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

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 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).

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...

Best of Reading Room: GULLIVAR JONES "What Price Victory?"

The First Earthman on Mars battles on to rescue his lost love...

Art by Gil Kane

...as menace after menace assaults him!

Has Gullivar been reunited with Heru only to die on the red Martian sands?

(Remember, there was only one Gullivar Jones novel!

No sequel!)

When next we meet up with Gullivar...it's the fearsome finale of this story!

Note: Gray Morrow assumes the art chores (pencils and inks) for the final two issues of Gullivar's never-reprinted run.
But the writer of Gullivar's penultimate adventure from Marvel's Creatures on the Loose #20 (1972) is still George Alec Effinger.

Best of Reading Room: GULLIVAR JONES "Long Road to Nowhere"

Continuing the never-reprinted (and all-too-brief) adventures of the First Earthman on Mars...

Art by Gil Kane and Frank Giacoia

...we'll let the protagonist of this interplanetary saga fill us in...

To be continued...Tomorrow!

The artist round-robin continues as long-time Superman artist Wayne Boring steps in for Creatures on the Loose #19 (1972), the fourth chapter of the short-lived, never-reprinted, comic adaptation, inked by long-time Supergirl artist Jim Mooney!
(Oddly, Wayne and Jim never worked together at DC!)
At this time, Boring also did the first three issues (#22-24) of the 1972 revival of Captain Marvel.
BTW, you'll note the splash page is partially-penciled by Gil Kane.
George Alec Effinger goes solo on the scripting and continues to the end of the series in Creatures on the Loose #21.