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!

Reading Room HOME RUN "Little Leagues"

With the return of fans worshipping at the temples of the National Pastime (aka "baseball stadiums")...

...we thought we'd look at the origin of how many of us (myself included) first experienced organized baseball!

There was a short-lived surge in sports-themed comic books from 1949 to 1952.

This particular one-shot from Magazine Enterprises, produced in 1952 (but published in '53), was the last gasp of that cycle.

Produced/packaged by writer/artist Bob Powell's studio, this non-fiction historical piece was typical of the high-quality material he supplied to numerous publishers including Magazine Enterprises, Street & Smith, Prize Comics, and Harvey Comics, from the mid-1940s to the early 1960s.

Baker Reading Room ALARMING TALES "Half Man-Half What"

"Scientists Tampering with Things Man Should Not Meddle In!" is an old cliche...

Art by John Severin

...given a new look by a most unusual assortment of artists...at least four, along with the writer...

Art by the Bob Powell Studio

OK.

Let's identify the talents involved in this never-reprinted tale from Harvey's Alarming Tales #5 (1958)...

Cover art by John Severin

Script by Dick Wood.

Opening page (which was actually the lower part of the contents page) by the Bob Powell Studio.

Story pencils by Matt Baker (who's the reason this is included in Black History Month).

Story inks by Al Williamson.

Thursday:

the entire story (and cover) in original art form, with some revealing alterations and footnotes!

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Matt Baker

Art of Glamour

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Monday Madness FLASH GORDON COMICS "The World You WILL Live In"

In 1950, what amazing advances did we think the 21st Century would bring?

As shown in this uncredited (and never-reprinted) feature from Harvey's Flash Gordon #1 (1950), all five predictions have, in fact, come to pass...albeit in modified form.

Unlike the predictions from #1, most of these from #2 have not come true!

Only the wristwatch one has occurred, and only on expensive, high-end timepieces!

In 2025, we do have laser scalpels (in limited use, mostly for eye surgery) and lasers are used to remove tattoos.

The mobile telephone one can be interpreted as cell phones, but radiophones in cars were a popular item among the rich (and spies/superheroes) in the '60s to early '80s.

(Batman, James Bond, Honey West, Matt Helm, The Avengers [Steed and Peel, not the superheroes] and The Green Hornet all had them!)

Extensive mining of minerals from the ocean floor has yet to occur, and the sun's going nova billions of years from now has been predicted since the 1800s.

So, 4 out or 5 for this never-reprinted feature from Harvey's Flash Gordon #3 (1950) is pretty good, eh?

Both the artist and writer are unknown.

Let's take one final look at this never-reprinted strip...

Of the five predictions in this one-pager from Harvey's Flash Gordon #4 (1950), the first is a possibility, the second and fifth have yet to occur, and the third and fourth have come true.

Both the artist and writer are unknown.

This was one of three different new one-page features that appeared in all four issues of the series which reprinted the Flash Gordon Sunday newspaper strip by Alex Raymond, reformatted for the comic book page, and with new covers (not by Alex Raymond).

The others were "Stories Behind the Stars" (about the myths behind constellation names) and "Know Your Planets" (about the other worlds in the solar system).

Reading Room STRANGE TALES OF THE UNUSUAL "Gift"

Do we really appreciate presents given freely to us?

Or do we always think there's an ulterior motive behind them?

Illustrated by Bob Powell, this never-reprinted tale from Atlas' Strange Tales of the Unusual #1 (1955) suggests Mankind should be a bit more trusting and less paranoid.

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Science Fiction Comics

Taylor History of Comics

Vol 3

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Reading Room JOURNEY INTO UNKNOWN WORLDS "Lost...One World"

James Blane is in for a rough day...

...or is it a rough year...or decade...or...

"A chance to do your life over, with no memory of what you've done previously.

Would you repeat your mistakes, or take a different path...into The Twilight Zone?"

(Sorry, couldn't resist)

This odd tale of time and turnover was the lead (but not the cover feature) in Atlas' Journey into Unknown Worlds #53 (1957).

However, these scans are from Marvel's Worlds Unknown #4 (1974), which had better reproduction.

Art by Bob Powell, but the writer is unknown.

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Ten-Cent Plague

Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America
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Space Heroine Saturdays GALE ALLEN OF THE WOMEN"S SPACE BATTALION/GIRL'S PATROL/GIRL PATROL

Ever see spaceships with...propellers???

Well, here they are, in the premiere appearance of one of the longest-running Space Heroine strips of the Golden Age!

Gale Allen's introductory tale (by currently-unknown creatives) from Fiction House's Planet Comics #4 (1940) sets the series in an unspecified future where interplanetary travel is accomplished by spaceships with wings and propellers!

My impression is that it was conceived as a "day after tomorrow" war strip, but was re-scripted as a futuristic sci-fi series...without modifying the art to match the script!
Oddly, Fiction House's Planet Comics #5 (1940), with art by Bob Powell, revamps the vehicles to look like spaceships, but turns the strip Earthbound, as an alien invasion force with a foothold in Europe and Africa attempts to conquer the rest of Terra...in the year 1990!

You'll also note an alteration in the second tale of the "balance of power" between the sexes, as a suddenly-competent Jeff Allen rescues Gale!
The next story, in Fiction House's Planet Comics #6 (1940), also illustrated by Bob Powell, ignores the fact the aliens still have the female pilots hostage...

With Blaga Daru (temporarily) imprisoned, the series will take yet another turn, as you'll see in a near-future post!

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Spectacular Sisterhood of Superwomen

(Including Gale Allen!)

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Monday Madness RACE FOR THE MOON "Asylum"

A Twilight Zone-style story from Race for the Moon #1, illustrated (and possibly written) by Bob Powell!

With the world the way it is now, perhaps we should rename our planet from "Earth" to "Asylum"!

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Taylor Illustrated History

Science Fiction Comics