Space...Hero??? Saturdays NORGE BENSON "Gang of Hoodlum Penguins"

 Since We're Suffering through a Heat Wave...

..let's return to frigid Pluto for another interplanetary adventure with Norge Benson, as we discover that some penguins on Pluto speak perfect English, and others talk with Brooklyn accents...just like on Earth!

Think I'm joking?

Read on...

So, what'd youse tink?

Or for dose...I mean "those", who don't speak Brooklynese..."What did you think?"

I'll warn you now, future installments only get loonier!

Illustrated by Al Walker, who spent his entire comics career at Fiction House, this second appearance in Planet Comics #13 (1941) presents a somewhat less snarky (though no less humorous) version of the "Earthman on Pluto" concept shown in the earlier Cosmo Corrigan strip, mixing alien versions of both Arctic and Antarctic animals with total disregard to anything even remotely resembling exobiology!

But it is fun, and that's all that matters!

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Space Hero Saturdays PLANET COMICS "Fero: Interplanetary Detective and the Kidnapped Councilman's Daughter"

When we first met him, Fero battled scientific menaces on present-day (1940s) Earth.

As of his next appearance, without explanation, he's set in the far future!

This tale from Fiction House's Planet Comics #6 (1940) was written and illustrated by Al Bryant under the pen-name "Allison Brant".

The change in venue from present to future without any in-story explanation (not even a caption like "returing from the past to the 21st Century..." or some-such) seems odd considering the same writer/artist did this follow-up tale.

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Space...Hero??? Saturdays PLANET COMICS "Cosmo Corrigan and the Cosmic Chorus Girls!"

What do you do when you want to heat up a planet that's colder than America's MidWest in February?

Cosmo Corrigan has the answer...cosmic chorus girls!

Sady, Cosmo never got back to Pluto!

He wasn't in the next issue of Planet Comics, nor would he reappear anywhere else in the known universe.
His fate remains a mystery...
Written and illustrated by Seymour Reit (who later co-created Casper the Friendly Ghost), Cosmo's final tale appeared in Fiction House's Planet Comics #11 (1941).
But don't think this is the end of our winter-inspired posts!

There's more frigid fun to come!

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Space...Hero??? Saturdays PLANET COMICS "Cosmo Corrigan in 'Martians, Mercurians and Money!' "

 Yeah, I know the logo says "Cosmic", not "Cosmo"...

...but he's called "Cosmo" in the story itself, as well as the next (and final) tale, so I consider the logo to be a typo!

Now, back to Pluto, the world that makes our current weather look like a balmy summer day!

Be here next Saturday for Cosmo's frigid final adventure!

Illustrated by George Tuska (who would handle the Buck Rogers newspaper strip in the 1950s, as well as becoming Iron Man's illustrator when he received his own book in the 1960s) the scripter for this tale from Fiction House's Planet Comics #10 (1941) is, regrettably, unknown.

("Ray Alexander" was a Fiction House pseudonom.)

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Space...Hero??? Saturdays PLANET COMICS "Cosmo Corrigan: Exiled from Earth!"

Like Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon and many other handsome space heroes...

...Cosmo Corrigan had a weird first name.

Unlike them, he was a bit of a screw-up and wise-ass...

...so he was sent to the Solar System's equivalent of Siberia...the frozen planet Pluto, qualifying him (sort of) for appearing as part of Space Hero Saturdays!

Planet Comics was noted for its...well...lack of scientific accuracy, being much more "science fantasy" than hard science fiction (which at least tried to apply known scientific facts to the storytelling).

But this series seems almost like a space opera sit-com, featuring a slacker as the hero!

Sadly, it only ran for three installments...which you'll see over the next few Saturdays!

Illustrated by George Tuska (who would handle the Buck Rogers newspaper strip in the 1950s, as well as becoming Iron Man's illustrator when he received his own book in the late 1960s) the scripter for this tale from Fiction House's Planet Comics #9 (1940) is, regrettably, unknown.

("Ray Alexander" was a Fiction House pseudonom.)

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Reading Room STUART TAYLOR IN WEIRD STORIES OF THE SUPERNATURAL "Waterloo"

We presented another tale of time traveler Stuart Taylor last year...

...today, we see how Stuart and his mentor, Dr Hayward, changed the course of history!

Bet you didn't know time-travelers with ray guns helped defeat Napoleon!

That's just one of the time-lost secrets found in this Sy Reit-illustrated tale from Fiction House's Jumbo Comics #25 (1941), published almost a year before we entered an already-ongoing World War II!
At that time, almost everyone felt we'd be entering the war sooner or later.
The only questions were "when?" and "why?", which were answered on December 7th, 1941, when we were attacked at Pearl Harbor.

The rest...as we say...is history!

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Vol 3
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Space VILLAIN Saturdays QUORAK: SUPER PIRATE "Man Who Stole a World!"

Remember When This Happened 25 Years Ago, in 2000?

No?

Well, I guess we'd better remind you!

OK!

This didn't actually happen in the year 2000!

It did happen...in the pages of Fiction House's Planet Comics #1 (1940), an anthology of space opera series set in the future running from 2000 to 25,000AD!
This particular one was about a mad scientist, since most anthology comics in the early Golden Age, whether they were sci-fi/fantasy, crime, Western, or even super-hero featured an ongoing villain strip with a plucky, stalwart hero and/or heroine thwarting the baddie at every turn!
And though Lt Gary Blake and Joan Perry captured Quorak, he never escaped and threatened the earth again!
The byline on the strip, "Albert Charles", was a Fiction House pen-name.
The company rarely-credited actual creatives on ongoing series (unless one person was both the writer and artist like Dick Briefer or Basil Wolverton), since teams changed members fairly-frequently.
Planet's editors tried several other ongoing villains, the longest-running of which was Mars: God of War who ran for 20 issues until his feature was taken over by Mysta of the Moon, a new heroine who defeated him in his last appearance!

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