Showing posts with label Fantastic Worlds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fantastic Worlds. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 20, 2024

Reading Room FANTASTIC WORLDS "Invaders"

 The short-lived Standard anthology Fantastic Worlds featured Earth-based stories...

...contrasting with the other anthology from Standard ComicsLost Worlds, which was a space-opera book.
This tale from Standard's Fantastic Worlds #5 (1952) was drawn by Alex Toth and Mike Peppe, though the writer is unknown.
(Page 7, Panel 6 is apparently a redraw by Carmine Infantino!)
BTW, though it's #5, this is actually the first issue of the title!
There was no #1-#4!
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Sunday, May 21, 2023

Cover Gallery SPACE ACTION

Here's the complete cover collection for Ace's Space Action...
Art by Lou Cameron
...which share something in common with the covers for Lost Worlds and Fantastic Worlds besides being science fiction-themed (We showed those covers HERE)!
Art by Matt Fox and/or Lou Cameron
Artist unknown
The answer?
None of the covers relate to any of the stories inside the books!
(But they're kool, eh?)

Saturday, March 4, 2023

Space Hero Saturdays FANTASTIC WORLDS "Space Treasure"

What's it like to be just another working stiff doing his job...but in outer space?
This tale from Standard's Fantastic Worlds #5 (1952) offers some insight...
Lovingly-rendered by Murphy Anderson, the story was created between his stints on the Buck Rogers newspaper strip, and certainly has the "look" of the legendary comic!
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Thursday, February 9, 2023

Reading Room FANTASTIC WORLDS "Asteroid God"

Some call Golden Age sci-fi "Westerns with ray guns"...
...but it could also be "jungle tales with aliens instead of natives", as this tale demonstrates!
John Celardo illustrated this story from Standard's Fantastic Worlds #7 (1953), the final issue of a short-lived anthology that featured artwork by Alex Toth, Ross Andru & Mike Esposito, Gil Kane, and Murphy Anderson, among others.

Sunday, May 15, 2022

Cover Gallery FANTASTIC WORLDS and LOST WORLDS

They ran for a combined total of only five issues...
Art by Alex Toth
...but Standard's short-lived sci-fi anthologies Fantastic Worlds and Lost Worlds had some first-rate talent both on the covers and inside them!
Art by John Celardo
Plus, all five covers had something in common quite unique in publishing...
...none of the covers had anything to do with any of the interior stories!
Art by Alex Toth & Mike Peppe
Despite the captions, which did mention titles from stories inside the books...
Art by Mike Sekowsky & John Celardo
...the art didn't depict anything even close to what was in the tales!
But they sure look kool, don't they?

Thursday, March 31, 2022

Reading Room FANTASTIC WORLDS "Cosmic Terror"

Some say space opera is just a Western with ray guns instead of six-shooters...
...but this never-reprinted tale from Standard's Fantastic Worlds #6 (1952) is a Cold War tale with aliens instead of Communists!
Though the scripter is unknown, the artwork is by Art Saaf, who had a long career in comics from the mid-1940s to the mid 1970s, doing everything from romance to horror to sci-fi to superheroes!
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Thursday, June 24, 2021

Reading Room FANTASTIC WORLDS "Ace of Space"

Not to be confused with Space Ace (who went through several different incarnations)...
...this guy is a Cold War fighter pilot-type transposed to a Star Wars setting!

Darn those aliens!
Sending robot "drones" to do their fighting instead of going man-against-lizard as God intended!
Though the scripter for this tale from Standard's Fantastic Worlds #7 (1952) is unknown, the artwork is by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito, with a couple of panels redrawn by Mike Sekowsky!

Thursday, January 21, 2021

Reading Room FANTASTIC WORLDS "Triumph Over Terror"

What if a science fiction writer was the hero of a sci-fi tale?
And, what if the scribe was, initially, just as ignorant of the situation as any other protagonist in such a tale?
This tale from Standard's Fantastic Worlds #5 (1952) was drawn by Alex Toth and John Celardo, though, ironically, the writer is unknown.
BTW, though it's #5, this is actually the first issue of the title!
There was no #1-#4, which was a pretty standard practice for the publisher during the late 1940s-early '50s!!
The publisher felt the audience would be more accepting of a book they believed was established and already had four issues out.
After all, they had no way of finding the "previous" issues!
Newsstands and drugstores just shipped back the previous month's comics (and other magazines) to the distributor!
No comic shops stocking back issues!
No internet they could search!
Trivia: the cover of the comic the kid is holding on page 1...
...is a variation of the cover (rendered by the story's inker, John Celardo) of the actual issue this story appears in!
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