Showing posts with label Fiction House. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fiction House. Show all posts

Monday, December 30, 2024

Monday Madness STUART TAYLOR IN WEIRD STORIES OF THE SUPERNATURAL "Faustus"

Despite the title, the series is actually sci-fi about a time traveler and his machine...
...who occasionally run into mystical menaces.
IIRC, The Time Tunnel TV series did the same thing, encountering Merlin, the ghost of Nero, and others along with the usual silver-skinned Irwin Allen aliens...
This series started in Jumbo Comics #1 (1939) as Diary of Dr Hayward, illustrated by Jack Kirby under the house pseudonym "Curt Davis" (which was used for every story in the series).
With #5, Lou Fine assumed the art chores, and several issues later the title changed to Weird Stories of the Supernatural as lab assistant Stuart Taylor took center stage and old Doc Hayward became a supporting character.
(In fact, the series title sometimes listed "Stuart Taylor" above the "Weird Stories..." logo, playing up the action-hero aspect, as it does here.)
As of #15, a rotating lineup of artists contributed art but no other "big names" worked on the series which continued for almost the entire run of Jumbo, ending at #140 (1950).
This particular never-reprinted story is from Jumbo Comics #111 (1948) and was produced by the Iger Studio, which supplied almost all of Fiction House's comic material during this period!

Thursday, December 19, 2024

Holiday Reading Room FIRST CHRISTMAS IN NEW SUPER 3DIMENSION Conclusion

...he had just been born!
So get out those red-blue glasses and let's continue..


This never-reprinted 1953 comic from Fiction House was one of numerous Bible-themed titles put out by various comics publishers to try to counteract the growing tide of anti-comics sentiment created by Fredric (Seduction of the Innocent) Wertham and his ilk, showing comic books could also be wholesome entertainment.
You can see Atlas/Marvel's version of the Nativity HERE, and DC/EC's take on the story HERE.
The writer and artist are unknown, but it's a sure bet they were part of the Iger Studio which "packaged" (provided editorial and art) for Fiction House's comics division.
The cover is by legendary sci-fi pulp and book illustrator Kelly Freas!

Merry
Christmas!!!

Tuesday, December 17, 2024

Holiday Reading Room FIRST CHRISTMAS IN NEW SUPER 3DIMENSION Part 1

Get out those red-blue 3-D glasses, kiddies...
...because we're about to add a whole new dimension to Christmas comics!
Be here Thursday for the astounding conclusion.
Spoiler: the comic, while chronologically going beyond the usual Christmas narrative, does not cover Jesus Christ's entire life story.
This never-reprinted 1953 comic from Fiction House was one of numerous Bible-themed titles put out by various comics publishers to try to counteract the growing tide of anti-comics sentiment created by Fredric (Seduction of the Innocent) Wertham and his ilk, showing comic books could also be wholesome entertainment.
You can see Atlas/Marvel's version of the Nativity HERE, and DC/EC's take on the story HERE.
For Fiction House, unfortunately, it turned out to be one of the last titles the comics division published, closing up in early 1954.
Fiction's pulp magazine department struggled until early 1955 when it, too, passed into oblivion.

Saturday, November 16, 2024

Space Hero Saturdays PLANET COMICS "Buzz Crandall of the Space Patrol in 'I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets!' "

This strip started out as a typical Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers clone...
...but when eccentric (to put it mildly) writer/artist Fletcher Hanks took over as of Buzz's second appearance in Fiction House's Planet Comics #7 (1940)...well, let the apocalyptic craziness begin!
Just another Tuesday for Buzz Crandall, who, despite the "Space Patrol" in the title, seems to run a two-person operation with only his girlfriend to aid him!
Like the tales of Fletcher's other Space Hero, Fantastic Comics' Space Smith, these stories played with the fact that there werem't any "rules" to follow and took the concept of "anything goes" to dizzying levels!
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Saturday, January 13, 2024

Space...Hero??? Saturdays PLANET COMICS Cosmo Corrigan & Norge Benson

With North America currently caught in a deep freeze with major snow storms/blizzards...

...you can stay warm at home and read Fiction House's Planet Comics' two different characters starring in strips set on the frigid world of Pluto!
Unlike most of the deadly-serious features of the periodthese strips played both series as sci-fi sitcoms, starring "heroes" who could best be described as "spacegoing slackers", or "galactic party animals"!
You can read the complete run of the first guy, Cosmo CorriganHEREHERE, and HERE.
Yeah, he only lasted three issues.
Cosmo Corrigan was apparently caught in a black hole and immediately replaced (like the very next issue) in Planet Comics by Norge Benson, who encountered a whole different group of Plutonians!
Norge was a somewhat less snarky (though no less humorous) version of the "Earthman on Pluto" concept shown in Cosmo Corrigan., mixing talking alien versions of both Arctic and Antarctic animals with total disregard to anything even remotely resembling exobiology (or continuity)!
But both strips were fun, and that's all that really matters!
Norge Benson managed to survive for twenty issues, all of which you can read by clicking HERE!