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

Saturday, August 2, 2025

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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Saturday, May 17, 2025

Space Hero Saturdays ROCKETMAN "Venus Afire" / SPURT HAMMOND "Fiery World"

Apparently, People Being Unwilling to Take in Refugees is Not a New Problem!

In fact, it dates back to the 1950s, when this tale was published...or an unspecified future, where this story is set!




This tale from Ajax/Farrell's Rocketman #1 (1952) ignores some basic science, like the fact that the homeless Venusians would have to pass Earth's orbit to get to Mars!
Perhaps that's because this story originally-appeared a dozen years earlier, when science in comic books was at a somewhat more primitive state!
And, please, no jokes about the lead character's name...






When this tale, part of an ongoing Spurt Hammond series (which ran in Planet Comics from #1 to #12), appeared in Fiction House's Planet Comics #8 (1940), the artist was identified through Fiction House records as Henry Kiefer.
But as for who modified the art at the Iger Studios for re-use in Rocketman, we have no idea!
In addition, the other three Rocketman stories were modified and re-used from earlier Iger Studio-provided art for other features...and other publishers!

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Wednesday, March 26, 2025

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder FROST & FIRE Conclusion

Sim & Lyte reach the ship in the original publication of this story in Fiction House's pulp magazine Planet Stories V3N4 (1946).

It Has All Lead Up to This...
...while many others tried (and failed) to reach the crashed ship burdened with protective clothing and/or shielding from the intense sun, Sim and Lyte try a different tactic...speed!














Don't You Just Love a Happy Ending?
Next Week: a New World of Wonder!

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Saturday, February 22, 2025

Space Heroine Saturdays / Baker Reading Room MYSTA OF THE MOON "Prison Break on Paladnor!"

The February Matt Baker Posts have been Space-Oriented...

...but our final one goes full-on SPACE OPERA...starring a beautiful woman as the protagonist!
Surprise!






Though he didn't create Mysta of the Moon, Matt Baker demonstrates a wonderful "feel" for the character!
Makes me wish he had a chance to do more stuff for Planet Comics!
This tale from Fiction House's Planet Comics #58 (1949), was the first of two consecutive stories he penciled, inked by long-time associate Ray Osrin.
The script was by ongoing series writer Ross Galun.

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Matt Baker

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!