Showing posts with label Drift Marlo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Drift Marlo. Show all posts

Saturday, September 2, 2023

Space Hero Saturdays DRIFT MARLO: SPACE DETECTIVE "Case #1: File of the Periled Peace-Maker" Conclusion

Is an alien from space attempting to sabotage the new Anti-Missile Missile?
Detective Drift Marlo is attacked by someone...or something...near the launch pad.
Later he notices that Dr Fowler, who opposed the project had a bad leg...and the "alien" had the same limp...
This tale from Dell's Drift Marlo #1 (1962), was written by Phil Evans and illustrated by Tom Cooke, who also handled the ongoing Drift Marlo syndicated newspaper strip.
Yes, you read it right...ongoing syndicated newspaper strip.
Running for a decade from 1961 to 1971, the strip, while never a major hit, developed a dedicated audience.
The comic book, which ran only two issues, contained totally-new material, not reprints of the strips, as was so often the case with such titles including Dick TracyBrenda Starr, and Flash Gordon.
There have been no reprint compilation books of the Drift Marlo comic strip, nor was the short-lived comic book version ever reprinted.
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Saturday, August 26, 2023

Space Hero Saturdays DRIFT MARLO: SPACE DETECTIVE "Case #1: File of the Periled 'Peace-Maker' " Part 1

Not the first comic character to be called "Space Detective"...
...but Drift Marlo was the first one to be set in the present (1962), not the future!
...and so does the "alien" Drift encountered!
Coincidence?
You'll have to wait until next week to find out!
Plus: we'll present background info on our all-but-forgotten stellar shamus!
But for now, we will tell you this tale is from Dell's Drift Marlo #1 (1962), written by Phil Evans and illustrated by Tom Cooke.
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Thursday, March 24, 2022

The "Star Wars" Defense System...in 1962...60 Years Ago!

You think Ronald Reagan was the first US President to think of it?
From Drift Marlo #1 (1962) Art by Tom Cooke
In the early 1960s, we already had satellites in orbit that would have detected missile launches from the "damn Communists"!
Code-named MiDAS for Missile Defense Alarm System, the plan was to eventually put anti-missile missiles in orbit that could supplement land and sea-based defenses.
As it was, a number of scanner-equipped satellites were orbited, but the crude sensors kept mistaking other heat sources (including sunlight reflected from heavy cloud cover) as missile launches, so the plan was eventually abandoned...but replaced with a more accurate system.
The project was one of the central elements of an entry featuring the Silver Age character Drift Marlo: Space Detective at our "brother" RetroBlog Crime & Punishment™.
Check out Part 1 HERE and Part 2 HERE!
So when you think the Russkies are ahead of us, don't worry.
We have more up our sleeves than you may realize!
Here's some more fact-based feature pages from the Drift Marlo series showing the future as we hoped it would be in 1962...
Who says comics ain't educational?