Saturday, November 7, 2020

Space Force Saturdays SPEED CARTER: SPACEMAN "Robots' Revenge!"

The 1950s, when heroic astronauts fought for Truth, Justice, and the American Way...
 ..even in their pajamas, as seen in the final story from Speed Carter: SpaceMan #1 (1953)!
The Saturnian wore the Martian ambassador's skin?
Now that's gonna screw up interplanetary diplomatic relations!
Written by Hank Chapman, illustrated by Joe Maneely!
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Friday, November 6, 2020

Friday Fun / CoronaVirus Comics MAD "Failing Health Magazine"

Now that Halloween is over, we return to making fun of a real-life horror...
...by showing those who over-react to the slightest medical problem (and some that don't really exist) in a never-reprinted feature from EC's MAD Magazine #159 (1973)!
Scripted by Tom Koch and illustrated by the legendary Jack Davis, this was the sort of spoof MAD did better than anybody else in the humor mag business!
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The only place this story's been re-presented, albeit in digital low-res!
(Make sure you get the revised 2012 version for as complete a collection as possible)

Thursday, November 5, 2020

Holiday Reading Room SANTA CLAUS FUNNIES "Carolers"

Walt (Pogo) Kelly doesn't need captions or word balloons...
...to tell his story in this never-reprinted one-pager from Dell's Four Color Comics #91 (1945).
It's just red and black because it's on the inside back cover of the comic, which was printed with only two colors, instead of the usual four (CMYK) colors to save money.
And, if you're wondering why we're running Christmas-related material so early this year...why not?
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(which features exclusive designs, not available anywhere else!)

Wednesday, November 4, 2020

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder LOST WORLD "California Scheming"

We Have Already Seen...

...and part of Grauman's Chinese Theatre and sidewalk in front survive centuries from now?
Talk about building things to last!
And it was a "temple of popular culture...

The Weirdness Continues...
Next Wednesday!
Writer "Thorncliffe Herrick" and artist Graham Ingels apparently think the athletic blond, blue eyed Californians of the 1940s will deteriorate into these sorry specimens thousands of years from now in Fiction House's Planet Comics #29 (1943)!
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Planet Comics
Volume 7
(which reprints this tale)

Monday, November 2, 2020

Monday Madness / Trump Reading Room YOUR VOTE IS VITAL!

It's never been more important...
...to get out and do your duty as a proud American!
BTW, note that, even in the 1950s, less than half of qualified Americans voted...
Here's a handy (very) basic guide...
Illustrated by Warren Kremer and Al Avision, this one-shot published by Harvey Comics in 1952 (68 years ago) was offered for only a couple of pennies a copy to anyone or any organization who wanted to utilize it to get out the vote!
Amazing how it's both generic and pertinent even decades later!
Note: Our gratitude to the ever-amazing Kracalactaka for the scans of this ultra-rare comic!
Now, unless you want things to stay as they are...or get worse...if you're over 18 and under 110...

Sunday, November 1, 2020

Sean Connery (1930-2020) in Comics

Only one of the late, great Sean Connery's James Bond movies was adapted into comics...
...the first one, Doctor No!
Published in England as part of Gilberton's Classics Illustrated series, it was considered too lowbrow by the publisher's American editors.
They shopped it around to US publishers, almost all of whom passed on it...except DC Comics, who ran it (with Comics Code-approved changes) as part of their Showcase anthology comic!
Ironically, DC released the comic in January, 1963...but the movie wasn't in American theatres until May, 1963, by which point the bi-monthly comic was off the newsstands two issues and four months ago!
Remember, no internet, streaming video, DVD/BluRays, or even video cassettes at that time!
As you may have guessed, it sold poorly, and DC never picked up the option to do other James Bond movie comics...though their contract gave them the rights for a decade!
(Haven't you ever wondered why Gold Key, the leading movie-tv comic adaptor didn't do 007 comics?)
But that didn't mean Sean Connery (or his likeness) didn't appear in DC books!
In 1965, DC launched a futuristic spy series, Interplanetary Investigations in Mystery in Space.
Though the lead character, Jan Vern, was a typical blond, square-jawed comic hero (who looked in some panels like Robert Shaw, Connery's nemesis in From Russia with Love), supporting character Agent X aka Damos was a dead ringer for Sean...
Sadly, the never-reprinted series ran only two issues, but you, dear fan, can see them HERE and HERE!
(and, yes. both chapters feature Damos!)
In the early 1970s, Connery's appearance as Zed in the movie Zardoz...
...inspired (if that's the word) the look of a new Superman character...
...Vartox, a hero from another planet, who, after the misunderstanding on the cover of DC's Superman #281 (1974) was cleared up, became a staunch ally to the Man of Steel!
He's guest-starred ever since in various DC titles in basically the same outfit!
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