Wednesday Worlds of Wonder TALOS OF THE WILDERNESS SEA "to the Wilderness Sea" Part 1

Welcome to the future...

...which looks a lot like the past, as shown in heroic fantasy fiction, in both prose and graphic novel form!

The story continues...next Wednesday!

Riding high on the success of the Sword of the Atom mini-series and follow-up annuals which re-imagined the hard sci-fi character in a barbarian adventure setting, Gil Kane (along with collaborator Jan Strnad) was given the go-ahead for another high-adventure series, this time based on a new character.

Planned as a 12-issue mini-series, cutbacks at DC dictated that the already-penciled and scripted first two issues be combined into a one-shot whose sales would determine if the project would continue.

Unfortunately, the unfamiliar character didn't attract a large enough audience (as The Atom had), and only the single, open-ended issue came about.

BTW, if you're thinking the plotline seems familiar, It's because Kane based it on the Biblical tale of Moses and the Exodus from Egypt, transposed into a barbaric future!

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Blackmark

by Gil Kane

One of the first true graphic novels

Monday Mars Madness STRANGE ADVENTURES "Science-Fiction Convention on Mars!"

You gotta ask: how can three of the best creatives of the Silver Age of Comics...

...make such an exciting concept so dull?

Writer Gardner Fox, penciler Gil Kane, and inker Joe Giella (together and separately) produced some of the koolest tales of the Silver Age!

Yet, this story from DC's Strange Adventures #73 (1956) almost put me to sleep!

The premise is great, the concepts are well-thought out, but the rendering of it is...well...drab!

Why aren't the Martians more visually-interesting?

They're just bald guys!

Couldn't they be using disguises (either masks or holograms) while on Earth and then reveal themselves to be Martians when the convention-goers arrive on Mars?

It's not like penciler Gil Kane has any problem with rendering kool-looking humanoid aliens, as shown HERE!

And would it have killed them to give the creatives an extra page?

Jamming in all that exposition into the last page really limited Gil into what he could present.

(Remember, DC worked "full script", so Kane knew how much room the captions and dialogue balloons needed to take!)

Using two pages for that last sequence would've helped enormously!

And what about the weird rays that destroy any spaceships?

Natural?

Artificial?

We'll never know...

In comparison, this tale from Dell's Four Color #1288: Twilight Zone has a less-epic, but much more "fun" feel to it!

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Showcase Presents

Strange Adventures

Volume 1

(which reprints this tale...but in black and white)

Gil Kane's FLAME HORSE

One of the visionary projects legendary writer/artist Gil Kane was unable to get off the ground...

...was this graphic novel.

According to one source, shortly after Bantam Books released Kane's Blackmark in 1971, Ariel/MorningStar Press contracted Gil to create and package this project...with logos and graphic design by Jim Steranko!
Since MorningStar Press was an art book publisher, they would've done a hardcover closer to traditional comic book or magazine size, rather than the standard paperback size that doomed Blackmark, which confused retailers who didn't know whether to put it with sci-fi/fantasy novels or comic strip reprints!

Besides this presentation piece, there were pages like this one...

...at various stages of completion.
I wonder if anyone could re-assemble what does exist into a book and title it: Gil Kane's Flame Horse: the Unfinished Opus or somesuch, with profits going to his estate...

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BlackMark

by Gil Kane

Reading Room WORLDS UNKNOWN "Doorstep"

We've been showing aliens who dare to land on Earth "who's the boss" for centuries...

...but this is one time that may not have been the best approach!

Adapted from a short story by Keith Laumer, this tale from Marvel's Worlds Unknown #2 (1973) has a kool "Twilight Zone" twist ending, but couldn't have been adapted for the show due to the crudeness of tv special effects work at the time.

OTOH, writer Gerry Conway, penciler Gil Kane, and inker Tom Sutton had no such constraints, and they do EC Comics' writers and artists proud with a tale that would have fit right in with Weird Science, Weird Fantasy, or the merged Weird Science-Fantasy books!

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A Plague of Demons

and Other Stories

(featuring "Doorstep")

Reading Room MYSTERY IN SPACE "Space Baby"

No, it's not a story about Don (da Con) Trump and his "Space Force"...

...but a never-reprinted Silver Age tale by Jerry (Superman) Siegel and Gil (Green Lantern) Kane!

Notice how, on the cover of DC's Mystery In Space #101 (1965), astronaut Ron "Babyface"Trent looks like a young adult rather than (like he does inside) a kid?

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Mysteries in Space

The Best of DC Science Fiction Comics

Reading Room FLASH GORDON "and the Space Pirates" Part 2

When Last We Left Flash Gordon (ahh-ahhh!)...

...wow, the opening caption covered the plotline perfectly!

You'll note Flash is wearing a more ornate outfit while Patch's clothes are the same, but mis-colored (as is her hair, which was silver/white in the previous chapter)!

The story concludes tomorrow!

Illustrated by Gil Kane, replacing Wally Wood.

The writer is unknown.

Though Flash had his own comic at this time, this three-parter appeared in the back of The Phantom's title from the same publisher, King Comics.
(All the King Comics books did this, presumably to expose their target audience to other titles they might not otherwise read.)

The particular tale appeared in the back of The Phantom #19 (1966).

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Space Heroes

Comic Collectibles

Best of Reading Room: GULLIVAR JONES "Two Worlds to Win!"

Reunited with his lost love, the First Earthman on Mars faces certain death...

Art by Jim Steranko

...as we present, from Marvel's Creatures on the Loose #21 (1973), the sixth (and final) chapter of the short-lived, never-reprinted, comic adaptation of his only novel...

People did write, and though Gullivar Jones' four-color adventures were at an end, he returned in new graphic adventures in a Marvel title only a year later!
But that's a story for another time...