Space Force Saturdays SPEED CARTER "Core People"

"Watch the Skies!" they cried in the 1950s!

They should have said "Look out below!" as this subterranean saga from Speed Carter: SpaceMan #2 (1953) proves!

OK, science pretty much gets tossed out the porthole on this one, but, hey, it's fun!
Written (as are all the Speed Carter stories) by Hank Chapman and illustrated with his usual flair by Joe Maneely.

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Complete Adventures of Lucky Starr

by Isaac Asimov

(under the pen-name "Paul French")

Omnibus of ALL Six Space-Opera Sagas!

David Starr: Space Ranger, Pirates of the Asteroids, Oceans of Venus, Big Sun of Mercury, Moons of Jupiter, Rings of Saturn

Friday Fun: Mars STILL Attacks...25 Years Later!

With the landing of NASA's Perseverance Mars probe, and, in a fit of nostalgia, I searched the Net for info about the movie Mars Attacks. (I worked for Topps Comics when the film came out in 1996!)

Imagine my surprise to discover...thanks to the WayBack Machine, that the movie's site was operational until July of 2011, and still exists HERE a decade later!

If you want to see a classic example of pre-Web 2.0 site-making, have a look!

It's retro-kool!

ACK! ACK ACK!

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Mars Attacks!
The Art of the Movie

Reading Room WORLDS UNKNOWN "Day After the Day the Martians Came!"

With NASA's Perseverance probe about to land on Mars...

Art by Ross Andru & John Romita

We thought we'd present a tale of the Martians returning the favor that also ties-in with Black History Month!
Wonder how?
Keep reading...

The short story this comic tale is based upon first appeared in the ground-breaking 1960s anthology Dangerous Visions, a collection of original novelettes and novellas conceived and edited by Harlan Ellison, which should be on any science fiction fan's bookshelf or eReader.

Several of the stories in the anthology, in particular this one and "Riders of the Purple Wage" by Phillip Jose Farmer, explored the subject of racial prejudice.

The never-reprinted comic adaptation from the first issue of Marvel's short-lived anthology Worlds Unknown, is scripted by Gerry Conway and illustrated by Ralph Reese, who began in 1966 as an assistant to Wally Wood and went solo within a couple of years, first as an inker, and later as a penciler/inker.

He's done work for all the major comics companies (usually on their anthology titles), as well as stints on the Flash Gordon newspaper strip and licensing art for Childrens' Television Workshop!

BTW, the Grand Comics Database lists John Romita as sole artist of the cover, but, IMHO, the figure poses are clearly Ross Andru, not Romita.

(And the GCD originally listed Marie Severin and Sal Buscema as the artists!)

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 Dangerous Visions

(where the prose version of this tale first appeared!) 

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder AIRSHIP ENTERPRISE "Infernal Machine" Part 2a

Previously on Airship Enterprise...

...Responding to a distress call from a research vessel, the Enterprise encounters a belt of living and aggressive matter that forces two scoutships down to the surface of largest of the rock-like, sentient beings, near a structure the research vessel's emergency beacon seems to be within...

You Will Be Back Here Next Wednesday Because...

Resistance is Futile!

There!

I said it!

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Airship Enterpise

Infernal Machine

Graphic Novel re-presenting the mini-series along with additional goodies

Baker Reading Room OUTER SPACE "Incredible Giants"

Here's another never-reprinted sci-fi tale...

...by renowned Black artist Matt Baker, who penciled, but didn't ink, the story!

Inker Vince Colletta employed a number of excellent, detailed pencilers like Matt Baker and Joe Sinnott to work for his studio, which "packaged" stories, series, and even book-length tales for publishers.

Unfortunately, when dealing with smaller publishers like Charlton (who didn't pay as much as DC, Marvel, Harvey, etc) to save cash, Vince inked most of the work himself, usually rushing it to meet deadlines!
Compare with another story, inked by long-time Baker collaborator Ray Osrin, and you see the difference inkers can make!
The same level of page layout and storytelling is obvious in both tales...but the rendering...hoo boy!
BTW, Joe Gill wrote this story from Charlton's Outer Space #23 (1959).

One important plot point was that the giant children thought the scout ship was a seed pod due to it's design...

...an element cover artists Charles Nicholas and Rocke Mastroserio didn't follow though on with their re-do of the story's splash panel!

Were they not informed, or did the editor deliberately insist on a more traditional ship design?

We'll never know the answer!

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Matt Baker

Art of Glamour

Monday Madness FAST WILLIE JACKSON "Introduction" & "Jabar in The One and Only"

In the 1970s, there was an Archie-style comic aimed at Black audiences...

...and though it used artists who worked for Archie Comics, it wasn't published by Archie Comics!

Fast Willie Jackson was published  by Black-owned publisher Fitzgerald Publications who had previously published the Golden Legacy non-fiction comic series about Black history.

Fast Willie was their entry into the mass-market comics market.

Though not Comics Code-approved, it received newsstand distribution, and sales were climbing for each successive issue.

Unfortunately, it reached break-even only with the seventh (and final) issue, when other matters caused Fitzgerald Publications to cease producing new material for an extended period. When Fitzgerald briefly resumed publishing, Fast Willie was not among the titles.

Written by publisher/editor Bertram Fitzgerald, illustrated by "Gus LeMoine".

Note: There's no record of Gus LeMoine outside of a brief comics career for Archie and Fitzgerald which coincidentally ends with superb Dan DeCarlo mimic Henry Scarpelli leaving his staff position at DC and becoming a full-time staff artist at Archie...at which point Lemoine's credits disappear!

Most artists in the comics field do other (fine or commercial art) work before and/or after their stint in comics.

There's no trace of LeMoine's work anywhere else!

If anybody can provide a link to his pre/post-comics work or some sort of biography I've missed, I'd be extremely grateful for the info!

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Black Comics

Politics of Race and Representation

Reading Room LOST WORLDS "Worlds Apart"

"Submitted for your approval, a romantic triangle with unequal sides..."

"...because one point of this scalene triangle is firmly entrenched...in the Twilight Zone!"

(It works if you read it in a Rod Serlingesque voice.)

Cue Twilight Zone theme music...

While the writer for this story from Standard's sci-fi anthology title Lost Worlds #5 (1952) is unknown, the art is by Nick Cardy, who began his career in the Golden Age and kept working up until he passed in 2013!

Happy Valentine's Day!