Space...Hero?...Saturdays STRANGE JOURNEY "Captain Kiddeo Space Bum"

Is it humor?

Is it serious?

I can't decide...

...read the tale and judge for yourself!

The title is a variation of "Captain Video", a tv show which had been cancelled three years earlier when this never-reprinted tale appeared in Ajax-Farrell's Strange Journey #3 (1958).

Yet the story itself has nothing to do with Captain Video, not even as a spoof of it, like MAD's superb Captain Tvideo which you can read HERE!

The attempts at humor and wit are lacking in both, and the illustrations have none of the wonderful background detail (Called "chicken fat" by artist Will Elder) MAD's artists were famous for!

Plus, the art is so jammed-up, I have the impression the original (perhaps unpublished) story was longer, and re-edited to fit into the 5 page slot in an otherwise average sci-fi anthology.

We do know it's a product of the S M Iger Studio which packaged Ajax-Farrell's books, but not who the particular creatives were...

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Friday Fun THE VIDEO VERSIONS OF "ARENA"

"Arena" by Fredric Brown (See HERE and HERE) was adapted (sort of) twice for TV...

...first, in 1964, on The Outer Limits as "Fun and Games", starring Nick Adams.

There are a number of differences between the story and the episode, including a pair of new characters, a woman with a hidden past who works with the hero and a mate for the alien...whom the alien himself kills!
(Talk about "battle of the sexes)!

A year later the story was reused, on Classic Star Trek as "Arena"...

...except it wasn't...exactly.

Gene Roddenberry's right hand man, producer Gene Coon, had submitted a story about Capt. Kirk fighting an alien starship's commander in hand-to-claw combat to see whose ship would survive.

When the story was fact-checked, it was discovered that Coon had inadvertently-used numerous elements from Brown's story, which Gene had probably read years earlier!
Since the episode was already in the production cycle, "Arena" author Fredric Brown was contacted, and he agreed to allow "Arena" to be adapted again...not knowing the episode was already written.
Since the OL and ST episodes are sufficiently-different (and titled differently), many in the 1960s never realized...or noticed...the "Based on a story by Fredric Brown" credit!

Friday Fun Extra: Kirk (William Shatner) and the Gorn (not the stuntman from the 1960s!) meet again in hand-to-claw combat...

...to promote a video game based on the reboot Kelvin Universe Star Trek!

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Reading Room WORLDS UNKNOWN "Arena" Conclusion

When Last We Left Our Hero...

Carson, a space fighter pilot on station at the edge of the solar system intercepts an alien ship, but before he or the intruder can fire, they are both teleported from their ships to a planetoid, where unarmed, they face each other.
A voice explains to the two combatants that they must fight to the death to decide the conflict, thus avoiding the mass destruction to both sides that a full-scale war would cause.
A force field separates the combatants, but they are told they can utilize the materials at hand to create weapons.
The opponents discover they can't pentrate the force field, but inanimate objects can!
They throw rocks at each other, but rocks alone won't provide a victory for either side...or will they?

This extremely-faithful adaptation of Fredric Brown's short story was created by writer Gerry Conway, penciler John Buscema, and inker Dick Giordano.
Be here tomorrow when we take a look at some less-accurate, but far more famous adaptations!

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Complete Short SF of Fredric Brown

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Wednesday Worlds of Wonder Valentine's Day Special SAVAGE TALES "Fury of the Femizons"

Consider, on Valentine's Day, what the world might be like if the "fairer sex" ran the whole planet...

...as portrayed in this Women's Lib-era story from the b/w magazine Savage Tales #1 (1971)!

(Was it really over a half-century ago?

Lord, I feel so old...)

Written by Stan Lee and illustrated by John Romita, Sr,  this tale had an unusual genesis, as detailed on the editorial page by editor Roy Thomas...

Women's liberation.
It's all around us, be we male or female.

marches, intellectual treatises, picketing, bra-burning, some four-letter forensics, and more burnings–not always of bras.

"Women are the equals of men every day, in every way!'

Men are beginning to believe it.

Women always knew it.

So what happens if maybe we come the full circle in, say the next hundred years or so?

What if women turn the rascals out–and we do mean out!

What would we have then?

A better world? Perhaps.

A gentler world? Could be.

A different world? Believe it.

Stan Lee got to wondering-and, by and by, he set imaginative artist Johnny Romita to wondering along with him.

The result is, perhaps, something just a wee bit new under the sun.

Not quite sword-and-sorcery–certainly not science-fiction–and not exactly a political polemic.

Robin Morgan clobbers Buck Rogers in the 25th century!

Kate Millett zaps both Flash Gordon and Ming the Merciless–then takes over Mongo for good measure!

The hand that rocks the cradle really rules the world!

A Valentine's Day look at a possible future World of Wonder...as seen from the not-so distant past. 
BTW: Almost every RetroBlog has a Valentine's Day Post!
Check out the list to the left to see them all!

Wolff Will Return Next Wednesday!

Reading Room WORLDS UNKNOWN "Arena" Part 1

It's the sci-fi novella so nice, TV adapted it twice...

...first on Outer Limits, then, two years later, on Classic Star Trek!

Will human ingenuity, cunning, and strength triumph?

Or will the alien win?

Be here THURSDAY for the answer!

This extremely-faithful adaptation was created by writer Gerry Conway, penciler John Buscema, and inker Dick Giordano.

The Fredric Brown-penned short story it's based on first appeared in Street & Smith's Astounding Science Fiction (June, 1944) pulp magazine.

The tale was voted one of the Top 20 Science Fiction Stories before 1965 by the Science Fiction Writers Association and included in the must-have (if you're a serious sci-fi fan) anthology... 

...which is still in print.
(Note: this is the dust jacket/cover of the hardcover 1st edition, one of the coolest and most effective cover designs ever, IMHO of course, and a proud part of my personal collection!)

You can read the taut tale of terror online HERE.
Feel free to compare to the comic.

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Monday Madness REAGAN'S RAIDERS "...Back to Zero!" Conclusion

When Last We Left the Septuagenarian Super-President...

...he and his revitalized cabinet were about to deliver a can of whup-ass to a group of terrorists!

You'll note a cameo by a certain eyepatch-wearing, cigar-smoking soldier usually seen in ripped shirts.

The never-reprinted Solson's Reagan's Raiders #1 (1986) was written by Monroe Arnold, and illustrated by Dick Ayers, Rich Buckler, and Jason Rodgers.
Monroe Arnold was a character actor with numerous tv/movie appearances in the 60s-80s.

His best-known genre role was in the unsold pilot for Dick Tracy (1967), produced by Batman's William Dozier.
BTW, the film Monroe was listed above as writing/directing, Diary of a Terrorist, was never completed.
He suffered a heart attack after shooting a proof-of-concept reel and was unable to continue the project.

Solson Publishing was run by Gary Brodsky, son of Marvel's first Production Manager and occasional inker Sol Brodsky.
One of the many companies created during the b/w comics craze of the 1980s, it was legendary for producing parody/swipes of more-successful b/w books along with somewhat tasteless books about how to draw women.
Reagan's Raiders was one of the few original titles in the lineup, and it lasted only three issues.

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Reagan's Raiders

1-3

The Complete Series