Best of Wednesday Worlds of Wonder TALOS OF THE WILDERNESS SEA

It was Going to be an Epic 12-Issue Mini-Series...

...but cutbacks at DC dictated that the already-penciled and scripted first two issues Jan Strnad & Gil Kane (the guys who had revamped The Atom into a high-adventure/barbarian hero in two Sword of the Atom mini-series) be combined into a double-length one-shot whose sales would determine if the project would continue.

Unfortunately, despite the genre pedigree both creatives had, the unknown character didn't attract a large enough audience (as The Atom had), and only the single, open-ended, never-reprinted issue exists!

Here are links to the almost 40-year old "lost" project!
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four

Space Force Saturdays WORLDS UNKNOWN "Black Destroyer" Conclusion

We Have Already Seen...

While exploring an alien world, the crew of the exploratory vessel Space Beagle encounter Coerl, who looks like a Terrestrial panther or lion...with the addition of tentacles!

But this is not a friendly housecat!

It's a primitive, but sentient, being who can not only reason, but kill and deceive...

Trivia: The announced adaptation of Day of the Triffids ended up as the cover-featured tale in the premiere issue of Worlds Unknown's b/w magazine successor, Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction...

...under a misleading, but undeniably-kool cover by Kelly Freas!
In fact, an adaptation of Theodore Sturgeon's KillDozer ran in the next issue of Worlds Unknown...

Meanwhile, back with Black Destroyer...

Roy Thomas was concerned that the finale as shown in the adaptation wasn't clear enough, so he included an explanation on the letters page...

Bonus #1: You can read the complete original short story HERE.

Feel free to compare and contrast!
Bonus #2: here are the illustrations from the original pulp magazine, so you can see how closely Dan Adkins and Jim Mooney kept to the pulp magazine "feel" of the tale!

"Black Destroyer" was later incorporated with other short stories about the exploratory vessel Space Beagle into the novel Voyage of the Space Beagle, the title of which is a tribute to Charles Darwin's scientific exploratory ship, "The Beagle".

BTW, Van Vogt sued 20th Century Fox over the 1979 movie Alien, claiming that it ripped off elements of "Black Destroyer" and "Discord in Scarlet", both of which were adapted into Voyage of the Space Beagle.

Fox settled out of court for #50,000!

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Voyage of the Space Beagle

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Wednesday Worlds of Wonder SUPERNATURAL THRILLERS "Valley of the Worm!" Conclusion

We Have Already Witnessed...

James Allison lies on his deathbed, re-living a past life.

A millennia or more ago, he was Niord, a barbarian prince and warrior, defending his people, the Aesir, from all manner of threats, both human and inhuman.

Aided by Gorm, a Pict he defeated in battle but refused to kill, who then became an ally, he guides his people to a new home...

Note: Though Niord says his people are of "Asgard", it's doubtful, even though this tale is now canon in the Marvel Multiverse, that he refers to the mystical Asgard of Norse legend.

Bonus: Here's the title page from the story's first publication in Weird Tales V23N02 (1934), featuring both Niord and the "Worm", illustrated by Hugh Rankin.

Next Week:

A New World of Wonder

Don't Miss It!

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder SUPERNATURAL THRILLERS "Valley of the Worm!" Part 1

We've Spent a Month in A Futuristic Dimension...

...now let's go the other way, to a world where technology is non-existent and only a strong sword arm will keep you alive!

To Be Concluded Next Wednesday!

Based on a short story by Robert E (Conan the Barbarian) Howard, Adaptors Roy Thomas & Gerry Conway and penciler Gil Kane & inker Ernie Chua/Chan turned in an absolutely magnificent version of the tale using a lot of Howard's own prose in captions and dialogue!
Though meant as a stand-alone story in it's initial publication in the pulp Weird Tales and subsequent reprintings as well as this adaptation in Marvel's Supernatural Tales #3 (1973), it has since been incorporated into both the Conan Mythos and the Marvel Comics Universe in the 2020 Marvel mini-series Conan: Serpent War! which included Conan and other Howard characters as well as Moon Knight and Khonshu!
Trivia: There was another REH tale featuring James Allison (the dying protagonist in this story) called "Garden of Fear".
It was adapted by Roy Thomas, Barry Smith & Sal Buscema as a Conan story in Marvel's Conan the Barbarian V1N9 (1971), eliminating any references to Allison in the present day!
Allison's ancient incarnation in this story was Hunwolf the Wanderer and the tale was first published in the second issue of the pulp Marvel Tales, published by Martin Goodman, the first publisher of Timely/Atlas/Marvel Comics!
There were seven James Allison tales.
Who sez comics ain't educational?

Thursday Worlds of Wonder ATARI FORCE "Galaxian" Conclusion

Wednesday was Christmas, so we're posting this a day late.

It's All Come Down to This...

The Dark Destroyer, has possessed the minds of normally-peaceful aliens and is using them to destroy Scanner One and the crew in interstellar combat.

The Atarians are trying to protect themselves, incapacitate the alien craft,and avoid killing their crews...who have no such compunctions about the humans!
The crew are using a strategy taken directly from the real-world gameplay of the video game this comic was included with...though not without taking heavy damage...

The storyline of the original Atari Force mini-comics concludes with what appears to be a happy ending!

When the sequel series begins publication a year later, 20 years have passed in-universe and a lot of things have happened.

For one thing, The Dark Destroyer survived!

But that's a story for another time...

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Art of Atari