Space-Hero Saturdays CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT "Race to Pluto!"

If You Read the Last Chapter....

...You Already Know Jagga Isn't Dead, Though Captain Midnight and Ichabod Mudd Don't Know That!

Is this never-reprinted story from Fawcett's Captain Midnight #57 (1947) really and truly, once and for all, conclusively, cross our hearts and hope to die, the End of Jagga???

Maybe...maybe not!

You'll just heave to keep reading!

(Ain't we stinkers?)

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Captain Midnight Archives

Volume 2

Captain Midnight Saves the World!
...which does not include this story!

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Friday Fun / Trump Reading Room UNQUOTABLE TRUMP "Tromp!"

From Now Until Election Day, We'll Be Presenting Examples of How Creatives See Don da Con...

Based on Basil Wolverton's cover for DC's PLOP! #6 (1974)

Let's face it, Josephine is closer to supermodel material than Don da Con ever was!

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Drawn & Quarterly Special Edition

Unquotable Trump

by R. Sikoryak

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Reading Room WEIRD TALES OF THE FUTURE "Purple Mists!"

The perils of exploring the universe are many and varied...

...as seen in this never-reprinted story from Key Publications' Weird Tales of the Future #6 (1953)!

Though it's implied that one of the guys Rex and Tom shot was Rex's brother, that point is more-or-less ignored!

The writer is unknown, but artist Hy Fleishman signed his work in the first panel.

Fleishman worked for numerous publishers during the 1950s including Atlas (later Marvel), Story, Key, and Lev Gleason in various genres including horror, war, sci-fi, western, romance, and even humor.
He left the comics industry in the late 1950s, turning to becoming a restauranteur, opening several casual dining locations which survived even after his passing.

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Science Fiction Comics

Taylor History of Comics

Vol 3

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder CROM THE BARBARIAN "Spider God of Akka!"

"Between the years when the ocean drank Atlantis and the Rise of the Sons of Aryas..."

Oops! Wrong barbarian!

This is the second tale of the swordslinger who appeared before Conan the Cimmerian in the comics!

Impressive!

He starts out totally-lost, with no food or water, and by the end of the story, he's become the ruler of a city!
Man, he works fast!
This tale by writer Gardner Fox and artist John Giunta appeared twice within two months, first in Avon's anthology Strange Worlds #1, then, along with all the other stories from that issue, in a color insert in the Avon sci-fi/fantasy anthology pulp Out of This World Adventures #2!

If the name "Gardner Fox" sounds familiar, he's best-known for his extensive Golden and Silver Age superhero work including creating SkyMan, Golden Age Sandman, Doctor Fate, Starman, Kenton of the Star Patrol, Moon Girl; the Silver Age Adam Strange and Atom, both the Golden and Silver Age Flashes and Hawkmen, and conceptualizing and scripting the first batches of stories of both the Justice Society and Justice League!
He also made important contributions to Batman (utility belt, batarang, bat-gyro) and introduced the parallel-world concept of Earth-One/Earth-Two to comics in "Flash of Two Worlds" in DC's The Flash #123 (1961) which united his Golden and Silver Age Scarlet Speedsters and established the concept of a Multiverse for various incarnations of characters so predominant in today's pop culture!
Including non-series comics tales Fox wrote over 4,000 stories during his long career.
In addition, Fox wrote at least one prose novel per year (sometimes under pen names), covering genres from sci-fi and fantasy to romance to espionage as well as numerous prose short stories in genre magazines.
Besides scripting Crom, Fox wrote two paperback series in the 60s-70s featuring sword and sorcery barbarians; Kothar (five books) and Kyrik (four books).
Plus, he wrote a pair of John Carter/Barsoom-style novels featuring American lawyer Alan Morgan on the planet Llarn, Warrior of Llarn and Thief of Llarn.
Note: Fox was a lawyer who had passed the bar exam...but with little paying work for a lawyer during the Great Depression, chose to take up pulp (and later, comic book) writing instead!
Was this series a manifestation of his personal fantasy world?

We'll never know...

Reading Room STRANGE ADVENTURES "Science-Fiction Convention on Mars!"

You gotta ask: how can three of the best creatives of the Silver Age of Comics...

...make such an exciting concept so decidedly-deadly dull?

Writer Gardner Fox, penciler Gil Kane, and inker Joe Giella (together and separately) produced some of the koolest tales of the Silver Age!

Yet, this story from DC's Strange Adventures #73 (1956) almost put me to sleep!

The premise is great, the concepts are well-thought out, but the rendering of it is...well...drab!

Why aren't the Martians more visually-interesting?

They're just bald orange guys with slightly-elongated brain-cases!

Couldn't they be using disguises (either masks or holograms) while on Earth and then reveal themselves to be funky-looking Martians when the convention-goers arrive on Mars?

It's not like penciler Gil Kane has any problem with rendering kool-looking humanoid aliens, as shown HERE and HERE!

And, would it have killed them to give the creatives an extra page?

Jamming in all that exposition into the last page really limited Gil into what he could present.

(Remember, DC worked "full script", so Kane knew how much room the captions and dialogue balloons needed to take!)

Using two pages for that last sequence would've helped enormously!

And what about the weird rays that destroy any spaceships?

Natural?

Artificial?

We'll never know...

In comparison, this tale from Dell's Four Color #1288: Twilight Zone has a less-epic, but much more "fun" feel to it!

Special Gardner Fox Note: Fox's Crom, the first barbarian in comic books, returns tomorrow in Wednesday Worlds of Wonder!

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Showcase Presents

Strange Adventures

Volume 1

(which reprints this tale...but in black and white)

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Monday Maternity Madness DEAR LONELY HEARTS "Unwed Mother"

Before the Comics Code Authority Turned the Industry Upside Down in Late 1954...

...comics tended to tell more adult-oriented material since, except for the funny animal/humor books, they were aimed at the 15 to 21 (teen to young adult) audience!

Illustrated by Marty Elkin and scripted by an unknown scribe, this never-reprinted tale from Comic Media's Dear Lonely Hearts #7 (1954) reads like a typical adult soap opera of the era.

After the Code came into effect, even fairly innocuous tales like this were modified from their pre-Code version into almost-unreadable pap as shown HERE.
BTW, it's interesting to note the comic's hostess/narrator, Mildred Norton, is a dead ringer for Joan Crawford!
I don't believe it is mere coincidence!

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Agonizing Love

The Golden Age of Romance Comics

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How Does ALL OF THE MARVELS Tie-In to RetroBlog MEDICAL COMICS & STORIES???

If You're a Marvel Comics Fan and You Haven't Read This Book...

You Damn Well Should!

It's a fascinating look at almost the entire Marvel Comics output (including most non-superhero titles, but not including the Western or military books) from the month in 1961 when Fantastic Four #1 came out to the end of 2017, when the author began writing the book!
One of the strangest, but fascinating, chapters is about a minor character who went from obscurity after appearing in 1961 to a supporting (but important) place in the Marvel Multiverse and the Marvel Cinematic Universe by 2017!
Who is it?
You'll have to go to our "brother" RetroBlog...

Medical Comics and Stories

...this Friday to begin a weekly journey in September through this character's history from the dawn of the Marvel Age to the present!

Hint: It ain't Dr Strange or Dr Droom/Druid!

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All of the Marvels

by Douglas Wolk

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