...

...but we're going to correct that oversight starting now!

Great!
Another Cliffhanger!
But we're not gonna wait three more years to present the next chapter!
Skyrocket will return next month!

This second chapter in Steele's space-spanning saga by writer-artist Bill Everett appeared in Centaur's Amazing Mystery Funnies V1N3(a) in 1938.
And there's a simple reason for the weird numbering, which we'll explain when you return next month!
Trivia: Pop culture historian and prolific genre author Ron (Star Hawks) Goulart utilized the name (but nothing else from Everett's strip) for a hysterically-funny novel about 1940s sci-fi movie serials...

(click for bigger image)

...which, while available on Amazon (as seen below) can't be found as this 1980 first edition with a kool cover by noted artist Carl Lundgren!
Snarky Note: I bought it in 1980,when it came out!
That and Goulart's very HTF Tremendous Adventures of Bernie Wine...

...a PG-13/soft R mass-market novel about a young (and extremely horny) comic book artist in NYC, are among my favorite Goulart books in my collection (and I have a lot of them, including ghost-written standalones and series)!

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Skyrocket Steele
by Ron Goulart
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