Showing posts with label Buster Crabbe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Buster Crabbe. Show all posts

Saturday, March 26, 2022

Space Hero Saturdays BUSTER CRABBE "and the Maid of Mars"

Though Buster Crabbe starred in more Westerns than any other genre...

 ...he's best-known to the public at large as the movie serial heroes Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers!
Here's a tale from his own comic that combines both Western and space hero concepts!
Note that Buster is actor Buster Crabbe, not "Buster Crabbe as a character like Billy West" or somesuch in the tale, and it's assumed that he's actually able to do anything he's shown doing in his films.
The amazing art for this tale from Eastern Color's Buster Crabbe Comics #5 (1952) was by Al Williamson, Roy Krenkel, and Frank Frazetta, who were astounding comics fans with similar quality work at EC Comics on Weird Science and Weird Fantasy!
The cover was by Frazetta, who was also doing covers featuring Buck Rogers (whom Buster had played in the movies) for Famous Funnies, as well as illustrating the White Indian strip and covers for Ghost Rider! so he had handled both sci-fi and Western genres before doing this mixed-genre piece!

Thursday, August 26, 2021

Reading Room LAND OF THE FHRE aka SAVAGE WORLD 2.0

...you'll find this version, using the same art...but a different script...a most fascinating read!
Noted Bronze Age writer/artist Bruce Jones was heavily-influenced by the Fleagle Gang and the EC Comics line in general.
Since the previously-published version of this tale in Witzend #1 (1966) was a rewrite of an unknown writer's script by Wally Wood, Bruce was given the opportunity to do a similar re-write, also without altering the art, for this publication in Pacific Comics' Alien Worlds #4 (1983).
Jones' version places the tale further into the future and makes the second half a dream sequence
The story also appeared in color for the first time, using the blueline/greyline method of hand-colored artwork with a black-line overlay, trying to simulate the traditional flat-color separations.
That's why the black linework isn't as crisp and sharp as in the b/w version.
The coloring was done by fantasy painter Joe Chiodo, another illustrator inspired by the work of 1950s comic artists.
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Tuesday, August 24, 2021

Reading Room SAVAGE WORLD

Not every story created in the Golden Age was published in the Golden Age...
...like this story, meant for the 1950s title Buster Crabbe Comics!
"Larry Gordon" is a tribute to Larry "Buster" Crabbe who played Flash Gordon in the three movie serials from Universal Pictures.
The story itself, though signed by Al Williamson, is a jam-session featuring work from a number of now-legendary artists who called themselves "The Fleagle Gang".
The explanation for the story can be found here...
Our tale is from its' fourth appearance, in Death Rattle #10 (1987), where it was reprinted, unaltered from its' first publication in Witzend #1 (1966).
The second publication was in the first issue (1975) of Marvel's short-lived b/w magazine Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction, where the only modification was reversing all the captions to black with white type...
The third printing was another story entirely...and I mean that literally.
You'll find out all about it...Thursday!
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Sunday, March 25, 2012

Flash Gordon #8 Cover Preview

There's no Flash Gordon like a "classic" Flash Gordon.
Have you noticed that all the attempts to "update" the character modify him so much as to be unrecognizable?
(Remember the Smallville-ized Sci-Fi, er, SyFy version? YUK!)
Thankfully, Dynamite's current series goes back to the basics, combining the best of Alex Raymond's (and successor Mac Raboy's) original strips with the movie serials, 1980 feature film, Filmation tv series, and Al Williamson's contributions in the '60s and '80s, to make a kool pastiche almost on the level of the Dini-Timm-McDuffie DC Animated universe.
Top it off with superb covers like this one for #8 by Francesco Francavilla, and it's a must-have package for high-adventure fans of all ages.
Sadly, this is Francisco's final Flash for the foreseeable future. (Say that five times fast!)
But, considering he's doing covers for The Shadow, The Spider, and other classic genre characters, I think I'll still be getting a hefty dose of Francavilla art every month!
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Sunday, February 26, 2012

Flash Gordon #7 Cover Preview

There's no Flash Gordon like a "classic" Flash Gordon.
 Have you noticed that all the attempts to "update" the character modify him so much as to be unrecognizable?
(Remember the Smallville-ized Sci-Fi, er, SyFy version? YUK!)
Thankfully, Dynamite's current series goes back to the basics, combining the best of Alex Raymond's (and successor Mac Raboy's) original strips with the movie serials, 1980 feature film, Filmation tv series, and Al Williamson's contributions in the '60s and '80s, to make a kool pastiche almost on the level of the Dini-Timm-McDuffie DC Animated universe.
Top it off with superb covers like this one for #7 by Francesco Francavilla, and it's a must-have package for high-adventure fans of all ages.
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Sunday, August 28, 2011

Welcome Back, Flash Gordon! We Missed You!

Besides doing the alternate covers for each issue of the new Flash Gordon comic from Dynamite, Francesco Francavilla is also doing a wraparound cover inspired by the work of Al Williamson for the first issue.
If that's not enough to make you put this on your pull-list...
The year is 1934, a time of two-fisted swashbuckling, of fearsome threats and wild adventure -- and of ever-growing threats on the horizon. Three valiant humans -- Flash Gordon, Dale Arden and Dr. Hans Zarkov -- are plucked from the Earth, traveling to the distant planet Mongo. Their exploits are legendary, battling the machinations and terror schemes of the dreaded emperor Ming the Merciless, the All-Seeing Ruler of Mongo. But they did not fight alone...
And, it's only 32 pages for $1!!

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Flash! Ah-Ahhh...!

Dynamite Entertainment, who recently snagged The Shadow, has grabbed another classic...
The initial 6-issue story arc will be an adaptation of the first two years of the original Alex Raymond comic strip.
Alex Ross plotted the series, handled character designs, and will contribute covers.
Erik Trautmann is scripting and Daniel Lindro is illustrating the series.
Francesco Francavilla will be doing alternate covers.
Overall, I'm interested, but Lindro may be a little too dark an artist for a bright action-adventure series.
But it couldn't be any worse than the recent manga-influenced Flash series from Ardden.

Friday, July 29, 2011

Cowboys & Aliens...the 1950s Comic Book version!

Click on the art to enlarge
Long before the new movie Cowboys and Aliens, extraterrestrials and cowpokes did battle on Earth and in space!
Read the tale that predates the new movie by fifty years, starring Buster Crabbe (Flash Gordon / Buck Rogers), and illustrated by not one, not two, but three of the greatest sci-fi artists of the 1950s (Frank Frazetta, Al Williamson, and Roy Krenkel), only at our "brother" blog Western Comics Adventures™!

Monday, July 25, 2011

Cowboys vs Aliens Starring...Buster Crabbe?

Click on the art to enlarge
Yes, that's Buster Crabbe, beloved movie serial (Flash Gordon / Buck Rogers) and b-movie star in his own 1950s comic book.
And, yes, he's battling lizardlike aliens while wearing full cowboy regalia over 40 years before Cowboys and Aliens, the graphic novel!
And, yes, that's a beautiful alien woman with a ray gun at his side, zapping lizardlike aliens!
(You didn't think Spurs Jackson had a monopoly on this sort of stuff, did you?)

For an explanation, and the complete, uncut, never-reprinted comic story, click on over to our "brother" blog Western Comics Adventures™ where the Old West is not only wild, it's weird!

We've taken the art from the cover of this issue, digitally-remastered and restored it, and emblazoned it on a variety of kool komic kollectibles!
Check out our online store...
...for Cowboys vs Aliens 
duds and provisions!