Space Hero Saturdays MAJOR INAPAK: SPACE ACE

Buckle On Your Blaster Belts, Kiddies...

...as we hurtle through the depths of outer space (and learn invaluable scientific facts) with the one-and-only Major Inapak and kid stowaway-turned-sidekick, Robin John!
Our tale begins in the far-distant year of 2031...













Sadly, there were no further adventures of Major Inapak and Robin John/"Master Rocketeer"!

Illustrated by Bob Powell and scripted by Powell, Gardner Fox or the two in collaboration.

We presented background info about Major Inapak and Inapak Chocolate Drink  HERE and HERE!

You may note the cover doesn't have a price on it!

It wasn't sold on newsstands or in candy stores!
It was likely handed out at licensing trade shows to show merchandisers how publisher Magazine Enterprises could produce a tie-in comic with their products, just as DC and Marvel do today!

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Friday Fun P.S. "Guys in the Trick Suits"

During the Era of Batmania (In the 1960s)...

...mass market magazines oriented towards the over-30 crowd (who apparently had forgotten their childhoods only a decade or two earlier), sought an explanation as to the appeal of comic books to the under-30 crowd.

P.S., a short-lived magazine (only three issues) dedicated to nostalgia, brought in William F Nolan, a noted science fiction writer with numerous teleplays and short stories to his credit.

You've read his piece, written and published just after the Batman TV series debuted in January, 1966.

What do you think of his look back at his childhood during the Golden Age?
Note: A year after this, Nolan, in collaboration with George Clayton Johnson, wrote the novel Logan's Run.

Was INAPAK the Chocolate Drink That NEVER Actually Existed?

Tuesday, we presented the miracle chocolate drink Inapak...

Now here's an interesting point...

It apparently never existed!

Really!

From extensive research (we're talking off-line and on-site) thru the archives of several dealers and collectors who handle related food ephemera like Ovaltine and Quik (now Nesquik) packaging and advertising, we've yet to come across anything (besides the comic book itself) relating in any way to Inapak!

Could it have been a proposed project that never got off the ground, like Victor Fox's Kooba Kola?

If so, who was behind it?

Magazine Enterprises, the publishers of the The Avenger, FunnyMan, and original Ghost Rider, produced the comic, and it's copyrighted in their name, not an outside corporation, as most licensed comics are!
Bob Powell is obviously the artist, though the writer is unknown.
It's theorized on the Grand Comics Database that Gardner Fox scripted the two stories in the book.

Speaking of which, here's the short tale from the back of the book...

Now, here's my theory about who Major Inapak is and how he came to be...
At this point (1951), there were a number of kids' sci-fi tv shows like Captain Video, featuring characters who also promoted their sponsors' products...

...and there was talk of a tv version of radio/comic/movie serial hero Captain Midnight (who was still owned by Ovaltine) with a heavier sci-fi/space opera flavor to compete with Captain Video, Tom Corbett: Space Cadet, Space Patrol, et al.
A Captain Midnight TV series eventually aired in 1954-56 with some sci-fi elements, but set present-day to keep the budget down.

(And of course, it had lots of promotion for Ovaltine products...)

Could this book have been a tryout with the original, futuristic, format for Captain Midnight, spotlighting his sponsor, Ovaltine?

And, when it didn't sell to Ovaltine, the story was retitled/relettered with a new character and a non-existent chocolate drink to demonstrate what Magazine Enterprises could do for potential clients, and then used as a trade-show giveaway to drum up business for a licensed-comic division (similar to what both Marvel and DC have today)?

You'll see the action-packed space adventure right here on Saturday!

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder INVASION '55 "Fog"

It's Anything but Peaceful in This SouthWestern Town...

...and things are looking pretty desperate for an...eclectic....group of "typical" 1950s Americans as they band together against a maurading band of actual aliens...extraterrestrials, to be exact!

To Be Concluded Next Wednesday!

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Remember INAPAK, the Amazing Chocolate Drink?

Bosco?

Bah!

Quik?

Crap!

Ovaltine?

Ewww!

You want serious chocolate flavor in your milk?

Here it is...

It must be true!

Major Inapak says so!

And Major Inapak wouldn't lie!

In fact, he uses science to prove his point...

Major Inapak returns to tell the Youth of America what to do...

You'll pardon me while I scamper out to the supermarket to get a box!

Be back Thursday for more on...Inapak!

Monday Mecha Madness NEUTRO "Captured by 777"

When Last We Saw Neutro...

Two American scientists had reassembled the parts of a giant automoton left in the Southwest over a century earlier by aliens for reasons unknown...for now!

However, unfriendly governments know of the robot, and seek to possess it!

We'll Never Know What Happens Next!

Written by editor D J Arneson and illustrated by Jack Sparling, Dell's Neutro #1 (1967) was meant to be an ongoing series, but never made it past the first issue.
Whether any work at all was done on a second issue is unknown!

Next Week:

Three Times the Mecha Mayhem as Combatra and Dangard Ace Join Raydeen as We Revisit the Shogun Warriors!

Support Atomic Kommie Comics!

Visit Amazon and Order...

Science Fiction Comics

Taylor History of Comics

Vol 3

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