Space Force Saturdays ROCKY JONES: SPACE RANGER "Space Infantry"

With the school year over and kids off to summer vacation...

...lets look at the never-revealed school days of the newest space hero in our line up, Rocky Jones, Space Ranger!

Sneaky little SoB, ain't he?

Wonder if he had a classmate named James Tiberius Kirk?
BTW, the character's Space Academy days were never shown on TV.
The series, set in 2054, started with him already an officer!

Scripter of this never-reprinted, totally-original tale from Charlton's Space Adventures #15 (1955) is unknown, but the art is by Ted Galindo, a journeyman artist who did work for Charlton, Prize, and Gold Key from the mid-1950s to mid-1960s.

Oddly, Charlton didn't give Rocky Jones his own title, as most publishers did with licensed characters, but inserted him into the already-established Space Adventures comic for four issues (and gave him the cover each issue).

The tv series itself was a weekly filmed series, not a live videotaped daily series like Captain Video or Tom Corbett: Space Cadet, giving it a slightly "slicker" look (and better special effects) than most of the competitors.

It was syndicated, and ran for 39 episodes over two seasons.

All of the eps are three-part stories and were re-edited into feature-length films which were released to syndication in the 1960s, after the series had ended its' run.

Almost all are available on DVD and two of them, Crash of the Moons and Manhunt in Space, were roasted on Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Rocky Jones will return in the near future...

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Rocky Jones: Space Ranger Collection

Featuring Six Three-Episode Compilation Movies

(That's almost half the TV series in one set!)

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Friday Fun FROM HERE TO INSANITY "Build It Yourself"

In the pre-Ikea era, assembling/building your own furniture successfully was a rarity...

...as writer/artist Jack Kirby points out!

This never-reprinted tale from Charlton's From Here to Insanity V1N11 (1955) spoofs the do-it-yourself mania that spread across post-war America thanks to magazines like Popular Mechanics and Mechanix Illustrated.

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Sincerest Form of Parody
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Reading Room WORLD OF FANTASY "Beware the Future!"

Does a never-reprinted tale from the 1950s offer a clue as to how Don (the Con) Trump became President?

And can it happen...again?

Judge for yourself...

This Stan Lee-plotted, Larry Lieber-scripted, Al Williamson-illustrated tale from Atlas' World of Fantasy #16 (1959) points out a uniquely-human foible...if we "know" things will be OK, we don't see the need to take action ourselves to make sure they do turn out OK...and things can go horribly-wrong as a result!

In 2016, many Bernie Saunders supporters, POed because Bernie wasn't nominated as the Democratic candidate figured they'd protest by staying home and not voting in the general election, believing there were still enough Dems and intelligent Repugs and Independents voting to assure Trump wouldn't get into the White House!

Didn't quite work out, did it?

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Al Williamson Adventures

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder UNKNOWN WORLDS OF SCIENCE FICTION "Day of the Triffids" Parts 4 and 5

When Last We Left an Earth Filled with Vicious Mobile Plants...

First American Paperback Edition.
Normally, I'd explain the plot, but the comic itself will do so in a couple of pages...

(Note: though Rico Rival is credited as the sole artist, this splash page was laid out by the previous chapter's penciler, Ross Andru.)

To Be Concluded
NEXT WEDNESDAY!
Most readers are familiar with the 1963 movie, so this accurate, though condensed, version of the actual novel contains elements that you might not expect.
(Which is all the more reason to not miss the finale next week!)
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Night of the Triffids
Sequel novel by Simon Clark
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Reading Room SPACE ADVENTURES "Last Ship from Earth"

Ever hear the phrase "Damned if you do, damned if you don't"?

Well, Commander MacKenzie Smith is about to live it!

This never-reprinted tale from Charlton's Space Adventures V2N32 (1960) asks the questions: "What happens if the cure is worse than the disease?" and "Do you blame the person who found/brought you the cure?"

Sadly, even the Grand Comics Database isn't sure who created this story, though they propose two prolific Charlton contributors, writer Joe Gill and artist Bill Montes as the creatives.

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Taylor Illustrated History

Science Fiction Comics 

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Monday Maternity Madness Redux CHOICES "Abortion: What Would Hippocrates Say?"

On the second anniversary of Dobbs V Jackson Women's Health Organization...

...we re-present a tale from Choices, a benefit comic produced in 1989, about the almost-equally-stupid Webster V Reproductive Health Services verdict,when we thought that was the worst that could happen to America's women!

"Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it!"

Written and illustrated by William Messner-Loebs, a multi-award-winning writer/artist who would do an acclaimed run on DC's Wonder Woman a couple of years after this.

Let's Play Ball! MYSTICAL TALES "On a Lonely Planet"

Can playing a sport unite alien cultures?

This never-reprinted story from Atlas' Mystical Tales #1 (1956) suggests an answer...

OK, it's an ethnocentric (species-centric?) conceit that the aliens were playing something even remotely like baseball, but illustrator Bill Everett and the unknown writer still manage to "sell" it for four pages.

BTW, despite the title, Mystical Tales was an almost-totally "hard sci-fi" anthology!

Only a handful of stories from the anthology's 8-issue run have been reprinted...all in the 1970s...which makes even the reprints almost a half-century old!

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Atlas Era Tales of Suspense

Volume 1