Robot Reading Room ROBOTMEN OF THE LOST PLANET "Chapter Three: Rise of the Humans!"

When Last We Left What Remains of Humanity...

Don't you love it when the story synopsizes itself?

(Note that inside front cover illustrator Mort Lawrence did an excellent job matching story artist Gene Fawcette's art style!)

So there's at least one universe where we don't end up enslaved by machines!

Yay!

This 1952 one-shot title from Avon Comics was scripted by Walter (The Shadow) Gibson and rendered by Gene Fawcette.

Avon did an amazing amount of one-time-only titles, probably more than any other publisher.

Some were adaptations of novels Avon's paperback division had published, like An Earth Man on Venus.

Others, like RobotMen, were original stories!

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Panic Pete!

Robot Reading Room ROBOTMEN OF THE LOST PLANET "Chapter Two: the Robots Rule the Earth!"

When Last We Left the Few Surviving Humans on a Post-Robot Apoocalyptic Earth...

...just five years and we've lost all sense of fashion?

(And what weapons were they using to kill the large mammals that provided those big pelts?)

Tomorrow:

The Astounding Finale as We Witness...

Rise of the Humans!

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Panic Pete!

Robot Reading Room ROBOTMEN OF THE LOST PLANET "Chapter One: the Massacre of Mankind!"

Yesterday, we showed you a 1970s version of this robo-apocalyptic tale...

...now witness the sheer terror of the original 1950s version!

The art for this 1952 one-shot title from Avon Comics is by Gene Fawcette, an Avon mainstay who did everything from horror to Westerns, to romance to sci-/fantasy!
If you compare the two tales, you'll see the robots are totally different in this version.
They're based on a still-popular squeeze toy first marketed in the early 1950s... Obie the Popping Martian/Panic Pete/Bug-Out Bob!
Who came up with the idea is unknown, and there was no attempt at an actual tie-in between the toy and the comic...

Beyond that, the most unusual aspect of this tale is the scripter...Walter Gibson, aka "Maxwell Grant", the primary writer of the legendary pulp/radio/comic/movie character, The Shadow!

Yeah, that guy!

Gibson, a trained magician-turned writer did very little "hard" sci-fi during most of his long career...except in 1951 to '54, when he edited (and wrote under several pseudonoms) most of the contents of Charlton's short-lived pulp magazine (only two issues) Fantastic Science Fiction, as well as Charlton's Space Adventures comic for its' first eleven issues and co-creating and scripting Spurs Jackson and his Space Vigilantes for Charlton's newly-created Space Western Comics!
(Yes, it really existed, as shown HERE!)
He also wrote this comic and several other one-shots for Avon Comics.

For the record, Gibson also wrote two volumes of prose adaptations of Twilight Zone TV episodes (with a couple of original tales mixed in), but none of those were "hard" sci-fi.
BTW, while this was the only tale adapted into b/w in the 1970s, there were two more chapters of the man vs funky robot saga!

You'll see them Wednesday and Thursday...

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Panic Pete!
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Monday Mecha Madness NIGHTMARE "Massacre of Mankind!"

Look at this tale and tell us...if you can...when was it created?

Was it

The Golden Age (1940s)?

The Atomic Age (1950s)?

The Silver Age (1960s)?

or

The Bronze Age (1970s)?

The answer will surprise you!

One hint: The artist who drew it worked in all four eras!

It was written and laid-out in the 1950s, but penciled and inked in the 1970s!

Scripted by Walter (The Shadow) Gibson and laid-out by Gene Fawcette back in 1952, the tale was fully-penciled and inked by Bill (Sub-Mariner) Everett for Skywald's b/w anthology Nightmare #2 (1971)!

It's actually the first chapter in a three-part tale, but the other two parts were never re-done!
You'll see the complete original tale starting TOMORROW!

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Heroic Tales

Bill Everett Archives Volume 2
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Space Hero Saturdays WITCHCRAFT "Hero of the Venus Flyer!"

Being a Space Hero Can Be as Easy as Being in the Right Place at the Right Time...

...and as difficult as being willing to die to save others!

Illustrated by Gene Fawcette and scriped by an unknown writer, this tale appeared twice within a year, first in Avon's WitchCraft #6 (1953), then in Avon's Strange Worlds #18 (1954), where, due to a miscalculation in pagination, the last page of the story ended up on the inside back cover, in black-and-white!

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Science Fiction Comics

Taylor History of Comics

Vol 3

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FLYING SAUCERS Cover Gallery

Here's the cover art by Gene Fawcette...

...to the story we've been running the past few Wednesdays.

Oddly, when the issue was reprinted a couple of years later, the art was altered...

...and I've never heard an explanation as to why!

For the record, I like the original cover better!

Reading Room EERIE "Dracula" Part 4

When Last We Left the Lord of Vampires...

Dracula has made Lucy Seward a vampire!

Dr Van Helsing arrives, too late to save the poor girl, but not too late to send her tormented soul to the afterlife by staking her thru the heart.

Now, his attention turns to her master...Count Dracula!

Though there were a number of Frankenstein tales in the Golden Age, including Dick Briefer's horror series, there were only a couple of appearances by our favorite vampire (usually a cameo) before this story in 1953!
The trend continued until the late 1960s when Dracula became a supporting character in the b/w Vampirella magazine.
In 1971, when the Comics Code was revised to allow vampires and other "traditional" monsters, the Count reappeared not only in short stories, but a long-running series from Marvel highlighted by moody art by Gene Colan.

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Ten-Cent Plague

Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America

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