Space Heroine Saturdays BARBARELLA 1.2

When Last We Left Our Space Heroine...

Barbarella crash-landed on the planet Lythion where, after a number of...interesting...situations, she managed to reunite two long-feuding races, ending their centuries-long war.
With her ship destroyed, the amazing woman gets a lift from a conveniently-arriving space freighter and is off to another astounding adventure on other worlds...

We'll return to Barbarella in the near future...after we catch our breath...

It's interesting to see various plot elements and characters that Roger Vadim and Claude Brulé re-composited in the 1960s movie's script!

Speaking of which...

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Barbarella
2-Disc 4K Blu Ray
with Lots of Kool Extras
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Space Heroine Saturdays: BARBARELLA Part 1.0

While most are familiar with the psychedelic movie starring Jane Fonda...

...few are those who read the entire Barbarella saga, much less the four stories that comprise the translated graphic novel that introduced her to English-speaking fans in 1966 after becoming a smash hit in Europe.

Now, jump in, the way readers in the '60s had to, and try to keep up...

Tune in
Next Saturday
 for the conclusion to Part 1
Note: This material is from the original Grove Press edition from 1966.
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Barbarella
Retranslated and Digitally-Remastered

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Reading Room JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY "Filbert's Frightful Future!"

After Mighty Thor began his run in Journey into Mystery as of #83......

...and before Norse mythology-related backup series like Tales of Asgard began, the one-shot shorts like this never-reprinted tale continued to fill the back of the book until the inventory was used up!

Don Heck penciled and inked this story from Marvel's Journey into Mystery #85 (1962).

Stan Lee plotted it, but experts are not sure if he scripted it.

Lee usually co-signed the later shorts he scripted, but only Heck's signature is here.

Just about everything Lee didn't script at this point was handled by his brother Larry Lieber.

(Stan's birth name is Stanley Leiber. He used "Stan Lee" on his comics work because he wanted his real name on the Great American Novel he planned to write.

When he finally realized he would be forever known for his comics and not any prose novel he might write, he legally changed his name to "Stan Lee".)

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Thor Masterworks

Volume 1 

featuring the Thor stories that appeared in front of the never-reprinted tales we present!
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Reading Room / Tales Thrice Told TALES OF SUSPENSE "Last Rocket!"

Marvel's Tales of Suspense #39 (1963) is famous for it's cover story...

...but that oft-retold tale is not what we're looking at today!

Instead, we're presenting one of the backup stories...the third and final version of the "Adam & Eve on past/future Earth" trope plotted and/or scripted by Stan Lee.

You can read the previous two tales HERE and HERE.

Ok, I'm willing to believe that, with 1960s-level technology, all of Mankind could pull off a When Worlds Collide-style evacuation of the planet...though how they'd survive to reach another solar system several light-years distant is questionable.

I'm even willing to accept a couple of ecology-oriented sorts being stubborn (and let's face it, suicidal) enough to remain on their home world to the bitter end.

But an "exploding star" close enough to warm and light the planet, yet totally-unknown to anyone before that?

C'mon!

And one more thing...couldn't the space fleet just turn around and return when they noticed the "exploding star" behind them?

In this "Adam and Eve" retelling, it's believed that Lee plotted the story and his brother, Larry Lieber, scripted it.

But it's a fact that the legendary Gene Colan penciled and inked the absolutely beautiful art!

It makes the rather silly story bearable.

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EXCELSIOR!

Amazing Life of Stan Lee

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Reading Room / Tales Thrice Told STRANGE TALES "A Thouand Years Later..."

Tuesday, we showed you the first of three variations of a theme...

...today we give you the second version, by the legendary team of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko!

Written by Stan Lee and illustrated by Steve Ditko, this story from Marvel's Strange Tales #90 (1961) is the second time in two years that Lee produced a story based on the "Adam and Eve on past/future Earth" cliche, this time adding the plot element of an immortal man who didn't fit in with society.
Lee would reuse the "Adam and Eve" concept one more time two years later...as we shall see Tuesday!

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AMAZING FANTASTIC INCREDIBLE
A MARVELOUS Memoir
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Space Hero Saturdays FLASH GORDON "Monster Men of Tropica!"

Probably the Last Artist You'd Think of Illustrating Flash and Dale on Mongo...

...would be sword and sorcery/gothic fantasy artist Jeffrey Catherine Jones!

But, Jones was a serious Alex Raymond/Flash Gordon fan, so this work in Charlton's Flash Gordon #13 (1969), while a bit rough, showed enormous love and enthusiasm for the character.
And Charlton's notoriously-bad printing didn't help showcase Jones' art!

Written by Bill Pearson. Penciled and inked by Jeff Jones (as they were known then).

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Jeffrey Jones

A Life in Art