Space Hero Saturdays CAPTAIN SCIENCE "Tracking the Flying Saucers"

A dying alien gives a human without fear the ability to defend Earth...

...nope, it ain't the Silver Age Green Lantern!

It's Captain Science!

Appearing full-blown in the first issue of his own title in 1950, Captain Science was a bold attempt at a Captain Video-type comics hero, one more dependent on brains and technology than brawn.

Unlike Captain Video, who created advanced technology simply because he was really smart,  Gordon Dane was shown to be smart and had the advantage of possessing alien knowledge he could use in adapting and improving present-day tech to serve new uses as the situation required.

Visually, the art on his never-reprinted premiere appearance by Gustav Schrotter is adequate, but hardly distinctive.

Captain Science Will Return!

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Taylor History of Comics

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Reading Room EERIE ADVENTURES "Vampires from Venus!"

 It's Freezing, Windy, and Snowy Outside...

...perfect weather for a tale about an invasion by aliens from a hot and steamy planet!

This 1951 tale combining mobila, lethal plants (based on the Triffids from the novel Day of the Triffids which had just been published) and vampires (with their classic weakness, sunlight) from the Ziff-Davis one-shot Eerie Adventures was illustrated by Bob Powell and Howard Nostrand.

The writer is unknown.

Eerie Adventures used leftover material from the recently-cancelled Amazing Adventures with an attempt to market it as horror rather than sci-fi/fantasy.

Only one issue was published as the title was dropped by Ziff-Davis to avoid legal action by Avon who already had an ongoing Eerie comics title.

ZD then did a Weird Adventures one-shot, which sold well, but discovered there was already a title with the same name from PL Publishing which debuted the month before!

So ZD retitled their book Weird Thrillers, before PL could take legal action.

The series ran five more issues before the Dr Wertham-led Seduction of the Innocent witch-hunt forced the cancellation of all horror-related comic books.

(Ironically, the PL series only ran two more issues before the entire company folded.)

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Taylor History of Comics

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Reading Room CRUSADER FROM MARS COMICS "Escape to Nowhere"

The idea that we should leave Earth before atomic war destroys it is not new...

...nor is the "surprise ending" to this never-reprinted backup tale from Ziff-Davis' Crusader from Mars #1 (1952)

"You blew it up!

Damn you!

Damn you all to hell!"

Almost two decades before Rod Serling had Charlton Heston scream those words to the sky at the conclusion of Planet of the Apes, artist Mike Becker and an unknown writer presented a much more mellow discovery by space travelers returning to Earth centuries in the future!

The script may be by editor Jerry (Superman) Siegel...

Mike Becker illustrated over 100 crime, horror, romance, sci-fi, sports, spy, war and western stories for various publishers including Timely, Ziff-Davis, Hillman, Youthful, and Nedor/Better/Standard from 1948 through 1956.

What happened after that is, regrettably, unknown.

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Reading Room OPERATION: PERIL "Time Travelers in 'Date with Danger' "

Sci-fi of the 1950s wasn't limited to space opera...

...as this series from the AGC adventure anthology comic Operation: Peril demonstrates!

Operation: Peril was an interesting multi-genre anthology featuring on-going strips about time travel (as seen above), a hard-boiled private eye (Danny Danger), and high adventure in the Pacific (Typhoon Tyler), as well as a historicalshort story.

While the other series featured stand-alone stories, Time Travelers presented a couple of on-going plotlines, as you'll see in future posts.

Though Time Travelers didn't appear on the first few covers, by issue #4, they took over the cover spot until their final appearance in #12, after which the book changed focus and became a war comic.

This premiere tale from Operation: Peril #1 (1950) was written by the book's Editor, Richard Hughes and illustrated by Ken Bald.

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Space Hero Saturdays SPACE MOUSE "Beauty Contest!"

In the 1950s, both funny animals and sci-fi were popular comics genres...

...so, it was inevitable that someone would combine the two!

Though it is the cover-featured story in Avon's Space Mouse #1 (1954), "Beauty Contest", written and illutrated by Frank Cairn, is not the origin of the Rocketing Rodent.

That tale, "Atomic Attack", comes later in the book...and we've already presented it in Space Hero Saturdays, HERE.

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Fleischer Story

A history of the Cartoon Studio in the Golden Age of Film Animation

(covering the studio where writer/artist Frank Carin got his start)

Holiday Reading Room SPACE ADVENTURES "Mummers from Mercury"

 73 years ago, the world almost ended on New Year's Day...

...but it was saved by the participants of the annual Mummers Parade!

This never-reprinted story from Charlton's Space Adventures #1 (1953) was illustrated by Albert Tyler and Dick Giordano.

The writer (who was probably from Philadelphia) is unknown.

The Mummers Parade is usually held every New Years Day in Philadelphia.
Mummers tradition dates back to 400 BC and the Roman Festival of Saturnalias where Latin laborers marched in masks throughout the day of satire and gift exchange.
This included Celtic variations of “trick-or-treat” and Druidic noise-making to drive away demons for the new year.
Reports of rowdy groups “parading” on New Years day in Philadelphia date back before the revolution.
Prizes were offered by merchants beginning in the late 1800s.
January 1, 1901 was the first “official” parade offered about $1,725 in prize money from the city.
January 1, 2021 was the 120th Anniversary of the event, but, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it was cancelled.

The Parade returned in 2022, and will happen on New Years Day, 2026!