Saturday, July 10, 2021

Space Force Saturdays SPACE WORLDS "Vengance of X-1"

One of the kool things about sci-fi comics is that, until the late 1970s...
...they visualized concepts, environments, technology, and situations no then-existing SFX technology could convincingly-show to an audience!
Artist Allen Bellman and the unknown writer really let their imaginations run amok in this never-reprinted story from Atlas' Space Worlds #6 (1952).
No TV show of the era, and few feature films (perhaps War of the Worlds or Forbidden Planet) could possibly have mustered the SFX technology to even approach this sort of thing, which today could be done by a high-budget TV show or mid-budget feature film.

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Friday, July 9, 2021

Friday Food Fun "Man's Guide to Outdoor Cooking" Finale

...now it's time to conclude this graphic primer (with a kool, kitschy wraparound cover) about cooking outside with fire!
Sadly, Mayrose Meats (a Midwestern staple for decades) no longer exists.
Its' parent company, St Louis Independent Packing, was bought out by Swift & Company in the early 1960s and the Mayrose brand was discontinued.
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Thursday, July 8, 2021

Reading Room BLAZE BARTON "and the Bat Men of Venus"

The World of the Future ain't exactly a fun place...
...but will the Venusians be friends...or foes?
Oddly, Earth seems to have moved backwards in time since the previous story was set in 50,017, not 3000!
The writer of this tale from Quality's Hit Comics #2 (1940) is unknown (and may not even be the first story's scripter), but the artist was Henry Kiefer, a craftsman with over 400 comics stories and covers from 1935 to 1954 including numerous Classics Illustrated adaptations.
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Wednesday, July 7, 2021

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder LOST WORLD "Food for Freedom!"

There's been a running sub-plot involving Volta schoolchildren...
...witnessing their soldiers battling Hunt Bowman, Lyssa, and other humans both on video, and even in person...with mixed results...causing some ofthe kids to doubt the righteousness of their planet's invasion of Earth!
Well, this certainly didn't have the effect the Volta government hoped it would have on their children!
The parallel to World War II's Axis countries' attempts to indoctrinate their youth to their point of view is obvious.
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Planet Comics
Volume 12
(contains issues 54 to 59)

Tuesday, July 6, 2021

Reading Room REALITY "Quasar!"

Long before the internet and DeviantArt, up-and-coming artists were published in fanzines...
...to get their work in front of an audience, receive feedback, and make a few bucks!
Originally-drawn for Web of Horror (which explains the spider-like host of Web, Webster, introducing and concluding the story), this early tale by Steve Hickman ended up in the first issue of Reality, a fanzine published in 1970 by 15-year old Robert Gerson.
When Web died after only three issues, a number of writers and artists had no market for their material without losing all the rights to it, so, in order to get it published to make a few bucks for their labor (and retain the copyrights), they let a young entrepreneur use the stories in his fanzine, which was sold at conventions and in used book stores and head shops alongside underground comics.
(There were no comic book shops back then.)
Hickman spent a few years working in the comics field before moving on to commercial art, particularly sci-fi/fantasy book covers, with over 400 titles to his credit!
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Monday, July 5, 2021

Monday Mars Madness ATTACK ON PLANET MARS "Chapter One: Tarrano Strikes"

In the 1950s Avon did a number of one-shot comic books...
...based on sci-fi novels.
While most were of tales (then) recently-reprinted by their paperback division,  this one was not.
Does a Fate Worse than Death Await Elza?
And...What is Tarrano's Plan?
Be Here Next Monday to Find Out!
Based on the novel Tarrano the Conqueror by Ray Cummings, this chapter of the 1951 comic adaptation was penciled by Carmine Infantino and inked by Joe Kubert, the team who would illustrate the first Silver Age Flash story in DC's Showcase #4 several years later!
The writer of the adaptation is unknown.
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...which reprints only this chapter of the story, since it's the only one in the book that Kubert worked on!
(But there's lots of other kool stuff by the legendary editor/writer/artist in the book, so it's a must-have for any comics fan's library!)

Sunday, July 4, 2021

It's the 4th of July! Celebrate With a "Lost" Captain America Tale!

Unseen for over 50 years, the first novel featuring the Star-Spangled Avenger!
Visit
NOW to start the serialized retelling of the long-lost OOP novel!

BTW, you can read a kool short feature about Independence Day HERE!