Showing posts with label 1940s. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1940s. Show all posts

Monday, March 16, 2026

Monday Mecha Madness ADAM LINK!

This Requires a Little Explanation/Background...

Introduced in Ziff-Davis' sci-fi anthology Amazing Stories (1939), Adam Link was the first ongoing series about a sentient robot!

Though credited to "Eando Binder" (a pen-name used by author brothers Earl and Otto Binder when they worked together), the Adam Link stories were entirely Otto's work!
Adam was no soulless automaton!
From his introduction onward (and Binder used the title "I, Robor" before Isaac Asimov) he was on a quest to become as human as possible!
Though created to be totally-logical, he developed emotions!
In fact, after his second story "Trial of Adam Link" where he was accused of killing his creator (scientist Dr Charles Link, not Otto Binder), though found innocent (he was framed)  he decided he couldn't go on living without his "father", and decided to commit suicide.
That's the basis of the third tale, "Adam Link's Vengeance", where another scientist (of the "mad" variety), prevents his untimely death, and plans to use him as a weapon!
That particular story was adapted by writer/editor Bill Spicer and artist D Bruce Berry into a two-part story in Spicer's prozine Fantasy Illustrated in 1965 and reprinted in Spicer's Graphic Story Magazine (under a new Berry cover) in 1971.
You'll be seeing that over the next two Mondays.
The comic story was done shortly after the Adam Link tales were adapted into a fix-up novel combining all the short stories...
Note the Isaac Asimov quote!
BTW, if the name "Otto Binder"sounds familiar to comics fans, that's because he wrote a lot of DC, Quality, Timely, and Fawcett comics in the Golden and Silver Ages, as well co-creating among others, the Legion of Super Heroes, Black Adam, Braniac, Kid EternityKrypto, Young AlliesMary MarvelBizarro, and Supergirl!
But, for some, he's best-known as the writer of the first Marvel Comics prose novel...

(Dig the Doc Savage-style logo!)
BTW, We'll be running this long OOP & HTF novel this summer during the annual RetroBlogs Summer Blogathon!

Sunday, March 15, 2026

Easter Reading Room EASTER WITH MOTHER GOOSE More Walt Kelly Short Subjects

It's a Quiet Sunday, Several Weeks Before Easter...
,,,so let's continue with Walt (Pogo) Kelly's Easter-themed one pagers!
Some, like this one and the one below, are totally-new, one-shot Kelly creations!
Of course, what would a Walt Kelly Easter post be without at least one guest appearance by a well-known fairy tale/nursery rhyme character or two?
Note: this last page is from the inside cover, which was printed b/w to save money, a standard practice until the mid-1970s.
All features from Dell's Four Color Comics: Easter with Mother Goose #220 (1949)!

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Saturday, March 14, 2026

Space Hero Saturdays FANTASTIC COMICS "Space Smith and the Crustaceans of Ganymede"

Space Smith Doesn't Seem to be Quite Himself...
...as another artist fills-in for Fletcher Hanks, bringing a rather Buck Rogers-esque feel to the strip!
While the scripting on this story From Fox's Fantastic Comics #7 (1940) has that Fletcher Hanks "feel", the art, definitely, is not Hanks!
It looks like the artist is trying for the same look as Dick Calkins' original Buck Rogers newspaper strip, which was incredibly-popular at the time!

The next issue would feature a totally-Fletcher Hanks tale....for the last time!
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Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
Complete Newspaper Dailies
Volume 1: 1929-1930
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Sunday, March 8, 2026

Easter Reading Room EASTER WITH MOTHER GOOSE Short Subjects

Here Are a Few One-Page Easter-Themed Pieces by Walt (Pogo) Kelly...

...who loved to insert existing fairy tale, mythological, and nursery rhyme characters into his holiday-themed tales!
Then there was the occasional brand-new character tossed into the mix...along with the characters who were the symbols of the season!
And, there was usually one gentle reminder about what the season was all about...
Features written/illustrated by Walt Kelly, from Dell's Four Color Comics: Easter with Mother Goose #140 (1947) and Dell's Four Color: Christmas with Mother Goose #172 (1947).

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Thursday, March 5, 2026

Easter Reading Room EASTER WITH MOTHER GOOSE "Humpty Dumpty and the Giant"

You May Ask "How is This Easter-Related?"

Well, Humpty Dumpty's heading to visit the Easter Bunny, so...
Writer-artist Walt (Pogo) Kelly loved to mix-n'-match characters from various unrelated myths, fairy tales and nursery rhymes!
He was already putting them individually in holiday-themed situations for the annual Mother Goose Christmas and Easter comic books, so merging them in those storylines as he did in in Dell's Four Color Comics: Easter with Mother Goose #103 (1946) was a natural progression!
Trivia: While everyone knows the Giant from Jack and the Beanstalk, the Easter Bunny and Humpty Dumpty, Reynard the Fox is somewhat more obscure.
He dates back to 10th/11th Century French and German myths, as explained HERE, but was never popular in English-speaking countries.
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Thursday, February 26, 2026

Lunar Reading Room PLANET COMICS "Life on Other Worlds: A Trip to the Moon"

 Pre-Sputnik/Space Race Comics About the Moon were Really Wild...

...and boy, could they be talky!

(I wonder if the letterer could've charge by the word!)

This chapter of Fiction House's Planet Comics' ongoing feature "Life on Other Worlds" appeared in #59 (1949) and, unlike other entries, was never-reprinted later in the comic's run!
The writer is unknown and the artist (who signed "Bay" on the art) also did so on two other Fiction House assignments, but appears nowhere else in published comics.
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Saturday, February 7, 2026

Space...Hero??? Saturdays PLANET COMICS "Cosmo Corrigan and the Cosmic Chorus Girls!"

What do you do when you want to heat up a planet that's colder than America's MidWest in February?

Cosmo Corrigan has the answer...cosmic chorus girls!





Sady, Cosmo never got back to Pluto!
He wasn't in the next issue of Planet Comics, nor would he reappear anywhere else in the known universe.
His fate remains a mystery...
Written and illustrated by Seymour Reit (who later co-created Casper the Friendly Ghost), Cosmo's final tale appeared in Fiction House's Planet Comics #11 (1941).
But don't think this is the end of our winter-inspired posts!
There's more frigid fun to come!

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Saturday, January 31, 2026

Space...Hero??? Saturdays PLANET COMICS "Cosmo Corrigan in 'Martians, Mercurians and Money!' "

 Yeah, I know the logo says "Cosmic", not "Cosmo"...

...but he's called "Cosmo" in the story itself, as well as the next (and final) tale, so I consider the logo to be a typo!
Now, back to Pluto, the world that makes our current weather look like a balmy summer day!

Be here next Saturday for Cosmo's frigid final adventure!
Illustrated by George Tuska (who would handle the Buck Rogers newspaper strip in the 1950s, as well as becoming Iron Man's illustrator when he received his own book in the 1960s) the scripter for this tale from Fiction House's Planet Comics #10 (1941) is, regrettably, unknown.
("Ray Alexander" was a Fiction House pseudonom.)
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