Saturday, May 29, 2021

Space Force Saturdays SPEED CARTER "Space Sentinel's Sacrifice"

It is said that every Space Sentinel is ready to die in defense of Earth...
...a belief put to the test in this tense tale from Speed Carter: SpaceMan #5 (1954)!
While it's a good attempt at a poignant tale about how a veteran, even crippled, could contribute to the defense effort, it's hampered by the fact that the story revolves around a character we've never seen before, and thus have no empathy for him.
And, we have to ask, where is the BeastMen's unnamed planet, since the now-diverted meteor crashes into it only a few minutes after being diverted by the impact of Major Ramm's ship!
This story was scripted (as were all Speed Carter tales) by Hank Chapman!
Illustrator George Tuska later became the final artist on the original Buck Rogers comic strip (1959-67) and then assumed the art duties for almost a decade on Marvel's Invincible Iron Man!
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(The first three novels of the six-book space-opera series in one volume!)

Friday, May 28, 2021

Friday Fun JETTA OF THE 21st CENTURY "What a Specimen"

To celebrate the long (and well-deserved) holiday, it's futuristic fun with Dan DeCarlo's Jetta!
The 21st Century ain't what they thought it would be in 1953...
"Leaping Electrodes!"
"Now we're cookin' with uranium!"
"Go atomize yourself!"
"This is simply electronic!"
Why aren't we all talking like this?
This tale from Jetta #6 (which was actually the second issue) was written and penciled by Dan DeCarlo, but it may not have been inked by him.

Thursday, May 27, 2021

Reading Room SPACE ADVENTURES "Exterminators"

It's summertime and insects are everywhere!
So, here's a story from 1969 that'll bug you...
...with its' outdated stereotypes about both humans and insects!
Illustrated by prolific Argentinan artist "Eccio" aka Enio Legisamon, this lead tale from Charlton's Space Adventures V2N5 (1969) is a time capsule about the way our society viewed professional women during the early days of Womens' Lib.
BTW, the writer is unknown...and I suspect he'd want it kept that way...
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Wednesday, May 26, 2021

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder LOST WORLD "Project: Monster"

...the aliens try ever more innovative attempts to eliminate the freedom fighters!
The Venusian we see in this tale is apparently a member of a third race from that planet shown in this series, unlike the ones we saw HERE and HERE!
Whether this is sloppy editing, or part of an onoging plot point has yet to be revealed!
(BTW, almost every other series in Planet Comics had their own Venusians, Martians, etc..
But they tended to be consistent within their own strips!
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Tuesday, May 25, 2021

Gil Kane's FLAME HORSE

One of the visionary projects legendary writer/artist Gil Kane was unable to get off the ground...
...was this graphic novel.
According to one source, shortly after Bantam Books released Kane's Blackmark in 1971, Ariel/MorningStar Press contracted Gil to create and package this project...with logos and graphic design by Jim Steranko!
Since MorningStar Press was an art book publisher, they would've done a hardcover closer to traditional comic book or magazine size, rather than the standard paperback size that doomed Blackmark, which confused retailers who didn't know whether to put it with sci-fi/fantasy novels or comic strip reprints!
Besides this presentation piece, there were pages like this one...
...at various stages of completion.
I wonder if anyone could re-assemble what does exist into a book and title it: Gil Kane's Flame Horse: the Unfinished Opus or somesuch, with profits going to his estate...
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Monday, May 24, 2021

Monday Mars Madness UNUSUAL TALES "Way Out, Man"

You'd think Dr Strange's creator Steve Ditko would be a bit more sympathetic to the counter-culture...
...but when you consider he was already 34 in 1961 when he drew this story from Charlton's Unusual Tales #29, you might wonder which side of the Generation Gap he really was on!
Remember that, when Ditko was doing the Dr Strange series in Strange Tales, he was turning 40!
This article from England's The Telegraph delves into the fascinating dichotomy between the artist and what his work portrayed.
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...which reprints this tale and many other Ditko short stories!

Sunday, May 23, 2021

Asians and Asian-Americans in Comics...the Saga Continues

Even more from our ongoing examination of how American comics portray Asians and Asian-Americans...
Start with the only Golden Age Desi jungle girl in (where else?)
The Lone Ranger rides to the rescue of oppressed Chinese settlers in the old West, first in a never-reprinted comic tale in...
...then listen to the dramatic radio show the comic was adapted from at...
and finally, witness the villainy of the character who personified the racist concept of "Yellow Peril" for over a century in...

There's lots more coming!
Don't miss it!