Cover Gallery SPEED CARTER: SPACEMAN & SPACE SQUADRON

Here's a look at the covers for the complete run of Speed Carter: SpaceMan...

Art by Bill Everett

Oddly, though they're really nice pieces of art, they never relate to the stories inside the book!

Art by Carl Burgos & ?

Art by Bill Everett

Art by Mike Sekowsky & ?

Art by Mort Lawrence

Art by Joe Maneely

Bill Everett (who didn't do any inside art) did two covers, and Joe Maneely (who did all the Speed stories in the first three issues finally got to do a cover with the last issue!

Here are the covers for Space Squadron.

Note the variants in foreign editions with retitled and redrawn covers...

Art by Sol Brodsky & Christopher Rule.

Vignettes at bottom by George Tuska.

Art by Werner Roth

Canadian Edition

Easily one of the worst recompositing jobs I've ever seen!

Art by Werner Roth

British Edition

Why were the aliens' second heads removed?

Art by Werner Roth

Canadian Edition

Now, this is how you recompose a cover!

Art by Sol Brodsky & Joe Maneely

Art by Sol Brodsky

British

Art by Sol Brodsky &?

We've decided to keep Space Force Saturdays at least through Halloween, so watch this space (pun intended) next week!

Friday Fun / CoronaVirus Comics PATSY WALKER "Great Idea!"

Due to the return of Covid-19 and the Dreaded Deadline Doom...

There used to be lots more to teen humor comics than just Archie and his friends with every comics publisher from the late 1940s through the early 1970s doing them! 

Created by writer Stuart Little and artist Ruth Atkinson, Patsy Walker first appeared in Timely's Miss America Magazine #2 (1944).

Redheaded Patsy Walker, parents Stanley and Betty, boyfriend Robert "Buzz" Baxter, and rich, raven-haired friendly rival Hedy Wolfe appeared from the 1944 through 1967 in various teen humor anthologies as well as several self-titled comics.

Trivia: Patsy Walker (along with Millie the Model and Kid Colt: Outlaw) were the only titles published continuously by Marvel from Timely in the Golden Age, through Atlas in the 1950s, to Marvel in the  Silver Age!

Patsy, Buzz and Hedy are all part of the Marvel Universe from Marvel's Fantastic Four Annual #3 (1965) when Patsy and Hedy attended the wedding of Reed Richards and Sue Storm!

Patsy later became the superheroine HellCat, and Buzz was revealed to be the supervillain Mad-Dog!

Patsy (and HellCat) appeared on the NetFlix series Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Defenders, making her part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe!

Written and illustrated by the versatile Al Jaffee (before he moved over to MAD Magazine) , this never-reprinted story from Atlas' Patsy Walker #36 (1951) promoted contributing to the charity created in 1946 by newsman Walter Winchell (best known today as the narrator of the 1960s TV show Untouchables) to honor his friend, writer Damon Runyon, who died of cancer!

The charity, now called Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, still exists!

Reading Room SPACE WARS "Strange World"

A never-reprinted short story that could've been produced as an episode of the original Twilight Zone...

...from Charlton's Space War #22 (1963).

Was this a longer tale edited down to only three pages?

It certainly feels like it, since there are many unanswered questions like...

If these people are Tibetan, why are they dressed like the Flintstones...and why do they speak English?
How would they know anything about the Earth-Uranus War?
And why is it we have no idea how only Heffner survived?
Pencils by Dick Giordano, inks by Vince Colletta.
The writer is unknown, but the Grand Comics Database postulates Joe Gill as the most likely candidate.

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Taylor History of Comics: Volume 3
Science Fiction Comics

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder LOST WORLD "Brute in the Bubble"

This kool cover, though it does feature Lyssa and Voltamen...

...has nothing to do with the story inside!

The so called "brute in the bubble" turns out to be a potential friend!

But questions abound!

Why do they call themselves "mummy-men" when they look like humanoid canines?

And what planet did they come from?

We may never know the answers...

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A Slight Case of Murder

and Other Stories

Illustrated by George Evans

Reading Room ADVENTURE COMICS "These are the Star Men"

Here's a never-reprinted space opera saga from a surprising Bronze Age source...

...a cautionary tale about taking what's not yours!

The Bronze Age run of DC's Adventure Comics began by moving the long-running Legion of Super-Heroes feature to back-up Action Comics, while Action's back-up Supergirl, was moved to take over Adventure.

When Adventure's page count (along with all DC titles) went up as the line's price increased from 15 to 25 cents in 1971, the book featured a variety of back-ups including Zatanna, classic Supergirl reprints, and inventory sci-fi tales by noted artists.

This particular one is from Adventure Comics #420 (1972), written and pencilled by Howard Purcell, an artist/writer whose work on over 600 stories and covers spanned the Golden and Silver Ages, and inked by George Roussos.

My impression is that this was a "pilot" for an ongoing These are the Star Men anthology strip, since the title really doesn't relate to the particular story, and the opening caption states "This is Con Rikon's story...", indicating it would be one of many such tales.

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Showcase presents Strange Adventures Volume 1

Showcase presents Strange Adventures Volume 2

Monday Mars Madness ATTACK ON PLANET MARS "Chapter Four: Attack on Mars"

It's time for the fateful finale...

Art by Gene Fawcette

When Last We Left Our Would-Be Tyrant...

In the year 2430, Tarrano, an Earthman, has seized control of both the planet Venus and its outpost on Earth, Venia.

To that outpost, the tyrant has kidnapped Elza and Georg, children of the recently-murdered scientist, Dr Brende, along with reporter Jac Hallen.

While Tarrano plots his upcoming conquest of Earth and Mars, Georg and the captive Venusian princess Maida escape, and then aid Earth's government in planning a pre-emptive attack on Venia.
Meanwhile, back with the captive Jac and Elza...

Based on the novel Tarrano the Conqueror by Ray Cummings, this final chapter of the 1951 comic adaptation was penciled by Carmine Infantino and inked by Vince Alascia.

The writer of the adaptation is unknown.

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Tarrano the Conquerer

by Ray Cummings