You gotta ask: how can three of the best creatives of the Silver Age of Comics...
...make such an exciting concept so decidedly-deadly 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 orange guys with slightly-elongated brain-cases!
Couldn't they be using disguises (either masks or holograms) while on Earth and then reveal themselves to be funky-looking 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 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!
Special Gardner Fox Note: Fox's Crom, the first barbarian in comic books, returns tomorrow in Wednesday Worlds of Wonder!
Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics
Visit Amazon and Order...
(which reprints this tale...but in black and white)
Paid Link
