Reading Room SUPERSNIPE "Strong Medicine" Conclusion

When Last We Left the Kid With the Most Comic Books in America...

Attending a local carnival with his friend Roxy Adams: Girl Guerilla, SuperSnipe is tricked by look-alike Duper Dan into impersonating the midget performer on stage to give the criminal carny an unbreakable alibi while he commits a robbery.

But Roxy smells a rat...

Note that SuperSnipe finally wears an actual costume rather than his grandfather's woolen long-johns and father's lodge cape.

But, ironically, because this was the final issue of his series, he never got to wear it again!

Written and illustrated by George Marcoux, this never-reprinted story from SuperSnipe Comics V5N1 (1949) marked the character's final appearance in his own strip, though he also popped up in his secret identity of Koppy McFad in the other stories starring his supporting cast.

Reading Room SUPERSNIPE "Strong Medicine" Part 1

With San Diego Comic Con well under way, let's look at the original fanboy...

..in his final adventure!

What will Roxy discover?

Be Here TOMORROW for the startling climax featuring Super vs Duper!

Written and illustrated by George Marcoux, this story from SuperSnipe Comics V5N1 (1949) marked the character's final appearance in his own strip, though he also appeared in his secret identity of Koppy McFad in the other stories in this issue starring his supporting cast.

Ant-Man, nah, nah, nah, nah...Ant-Man, nah, nah, nah, nah...

Looks like my favorite Marvel character...

...is finally making an appearance in a big-budget Marvel movie...sorta!

except now he'll look like this...

Makes me nostalgic for his first appearance on the syndicated Marvel Super-Heroes in 1966...

...adapting The Avengers #2 "The Space Phantom", where he appears as both Giant-Man and Ant-Man!
(The tv series never adapted the first issue, but did feature Hank Pym as Ant-Man, Giant-Man and Goliath in adaptations of Avengers #4, #5, and #6 as well as the Captain America story in Tales of Suspense #84.)

Reading Room "Our Amazing Universe"

Sometimes I wonder if Wikipedia contributors learned their science from pages like this...

For example, the item about the Moon is false.

Besides revolving around the Earth, the Moon rotates.

But it's rotation is such that the far side never totally faces the Earth!

And a jet plane could never reach the Moon, since (unlike a rocket) it needs air to function, and there's no air in space!

If you read Ziff-Davis' Lars of Mars #11 (1951) you would have learned these "facts".

Reading Room EERIE ADVENTURES "Vampires from Venus"

It's hot and steamy outside...

...perfect weather for a tale about an invasion by aliens from a hot and steamy planet!

This 1951 tale combining Triffids (from the novel Day of the Triffids which had just been published) and vampires (with their classic weakness, sunlight) from the Ziff-Davis one-shot Eerie Adventures was illustrated by Bob Powell and Howard Nostrand.

The writer is unknown.

Eerie Adventures used leftover material from the recently-cancelled Amazing Adventures with an attempt to market it as horror rather than sci-fi/fantasy.

Only one issue was published as the title was dropped by Ziff-Davis to avoid legal action by Avon who already had an ongoing Eerie comics title.

ZD then did a Weird Adventures one-shot, which sold well, but discovered there was already a title with the same name from PL Publishing which debuted the month before!

So ZD retitled their book Weird Thrillers, before PL could take legal action.

The series ran five more issues before the Dr Wertham-led Seduction of the Innocent witch-hunt forced the cancellation of almost all horror-related comic books.

(Ironically, the PL series only ran two more issues before the entire company folded.)

Reading Room "Peek into the Future"

What did the near future of 2014 (or so) look like to readers of the 1950s?

Pretty much like this never-reprinted page from Ziff-Davis' Crusader from Mars #1 (1952)!

You'll note none of the predictions have come to pass...though the last one about cars is in the development stage!

Happy 45th Anniversary, Apollo 11!

In the 1940s (and before), we dreamed of meeting (and battling) aliens...

...In the 1950s, we feared meeting (and battling) Commies...

...when we actually got to the Moon in 1969, thankfully, there was nothing to fear (or fight)!
Happy 45th Anniversary!