Wednesday Worlds of Wonder AN EARTHMAN ON VENUS Part 4

When Last We Left Our Hero...

Inside front cover art by Wally Wood

WOW!

Don't just sit there!

Start reading!

Well, that's it for 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.)

BTW, both Doggo's and Yuri's "deaths" were exaggerations.
Both survived to return in the sequel novels, Radio Beasts and Radio Planet.
Only the first novel, Radio Man/Earth Man on Venus, has been adapted into comics form.
Too bad, since the later novels are even better.

Next Week

We Return to Earth for another

Wednesday World of Wonder!

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder AN EARTH MAN ON VENUS Part 3

We Have Already Seen...

Cover art by Gene Fawcette

...an experiment in "teleportation by radio wave" inadvertantly sends technician Miles Cabot to the planet Venus, where he discovers humanoids (including a ravishingly-beautiful woman) known as "Cupians" and giant intelligent ants (who've enslaved the humanoids) who call themselves "Formians"!

Both species communicate only via telepathy on a frequency close to radio waves, so Cabot builds a device to comunicate with them.
He becomes friends with Formian Doggo and Cupian Princess Lilla, which leads to his involvement with Lilla's evil cousin Yuri, who betrays Cabot to the Formians with whom he's formed an alliance...

Next Wednesday:

The Fateful Finale!

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)!

Check out our Barsoomian artifacts at the

 Collectibles Corner

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder AN EARTH MAN ON VENUS Part 2

When Last We Left Our Hero...

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)!

Check out our Barsoomian artifacts at the

 Collectibles Corner

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder AN EARTH MAN ON VENUS Part 1

After the success of Princess of Mars and the other Barsoom tales...

..."scientific romances" became a major genre in pulp fiction, with tales of Earthmen transported to alien worlds appearing in both genre and mainstream magazines!

Next Wednesday:

the Adventure Continues...

One of the more successful "high-adventure on other worlds" series was the Radio Man saga by Ralph Milne Farley.

Set on Venus, the tales of radio expert Miles Cabot were different enough from John Carter's adventures to warrant several sequel magazine serials, all of which were compiled as stand-alone novels.

Here's a kool article about the series at ERB.com.

The first story, Radio Man, was retitled Earth Man on Venus when Avon reprinted it in the 1950s.

Art by Ray Johnson

Simultaneous with the paperback reprint was a 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 (which is a shame, since the novel is pretty good)!

Check out our Barsoomian artifacts at the

 Collectibles Corner

Houdini's WEIRD TALES!

In 1924, the one-year-old Weird Tales magazine had not yet achieved the fame (or notoriety) that would make it a best-seller synonymous with fantasy and horror stories...

...so, for a couple of issues, the publisher brought in the famed Harry Houdini to write the cover-feature.

Sales didn't pick up, and the magazine was forced to go from monthly to quarterly.

For the third and final Houdini cover story...

...the publisher had an up-and-coming young author ghost-write the final Houdini entry, doing a first-person mystery-adventure instead of the non-fiction charlatan spiritualist exposes of the previous issues.

The writer was H P Lovecraft.

You can read both the tale and the story behind it (explained in a letter by Lovecraft to fellow author Frank Belknap Long HERE.

It's been reprinted numerous times, ususally under the title "Under the Pyramids", and credited to Lovecraft.

Weird Tales and Lovecraft remained together, each inspiring the other to amazing creative heights.

Lovecraft began work with Houdini and C M Eddy, Jr. on a non-fiction book entitled "Cancer of Superstition", but Houdini's death ended the project which was fully-outlined with several chapters written.

Metropolis: the Moroder Version on DVD/BluRay

While in the past decade there have been two superb reconstructions of the Fritz Lang masterpiece Metropolis (both well worth viewing or owning), the long OOP 1984 reworking by Giorgio Moroder has held a soft spot in many peoples' hearts (including mine) for his valiant pre-cgi attempt at reconstruction using the best existing print along with stills of expurgated scenes following the novelization written by the movie's screenwriter, Thea Von Harbou (Lang's wife).
Purists screamed about Moroder's use of subtitles instead of intertitles, animation to enhance the stills, color tinting of various segments, and a rock-based music score.
But the "enhanced" version didn't change any of the original story (unlike certain recently-"enhanced" movies [cough] Star Wars [cough]), the subtitles reduced running time by presenting information on-screen during key sequences instead of interrupting them, and the limited animation livened scenes using stills to restore previously-lost plot elements.
The use of color and the rock score are really matters of taste.

At any rate, the Moroder version is finally receiving a dvd/BluRay release this coming week.
Good thing as my VHS of it is wearing out!  ;-)

If you're a fan of Metropolis, rent or buy it as a fascinating "alternate" look at Lang's masterpiece.

Check out the

Metropolis

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