Saturday, September 7, 2019

Reading Room FANTASTIC WORLDS "Boy Who Saved the World!

The short-lived anthology Fantastic Worlds featured Earth-based stories...
...contrasting with the other anthology from Standard ComicsLost Worlds, which was a space-opera book.
This kid-friendly tale from Standard's Fantastic Worlds #6 (1952) was drawn by Alex Toth and Mike Peppe, though the writer is unknown.

Friday, September 6, 2019

Friday Fun SPACE MOUSE "Tasty Planet"

Along with comic tales, comic books ran text features...
...in order to qualify as magazines and get special low mailing rates!
Here's the never-reprinted story from Avon's Space Comics #4 (1954)!
It reads like it was probably written by series creator Frank Carin.
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Thursday, September 5, 2019

Reading Room LARS OF MARS "Terror Weapon" Conclusion

Art by Allen Anderson
...he was heading for Manchuria to stop a mad Soviet scientist from unleashing a super-weapon that could freeze anything!
After facing several deadly devices, Lars uses his ability to travel at light-speed...
Written by Jerry Siegel, illustrated by Murphy Anderson, this was the cover-featured tale from Ziff-Davis' Lars of Mars #11 (1951), the second (and last issue) of the series!
BTW, the cover artist is Allen Anderson (no relation to Murphy)
And, Allen also did the cover to the second (and last) issue of Ziff-Davis' Space Busters...which was illustrated by Murphy!
Weird, huh? 
featuring the covers of both issues of Lars of Mars!

 

Wednesday, September 4, 2019

Tuesday, September 3, 2019

Reading Room WEIRD TALES OF THE FUTURE "Ten Thousand Years Old!"

Here's the "pilot" for an ongoing comic series that never came about...
..but did see publication in Key's Weird Tales of the Future #1 (1952)!
It's an interesting premise, and the publishers even gave the story the coveted cover slot...
Art by Ross Andru and ?
...yet next issue, Jerry and Jill were nowhere to be found!
So, what happened?
With a cool (if somewhat implausible) story by an uncredited scripter and pencils (and possible inks) by Ross Andru, it seemed like the sort of ongoing feature that could anchor a title.
Was a second story commissioned?
We'll never know...

Monday, September 2, 2019

Holiday Reading Room EVERY DAY'S A HOLLY DAY "Labor Day"

It's ironic anti-Union/pro-"Right to Work" Don the Con tweeted this...
...on a day meant to celebrate unions!
Why is this 1955 comic entitled "Every Day's a Holly Day" instead of "Every Day's 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" in 1962), 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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Sunday, September 1, 2019

Design of the Week SPACE ACE!

Each week, we post a limited-edition design, to be sold for exactly 7 days!
This Week...

Before Don Bluth appropriated the name for his video game, there were a couple of totally different Space Aces in the Golden Age of Comics!
This particular one was a Flash Gordon-type set in the then-distant future year of 2000, complete with one-man spacecraft, moving sidewalks, flying cars, mile-high skyscrapers, human colonies on other worlds, etc.! (You remember all that stuff, don't you?)
And, of course, aliens!
LOTS of aliens!

One of the interesting things about this image is that it doesn't feature a scantily-clad woman being held captive by the tentacled alien, making it particularly age-appropriate (but still retro-kool) for under-10 year-old kids' (pre-K / 4th Grade) back-to-school stuff!
Enjoy!