Showing posts with label Captain Midnight. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Captain Midnight. Show all posts

Thursday, June 19, 2025

Was INAPAK the Chocolate Drink That NEVER Actually Existed?

Now here's an interesting point...
It apparently never existed!
Really!
From extensive research (we're talking off-line and on-site) thru the archives of several dealers and collectors who handle related food ephemera like Ovaltine and Quik (now Nesquik) packaging and advertising, we've yet to come across anything (besides the comic book itself) relating in any way to Inapak!
Could it have been a proposed project that never got off the ground, like Victor Fox's Kooba Kola?
If so, who was behind it?
Magazine Enterprises, the publishers of the The AvengerFunnyMan, and original Ghost Rider, produced the comic, and it's copyrighted in their name, not an outside corporation, as most licensed comics are!
Bob Powell is obviously the artist, though the writer is unknown.
It's theorized on the Grand Comics Database that Gardner Fox scripted the two stories in the book.
Speaking of which, here's the short tale from the back of the book...
Now, here's my theory about who Major Inapak is and how he came to be...
At this point (1951), there were a number of kids' sci-fi tv shows like Captain Video, featuring characters who also promoted their sponsors' products...

...and there was talk of a tv version of radio/comic/movie serial hero Captain Midnight (who was still owned by Ovaltine) with a heavier sci-fi/space opera flavor to compete with Captain VideoTom Corbett: Space CadetSpace Patrol, et al.
A Captain Midnight TV series eventually aired in 1954-56 with some sci-fi elements, but set present-day to keep the budget down.
(And of course, it had lots of promotion for Ovaltine products...)
Could this book have been a tryout with the original, futuristic, format for Captain Midnight, spotlighting his sponsor, Ovaltine?
And, when it didn't sell to Ovaltine, the story was retitled/relettered with a new character and a non-existent chocolate drink to demonstrate what Magazine Enterprises could do for potential clients, and then used as a trade-show giveaway to drum up business for a licensed-comic division (similar to what both Marvel and DC have today)?
You'll see the action-packed space adventure right here on Saturday!

Saturday, May 24, 2025

Space Hero Saturdays CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT "Flying Saucers of Death!"

Though He Doesn't Go into Outer Space in This Post...

...the "Sentinel of the Spaceways" does take on flying saucers like The Shadow, Buck Rogers. and Spurs Jackson before him!








Trivia: The insignia shown in the final panel are from the US Army Air Corps, the predecessor to the US Air Force....which was formed in September, 1947.
But, though the cover date is 1948, the story was written and illustrated around summer 1947...before the official creation of the Air Force!
Dr Osmosis had appeared once before, in Fawcett's Captain Midnight #52 (1947).
Intended to be an ongoing genius criminal arch-enemy to Cap, his career was derailed by the introduction of colorful alien enemies to battle Midnight.
Dr Osmosis would appear twice more, then disappear into the ether!

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Saturday, April 5, 2025

Space-Hero Saturdays CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT "...Battles the Ice Age"

Though World War II was Over, Captain Midnight Continued Protecting People...

...no matter where they were...including Outer Space!






Remember this story was written in 1948 for kids.
The average adult, much less a child, knew little about nuclear radiation.
All the typical reader understood about atomic bombs was their sheer destructive power and that they generated incredible heat!
(Somewhat) instructional films like Duck & Cover...
...were still several years in the future!
Without an ongoing foe, the "Sentinel of the Spaceways" had a series of one-shot adventures involving alien races, and Earth colonies on other worlds, as shown in this story illustrated by Leonard Frank from Fawcett's Captain Midnight #59 (1948)!

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Saturday, January 25, 2025

Space-Hero Saturdays CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT "On the Planet of Peril!"

There's always work for Captain Midnight in outer space!
Without an ongoing foe, the "Sentinel of the Spaceways" had a series of one-shot adventures involving alien races, and Earth colonies on other worlds, as shown in thi story from Fawcett's Captain Midnight #58 (1948)!
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Saturday, September 7, 2024

Space-Hero Saturdays CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT "Race to Pluto!"

If You Read the Last Chapter....

...You Already Know Jagga Isn't Dead, Though Captain Midnight and Ichabod Mudd Don't Know That!






Is this never-reprinted story from Fawcett's Captain Midnight #57 (1947) really and truly, once and for all, conclusively, cross our hearts and hope to die, the End of Jagga???
Maybe...maybe not!
You'll just heave to keep reading!
(Ain't we stinkers?)

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Captain Midnight Saves the World!
...which does not include this story!
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Saturday, June 22, 2024

Space-Hero Saturdays CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT "Last Rites of Jagga!"

When Last We Left Our Hero (and His Astral Arch-Enemy)...

Jagga the Space Raider has been caught and is now on trial!
Will this truly lead to his execution and "last rites"?

Yeah, you knew he wasn't dead, right?
Writer Otto Binder and illustrator Leonard Frank didn't kill the evil alien in this story from Fawcett's Captain Midnight #56 (1947), but fear not!
His end is closer than you think!

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Saturday, March 23, 2024

Space-Hero Saturdays CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT "...Finds the Lunar Lair!"

Place Your Bets, Ladies and Gentlemen!
Note: they still haven't fixed Jagga's chameleon-like coloring!
Judging from the cover, that trial is going to be a killer!
The unknown writer and artist Leonard Frank bring back long-time aides Joyce Ryan and Chuck Ramsey for a brief visit in this tale from Fawcett's Captain Midnight #55 (1947), though they don't actually participate in the adventure!
It's also their final appearance in the series.

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