Saturday, August 13, 2022

Space Hero Saturdays VIC TORRY AND HIS FLYING SAUCER "Chapter Two: The Evil of Szzz!"

Ace test pilot Victor Torry and his aviation-enthusiast girlfriend Laura are testing a new jet when they encounter a flying saucer!
They pursue it and, when it lands in the desert, they also land, then go aboard the alien ship where they meet an elderly alien.
Unable to return to Mercury (his home world) in time to regenerate, he bequeaths the spacecraft to Vic and Laura, then disintegrates.
Exploring the ship, they accidentally activate the propulsion system and the ship, operating on automatic pilot, returns to Mercury, with them aboard.
It lands, and a group of Mercurians greet the ship.
They are not pleased to see Earthlings instead of one of their own exiting the ship...
Script by Roy Ald, who also edited Fawcett's Captain Video!
Art by Golden Age great Bob Powell.
Be here next Saturday for the final chapter of Vic Torry!

Friday, August 12, 2022

Friday Fun HARVEY "Beauty and the Beach"

When summer vacation comes, comic book teens run for, where else...
...the beach!
This never-reprinted tale from Marvel's Harvey #5 (1972) was the penultimate issue of their last attempt at "teen" humor.
Written and penciled by Stu Schwartzberg and inked by Henry Scarpelli (clearly imitating Dan DeCarlo's art style which became the "look" of Archie Comics), this book and Millie the Model ended in 1972-73, leaving Archie and his spawn standing alone (except for occasional one-shots) in the teen humor genre to this day.

Thursday, August 11, 2022

COWBOYS & ALIENS Part 4

Unused C&A movie poster by Drew Struzan
...in 1873 Arizona, a battle between a wagon train heading for Silver City and Indians is interrupted by a crippled flying saucer crashing nearby!
The surviving aliens decide to conquer the "primitive" humans while they await rescue by their fellow space travelers.
After quickly destroying a nearby US Army outpost, they head for the nearest group of structures, Silver City...where the wagon train has just arrived!
In the ensuing battle, the cowboys, joined by the Indians they were fighting earlier, manage to drive off the aliens, who aren't as invincible as they believed.
The humans join forces against a common foe.
And they gain a new ally...an enslaved alien who has escaped from her masters...and who believes "the enemy of my enemy is my friend"!
"Maw hunters"?
Don't miss the next exciting chapter...tomorrow, at...
Western Comics Adventures!

Wednesday, August 10, 2022

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder AN EARTH MAN ON VENUS Part 2

Reprint cover art by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito
...an experiment in "teleportation by radio wave" inadvertently sends technician Miles Cabot to the planet Venus, where he discovers humanoids (including a ravishingly-beautiful woman) and giant intelligent ants (who've enslaved the humanoids)!
Both species communicate only via telepathy on a frequency close to radio waves, so Cabot attempts to build a device...
 Next Wednesday:
Exile and Treachery...
Continuing our presentation of Avon's Earth Man on Venus (1950) one-shot comic adaptation illustrated by Wally Wood with Joe Orlando and Sid Check doing inking and minor redrawing.
(The adaptation's scripter is unknown.)
Ironically, the comic book version has been reprinted numerous times, and is probably far more familiar to current sci-fi fans than the original story by Ralph Milne Farley (which is a shame, since the novel is pretty good)!

Tuesday, August 9, 2022

COWBOYS & ALIENS Part 2

...in 1873 Arizona, gunslingers Zeke Jackson and Verity Jones are defending a wagon train heading for Silver City from Indian attack when a crippled flying saucer crashes nearby, interrupting the battle...
We don't think that's the proverbial cavalry coming over that there hill!
The mayhem continues Wednesday at
Western Comics Adventures!
Writers Fred Van Lente & Andrew Foley, penciler Luciano Lima, and inkers J Wilson, Silvio Spotto & Luciano Kars, working from a concept by Scott Rosenberg, produced a kool tale in 2006 that's quite different from the 2011 big-budget movie based on it!